You are British, you have lived in France since Brexit on a visa and a one-year card, and your prefecture now asks for something nobody asked you before: proof that you speak French. Since 1 January 2026 that request is no longer a courtesy. A Briton who applies for a first multi-year residence permit must show French at A2 level and pass a civic exam; a Briton who applies for a first 10-year resident card must show French at B1 level and pass that exam again at a higher threshold. Fail either test and the prefecture, the local representative of the State that decides on residence permits, can refuse the renewal, and that refusal very often arrives stapled to an order to leave France. The good news is that the rules are written down, the proof comes in several accepted forms, the exam can be retaken, and judges annul refusals built on procedural shortcuts. This guide explains, in order, which French test and which civic exam apply to your renewal, how to prove your level with the right certificate, and exactly how to stay legal and challenge a refusal or a removal order before the administrative court.

I. Do you need to speak French to renew your residence permit after Brexit?

Yes, if you followed the standard post-Brexit route. Britons who arrived in France since 1 January 2021 as third-country nationals normally start with a long-stay visa acting as a residence permit, then a one-year temporary residence card, and then graduate to longer cards: the carte de séjour pluriannuelle, the multi-year residence permit valid for up to four years, and later the carte de résident, the 10-year resident card. If you are just arriving and need the whole route from the visa onwards, our pillar guide for newcomers sets out each step and each remedy, and it remains the hub for this cluster: British newcomers in France: visas, residence cards, refusals and removal orders after Brexit. One clarification of scope before going further. If you hold a Withdrawal Agreement residence card, the card marked accord de retrait issued to Britons already settled before 2021, your renewals follow that card’s own regime, described in our dedicated guide: British WARP card renewal, travel on an expired card, refusals and removal orders. This article covers the standard track: the Briton who arrived on a visa since 2021 and now faces a first multi-year or resident card under the language rules in force since 1 January 2026.

A. Your first multi-year card: the A2 French test and the civic exam

After one year of lawful stay on a long-stay visa or a temporary card, you can claim a multi-year card, provided you meet five cumulative conditions. Article L. 433-4 of the Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum states that the foreigner obtains the card where, first, attendance and serious participation in the State-prescribed training under the Republican Integration Contract are shown; second, « Il a obtenu un résultat à l’examen mentionné au sixième alinéa de l’article L. 413-3 supérieur ou égal à un seuil fixé par décret »; third, « Il justifie d’une connaissance de la langue française lui permettant au moins de comprendre des expressions fréquemment utilisées dans le langage courant, de communiquer lors de tâches habituelles et d’évoquer des sujets qui correspondent à des besoins immédiats. » That third condition is the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the Council of Europe scale universally called the CEFR. The same article adds two practical safeguards: you must have been given access to free French courses in your département, the administrative county where you live, and you must still meet the conditions of the temporary card you held. The Republican Integration Contract, known by its French initials CIR, is the contract you sign at the French Office for Immigration and Integration, the OFII, during your first year: civic training, language training and employment guidance. The official service-public.fr guidance, verified on 10 February 2026, confirms the entry into force: since 1 January 2026, applicants under 65 for a first multi-year card prove A2 French, and certain categories outside the CIR system, such as beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and stateless persons with their families, are not subject to the requirement: service-public.fr: resident card and multi-year card, proving your knowledge of French (English version).

Proving A2 is a matter of paperwork, and only specific paperwork counts. The administration accepts three families of proof. First, a language certificate from one of the two bodies recognised by the Ministry of the Interior: the TCF, the French Knowledge Test run by France Éducation International, or the TEF, the French Assessment Test run by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The tests must examine speaking, writing, listening and reading separately, under identity checks and anti-fraud supervision, in person at an examination centre in a single same-day session, and the certificate is valid for two years with your photograph taken before the exam. Second, a diploma: the DELF at A2 or above, the DALF, the professional DELF, the DCL issued by the Ministry of National Education, the DUEF university diploma at A2 or above, or the DFP professional French diploma. Third, a vocational route: a professional certification registered in the RNCP national directory at level 3 or above, or a French national diploma at that level such as the CAP, the BEP or the brevet. Two warnings from the official guidance deserve underlining. Diplomas issued by a foreign authority are not accepted, even from a French-speaking country, so a degree from a British university does not prove anything here. And if disability or a chronic health condition makes sitting a test impossible, adapted test arrangements exist, and a medical certificate from your GP can support an exemption request, although the prefecture may order a medical check. Book the test months ahead: centres fill up, the two-year validity rewards early planners, and a certificate that expires mid-file is a classic avoidable refusal ground.

The civic exam sits beside the language test and must not be confused with it. The exam closes the civic training of your integration pathway: the values, principles and institutions of the Republic, the rights and duties of life in France, and the organisation, history and culture of French society. The Ministry of the Interior runs the official information portal for it: Ministry of the Interior: the civic exam for residence-permit applications. Article L. 413-3 of the same Code provides that « La formation civique mentionnée au 1° donne lieu à un examen. » and, crucially for anyone who fails first time, « L’étranger peut se représenter à cet examen, à sa demande et à tout moment, lorsqu’il a obtenu un résultat inférieur aux seuils mentionnés au premier alinéa de l’article L. 413-7 et au 2° de l’article L. 433-4. » You may resit the exam on request at any time. A failed civic exam is therefore a delay, not a dead end, provided you resit before the prefecture decides. Prepare for it like the language test: attend the OFII sessions assiduously, because attendance and serious participation are themselves a condition of the card, and keep every attendance certificate, called attestation de présence, in your renewal file.

B. Your first 10-year resident card: the B1 French test, the civic exam and the over-65 exemption

The 10-year card plays in a higher division. Article L. 413-7 of the same Code makes the first issue of the resident card conditional on republican integration, assessed in particular on the civic-exam result, which must exceed a decree-set threshold, and « de sa connaissance de la langue française de nature à lui permettre au moins de comprendre des conversations suffisamment claires, de produire un discours simple et cohérent sur des sujets courants et d’exposer succinctement une idée. » That statutory description is the B1 level of the CEFR: follow clear conversation, produce simple connected speech on everyday subjects, and put an idea across briefly. The same article closes with a humane exemption worth quoting in full: « Les étrangers âgés de plus de soixante-cinq ans ne sont pas soumis à la condition relative à la connaissance de la langue française. » Foreigners over 65 are not subject to the language condition for the resident card. Note the asymmetry the official guidance confirms: for the multi-year card the under-65 applicant proves A2, while for the resident card the statute exempts only those over 65 from French. A 62-year-old Briton renewing towards a first 10-year card must therefore still produce a B1. Plan the climb early: A2 for the multi-year card, then B1 for the resident card, each with its own civic-exam threshold.

The accepted proofs for B1 mirror those for A2 at one rung higher. The same two recognised certificates, TCF or TEF, must certify written and oral command at B1 with the same separate in-person same-day tests and the same two-year validity. The same diplomas count one level up: DELF at B1 or above, DALF, professional DELF, DCL, DUEF at B1 or above, DFP, plus the RNCP level-3 vocational route and French national diplomas such as the CAP, BEP or brevet. The British-side official guidance is a useful companion at this stage: the UK government’s Living in France guide explains residence, healthcare and practicalities from the British perspective and links to the French procedures: GOV.UK: Living in France guide for British nationals. Practical advice for the B1 candidate: sit the test while your A2 certificate is still valid so that a B1 failure never leaves you with nothing; keep the test receipt and the identity document used at the exam, because prefectures check the certificate’s photograph and identity line; and if you hold an older DELF B1 from years of evening classes, it remains usable, since diplomas, unlike the two-year test certificates, do not expire for this purpose.

Three misunderstandings cause most British refusals at this stage, and each is avoidable. First, conversational fluency is not proof: years of chatting at the market count for nothing without a recognised certificate or diploma in the file. Second, the wrong test is worthless: general versions of the TCF or TEF taken for university admission or naturalisation do not automatically satisfy the Interior Ministry format with its four separate supervised tests, so book the residence-card version explicitly. Third, timing kills files: a certificate obtained after the prefecture’s decision cannot retroactively cure the file on appeal as of right, so file the renewal with the proof already inside, or at minimum with a booked exam date and a request that the prefecture wait, in writing, with proof of posting. The prefecture is never obliged to wait, but a documented request undermines any later claim that you were inactive.

II. Your renewal is refused over French: how do you stay legal and challenge the decision?

A language-based refusal is still a refusal, and French law treats it with the full machinery of residence litigation: the prefecture must follow procedure before refusing, your rights continue briefly on an expired card, and the administrative court, the tribunal administratif, can annul the refusal and order the prefecture to decide again. The stakes are concrete. Article L. 433-1 of the same Code provides that « le renouvellement de la carte de séjour temporaire ou pluriannuelle est subordonné à la preuve par le ressortissant étranger qu’il continue de remplir les conditions requises pour la délivrance de cette carte. » Renewal is conditional on continuing to meet the conditions, and since 2026 those conditions include French. Article L. 611-1 of the same Code then allows the prefect to order you to leave where « 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 practice the refusal, the removal order called the OQTF (obligation de quitter le territoire français), the designation of the country of return, and sometimes a re-entry ban called the IRTF (interdiction de retour sur le territoire français) arrive in one stapled bundle. Challenge the refusal and you challenge the bundle with it, because the OQTF falls if the refusal that supports it is annulled.

A. What the prefecture must do before refusing you: the residence-permit commission and your rights on an expired card

Before refusing, the prefecture must in many cases ask an advisory body for its opinion. Article L. 432-13 of the same Code provides that « Dans chaque département est instituée une commission du titre de séjour qui est saisie pour avis par l’autorité administrative », notably where it plans to refuse or renew-or-withdraw multi-year and resident cards in the listed situations. The commission du titre de séjour is the departmental residence-permit commission: independent figures who hear you and give a reasoned opinion before the prefect decides. Skipping that step where the statute requires it is a procedural defect that annuls the whole bundle. The leading recent illustration is a Paris appeal ruling every British file should know. On 7 November 2024 the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal, in case number 24PA03224, annulled a prefect’s refusal to renew a multi-year private-and-family-life card together with the no-delay removal order, the country designation and the three-year re-entry ban: « L’ordonnance n° 2406088 du 18 juin 2024 du président de la 10ème chambre du tribunal administratif de Montreuil et l’arrêté du 5 avril 2024 du préfet de la Seine-Saint-Denis sont annulés. » Read the full official text here: CAA Paris, 7 November 2024, No. 24PA03224, official Légifrance text. The court’s reasoning is directly useful: even where the prefect relies on public-order grounds, that does not dispense with consulting the commission for a foreigner who meets the conditions and whose renewal on private-and-family-life grounds is being refused. The lesson for a language-based refusal is immediate: check the file for the commission’s opinion, and if it is missing where required, that alone can carry the annulment.

While you fight, an expired card does not leave you defenceless. Article L. 433-3 of the same Code allows holders of four-year multi-year cards, resident cards and certain treaty-based long cards to prove lawful stay with the expired document for three months from expiry while the renewal decision is pending, and in listed departments the same protection covers renewals filed before expiry for other temporary and multi-year cards. During those periods, and this is the sentence to memorise, « Pendant les périodes définies au présent article, l’étranger conserve l’intégralité de ses droits sociaux ainsi que son droit d’exercer une activité professionnelle. » You keep full social rights and the right to work. In practice, always file the renewal before expiry on the ANEF portal, the State’s online foreign-nationals desk, and keep the filing confirmation: the receipt issued on a complete file, the récépissé, is the document employers, landlords and health funds recognise. A Paris and Île-de-France note belongs here, because most British files in the region concentrate in a few offices. In Paris itself, renewals go to the préfecture de police, the Paris police prefecture, while the inner and outer suburbs answer to their own departmental prefectures in Nanterre, Bobigny, Créteil, Évry, Cergy and Versailles, each with its own appointment backlog. File two to four months before expiry, download every ANEF confirmation, and if an employer questions an expired card within the protected window, show the card, the renewal receipt and the printed statute: most disputes end there.

A short file checklist decides most language refusals before they happen. One, the language proof itself: recognised TCF or TEF in the residence format within its two-year validity, or a qualifying diploma. Two, the civic-exam result at or above the threshold, or proof of a booked resit where the result is pending. Three, CIR attendance certificates showing assiduity and serious participation. Four, proof of continued fulfilment of the underlying temporary-card conditions: resources, housing, health cover, family ties according to your status. Five, evidence of access to free French courses in your département if that was ever in issue. Six, everything filed provably on time through ANEF with confirmations saved. Prefectures decide on the file as filed: a certificate sent weeks after the decision, even a genuine B1, forces you into court instead of into a simple grant.

B. Refusal and removal order in hand: the administrative court, the injunction and the temporary permit

Open the bundle the day it arrives and read the remedy notice at the end, the voies et délais de recours: it names the court and the deadline, and that deadline is strict. Removal orders come in flavours, with or without a voluntary departure period, and the time limit to challenge runs from days to weeks depending on the flavour, so same-day action is the only safe rule. The challenge goes to the tribunal administratif of your home département, which can be asked to annul the refusal, and with it the removal order, the country designation and any re-entry ban. Article L. 614-1 of the same Code governs challenges to removal orders before that court. Your application should combine three layers: annulment of each decision in the bundle, an interim request to suspend enforcement while the case is heard where the order is enforceable, and injunction conclusions asking the court to order a specific outcome. Two injunction tools matter most. Article L. 911-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice provides that « Lorsque sa décision implique nécessairement qu’une personne morale de droit public ou un organisme de droit privé chargé de la gestion d’un service public prenne une mesure d’exécution dans un sens déterminé, la juridiction, saisie de conclusions en ce sens, prescrit, par la même décision, cette mesure assortie, le cas échéant, d’un délai d’exécution. » And article L. 911-2 of that Code adds that « Lorsque sa décision implique nécessairement qu’une personne morale de droit public ou un organisme de droit privé chargé de la gestion d’un service public prenne à nouveau une décision après une nouvelle instruction, la juridiction, saisie de conclusions en ce sens, prescrit, par la même décision juridictionnelle, que cette nouvelle décision doit intervenir dans un délai déterminé. » Ask the court not only to annul but to order re-examination within a set time, prior consultation of the commission where required, and meanwhile a provisional stay document with work rights.

The Paris precedent shows exactly what that victory looks like. After annulling the refusal bundle, the court ordered the prefect to re-examine the case within four months of notification, after first seeking the residence-permit commission’s opinion, to issue a provisional residence authorisation allowing work while the re-examination was pending, and to delete the Schengen non-admission alert within two months. The autorisation provisoire de séjour is that provisional authorisation: a temporary document that keeps you lawful and employable while the prefect decides again. The Schengen alert deletion matters equally: an active alert can block visas and travel across the whole Schengen area, and its removal follows automatically from the annulment of the re-entry ban. When drafting your application, mirror that structure point by point: annulment for the missing commission opinion or the misassessed language file, re-examination within a deadline after consulting the commission, provisional authorisation to work meanwhile, and deletion of any Schengen alert if a re-entry ban falls.

Language files offer their own annulment arguments beyond the commission point. Attack the assessment, not the principle: the prefect must show which proof was missing and why the file as filed failed the statutory test, and a decision that ignores a valid certificate, misreads its level, or treats an expired-format objection as decisive without examining the diploma alternative is vulnerable to a manifest-error challenge. Attack the threshold application: the civic-exam result must be measured against the decree-set threshold for your card, and a refusal that never states the threshold or your score lacks reasons. Attack the course-access condition for the multi-year card: the statute requires that you were actually given access to free French courses in your département, so a refusal served on someone never offered those courses contradicts the file. And never overlook the over-65 exemption for the resident card, quoted above: a refusal that demands B1 from a 67-year-old misapplies the statute on its face. File the court application within the stated deadline, attach the language certificate, the exam result, the CIR attendance proofs and the ANEF filing confirmations, and request the injunction package from the start: courts grant what is asked and reasoned, rarely more.

Conclusion

Since 1 January 2026 the French renewal ladder has a language rung at every step: A2 plus the civic exam for the first multi-year card, B1 plus the civic exam at a higher threshold for the first 10-year card, with the over-65 exemption softening only the last climb. For a Briton who arrived after Brexit on the standard track, the winning strategy is administrative before it is judicial: book the recognised test early, keep diplomas and attendance certificates in a complete ANEF file, resit the civic exam without delay, and file before expiry so the expired card keeps protecting work and social rights. If the prefecture refuses anyway, the file you built becomes the case you plead: missing commission opinion, misread certificate, unstated threshold, or courses never offered. The Paris court of appeal has already shown where such cases end, with the refusal bundle annulled, the case re-examined after the commission’s opinion, a provisional work authorisation meanwhile, and the Schengen alert deleted. French at the required level opens the door; procedure keeps it open while you prove it.