I don`t know if this topic has been asked before but I was wondering
how you go about getting a carte permanente and what documents are
needed please.
It varies by prefecture. Some accept applications by post and others, like mine, require you to attend an interview.
You automatically gain the right to permanent residence under EU law after five years of lawful residence. This means you have to be ‘exercising treaty rights’. If you’ve been working here that covers you but if you are inactive you have to have had healthcare cover and sufficient income to be considered self sufficient and not likely to become a burden upon the state.
Basically whatever your circumstances you have to prove your right by providing documentation proving continuous and lawful residence for a five year period - not necessarily the last five years if there is a reason you don’t qualify in the last five years. If you claim for a period before the last five years you have to prove continuous residence since that period to prove that you haven’t lost the right by being away for more than two years.
Here is the national site that lists what is normally required and specifies this by the way you are exercising your treaty rights: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F22116
However, each prefecture may have different requirements so you should check your local prefecture’s site. Even then, they may have requirements that aren’t listed on their site so it might be safer to email them and/or ask for experiences of what was required of other people who applied at your local prefecture. For instance, my local prefecture site didn’t mention needing birth and marriage certificate or divorce decree absolute for me or carte vitales, birth certificates and copies of passports for my children but all of these were requested at the interview.
Also, though it says they want copies of things, take originals along too. It depends on who processes your application too. Someone else went to my local prefecture and copies of everything were accepted. I was asked for originals of everything - even utility bills, which I didn’t have because I only get pdfs from the suppliers.
…and some préfecture (Albi) refuse to process applications from brits until the brexit position is clear, which makes perfect sense 
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Yes. Whereas the UK home office seem to be advising EU Citizens there to apply for PR, implying it will stand after Brexit, the attitude here seems to be more that there is no point because it’s an EU right and we won’t be EU anymore and don’t know what rules we’ll come under in future. I have more than one reason for applying for it and it’s free so I’ve done it anyway. It might come in useful in the event of Brexit…
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