You moved to France after Brexit, found the house, registered with the tax office and started to build a life here. But your spouse is still in Manchester or Kent with the children, or your partner can only visit in short stays that never quite add up to a family life. Every month apart costs money, every border crossing adds stress, and the school calendar keeps moving. French law offers a dedicated answer to exactly this situation: family reunification (regroupement familial), the procedure by which a foreign national lawfully settled in France brings a husband or wife and minor children to live with them. Since 1 January 2021 British citizens have been third-country nationals like any others, so this procedure, once irrelevant to Britons, is now the main legal road for reuniting a British family on French soil. It is a demanding road. You must show eighteen months of lawful residence, stable income at least equal to the national minimum wage (salaire minimum de croissance, SMIC), a flat or house big enough for the whole family, and respect for the basic principles of family life in France. The file passes through the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration, OFII), the mayor (maire) of your commune and the prefect (préfet) of your department, and any weak link can sink it. This guide explains who can apply and who can join, the three conditions in detail, the examination step by step and, because refusals are frequent, how to challenge a refusal before the administrative court (tribunal administratif) and what to do when an order to leave France (obligation de quitter le territoire français) lands on a family member who is already here.

I. How Does a British Resident Bring a Spouse and Children to France After Brexit?

A. Who Can Apply After Eighteen Months and Which Family Members Can Join

The starting point is time. The statute provides, word for word: “L’étranger qui séjourne régulièrement en France depuis au moins dix-huit mois, sous couvert d’un des titres d’une durée de validité d’au moins un an prévus par le présent code ou par des conventions internationales, peut demander à bénéficier de son droit à être rejoint, au titre du regroupement familial : 1° Par son conjoint, si ce dernier est âgé d’au moins dix-huit ans ; 2° Et par les enfants du couple mineurs de dix-huit ans.” In plain English, a foreign national who has lived lawfully in France for at least eighteen months, holding a residence document valid for at least one year, may ask to be joined through family reunification by a husband or wife aged at least eighteen and by the couple’s children under eighteen. This is Article L.434-2 of the Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreign Nationals and the Right of Asylum (Code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile, CESEDA), and it is the gateway to everything that follows. A British sponsor who arrived in 2023 on a long-stay visa, then obtained a one-year temporary card (carte de séjour temporaire) and renewed it, will normally satisfy the eighteen-month test once the renewals show eighteen months of continuous lawful stay. Short-stay Schengen stamps, visa-exempt visits under the 90 days in any 180-day rule and gaps without a valid permit do not count.

The quality of the sponsor’s own papers matters just as much as their age. The regulation lists exactly which documents open the procedure: “L’étranger qui formule une demande de regroupement familial doit justifier de la possession d’un des documents de séjour suivants : 1° Une carte de séjour temporaire, d’une durée de validité d’au moins un an ; 2° Une carte de séjour pluriannuelle ; 3° Une carte de résident, d’une durée de dix ans ou à durée indéterminée ; 4° Le récépissé de demande de renouvellement du titre de séjour mentionné aux 1°, 2° ou 3°.” That is Article R.434-1 CESEDA: a temporary card valid for at least one year, a multi-year card (carte de séjour pluriannuelle), a ten-year resident card (carte de résident), or the receipt (récépissé) for renewal of one of those cards. A British holder of a multi-year card, whatever the ground printed on it, files under the second item. A sponsor whose card has expired but who holds a renewal receipt files under the fourth. A sponsor with nothing but an expired visa and no receipt cannot start the procedure and should regularise their own position first, because everything built on an irregular stay collapses at the first check.

On the joining side, the circle of beneficiaries is deliberately narrow, and British families must understand its edges before spending a year on a file. The spouse (conjoint) must be legally married to the sponsor. The official English-language guidance of the French administration states the condition plainly: the procedure concerns your spouse, at least eighteen years old, and legally married to you (see service-public.fr, Family Reunification). A British civil partnership, a PACS (pacte civil de solidarité, the French registered partnership) or a long cohabitation, however genuine, does not open regroupement familial as such. Couples who never married need a different route, typically a long-stay visitor visa for the partner followed, once in France, by an application examined on other grounds, and they should take advice before choosing that path because it carries its own income and health-insurance conditions.

Children are covered more generously, and blended families, which are common, should read the two relevant articles with care. First, reunification may also be requested for the sponsor’s own minor children and for the spouse’s minor children where parentage (filiation) is established only towards the applicant or the spouse, or where the other parent has died or been deprived of parental rights: “Le regroupement familial peut également être demandé pour les enfants mineurs de dix-huit ans du demandeur et pour ceux de son conjoint si, au jour de la demande : 1° La filiation n’est établie qu’à l’égard du demandeur ou de son conjoint ; 2° Ou lorsque l’autre parent est décédé ou déchu de ses droits parentaux.” That is Article L.434-3 CESEDA. Second, where the child has two living parents who both hold parental authority, the file must contain the foreign court decision entrusting the child to the applicant or the spouse plus the other parent’s written permission for the child to come to France: “Le regroupement familial peut être demandé pour les enfants mineurs de dix-huit ans du demandeur et ceux de son conjoint, qui sont confiés, selon le cas, à l’un ou l’autre, au titre de l’exercice de l’autorité parentale, en vertu d’une décision d’une juridiction étrangère. Une copie de cette décision devra être produite ainsi que l’autorisation de l’autre parent de laisser le mineur venir en France.” That is Article L.434-4 CESEDA. A British father in Lyon whose teenage daughter lives in Leeds with her mother therefore needs either sole parental responsibility documented, or the mother’s formal consent alongside the custody order. An English court order works, but it should be translated by a sworn translator (traducteur assermenté) and, where the prefecture queries it, supported by evidence that the order is final.

One last structural rule shapes family strategy. Reunification is requested for everyone at once: “Le regroupement familial est sollicité pour l’ensemble des personnes désignées aux articles L. 434-2 à L. 434-4. Un regroupement partiel peut toutefois être autorisé pour des motifs tenant à l’intérêt des enfants.” That is Article L.434-1 CESEDA. Bringing the spouse this year and a child next year is possible only by exception, justified by the child’s interests, for example a child finishing GCSEs in England. Families should therefore plan the whole move in a single application wherever possible, because a second file means a second examination of income and housing against a larger household.

B. The Three Conditions Tested by the OFII, the Mayor and the Prefect

Once eligibility is established, the sponsor must satisfy three cumulative conditions set by Article L.434-7 CESEDA, whose exact wording every applicant should know: “L’étranger qui en fait la demande est autorisé à être rejoint au titre du regroupement familial s’il remplit les conditions suivantes : 1° Il justifie de ressources stables et suffisantes pour subvenir aux besoins de sa famille ; 2° Il dispose ou disposera à la date d’arrivée de sa famille en France d’un logement considéré comme normal pour une famille comparable vivant dans la même région géographique ; 3° Il se conforme aux principes essentiels qui, conformément aux lois de la République, régissent la vie familiale en France, pays d’accueil.” In English: the applicant must show stable and sufficient resources to support the family, must hold or be able to hold, when the family arrives, housing regarded as normal for a comparable family living in the same area, and must comply with the essential principles that, under the laws of the Republic, govern family life in France, the host country. Fail one of the three and the prefect (préfet) may lawfully refuse. Meet all three with paperwork that proves it, and a refusal becomes very hard to defend before a judge.

Resources come first because they cause the most refusals. The regulation measures them against the minimum wage: “Pour l’application du 1° de l’article L. 434-7, les ressources du demandeur et de son conjoint qui alimenteront de façon stable le budget de la famille sont appréciées sur une période de douze mois par référence à la moyenne mensuelle du salaire minimum de croissance au cours de cette période. Ces ressources sont considérées comme suffisantes lorsqu’elles atteignent un montant équivalent à : 1° Cette moyenne pour une famille de deux ou trois personnes ; 2° Cette moyenne majorée d’un dixième pour une famille de quatre ou cinq personnes ; 3° Cette moyenne majorée d’un cinquième pour une famille de six personnes ou plus.” That is Article R.434-4 CESEDA. In practice the administration looks at the last twelve months of the household budget, fed in a stable way by the sponsor and their spouse, and compares the monthly average with the SMIC: one full SMIC for a family of two or three people, the SMIC plus one tenth for four or five people, the SMIC plus one fifth for six or more. Wages from stable employment count best. British sponsors paid from London while working remotely in France should be careful: the income counts only if it genuinely and stably feeds the French household, with French tax returns, payslips and bank statements to prove it, and any exchange-rate wobble between sterling and the euro should be cushioned by a margin above the threshold rather than scraped past to the euro. Family benefits (prestations familiales), the active solidarity income and similar allowances are disregarded, while income from the spouse already in France can be added. A sponsor between contracts, living on savings alone or relying on a promise of future work will normally be refused on this ground, and should wait until twelve solid months of statements tell the right story.

Housing comes second and it is the ground British applicants underestimate most, because English letting standards and French administrative surfaces are different things. The regulation provides: “Pour l’application du 2° de l’article L. 434-7, est considéré comme normal un logement qui : 1° Présente une superficie habitable totale au moins égale à : a) en zones A bis et A : 22 m² pour un ménage sans enfant ou deux personnes, augmentée de 10 m² par personne jusqu’à huit personnes et de 5 m² par personne supplémentaire au-delà de huit personnes ; b) en zones B1 et B2 : 24 m² pour un ménage sans enfant ou deux personnes, augmentée de 10 m² par personne jusqu’à huit personnes et de 5 m² par personne supplémentaire au-delà de huit personnes ; c) en zone C : 28 m² pour un ménage sans enfant ou deux personnes, augmentée de 10 m² par personne jusqu’à huit personnes et de 5 m² par personne supplémentaire au-delà de huit personnes ; 2° Satisfait aux conditions de salubrité et d’équipement fixées aux articles 2 et 3 du décret n° 2002-120 du 30 janvier 2002 relatif aux caractéristiques du logement décent”. That is Article R.434-5 CESEDA, and the zones are the familiar housing-market divisions: Paris and the inner suburbs sit in zones A bis and A, most large cities in B1 and B2, the rest of the country in zone C. A couple with two children joining them in Paris therefore needs at least 42 square metres of living space (22 for the household plus 10 per additional person), while the same family in rural Dordogne needs 48. Surface alone is not enough: the flat must also satisfy the decency standards on health, safety and equipment set by the 2002 Decree on decent housing (logement décent). Damp studios, rooms without proper heating or kitchens, and overcrowded house-shares fail even when the square metres look right on paper.

The third condition, respect for the essential principles of family life in France, is examined through the file and, where needed, through interviews and checks. The administration’s guidance lists what it covers: monogamy, equality between men and women, physical integrity of the wife and children, school attendance for the children, freedom of marriage, respect for ethnic and religious differences and acceptance that France is a secular Republic. For most British families this condition is a formality, but it should still be taken seriously: children’s future enrolment in a French school (école, collège, lycée) should be anticipated, and any polygamous situation ends the application immediately, the statute excluding a second spouse expressly.

The examination machine itself has four stations, and knowing who does what lets you chase the file instead of waiting blindly. The application is lodged with the OFII: “L’étranger fait sa demande auprès des services de l’Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration. Le préfet territorialement compétent ou, à Paris, le préfet de police en est immédiatement informé.” That is Article R.434-7 CESEDA. The file uses the official form Cerfa 11437 with civil-status documents (full marriage certificate, birth certificates), twelve months of proof of resources and the housing documents (title deed, lease, or promise of sale stating availability date, surface and characteristics). The OFII forwards the file to the mayor of the commune where the sponsor lives or intends to settle. The mayor checks resources and housing, and specially authorised officers may visit the flat to verify comfort and habitability; the mayor must give a reasoned opinion within two months, and silence counts as a favourable opinion. The OFII completes the investigation where needed and sends everything to the prefect, who must notify the decision within six months of the complete file reaching the OFII. If the prefect has not replied within six months, the application is deemed refused, an implicit refusal (décision implicite de rejet) that can itself be challenged. An express refusal must be reasoned and is sent to the OFII, which forwards it to the mayor and to the French consulate covering the family’s home in Britain (see service-public.fr, Family Reunification).

When the answer is yes, the family phase begins and its timetable is strict. The sponsor sends the filing certificate and the civil-status documents to the family in Britain, and the spouse applies without delay to the French consulate for a long-stay visa. The family must enter France within three months of the visas being issued, travel costs being theirs. This visa requirement reflects a general rule worth quoting: “Sous réserve des engagements internationaux de la France et des exceptions prévues aux articles L. 412-2 et L. 412-3, la première délivrance d’une carte de séjour temporaire ou d’une carte de séjour pluriannuelle est subordonnée à la production par l’étranger du visa de long séjour mentionné aux 1° ou 2° de l’article L. 411-1.” That is Article L.412-1 CESEDA: first issue of a residence card normally requires a long-stay visa, which is why relatives should never simply fly in visa-exempt and hope to sort out papers later. On arrival the spouse validates the long-stay visa acting as residence permit (visa de long séjour valant titre de séjour, VLS-TS) online within three months and pays the validation fee; the validated visa covers the first year without a prefecture appointment. The family then undergoes the OFII medical examination, whose certificate is essential for obtaining the residence permit. Minor children enter on a family-reunification visa and need no permit until majority, or sixteen if they want to work. After one year, the spouse applies for a one-year card marked private and family life (vie privée et familiale) with the same validity as the sponsor’s own card.

II. What If the Prefect Says No or the Police Order Your Family Member Out of France?

A. How to Challenge a Refusal of Family Reunification Before the Administrative Court

A refusal is not the end of the story, but the clock starts immediately, so the first task is to read the decision properly. An express refusal must state its reasons: which condition failed and on what evidence. An applicant refused for resources learns whether the prefect counted only six months of payslips, excluded the spouse’s wages or treated self-employed drawings as unstable. An applicant refused for housing learns whether the surface, the decency or simply the missing mayoral inspection sank the file. Silence for six months after the complete file reached the OFII equals an implicit refusal, and the remedy is the same. Three avenues exist and they can be combined: a gracious appeal to the prefect who decided (recours gracieux), a hierarchical appeal to the Minister of the Interior (recours hiérarchique), and a court action before the territorially competent administrative court (recours contentieux). The gracious and hierarchical appeals ask the administration to think again in the light of fresh documents, a new twelve-month run of payslips, a bigger flat with a conformity report, or the missing translation. The court action asks a judge to annul (annuler) an unlawful refusal, and it can be filed alongside the other two, but within strict time limits that must be checked on the decision itself, so no family should let the letter sit in a drawer while asking friends what to do.

Judges examine refusals closely, and the leading illustration British sponsors should study is a decision of the Nantes administrative court of appeal (cour administrative d’appel) of 26 March 2021, case number 20NT01518 (CAA Nantes, 3rd chamber, 26/03/2021, 20NT01518, unpublished in the Lebon collection). A Turkish national holding a multi-year card had applied in July 2016 for reunification with his wife and two children. The prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine refused in October 2017 for insufficient resources, then rejected the applicant’s gracious appeal in February 2018 on a new ground: he no longer occupied the flat covered by the original application. The Rennes administrative court upheld the refusal in March 2020 and the court of appeal confirmed. The court recalled the governing rule, then applicable as Article L.411-5 and since recodified: “Le regroupement familial ne peut être refusé que pour l’un des motifs suivants : / 1° Le demandeur ne justifie pas de ressources stables et suffisantes pour subvenir aux besoins de sa famille. (…) ; / 2° Le demandeur ne dispose pas ou ne disposera pas à la date d’arrivée de sa famille en France d’un logement considéré comme normal pour une famille comparable vivant dans la même région géographique ; (…) “. On housing, the judges found that at both decision dates the applicant no longer lived in the flat inspected by the OFII in 2016, that the new lease he produced proved surface only, and that neither a conformity opinion nor any evidence on comfort and habitability supported it: “l’intéressé ne résidait plus dans le logement ayant fait l’objet d’une enquête de conformité” and “n’établit ni que son logement aurait fait l’objet d’un avis de conformité, ni que les conditions précitées seraient remplies”. The appeal was rejected in full and the associated claims for an injunction and costs failed with it.

The practical lessons for a British sponsor are direct. First, do not move house in the middle of the examination without immediately sending the OFII and the prefecture the new lease plus the full technical description of the new flat, because the file the prefect judges is the file as it stands on decision day. Second, surface evidence alone never suffices: chase the mayoral inspection or the OFII visit until a written conformity opinion exists, and keep proof of every appointment. Third, attack the real ground of refusal rather than relitigating everything: where resources are short, refile with twelve complete months and the spouse’s income added; where housing fails, refile from a compliant flat rather than asking a judge to bless a cramped one. Fourth, remember that the judge reviews the refusal as it stood when taken, so documents created after the decision usually belong in a fresh application or a gracious appeal, not in the court bundle alone.

Where reunification proper is closed, one safety net sometimes remains: the one-year temporary card for private and family life granted outside the standard categories. The statute states: “L’étranger qui n’entre pas dans les catégories prévues aux articles L. 423-1, L. 423-7, L. 423-14, L. 423-15, L. 423-21 et L. 423-22 ou dans celles qui ouvrent droit au regroupement familial, et qui dispose de liens personnels et familiaux en France tels que le refus d’autoriser son séjour porterait à son droit au respect de sa vie privée et familiale une atteinte disproportionnée au regard des motifs du refus, se voit délivrer une carte de séjour temporaire portant la mention ” vie privée et familiale ” d’une durée d’un an, sans que soit opposable la condition prévue à l’article L. 412-1.” That is Article L.423-23 CESEDA, the exceptional admission to residence (admission exceptionnelle au séjour). In English: a foreign national outside the standard boxes, including reunification, whose personal and family ties in France are such that refusing residence would disproportionately harm their right to private and family life, receives a one-year private-and-family-life card, with no long-stay visa required. This is a discretionary, demanding route that weighs the intensity, age and stability of ties, living conditions, integration including knowledge of the values of the Republic, and the strength of links with the country of origin. It never rewards a file built on false statements, and it works best where the family can show years of genuine shared life in France, a schooled child and a clean record, rather than a recently arranged situation.

B. How to Fight an Order to Leave France Served on a Spouse, Partner or Child Already in France

The second crisis scenario hits families who skipped the consulate queue: a spouse, adult child or partner who joined the sponsor in France on a visit, stayed on, and is then stopped, checked, or refused a permit at the prefecture counter. The administration can then issue an order to leave France, usually with a voluntary departure period (délai de départ volontaire) or, where it considers the risk of absconding high, without delay, sometimes alongside a ban on returning (interdiction de retour sur le territoire français). The legal bases are listed in Article L.611-1 CESEDA: “L’autorité administrative peut obliger un étranger à quitter le territoire français lorsqu’il se trouve dans les cas suivants : 1° L’étranger, ne pouvant justifier être entré régulièrement sur le territoire français, s’y est maintenu sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour en cours de validité ; 2° L’étranger, entré sur le territoire français sous couvert d’un visa désormais expiré ou, n’étant pas soumis à l’obligation du visa, entré en France plus de trois mois auparavant, s’est maintenu sur le territoire français sans être titulaire d’un titre de séjour ou, le cas échéant, sans demander le renouvellement du titre de séjour temporaire ou pluriannuel qui lui a été délivré ; 3° L’étranger s’est vu refuser la délivrance d’un titre de séjour, le renouvellement du titre de séjour, du document provisoire délivré à l’occasion d’une demande de titre de séjour ou de l’autorisation provisoire de séjour qui lui avait été délivré ou s’est vu retirer un de ces documents ;”. In short, unlawful entry, expired visa with no permit, or a refused or withdrawn permit can each trigger the order, and the third case is exactly what follows a failed residence application at the prefecture.

Every such order must still be lawful in form and proportionate in substance. On form, Article L.613-1 CESEDA requires: “La décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français est motivée. Elle est édictée après vérification du droit au séjour, en tenant notamment compte de la durée de présence de l’étranger sur le territoire français, de la nature et de l’ancienneté de ses liens avec la France et des considérations humanitaires pouvant justifier un tel droit.” The order must be reasoned and may only follow a genuine check of the right to stay, weighing length of presence, nature and age of ties with France, and humanitarian considerations. On challenges, Article L.614-1 CESEDA provides: “La décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français ainsi que la décision relative au séjour, la décision relative au délai de départ volontaire et l’interdiction de retour sur le territoire français qui l’accompagnent, le cas échéant, peuvent être contestées devant le tribunal administratif selon la procédure prévue à l’article L. 911-1.” The removal order, the residence decision behind it, the departure period and any return ban can be contested together before the administrative court. Deadlines are brutally short and are counted in days or weeks depending on the type of order, which is why the only safe reflex on receiving such papers is to photograph every page, note the exact date and time of service, and instruct a lawyer the same day.

The case British families should know here is a Versailles appeal decision of 11 July 2023, case number 22VE01869 (CAA Versailles, 1st chamber, 11/07/2023, 22VE01869). A Senegalese man who had entered France in March 2018 had lived as a couple since 2019 with a Haitian partner holding a multi-year card and a permanent catering contract on a gross monthly wage of 1,929 euros; the couple were to marry in August 2022 and had a child born in July 2020, with shared life accepted as established. Stopped at Roissy airport in May 2022 while collecting a badge for a forklift job, he was ordered to leave France without delay with a two-year return ban. The Cergy-Pontoise court annulled both orders and the court of appeal upheld the annulment, rejecting the police prefect’s appeal outright: “La requête du préfet de police de Paris est rejetée.” The court’s reasoning is the template for every family-life challenge to removal. It recalled Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights: “1. Toute personne a droit au respect de sa vie privée et familiale (…).” It then set the test the administration must apply: “il appartient à l’autorité administrative qui envisage de procéder à l’éloignement d’un ressortissant étranger en situation irrégulière d’apprécier si, eu égard notamment à la durée et aux conditions de son séjour en France, ainsi qu’à la nature et à l’ancienneté de ses liens familiaux sur le territoire français, l’atteinte que cette mesure porterait à sa vie familiale serait disproportionnée au regard des buts en vue desquels cette décision serait prise.” Applying that test, the judges held that given the length and stability of the man’s family life, the removal order “porte une atteinte excessive à son droit au respect de sa vie privée et familiale”, an excessive interference with his right to respect for private and family life, so both the removal order and the resulting two-year return ban fell together.

Translate that template into a British household’s file and the checklist writes itself. Prove duration and stability of the couple with shared leases, joint tax notices (avis d’imposition), joint bank statements and dated photographs rather than bare assertions. Prove the child’s anchoring with school certificates (certificats de scolarité), medical records and evidence of daily care. Prove economic integration with the sponsor’s French tax returns, employment contracts and payslips, and prove the joining member’s own prospects with qualifications and any job offer. Where a wedding is planned, keep the marriage file (dossier de mariage) from the town hall (mairie); where the couple is unmarried, build the paper trail of shared life even more carefully, because judges weigh established cohabitation with a child far more heavily than a recently declared relationship. And never ignore a return ban attached to the order: it survives independently unless challenged and annulled with the order itself, and it can block lawful return for years even after the family situation is regularised.

Conclusion

Brexit turned British families in France into ordinary users of French immigration law, and family reunification is now their standard instrument for living together lawfully. The logic of the system is simple but unforgiving: eighteen months of lawful residence and a solid permit first, then one complete application proving stable resources at SMIC level, housing of the right size and decency, and respect for the basic rules of family life, examined successively by the OFII, the mayor and the prefect within six months. Families who prepare the file like a court bundle, who keep the same compliant flat throughout the examination, who count twelve full months of income with a margin above the threshold and who move the family through the consulate and the medical visit within the three-month windows, give themselves the best chance of a yes. Families who meet a refusal or, worse, a removal order, are not without weapons: gracious and hierarchical appeals buy a second administrative look, the administrative court annuls refusals and orders that are badly reasoned or disproportionate, the exceptional private-and-family-life card rescues ties that no standard box fits, and judges apply Article 8 of the European Convention with real teeth where a stable couple and a schooled child are shown. In both situations the decisive factor is the same: dated, consistent paperwork assembled before the deadline, not explanations offered after it. Start early, keep everything, and challenge quickly.

Need a quick opinion on your case?

If your family is split between Britain and France, or a refusal or removal order has just arrived, speak to a lawyer (avocat) before the deadline expires. Our initial telephone consultation, 80 EUR incl. VAT, gives you a clear answer on your file within 48 hours. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 (Maître Reda Kohen) or write via our contact page.