ANEF is being sued (l’Administration Numérique pour les Étrangers en France – the Digital Administration for Foreigners in France) is facing legal challenges and significant criticism regarding its functionality. Ten associations, including Secours Catholique, France Terre d’Asile, and La Cimade, announced on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 that they had filed a complaint with the Council of State on March 27 for “culpable failure.” They denounce the “massive” malfunctions of the Digital Administration for Foreigners in France (ANEF), the online platform that allows foreigners in France to apply for or renew their residence permits.
Ten charities have launched a joint legal complaint to the Conseil d’Etat – France’s highest administrative authority.
According to the associations, the ANEF’s multiple computer bugs and administrative hiccups prevent foreigners from working and integrating into society. “The Kafkaesque malfunctions of the digital platform for residence permit applications, repeatedly reported to the public authorities, hinder foreigners’ access to the labor market, exacerbate their precariousness, and severely penalize the associations and companies that support or employ them,” the ten associations denounced in a press release. Indeed, the ANEF’s multiple bugs effectively prevent regularized foreigners—who are required to use it—from making an appointment at the prefecture, renewing their papers, or even declaring a change of address or family situation. Yet, without these documents obtained within a specified timeframe, foreigners risk losing their jobs or social security rights. And it’s impossible to physically travel to the prefectures to plead their case; no unscheduled appointments are accepted.
This statement is based on publicly available information and reports:
The reasons why ANEF is being sued are multiple.
- Numerous Complaints: Over the past few years, there have been widespread reports and complaints from both applicants and legal professionals about the difficulties and dysfunctions of the ANEF system.
- Technical Issues: Users have consistently reported technical problems, including difficulties in creating accounts, uploading documents, navigating the platform, and receiving timely responses or updates on their applications.
- Delays and Lack of Transparency: Significant delays in processing applications through ANEF have been a major source of frustration. Applicants often report a lack of transparency regarding the status of their cases.
- Impact on Rights: The dysfunctions of ANEF have reportedly led to significant negative consequences for individuals, including the inability to work, access social services, or travel, raising concerns about the violation of their rights.
- Reports from Official Bodies: Even official bodies like the Défenseur des Droits (the French Ombudsman) have published reports highlighting the serious deficiencies of the ANEF platform and the rights violations it causes. These reports often include recommendations for urgent improvements.
- Focus of Criticism: The core of the criticism revolves around the system being “dysfunctional” – meaning it doesn’t operate efficiently or reliably, leading to significant problems for those trying to navigate the French immigration system.
The Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, recently provided a harsh assessment of the ANEF.
Between 2020 (when the rollout for students began) and 2024, the institution recorded a 400% increase in the number of complaints related to the fact that ANEF is being sued.
In an interview with Ouest-France on March 25, Claire Hédon also called for “the possibility of interacting with the administration through multiple channels, not just digitally,” to ensure equitable access to public services. In other words, obtaining human responses in the event of IT glitches. Digital technology “cannot replace face-to-face or telephone appointments or the submission of paper documents,” she argued.
The situation is such that today, “employers are calling on us for help renewing their employees’ residence permits even though they’ve had difficulty recruiting,” emphasizes Pascal Brice, president of the Fédération des acteurs de solidarité (FAS), a collective of associations among the applicants.
“In addition to the malfunctions of digitalization, there is a political will to increase obstacles for immigrants, but all we’re doing is preventing them from working,” points out Pascal Brice. “Ten years ago, the problem was obtaining a residence permit, and that remains the case, but today there is a massive problem renewing it,” he notes.
The widespread and persistent nature of the complaints and the severity of the reported issues make it very probable that ANEF is indeed facing legal action from applicants seeking redress for the problems caused by the system.
Based on the substantial evidence of serious and ongoing problems with the ANEF system reported by users and official bodies, the statement that ANEF is being sued by some applicants for having a ‘dysfunctional system’ is a warning sign that ANEF is likely to sustain harsh criticism and face other legal proceedings.
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