France Extends Residence Permits by 3 Months Amid Coronavirus Crisis

In a tweet, the prefecture of police recalled that the validity of residence permits currently in circulation, including long-stay visas, asylum application certificates and receipts, as well as temporary residence permits, is extended by three months, given the "health context".

The objective of this challenge to rights and demands is justified by the fact that the administrations are not currently able to process these files. Thus, "it is not recommended for foreign holders of an expired permit benefiting from the present extension to leave French territory, at the risk of encountering difficulties in re-entering the territory".

Faced with the spread of the coronavirus, many countries, including most recently Switzerland and Spain, have announced the closure of their land borders with France. As for Berlin, it has decided to carry out checks on its land borders with Austria, France, Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland.

As for the European Commission, it proposed on Monday to ban "non-essential" travel to the European Union, with exemptions, for an initial period of 30 days. Justifying this decision in a video tweet, the President of the European Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, argues that the virus can be contained if there are fewer travels. Furthermore, British citizens are not affected by these restrictions, as they are still considered "European citizens".