Morocco Leads in New French Residence Permits for Second Year

According to the annual report on immigration released by the Ministry of the Interior, 336,700 first residence permits were issued by France last year, an increase of 1.8% compared to 2023. At the top of the reasons for issuance, student permits accounted for a third of the total (109,300) and family reasons a quarter (90,600), it is specified. Requests for residence permits for other reasons saw a strong increase of 13.5%. As for requests for residence permits for economic reasons, they stabilize around 55,600 requests.

As in 2023, the three Maghreb countries are at the top of the countries of origin of applicants for residence permits. Morocco takes first place (11%). It is followed by Algeria (9%) and Tunisia (7%). Then come China, the United States and Afghanistan.

Asylum applications, on the other hand, recorded a 5.5% decrease. In total, 157,947 applications were filed in 2024, compared to 167,056 in 2023, the ministry said. Behind this decline is a sharp drop in "Dublin" applications, which refer to applications made in a country other than the one where the asylum seeker initially arrived.