Court Orders French Prefecture to Issue Residence Permit to Moroccan Worker

A 36-year-old Moroccan residing in Nogent-le-Rotrou has won his legal battle against the prefecture of Eure-et-Loir. On June 16, 2023, it had refused to issue him this residence permit and had ordered him to leave France within a period of "sixty days". This roofer’s assistant seized the administrative court of Orléans to have this decision annulled. According to him, the representative of the State in the department had committed "a manifest error of assessment" of his personal situation.

In a judgment dated March 15, 2024, the administrative court of Orléans recounts that this Moroccan roofer’s assistant married a "French national" in Nogent-le-Rotrou in January 2020, and had left the territory "shortly after", reports Actu.fr. He had returned to France "on August 6, 2021", but with "a long-stay visa valid until August 1, 2022". After the couple’s separation in December 2021, the Moroccan had filed on April 29, 2022 a "residence permit application" based on his employment contract dated November 8, 2021 with "a roofing-metalwork-carpentry company", but he had run up against, on June 16, 2023, the refusal of the prefect of Eure-et-Loir. The latter had ordered him to leave France within a period of "sixty days".

In their decision, the Orléans judges recalled that the Moroccan had "entered the French territory regularly" in August 2021 to "join his French wife" and had concluded "an open-ended employment contract (CDI)" with his company. His employer had accompanied him in his approach by filing "an official work permit application" on January 24, 2023. The Foreign Labor (MOE) services of the prefecture gave him a "favorable opinion", the "construction sector" being "in tension" in the Centre - Val de Loire region. The Orléans judges also note that this roofer’s assistant has accommodation in Nogent-le-Rotrou and is "perfectly integrated" there, as shown by the "numerous testimonies produced" before the administrative court. The latter then orders the prefect of Eure-et-Loir to issue a residence permit to the thirty-year-old and condemns the State to pay him 1,500 euros for his legal costs. The Moroccan roofer’s assistant thus wins his case.