Residence permit blocked: Moroccan woman forces Isère prefecture to pay €100 per day

Born in 1999 in Oued Zem, the young woman married a French national in December 2021. The couple have two children, born in Grenoble in 2023 and 2025, both French nationals. Until then, she had held temporary residence permits as the spouse of a French citizen.

On Bladi.net : The Cergy-Pontoise prefecture blocks her residence permit, so this Moroccan woman imposes a €100 daily penalty for late compliance

She applied to renew her permit on June 6, 2024. Several certificates extending the processing period were subsequently issued to her, the last of which was valid until December 17, 2025. In the meantime, her application had been closed on October 29, 2025.

That was when a strange administrative back-and-forth began. Since her permit had expired, the ANEF website informed her that continuing the procedure online was impossible and invited her to make an appointment directly at the prefecture.

She followed this instruction and appeared on April 28, 2026. But the official refused to register her application, considering her file incomplete: she was notably asked to provide a visa as well as a marriage certificate dated less than six months earlier.

The prefecture ultimately sends her… back online

The Moroccan woman then made a new appointment for June 10. Another blockage followed: on July 2, her application was closed without further action on the grounds that her residence permit application had to be submitted digitally. In other words, after being sent to the prefecture by the ANEF because she could no longer use the online procedure, she was sent back to that same online procedure.

The young woman immediately took the matter to court. In its order of July 17, 2026, the Grenoble Administrative Court specifically noted this succession of refusals and considered that it constituted an implicit refusal to register her residence permit application.

The judge emphasized above all that she is the mother of two French children. Even if her application were considered a first application because her previous permit had expired, the prefecture was therefore required to examine her file in her capacity as the parent of a French child. Yet for this application, neither a visa nor a marriage certificate less than six months old was among the required documents. Her file should therefore have been considered complete.

The situation had become urgent: the Moroccan woman had been in an irregular situation since December 18, 2025, the day after her last certificate extending the processing period expired. The court found that there was serious doubt as to the legality of the refusal and suspended its enforcement.

On Bladi.net : Court Overturns Residence Permit Denial for Algerian Woman, Challenging Franco-Algerian Agreement

The Isère prefecture must now provisionally register her residence application as the parent of a French child and issue her a document provisionally regularizing her situation and authorizing her to work. These measures must be implemented within two months, subject to a €100-per-day penalty for late compliance. The State must also pay €800 toward the legal costs, under the conditions set out in the order.