If you are British and already live in France, the answer to the question “can I bring my spouse after Brexit?” depends on two dates and one legal status: when you began living in France, when your family relationship began, and whether you fall under the Withdrawal Agreement or ordinary French immigration law. A wedding after Brexit does not automatically give a non-French spouse a right to settle in France. Conversely, a spouse whose relationship was already legally established before 1 January 2021 may benefit from a protected route which is materially different from the ordinary family-reunification procedure.
This distinction matters in practice. The wrong application can lead to an unnecessary long-stay visa request, an incomplete prefecture file, or an appeal sent to the wrong authority. The Withdrawal Agreement, meaning the treaty governing the protected rights created by the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, uses evidence of residence and family connection. The ordinary route uses a residence permit, resources, accommodation and an Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration (OFII) procedure. This article sets out the decision tree, the documents that usually matter, the visa stages and the deadlines for challenging a refusal. It does not cover the purchase of French property or the creation of a company.
I. Can a British resident in France bring a spouse after Brexit?
A. When the Withdrawal Agreement route applies
The first question is whether the British sponsor was exercising a genuine right of residence in France before 1 January 2021. The sponsor may be a British national who was living and working, studying, self-sufficient or otherwise lawfully resident in France before that date. The evidence will normally include dated French tax records, employment or business records, tenancy documents, utility bills, school records, healthcare registration, bank statements and other documents showing an actual centre of life in France. A mere plan to move, a holiday visit or an address without evidence of residence is not the same thing.
The second question concerns the spouse’s family link. For the protected family route, the marriage or other qualifying family relationship must generally have existed before 1 January 2021 and must still exist when the spouse applies for the residence document. Article 3 of French Decree no. 2020-1417 sets out the relevant categories and states, in the provision concerning a family relationship which predates the end of the transition period: “Son lien familial existait déjà avant cette date et se poursuit au moment de la demande de titre de séjour”. Read in context, this is not a promise for every later spouse. It is a date-sensitive condition.
This means that a British person who lived in France before the end of 2020 and married a non-EU national in 2019 will usually start by examining the Withdrawal Agreement route. A British person who lived in France before that date but married in 2023 cannot simply rely on the same provision because the family link was created later. The couple must examine the ordinary French route or another route arising from the spouse’s own nationality, work, study, French family connection or private and family life.
The same distinction applies where the spouse is a civil partner or another durable partner. The legal category and evidence are not identical to a marriage. The application must establish the relationship in the form required by the applicable rules. A ceremony, engagement, shared intention or informal relationship is not automatically equivalent to a marriage recognised for residence purposes. The civil-status documents should therefore be reviewed before a visa appointment is booked.
Article 4 of Decree no. 2020-1417 confirms the boundary between the protected route and the ordinary rules. It provides: “Les ressortissants britanniques et les membres de leur famille qui ne relèvent pas de l’article 3 sont soumis, à compter du 1er janvier 2021, aux dispositions des titres II et III du livre Ier ou à celles du livre III du code”. In practical terms, a family member outside Article 3 is not placed in a legal vacuum. The person is assessed under the French Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum, commonly called CESEDA, and the route must be selected on the facts.
Where Article 3 applies, the spouse should normally apply under the Withdrawal Agreement family-member process rather than presenting an ordinary family-reunification application as the first choice. The exact online process and prefecture channel can change, so the applicant should use the current government instructions and the prefecture responsible for the sponsor’s French address. Service Public’s page for British nationals distinguishes people settled before 31 December 2020, their qualifying family members and people arriving after 1 January 2021. The date used in a web form must be supported by the evidence in the file.
The residence document is a French residence permit, or titre de séjour. A family member in the protected category may be able to enter France with the documents required for their nationality and then apply for the relevant Withdrawal Agreement permit. Article 5 of the decree states that, where an entry visa is required, it is issued free of charge and through an accelerated process once the family link is established: “le visa d’entrée est délivré gratuitement … dans le cadre d’une procédure accélérée, sur justification du lien familial”. The applicant should not read this as a universal visa exemption. It means that the protected family-member mechanism has special treatment; nationality, travel document and the evidence of the link still matter.
The decree also contains a useful protection for the first Withdrawal Agreement permit. Article 11 of Decree no. 2020-1417 provides that the first issue of the protected permit is not made conditional on a French long-stay visa. The exact article should be read from the official decree because the result differs from an ordinary family-reunification file. If a consulate or intermediary treats the application as a standard long-stay family visa without checking the protected status, ask for the legal basis in writing and preserve the correspondence. A formal refusal should be dealt with through the appeal route stated in that decision, not through an informal argument at the counter.
Article 16 of the same decree addresses a family member who has not yet completed five years of residence and links that person to the Withdrawal Agreement residence document. The first application therefore needs to show both sides of the legal link: the sponsor’s protected residence position and the applicant’s qualifying relationship. A marriage certificate alone may not prove that the sponsor was living in France before the relevant date. Likewise, tax records from the sponsor alone do not prove that the applicant is the spouse named in the application.
A change in personal circumstances should be reported rather than hidden. Divorce proceedings, a death, a change of address, a child born after the relevant date, a previous refusal, a criminal record, a period outside France or an unexplained gap in residence can affect the route and the documents. The applicant should keep a chronology with dates, places and supporting evidence. The chronology is often more useful than a large bundle of unlabelled scans because it lets the prefecture or consulate understand which legal condition each document is intended to prove.
The Withdrawal Agreement route is also not a shortcut around identity and civil-status checks. Article R431-10 of CESEDA requires documents relating to civil status and nationality in residence applications made on a family basis. Article 47 of the French Civil Code gives foreign civil-status records a starting evidential value when they are made in the forms used in the country concerned: “Tout acte de l’état civil des Français et des étrangers fait en pays étranger”. That rule does not remove concerns about authenticity, fraud, inconsistent records or the need for a French translation. The certificate must be legible, complete and consistent with the names and dates in the passports and earlier applications.
One practical consequence follows. Before filing, compare the spelling of both spouses’ names across the marriage certificate, birth certificates, passports, residence cards, UK documents and French records. Explain transliteration differences and previous names. If a document is issued in English, it may still need a French translation by a translator accepted by the French authority or consulate. Depending on the country of issue and the authority receiving the document, an apostille or legalisation may also be required. Those formalities should be checked for the specific document and country rather than assumed.
B. When French common-law family reunification applies
If the sponsor arrived in France after 1 January 2021, or if the marriage or qualifying family link was created after that date, the couple normally moves to the second branch: French ordinary immigration law. The fact that the sponsor is British does not, by itself, preserve free movement rights. The sponsor’s current residence document, the purpose of residence and the spouse’s nationality determine which CESEDA route is available.
The best-known route is regroupement familial, meaning family reunification. It is a procedure through which a foreign resident who satisfies statutory conditions asks the French authorities to authorise the arrival of a spouse and minor children. It is not the same as the Withdrawal Agreement route and it is not a general right for any couple living anywhere in Europe. The file is usually made by the sponsor in France, while the family member remains outside France during the procedure, subject to limited exceptions and the exact status of the people concerned.
Article L434-2 of CESEDA sets the residence-duration threshold. It begins with the rule that: “L’étranger qui séjourne régulièrement en France depuis au moins dix-huit mois” may request family reunification for a spouse who is at least eighteen. That threshold is only one condition. The sponsor also needs a qualifying residence position and must show resources and accommodation. The document held by a British sponsor should be checked carefully rather than described loosely as “settled status” in an English email. A Withdrawal Agreement card, a French permit issued under another provision, a renewal receipt or an outdated document may lead to different administrative treatment.
The qualifying-document rules appear in Articles R434-1 and R434-2 of CESEDA. They cover specified categories of temporary, multi-year or resident permits and certain periods evidenced by a visa, permit, receipt or other document. The question is not whether the sponsor has lived in France socially, but whether the sponsor satisfies the residence and document conditions for the procedure being used. If the sponsor holds a protected British residence card, obtain confirmation from the responsible OFII office or prefecture about the ordinary family-reunification route before relying on a form designed for a different permit category.
Article L434-7 of CESEDA requires, in substance, stable and sufficient resources, suitable accommodation and compliance with the principles governing family life in France. Article L434-8 adds the method for assessing resources: the authority looks at the applicant’s resources and those of the spouse over the relevant period, measured against the average monthly French minimum wage, known as the SMIC. Some income is excluded or treated differently, and the threshold varies with the size of the household. Do not calculate eligibility from one recent payslip. Assemble the evidence for the full reference period requested by the authority.
Article R434-4 describes the resource assessment over twelve months and the household thresholds. The file may therefore contain employment contracts, payslips, tax notices, pension evidence, self-employment accounts, bank statements and explanations of irregular income. A British pension, rental income or investment income may require additional evidence and may not be counted in the same way as salary. The safest approach is to identify each payment, its legal source, its gross or net amount and the document proving it. If a resource is disputed, submit a short calculation table and the underlying records.
Accommodation is a separate condition. Article R434-5 sets minimum living-space figures according to the French housing zone and the number of people who will live there. For example, the text starts with a minimum of 22 square metres in zones A and A bis for a two-person household, then adds space as the household grows; the minimums differ in zones B1, B2 and C. The authority may also consider whether the dwelling is normally suitable, safe and sanitary. A tenancy agreement, property deed, floor plan, recent housing certificate, rent receipts and photographs may be relevant, but the exact documents should match the local OFII request.
The ordinary procedure commonly involves OFII, the Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration. The sponsor submits the application and supporting documents through the prescribed channel. The local authority may inspect or assess the accommodation and resources. Article L434-10 provides for the mayor’s involvement in checking housing and resources, including an opinion within the statutory process. Article R434-12 states that OFII issues a receipt for a complete file and that this receipt starts the six-month period for the decision. A submission acknowledgement is not necessarily proof that the file is complete, so keep both the delivery evidence and later requests for missing documents.
If the prefecture accepts the request, the spouse will normally apply for the relevant long-stay visa at the French consulate or visa centre in the country of residence. A visa de long séjour, meaning a long-stay visa, is generally required for a stay of more than three months unless an exemption or another route applies. In some cases the visa is a VLS-TS, short for visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour, meaning a long-stay visa which also operates as a residence document for its validity period after the required validation. France-Visas provides the application channel and document list; the consulate assesses the visa after the family-reunification authorisation.
The spouse’s nationality remains important. A British spouse, an American spouse and a spouse holding a passport from a country subject to a visa requirement may not follow identical entry steps. A nationality may permit short visits but not settlement. Entering as a visitor and then assuming that a residence application can always be made from inside France is risky. The invitation, the authorisation, the long-stay visa and the first residence formalities must be kept in the order required for the chosen route.
There may be another CESEDA route where ordinary family reunification is unavailable or disproportionate to the family circumstances. Article L423-23 concerns private and family ties. It directs the authority to assess the intensity, duration and stability of the person’s ties in France, family circumstances, integration and remaining ties to the country of origin when considering whether a refusal would disproportionately affect private and family life. This is a fact-specific route, not an automatic spouse visa. Evidence of a genuine and established family life, dependency, children, health issues, care responsibilities, previous lawful residence and practical impossibility of living together elsewhere may be relevant.
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights can form part of that proportionality analysis. It protects private and family life, but marriage does not automatically create a right to enter or reside in France. The First Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation stated in its judgment of 25 March 2026, no. 24-16.383, in a civil-status dispute: “le droit d’entrer ou de résider dans un Etat dont un intéressé n’est pas le ressortissant est étranger à l’essence même du mariage”. The decision is not a substitute for an immigration decision and should not be presented as a family-reunification judgment. Its value here is the precise warning: the marriage and the right of residence are legally connected through specific immigration rules, not fused into one automatic entitlement. The official judgment is available here.
Where the administration questions an overseas marriage or birth record, the civil-status analysis must be kept separate from the immigration analysis. In a judgment of 18 March 2020, no. 18-15.368, the Cour de cassation referred to foreign civil-status documents which were “les actes de l’état civil étrangers étaient réguliers, exempts de fraude et avaient été établis conformément au droit anglais en vigueur” in the case before it, and concluded that the act was probative under Article 47 of the Civil Code. The exact official wording includes: “l’acte est probant au sens de l’article 47 du code civil.” This judgment concerned civil-status evidence, not a British spouse’s immigration application. It can help explain why the origin, form and reliability of a document matter, but it cannot guarantee a residence permit. The official judgment is available here.
II. What proof, visa and appeal steps are required?
A. Which documents prove the route, visa and residence application?
Start with a route memo of one page. Put the sponsor’s full name, nationality, French address, first date of actual residence, current residence document, date of marriage or partnership, applicant’s nationality, current country of residence and the proposed legal route at the top. State whether the family link existed before 1 January 2021. If the answer is uncertain, list the competing routes and the fact which decides between them. This memo prevents the file from drifting between Withdrawal Agreement and ordinary family-reunification forms.
For a Withdrawal Agreement application, the core evidence normally falls into four groups:
1. The sponsor’s pre-2021 residence. Provide a chronological bundle showing that the British sponsor was actually living in France before the relevant date. Possible evidence includes French tax assessments, employment records, business registration and invoices, university or school records, tenancy agreements, utility bills, social-security or healthcare records, insurance, bank statements and dated correspondence from French authorities. Explain gaps, temporary UK stays and periods of remote work. A single document can be challenged as accidental or insufficiently connected to France; a coherent timeline is stronger.
2. The family link. Provide the complete marriage certificate or equivalent record, evidence of any previous divorce or death, passports and proof that the relationship still exists. If the link predates 1 January 2021, make that date visible in the chronology. If the marriage took place later, do not force the evidence into the protected branch. A child’s birth certificate, custody order or adoption record may be relevant in a family-member case, but it does not change the legal test for a spouse unless the applicable provision says so.
3. Identity and civil status. Include current passports, earlier passports where dates matter, birth certificates, marriage records and documents explaining name changes. Follow the consulate or prefecture requirements for certified copies, apostille or legalisation and French translation. The documents should be scanned in colour where requested, readable at normal screen size and named by date and purpose. Do not send multiple versions with different spellings without an explanation.
4. The application trail. Keep the online confirmation, appointment notice, receipt, email headers, delivery tracking, payment record where a payment is lawful, and every request for further evidence. If a portal produces a reference number, save a PDF and a screenshot. If a prefecture refuses to accept the file at the counter, ask for the refusal or missing-document request in writing. The date of a written decision can start an appeal period.
For ordinary family reunification, add evidence of the sponsor’s qualifying permit and the full eighteen-month residence period. The sponsor should produce the front and back of the residence card, renewal receipt, passport pages, entry and exit evidence where relevant, and documents showing that the permit remains valid. The application should identify whether the sponsor’s document is a Withdrawal Agreement card or a CESEDA permit and cite the route being requested. Calling every French card “settled status” can obscure the difference between British treaty rights and French domestic law.
For resources, organise documents by month for the twelve-month assessment period. Include tax notices, employment contracts, payslips, employer certificates, pension statements, self-employed accounts, rental agreements and bank records as appropriate. Explain bonuses, periods of unemployment, maternity or sick leave, currency conversion, UK income and irregular payments. Where the sponsor relies on British income, show the payment in pounds, the euro conversion method and the account statement proving receipt. Do not conceal a debt, a disputed payment or a recent job change; explain it and provide the strongest current evidence.
For accommodation, provide the tenancy agreement or ownership deed, a recent address document, rent or mortgage evidence, housing insurance where relevant, floor plan and proof of normal occupation. Check the number of occupants and the applicable zone. If the sponsor is temporarily housed by another person, the file may need an attestation of accommodation, that person’s identity document, proof of address and evidence of the right to occupy the property. A large property is not automatically suitable if it is overcrowded, unsafe or not available to the family.
For the spouse abroad, prepare the passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, criminal-record document if requested, photographs, visa forms, proof of current address and documents concerning children or previous marriages. Follow the current France-Visas list generated for the applicant’s nationality and purpose. A document in English may need a French translation even though the applicant is British. The translation should be signed or certified in the way the receiving authority accepts. The consulate may request originals at the appointment, so keep them in a separate folder.
The application should also answer the questions a case officer is likely to have. Where did the couple meet? Where have they lived together? Which country is the family home? Why is the application made now? Does either spouse have children or care obligations? Are there prior immigration applications? Is the sponsor’s French residence continuous? A short factual statement can connect the documents without turning the file into an emotional essay. Every material assertion should point to a document.
The ordinary route has a sequence. First, the sponsor submits the family-reunification request in France through the applicable OFII or administrative channel. Secondly, the authority checks completeness and may examine the accommodation and resources. Thirdly, the prefecture decides. Fourthly, if the request is approved, the spouse submits the long-stay visa application with the authorisation and civil-status documents. Finally, after entry, the spouse completes the residence formalities, including online validation where the visa is a VLS-TS or the prefecture procedure where a separate permit is required.
Do not assume that a complete OFII receipt is an approval. Article R434-12 concerns the start of the decision period, not the outcome. Service Public explains that the prefecture has six months to decide after the complete request and that silence at the end of the relevant period may amount to an implied refusal. The family should monitor the date carefully and not wait indefinitely for a portal message. A lawyer’s review is particularly useful when the period has expired, the file has been split between two departments or the spouse is approaching a visa or passport deadline.
If the protected route is available, the sequence may be shorter and different. The family member should follow the special British-national guidance, prove the pre-2021 relationship and apply to the correct prefecture for the Withdrawal Agreement permit. Where a visa is required, the special free and accelerated mechanism under Article 5 should be identified in the file. Where no long-stay visa is required for the first protected permit, the applicant should not create a contradictory ordinary visa file merely because an online form is easier to find. Save a copy of the government instructions and the legal provision used.
B. What happens after a refusal and which deadline applies?
The first task after a refusal is classification. A visa refusal from a French consulate or visa centre is not the same as a prefecture refusal of a residence permit, and neither is the same as an OFII or family-reunification decision. Read the heading, issuing authority, date, reasons and appeal instructions. The appeal body and deadline depend on that classification. Sending the same letter to the prefecture, OFII and consulate can waste time and create uncertainty about whether the proper prior appeal was made.
For a refusal of a long-stay visa, the mandatory prior administrative appeal is made to the Commission de recours contre les décisions de refus de visa d’entrée en France, known as the CRRV. Article D312-3 of CESEDA identifies the commission for this category of visa refusal. Article D312-4 fixes a thirty-day period from notification of the refusal. The appeal should be written in French, signed, dated and sent in a way that proves delivery. It should identify the applicant, passport, visa application, refusal date, sponsor, family relationship and the remedy requested.
Attach the refusal, the original application confirmation and the documents that answer each reason. If the refusal says the marriage was not proven, provide the correctly legalised or apostilled certificate and accepted French translation. If it says the sponsor’s situation is unclear, provide the residence card and chronology. If resources or accommodation are questioned, provide the calculation and the missing source documents. If the authority refers to public order, identity or credibility, deal with the precise facts and do not bury them under irrelevant paperwork.
The CRRV appeal should also explain the legal branch. If the family link existed before 1 January 2021 and the sponsor was resident in France before that date, identify the Withdrawal Agreement provisions and explain why the ordinary route was not the relevant starting point. If the link arose later, do not claim protected rights that the evidence cannot support. A credible alternative may be an ordinary family-reunification route, a spouse’s independent visa category or a private-and-family-life application, depending on the facts.
A CRRV appeal is not merely a request to “look again”. It should be a structured response to the refusal. Use a table with three columns: reason given, evidence already filed, and additional evidence now enclosed. Cite the exact official provision relied on. Keep the argument proportionate and factual. The commission may reject the appeal or recommend that the visa be issued. Preserve proof of the date on which the appeal was received because the next deadline can depend on the CRRV response or on the expiry of the response period.
If the CRRV rejects the appeal, or if its response is legally treated as a refusal, the next challenge is ordinarily brought before the Nantes Administrative Court. Article R421-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice states the general two-month time limit for an application to the administrative court from notification or publication of the challenged decision. Article R312-6 of CESEDA links visa litigation to those administrative-court time limits. Check the current decision notice and procedural rules because the date and method of notification matter. A court claim does not normally replace the mandatory CRRV appeal; the prior appeal must be made first and within time.
The court file should contain the complete administrative record, not only the strongest document. Include the application, refusal, CRRV appeal, proof of receipt, response, passports, marriage and civil-status documents, sponsor’s residence evidence, resources, accommodation and any subsequent change. Explain why the refusal is legally wrong, factually inaccurate or disproportionate. If the authority relied on an alleged inconsistency, identify the page and provide the document that resolves it. If the family has children, health or dependency factors, provide dated evidence and explain the concrete consequence of separation.
A prefecture refusal of a residence permit follows a different route. The CRRV is for visa refusals; it is not the general appeal body for a refusal to issue a French residence permit. The decision may offer a recours gracieux, meaning a request to the issuing authority to withdraw its own decision, or a hierarchical appeal, together with a challenge before the competent administrative court. Article L211-2 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration requires reasons for specified adverse administrative decisions. The refusal should be tested against its stated reasons, the evidence actually filed and the legal route requested.
The private-and-family-life route under Article L423-23 can be important where ordinary conditions are not met but the family’s circumstances make separation disproportionate. The evidence must be concrete: length of residence, daily family life, children’s schooling, health, dependency, integration, language, employment, financial support and the realistic possibility of living together in another country. A marriage certificate is necessary evidence of the relationship but will rarely be the whole proportionality case. The authority and court will look at the overall circumstances.
The Cour de cassation judgment of 25 March 2026, no. 24-16.383 should be used with care. Its statement that residence rights are distinct from the essence of marriage does not mean that family life is irrelevant. It means that the immigration consequence must be established through the applicable legal provisions. Conversely, the Article 47 civil-status principle discussed in the Cour de cassation judgment of 18 March 2020, no. 18-15.368, does not itself create a visa right. The two questions must be presented separately: is the document reliable and legally recognised, and does the applicant satisfy the conditions of the chosen immigration route?
The most common practical errors are avoidable. Applicants rely on a short-stay visit permission for a planned permanent move; they submit a marriage certificate without the required translation; they confuse the sponsor’s treaty residence card with a general French permit; they omit the date of the family link; they provide one payslip instead of the requested resource history; they send the visa appeal after thirty days; or they challenge a visa refusal without first filing the CRRV appeal. Each error can be corrected only if identified early. A pre-filing audit should test the route, dates, evidence, authority, translation and deadline in that order.
Use a final checklist before submission:
Route: Have you recorded the sponsor’s actual French residence date, the date of marriage or qualifying family link, the current permit and the legal branch being requested?
Identity: Do all passports, birth records and marriage documents use consistent names, dates and places, with explanations for any difference?
Formalities: Are the relevant originals, certified copies, French translations, apostilles or legalisations prepared for the specific issuing country and receiving authority?
Ordinary conditions: If relying on family reunification, have you proved the qualifying eighteen-month residence, stable resources over the requested period and suitable accommodation?
Process: Do you know whether the next step is the prefecture, OFII, France-Visas, a consulate, the CRRV or an administrative court?
Deadlines: Have you diarised thirty days for a CRRV appeal where applicable, the six-month family-reunification decision period, and the two-month administrative-court period after the relevant decision?
Proof: Have you kept a complete copy of the submission, delivery evidence, portal reference, appointment record and every decision?
The official government pages should be checked immediately before filing because forms, appointment channels and document lists can change. The legal date analysis, however, should remain explicit in the file. A clear application tells the authority why the applicant belongs in the Withdrawal Agreement branch or why the ordinary CESEDA route has been satisfied. It also makes an appeal possible if the administration has applied the wrong branch or overlooked a material document.
Conclusion
For a British resident in France, bringing a spouse after Brexit is possible, but the answer turns on the sponsor’s residence before 1 January 2021, the date on which the family relationship existed, and the residence document held today. A qualifying pre-2021 family link may lead to the Withdrawal Agreement route. A later marriage or a post-2021 move generally requires a CESEDA route, often ordinary family reunification or a fact-specific private-and-family-life application. Neither branch should be selected from the English label on a portal alone.
The strongest file is chronological and legally labelled: residence, family link, identity, translation, permit, resources, accommodation, submission and appeal. A visa refusal requires the CRRV within thirty days before court proceedings can normally be brought. A prefecture refusal uses a different procedure. The decision notice, not a general internet summary, controls the immediate deadline.
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