Moroccan Nursing Student’s Dream Derailed: Residence Permit Delays Threaten Career in France

It is becoming increasingly difficult for foreigners to obtain or renew their residence permit in France. The reason is the administrative delays that are lengthening the processing times. Arrived in France at the age of 12, Fadwa, 31 years old and residing in Gif-sur-Yvette (Essonne), had regularly renewed her residence permits before their expiration date. But since July 24 last, the expiration date of her 10-year resident card, she has been living in "unspeakable anguish". Married and mother of three children, all born in France, the young Moroccan woman, who feels "fully French", is still waiting for the renewal of her residence permit, which she applied for two months ago at the sub-prefecture of Palaiseau.

Fadwa sees this situation as a "humiliation". She is saddened to see that "my whole life depends on a document". "Yesterday, my daughter saw my despair and asked me if they were going to send me back from France," she confides to Parisien. Pending the issuance of her residence permit, the young woman received, as of July 25, an extension certificate (API) for the processing of her file, which allows her to continue to enjoy her rights for three months. A period that is too short to obtain a training contract (CAE) with a hospital and receive around 750 euros per month to finance her last year of nursing studies.

"To subscribe to a CAE, the residence permit must cover the entire duration of the commitment. We would like to add that the nursing profession is part of the shortage occupations. [...] The signing of a CAE and then a permanent position represent prospects that we wish to realize as soon as the administrative conditions are met," explains the Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou in a letter of recommendation that Fadwa transmitted to the sub-prefecture of Palaiseau this Monday. But reading the comments left on the Google reviews of the Essonne prefecture, Fadwa is "not at all reassured".

"I don’t understand how such an important document can be the subject of such a long process. I’m afraid for my future contracts: what employer wants to hire someone who only has a permit valid for three months? I’m young, I’m active, but I feel like the prefecture is getting in the way of me and the hospital. We are treated like numbers, but behind it there are projects, lives. We think about it morning, noon and night. It’s ruining my life," the Moroccan woman fumes.

Even though residence permit applications have increased "a little less than 20%" since 2023, Olivier Delcayrou, secretary general of the Essonne prefecture, acknowledges that it is "not normal" to wait a year and a half for a renewal. But "there must be a reason" for these delays, he says, specifying that with the new reforms, it generally takes "3 to 4 months" to process a resident permit. To "limit the impact of the delays", the Essonne prefecture has implemented measures including the "almost automatic" renewal of the API, the evolution of the appointment booking system and the "departmentalization" of file processing.