Question: lived in a suburb of Paris. Three years ago, I... not received a response. Every three months, I got a...

How to Deal With Silence from the Prefecture
Written by Jean Taquet
Question: I am American and have had a couple of student cartes de séjour, issued when I
lived in a suburb of Paris. Three years ago, I requested an employee cartes de séjour and did
not received a response. Every three months, I got a récépissé issued and nothing else
happened.
Recently I moved to Paris and I went to the student part of the Parisian préfecture to get the
récépissé renewed. It turned into a nightmare: the civil servant told me that my request for a
change of status had been denied a long time ago and I was not allowed to get anything, so the
best I could do would be to leave the country. I have not received anything official, but at the
same time I do not have a legal status in France anymore. What should I do? I wish to be able
to work and stay in France but my employer wants to fire me because I do not have a legal
status anymore.
Answer: Your situation is quite unusual, since the préfectures rarely lose files. But the solution
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How to Deal With Silence from the Prefecture
Written by Jean Taquet
can apply to several situations that are a lot more common. The basic rule here is that the silent
treatment legally means a negative decision. One can appeal it either in court or through an
amicable procedure. The legal assumption goes into effect depending on the nature of the
procedure after the request is submitted, and in your case it is two months, and the foreigner
has two months to submit an appeal.
You submitted the original request several years ago in the suburbs, so that is not good
grounds for an appeal. But since you have now asked for a change of préfecture and have
submitted a complete file to do so, at the Parisian préfecture, it is pretty clear that you request
was resubmitted to a different authority. Therefore you should wait two months after your
meeting at the Parisian préfecture and then make your appeal. I strongly advise you to file for
an amicable appeal.
There is a debate over how successful this kind of procedure is. My experience is that for
certain nationalities, including American, it has a good rate of success, so it is worth trying. The
reason, I believe, is that the préfecture tends to be lenient with some nationalities. Often a
negative decision, whether sent in the mail or in the form of silence, as in your case, means that
either the file was very poorly presented and documents were missing, or the applicant does not
meet the requirements of the new status. If nothing else, this procedure gives you a chance to
submit a good, solid file that has a much better chance of being accepted. It is possible then to
ask for a different status.
If the file is really well documented, it is almost certain that you will get an answer. It may be an
appointment for you to submit your newly documented request, or it may be a negative
response. If you get the appointment, your chances of success are quite high; you have
essentially been pre-approved. If you get a negative answer then you at least face a clear
situation and know the precise grounds on which you have been denied, and you can choose to
challenge them in court or not.
This is what I see as the solution for your situation. What I see a lot more often is a procedure
that exceeds two months, mainly because the system is clogged. Right now one gets an
appointment almost six months later with the relevant office of the Parisian préfecture. So then
comes the agonizing decision: "If I move and appeal the decision, I destroy my chances of
getting the carte de séjour this time, since this was nothing more than an ordinary delay. Now if
I wait too long, I could lose my rights to appeal the decision."
Such situations are a lot more common with the regularization procedure when the préfecture
does not want to take the time to answer all requests, or with some borderline cases to make
filing an appeal more difficult because the silence, by definition, makes it impossible to know the
grounds on which the request was refused.
Sometimes - and only with North Americans so far - we prepare a file for the headquarters of
the Parisian préfecture to ask if the usual interpretation of the law can be waived. The expected
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How to Deal With Silence from the Prefecture
Written by Jean Taquet
answer is NO, and the client is clearly aware of it. So there is nothing to lose by asking.
Sometimes it works and the foreigner gets an appointment. The last time I helped a client do
this, we got an negative answer, which meant submitting the request for an immigration visa at
the French consulate, along with a positive evaluation of the file itself. I am not sure that it is in
the best interest of my client to show this letter to the French consulate to introduce the file. On
the other hand, it definitely validates the work that has been done.
I have reached the point that when the préfecture or the Main d'Oeuvre Etrangère starts to stall
on a request, I review the file and the procedure to find out what they are waiting for. They might
have asked for it in a letter and no one has addressed the issue properly. There might be no
letter, in which case the identification is more difficult. The bottom line is that, if the préfecture
stays silent for too long, it is urgent to be proactive.
Please forward this message to all who would be interested in its contents. The information
contained in this newsletter is intended as exclusively general information. Therefore, I strongly
urge readers to seek professional guidance concerning the legal and tax matters mentioned.
This newsletter is intended as a general guide and is not to be taken as professional advice.
Jean Taquet holds a masters degree in law from the Sorbonne University and the French BTS accounting degree. He served as a
jurist officer in the French Army in1985. He has been m
an
aging the refugee ministry of the Americ
an
church since 1993,
an
d has written the Question
an
d
An
swer column in the Paris Free Voice. Read his complete bio on our
Team Page
.
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How to Deal With Silence from the Prefecture
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How to Deal With Silence from the Prefecture
Written by Jean Taquet
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