Court Overturns Residence Permit Denial for Algerian Woman, Challenging Franco-Algerian Agreement

Born in Algeria in 1989, an Algerian national arrived in France in 2020 with a D visa to join her husband, who holds a salaried residence permit, and her children. She was able to benefit from a visitor’s residence permit that she renewed each year. But her latest application for renewal was denied. She then brought the case before the administrative court of Cergy, asking the judge to suspend the execution of the decision by which the prefect of Hauts-De-Seine had implicitly rejected her application and to order him to issue her an Algerian residence certificate valid for ten years or, failing that, to renew her Algerian residence certificate bearing the "visitor" mention valid for one year.

The request is urgent because "since the expiration of her residence permit, which she has applied to renew, she has been in a precarious administrative situation, even though her husband and children are residing in France," explains her lawyer, Fayçal Megherbi, to TSA Algérie. According to the applicant, the rejection of her application for a residence permit violates the provisions of Article 7 and Article 7 bis of the amended Franco-Algerian agreement.

"The person concerned has contributed to creating this situation of urgency by the late filing of her application for renewal of the residence permit," defends the prefecture of Hauts-de-Seine. Implausible, because the applicant filed her first application for renewal of her residence permit, which expires on August 3, 2024, on May 13, 2024, but the prefecture made her understand that the application was filed too early. The applicant then filed a new application for renewal on June 3, 2024, on the ANEF platform. But she was informed that her application had been closed, as it should have been filed on the "Démarches Simplifiée" platform.

It was finally on July 14, 2024 that the applicant was able to file her application for renewal of the residence permit. Relying on these elements, the administrative court of Cergy issued a judgment on July 10, 2025. "The circumstance invoked by the prefect of Hauts-de-Seine is not such as to prevent the recognition of a situation of urgency in favor of the applicant," the emergency judge ruled, ordering the prefect of Hauts-De-Seine to re-examine the application of the Algerian national within one month and to issue her, within three days, any administrative document attesting to the regularity of her stay.