CDS refused now illegal

An English acquaintance has just just been refused his Post Brexit CDS. He has no idea why. He has just posted it on FB. I have no idea if he already had EU style CDS. He has been here 18 years . His partners’ is ok. , He has been interviewed by French TV and it goes out on the news tonight. Probably on local network. He lives in the Charente so if any of you live that way may be interesting to watch.

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Sounds like “more information needed”, especially if in France for 18 years.

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I totally agree. I could name some people who have been here for similar periods of time but who have never been in any part of the French system…

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I’m wondering if your friend is actually Antipodean.

I understand that one such gentleman had applied for CdSWA… thinking he was a British National with Rights.

He’d been granted a Visa to live in UK… and later moved to France… without updating/obtaining the correct Visa…

Anyway, I’ve heard that he has had his request for CdSWA refused… as he is not eligible…

Be interesting to hear what tonight’s thingy is all about…

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Most likely on France3 Aqutaine so just off to find it on Canalsat.

I rely on you to give us the info and a link if possible… cheers

Your friend may well be completely above board and this is a dreadful misunderstanding……

But I’m sure will will be hearing similar stories of people complaining about being unfairly treated and not being given a CdS when they have lived here for X years……however I personally think many of them will have been here illegally. Since they have had 4 years to regularise their situation I have zero sympathy.

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I must confess that I am wondering about the background to this refusal… since I know full well that the French Govt have bent over backwards to say YES… when folk have put in their applications.

Ah well… we wait and see.

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Hmm… perhaps they need to cement their union which will grant him rights… (I think)
unless there is something we don’t know about…

but quite possibly a storm in a teacup…

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Will be very interesting to hear any more detail about this when it becomes available.

I have now the story. He got a 10 year permanent CDS no problem 5 years ago at Charleville Mezieres in the Ardennes. 3 years ago he moved to Charente. This is where it gets a bit hazy. He applied for the new card in Charente and was called to the Prefecture for the usual fingerprints etc and to surrender his existing card. In the meantime Charleville has lost his file and said they can find no record of him. Hence the situation as now. Of course I am sure with time it can be resolved but of course it is worrying for them both to resolve his immediate status. I guess this will be ongoing as we all know how slow French bureaucracy is and they always need just one more bit of paper. No they are not couple who are under the radar.

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In which case surely it is a non-story? Just a snafu, which will be resolved in time. Presumably as a long term resident he has learnt to scan and copy every critical document so has all the proof necessary.

Worrying for them if course, but hardly newsworthy?

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That is just SO important.

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I think it is quite worrying actually, because it demonstrates how fragile our existence is here. Relying on officialdom not making a cockup. Shades of Windrush in the UK, I bet few of us realised how precarious the situation was for some West Indians before that all blew up. I wonder how it affects his CV etc in the meantime.

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Indeed, I have 2 filing cabinets groaning under the weight of documents covering the last 30 years.

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Shouldn’t at all David if he has (as @JaneJones said) scanned copies of the card from 5 years ago. (I’m still carrying around our “original” CdS, “just in case”! That was the one where we had to provide a shed load of information, which I still have on file. :slight_smile: )

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Agreed Sue, but what I meant was that, as foreigners, no matter how much ‘proof’ we have, we are still here at the mercy of failed administration. As has been said, bureaucracy in France can be glacially slow, and in the meantime…

The only reason to take French nationality imo, but I missed my chance when I could have done so relatively easily (before it was taken over by Prefectures and then Regions).

Again, Windrush was a bit of a wake-up call for me. Before that came to my notice I always thought, I worked here, I paid all the taxes asked of me, I did nothing under the radar, I am a French pensioner, I am a European Citizen (how many of us ever dreamt that that could end?) etc. etc… But in the end, if something goes wrong outside of my control, I could be out on my ear.

I agree David. While it’s not a major worry, it’s quite possible that an extreme right-wing government not dissimilar to the current UK Tories will come to power in France with ideas of a ‘hostile environment’ for immigrants.

What actually happened to the Windrush victims was that the state picked on its ordinary law-abiding citizens, who had been living in the UK almost all of their lives, paying taxes, voting - just living a normal British life - and took away their livelihoods, their health care, their homes, and then deported them. It didn’t matter that they could prove their long, legal residence - they didn’t have exactly the right pieces of paper (which the state itself had in fact lost). No state official would listen to them - all were hostile. The state had told them to be hostile.

Couldn’t happen here? That’s what I thought about the UK.

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A small point, but, I thought CdS holders are obliged to notify changes of address to the préfecture. Did Charleville M confirm the change of address or had they already lost the dossier then?

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To compare with the Windrush Generation one would have to compare against the moment their birth country gained independence, as then their citizenship changed. Had there been the Government effort then to explain the position, and set up internet portal for people to apply for residency status and issue paperwork, then this hideous situation should not have happened. So I really don’t see the situations as comparable.

And sure, I’d never say never as history shows that being too complacent is not necessarily ok. But I also don’t see any need to be alarmist. There are millions of people in France reliant on resident permits, and changing that would be a near impossible political and social battle. What is more likely to change is the future system will get tougher.

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