A First in France: Immigration Lawyers Sue the Préfet of Hauts-de-Seine Over Residence Permit Renewal Delays

If you have a case pending at the Préfecture de Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), you already know the frustration: months of waiting for a renouvellement de titre de séjour, unresponsive portals, appointments that never come. That everyday headache is now the subject of an unprecedented legal action.

What Happened
The association Avocats pour la Défense des Droits des Étrangers (ADDE) filed a group action — an "action de groupe en cessation de manquement" — against the French State and Préfet Alexandre Brugère before the Tribunal Administratif de Cergy-Pontoise in July. Reportedly the first use of this tool in the immigration context, the mechanism (transposed from EU law just over a year ago) lets claimants prove a systemic dysfunction without having to build each individual case (L'Humanité).

ADDE targets four failures: impossibility of getting an appointment, unreasonable processing delays, failure to issue récépissés, and inability to reach the prefecture at all. As co-president Anaïs Place told InfoMigrants, the focus is on applicants with a legal right to a permit — "un problème d'accès physique au service public."

The Gap Between Rule and Reality
Applicants are told to file two to four months before expiry — yet Place reports waits of "cinq, six, voire huit mois" just to get an appointment. ADDE argues this reflects misplaced priorities, with the prefecture emphasizing removal orders — some of which, Place notes, are later annulled by the courts (InfoMigrants).

The Ask, the Préfet's Response, and the Data
ADDE wants the court to order an end to the breaches within six months, backed by an astreinte (penalty clause) of €300,000 per month of delay and independent monitoring (e.g., by the Défenseur des droits).

Interviewed by Le Figaro, Préfet Brugère acknowledged a firm-line policy on regularization while insisting "nous régularisons énormément ceux qui doivent l'être." Place countered that regularization isn't the point: "vous avez une mission de service public et vous ne l'assurez pas" (InfoMigrants).

To back its claim, ADDE compared Conseil d'État data between Cergy-Pontoise and Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) — and found that Seine-Saint-Denis, despite its own well-known strain, actually processes de plein droit permits better than Hauts-de-Seine.

What This Means for Our Clients
This litigation confirms what many of our clients at the Nanterre prefecture have already experienced: these aren't isolated glitches but a documented, systemic pattern. If your renewal has stalled — an attestation de prolongation, an unbookable portal, a file gone silent — now is a good time to talk to us about your options, including an individual référé where urgent relief is warranted.

Sources: L'Humanité, "Accusé d'empêcher les renouvellements de titres de séjour, le préfet des Hauts-de-Seine visé par une plainte"; InfoMigrants, "France : face aux délais de renouvellement de titres de séjour, des milliers de personnes au désespoir"; Le Figaro, "'Je reconnais avoir coupé le robinet' : accusé de bloquer le renouvellement des titres de séjour, le préfet des Hauts-de-Seine visé par une plainte."