Last Updated on: February 25, 2025 | By: @rprasanth_kumar
French administration has been making a gradual transition from offline to online applications via the ANEF portal. So, the temporary paper extensions called “récépissé” have been replaced by online attestations in PDF format. You are required to download these documents and present them wherever needed.
This article explains the various rights of these online attestations and tries to answer the following questions often asked by our readers.
- Can I stay in France legally with these attestations?
- Can I travel with an Attestation de prolongation de l’instruction?
- Can I travel with an Attestation de décision favorable?
- Can I study or work with these attestations??
The attestations are given in the following order based on the status of your resident permit application or renewal.
Note: Applications submitted via ANEF portal can take anywhere from 2 to 6 months for processing. In some cases, even longer too.
Confirmation du Dépôt
- This document is just a confirmation that you have submitted your online application. You will receive it immediately after submitting the application.
- Does not extend your legal stay in France, including the right to study or work here.
- Do not travel. If you leave France, you won’t be able to return without a return visa called “visa de retour” or an entirely new visa.
- If your online application is incomplete, you will be asked to provide additional documents. If these documents aren’t submitted in the mentioned duration, your application will be closed.
- If your resident permit is expiring soon, you must contact ANEF and Prefecture for requesting a prolongation attestation explained in the next section.
- Some prefectures have the option to request for this attestation via an offline process. It will be mentioned explicitly on the Prefecture’s website.
- Between the expiry date of your resident permit and starting date of prolongation attestation, you will be in an irregular situation with very limited rights. But you can stay in France because of the ongoing application.
- For example: Your employer can temporarily suspend your employment contract.
Did you know? An ongoing resident permit application means that the applicant can stay legally in the country, until a decision is made on the application. The renewal applications must be submitted 120 days to 60 days before the expiry of the current resident permit.
Attestation de Prolongation de l’Instruction
- This attestation means that you have submitted all the required documents but the administration needs more time to process your application.
- You can legally stay in France. As this attestation just extends the previous Titre de Sejour, it will extend your current rights including the right to work or study. Students can work part-time.
- The holder of this attestation can travel outside France and return to the country, but must carry the expired visa/resident permit too. For example, you will be able to visit India and return to France.
- This attestation is valid only for a period of 3 months. Also, it can be issued as many times as required until a favorable decision is taken on your application.
- If your resident permit has expired and you haven’t received this attestation, you can contact ANEF and Prefecture for the attestation.
- If this attestation has expired and not renewed automatically, contact ANEF and your local Prefecture for another prolongation attestation.
- Some Prefectures allow people to submit an application for the renewal of this attestation. So, check the website of your Prefecture about this possibility.
Exception: Attestation de prolongation de l’instruction d’une première demande de titre de séjour
- Allows a legal stay in France.
- Does not allow any social rights.
- No work rights except when a « autorisation de travail » was obtained.
- Does not allow travel outside France. If you leave, a visa de retour is required for the return trip.
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Attestation de Décision Favorable
- This attestation means that your application for the new resident permit has been successfully validated, your new card will be fabricated and you will soon be notified by an SMS or email.
- The prefecture usually takes 2 to 6 months for issuing the card.
- The attestation will have the same validity as the resident permit card to be issued.
- You can legally stay in France, including the right to work or study. Students can work part-time.
- The holder of this attestation can travel outside France and return to the country. For example, you will be able to visit India and return to France. However, the attestation must be accompanied by the expired visa/resident permit.
Resident Permit Collection
- An SMS will ask you to take an appointment at your prefecture. So, you can pay the applicable tax stamp (timbres fiscal), submit your fingerprints and collect the new card.
- For appointments, you can visit the prefecture’s website and take one, except when a link is sent by prefecture via SMS/Email.
- Try to collect your card asap. If you aren’t able to collect it within a few weeks especially when you are abroad, inform the prefecture about it. However, we have seen cases in which the card was available even after 4-5 months.
- Sometimes, the prefectures forget to send the SMS even when the card is ready. So, you can start looking for prefecture appointments, 90 days after receiving this attestation.
- Don’t keep waiting for a long time expecting the SMS or e-mail. Please be proactive and avoid any unnecessary complications.
Additional Information
- If your attestation has the text “premier demande”, you are not supposed to leave France. If you leave, you can return only with a visa de retour.
- Take printout of these attestations and present them everywhere including during immigration check.
- These attestations must always be accompanied by their previous visa or resident permit card (valid or expired).
- If you encounter any delays and other issues, please use the messaging option on the ANEF portal.
- You can also write to the prefecture via the Contact Us page on its website.
Experiences from the expat community
A few points based on the actual experiences from the community.
- As long as there is an ongoing resident permit application, you can stay in France.
- But staying without a valid récépissé or prolongation attestation or favorable décision attestation means that you cannot study, travel, work, social rights, etc in France. Basically, you will be struck wherever you are in France except the option to travel to your home country with a valid passport.
- People holding these online attestations should avoid transits/transfers outside the Schengen area. If not, you may not be able to board the flight.
- Air France and it’s partner airlines understand these documents well. Travelling via gulf carriers might create some issues. So, consult your airlines before booking the flight and a few days before departure.
- Transits via UK are not allowed.
- If the need for traveling isn’t urgent, it’s better to wait until receiving a favorable decision.
References
- Qu’est-ce qu’une attestation de demande de carte de séjour? servicepublic.fr
- Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile: Article 431-15 legifrance.gouv.fr
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Hi Prasanth,
Hope you’re doing well. My husband is on a Passeport Talent visa, and my kids and I are on his dependent visa. We have RP cards valid until 2027, but due to a family situation, my kids and I have to move back to India.
I wanted to check—do we need to surrender our RP cards and Carte Vitale, or do we have to return to France every six months to keep our residency valid?
Would appreciate your guidance. Thanks!
Hello Neha,
Please refer to my detailed explanations in https://prasanthragupathy.com/2023/06/faq-can-i-stay-outside-france-for-more-than-6-months/
1. Resident Permits: You don’t have to do anything.
2. Carte Vitale: You don’t have to do anything.
3. SSN: If you are leaving France permanently, please refer to my answers in https://prasanthragupathy.com/2024/07/checklist-things-to-do-before-leaving-france/
Cheers,
Prasanth
Hello , I have a visa for passport talent CBE VLS valid from 01 March to 30 May 2025.I arrived in france on 14 march and completed my application for residence permit on 20 March with all documents and have a confirmation du depot.My company requires me to give them a provisional recipise before 31 March 2025 to begin my ojb on 01 April.I did not receive this provisional authorisation on the website of ANEF in my account yet(as on 20 march, same day as submission of the application).Is there a time frame when this provisional authorisation will be available ?It is imperative that I have this provisional permit before 31 March or my contract will get anulled. Who do I contact in this case?Thanks in advance for your response,Deepika
Hello Deepika,
As explained in the article, a confirmation du depot does not extend any rights. But, you have a valid visa until 30 May 2025 and so there shouldn’t be any problem for you and your employer. So, I do not see any logic or an official requirement in asking for a provisional doc by 31 Marc 2025. Probably, the HR is not aware of the official resident permit procedures in France.
Meanwhile, an actual attestation will be available when your Carte de Séjour application documents are ok. Everything is explained in the above article.
Cheers,
Prasanth
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Thanks for prompt support. I will check again with the HR
Also, the following statement is not true.
“ The Administration will have 3 months maximum to deliver the Talent Card (the processing of Talent Card applications is generally quite fast). If the Talent Card is not obtained within this period, the Administration will be deemed to have issued an implicit rejection decision.”
It clearly shows that the HR has misunderstood certain things about the CdS Passeport Talent application process.