Moroccan Woman Who Worked in France for Nearly Six Years Wins Right to Residency
A Moroccan woman who arrived in France without a visa in 2019 worked in the restaurant and hospitality industries for nearly six years. Despite her permanent contract and numerous payslips, the prefecture had ordered her to leave the country. The courts have now ordered that she be granted residency.
On September 5, 2025, the prefect of Yvelines refused to issue a residence permit to the Moroccan woman, born in 1986, and gave her 30 days to leave France. Yet she had applied to regularize her status in October 2024, after several years of work. The Versailles Administrative Court has now overturned the decision, according to a ruling issued on October 13, 2026.
On Bladi.net : Moroccan Worker Wins Right to Stay in France After Five Years on the Job
According to her account, she arrived without a visa on June 16, 2019, and began working as a kitchen assistant that same month. In October 2020, she secured a full-time permanent contract as a polyvalent employee in the hospitality industry with S-FM Services. She kept the job until the prefecture’s decision in September 2025.
Her payslips overturn the removal order
To refuse her application for regularization, the prefect had found that her employment contract, payslips and application for work authorization did not constitute sufficient exceptional grounds. The authorities had also noted that she entered France without a long-stay visa. The 1987 Franco-Moroccan agreement governs the conditions for obtaining an employee residence permit, while leaving the prefect the option of granting regularization on an individual basis.
On Bladi.net : France: The prefect wanted to deport this Moroccan cook; he must now give him his papers
The judges cited a professional career spanning nearly six years, payslips documenting her full-time work and more than three years of continuous residence in France. Her job is also among those facing labor shortages in Île-de-France. The court found that the prefect had made a manifest error of assessment and overturned both the refusal of a residence permit and the order to leave the country.
The court has now ordered the prefect to issue her a provisional residence permit authorizing her to work within 15 days, followed by a residence permit marked “employee” within three months of notification of the ruling, unless circumstances change. The state must also pay her 1,000 euros in legal costs.
