Your five-year Withdrawal Agreement residence card — the carte de séjour marked Accord de retrait du Royaume-Uni that the préfecture (the local State authority office) issued in 2021 — is reaching its expiry date. Thousands of British residents are discovering that renewal is not handled centrally: each préfecture sets its own channel, some online, some by post, some only at the counter by appointment, and the supporting documents demanded vary from one department to the next. At the same time, the refusals are starting to arrive, sometimes accompanied by an obligation de quitter le territoire français (the formal order to leave French territory, known as an OQTF), and family events such as divorce or the death of a spouse raise the question whether your right to stay survives. This guide answers the file that now moves worry for settled Britons: when and how to renew the Withdrawal Agreement card, what protects you while the préfecture decides, whether you can travel on an expired card, how judges annul unfounded refusals, and which rights divorce or bereavement — or even the loss of the municipal vote — actually affect. It does not cover first arrival in France, which our companion settlement guide treats separately (moving to France, visas, first cards and OQTF defence), nor taxation or pensions. Every decisive proposition below is anchored in the Withdrawal Agreement itself, the French decree that implements it, the code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile (the CESEDA, the French Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners), and court decisions you can open and read, including two 2023 and 2026 appeal rulings that annulled refusals served on British residents and a published October 2025 ruling of the Cour de cassation (France’s supreme court for civil matters) on the rights Brexit removed.
I. How Do You Renew Your Withdrawal Agreement Residence Card in France?
A. Which Card Do You Hold, When Must You Apply, and What Must the File Contain?
Start by reading the card in your wallet, because the renewal you need depends on the card you hold. British residents who were lawfully settled in France before the end of the transition period received first a card valid for five years, and those who could already show five years of lawful residence moved — or now move — to a ten-year permanent card bearing the words “Séjour permanent – Article 50 TUE/Article 18(1) Accord de retrait du Royaume-Uni de l’UE”. The Withdrawal Agreement, adopted on 17 October 2019 and in force since 1 February 2020, is the source of both: its article 15 provides that citizens and British nationals who have resided legally in the host State in accordance with Union law for a continuous period of five years acquire the right to reside there permanently, with periods before and after the end of the transition period both counting toward the five years (“Les citoyens de l’Union et les ressortissants du Royaume-Uni, ainsi que les membres de leur famille respective, qui ont séjourné légalement dans l’État d’accueil conformément au droit de l’Union pendant une période ininterrompue de cinq ans ou pendant la période indiquée à l’Article 17 de la directive 2004/38/CE, acquièrent le droit de séjourner de manière permanente dans l’État d’accueil dans les conditions énoncées aux Articles 16, 17 et 18 de la directive 2004/38/CE. Les périodes de séjour légal ou d’activité conformément au droit de l’Union avant et après la fin de la période de transition sont prises en compte dans le calcul de la période nécessaire à l’acquisition du droit de séjour permanent”). Its article 18 allowed France to require residents to apply for a new resident status with a document evidencing it (“L’État d’accueil peut exiger des citoyens de l’Union ou des ressortissants du Royaume-Uni, des membres de leur famille respective et des autres personnes qui résident sur son territoire dans les conditions énoncées au présent titre, qu’ils demandent un nouveau statut de résident qui leur confère les droits prévus au présent titre et un document attestant ce statut, qui peut être sous forme numérique”) (CAA Bordeaux, 26 February 2026, no. 25BX01572, point 2). France did so through decree 2020-1417 of 19 November 2020 on the entry, residence, professional activity and social rights of foreign nationals benefiting from the Agreement (decree 2020-1417 of 19 November 2020). Under that decree, the ten-year permanent card “est délivré de plein droit”, issued as of right, to the British national who meets one of the listed conditions, including five years of residence with lawful stay, and that permanent card is itself renewed as of right unless your presence constitutes a threat to public order — a point the Bordeaux administrative court of appeal restated word for word in February 2026 (CAA Bordeaux, 1st chamber, 26 February 2026, no. 25BX01572).
The renewal calendar is the first trap. The official service-public.fr guidance states that the five-year card lasts five years, ten years where you have resided in France for more than five years, and that the renewal application for the five-year card must be lodged within the two months preceding the expiry of that card (service-public.fr, what a British person or family member must do to live in France). Do not read that two-month window as a mere recommendation: French residence law makes the holding of a valid permit the default condition of lawful stay, since subject to France’s international commitments any foreigner over eighteen who wishes to remain more than three months “doit être titulaire” of one of the listed residence documents (“Sous réserve des engagements internationaux de la France ou du livre II, tout étranger âgé de plus de dix-huit ans qui souhaite séjourner en France pour une durée supérieure à trois mois doit être titulaire de l’un des documents de séjour suivants”) (article L. 411-1 of the CESEDA on Légifrance), and the detailed filing conditions are fixed by regulation (article L. 431-1 of the CESEDA on Légifrance). File early inside the window, keep the proof of filing, and diarise the expiry of the new card the day it arrives, because the next renewal obeys the same discipline.
The channel depends entirely on your préfecture, and this is where British residents lose the most time expecting a single national portal. Service-public.fr directs you to the website of the préfecture of your home address, which sets out the locally simplified arrangements: filing online, by post, or at the counter after booking an appointment (service-public.fr, F35032). The GOV.UK “Living in France” guide gives the same instruction from the British side and adds that renewal or replacement online may be possible through the foreigners’ administration portal (GOV.UK, Living in France). Expatriate reporting in December 2025 confirmed the patchwork: some préfectures, including Paris, Bouches-du-Rhône, Dordogne, Manche and others, operate an online renewal route, while others require a counter appointment or a postal file, and documentary demands differ between departments (a patchwork confirmed by expatriate reporting in December 2025, consistent with service-public.fr, F35032 and GOV.UK, Living in France). The standard file consistently requested comprises a valid British passport, a recent proof of address less than three months old such as a utility bill, compliant passport photographs, and the expiring card, plus evidence of any change in your circumstances such as marriage or divorce; some offices ask for more, for example a birth certificate or proof of residence for each of the last five years, so check your préfecture’s published list before attending and bring originals with copies. Two points of reassurance are settled: there is no language or civic test attached to a Withdrawal Agreement renewal, and no State fee is payable on the renewal application. Neither point excuses a thin file, however. Where the préfecture doubts continuous residence, the five-year history you can document — tax notices, health cover statements, utility contracts in an unbroken chain — is what converts an anxious appointment into a routine renewal, and assembling it before the two-month window opens is the single most useful step this guide can recommend.
One date from the original issuance round still matters for latecomers. British residents covered by the decree who were already in France had to apply before 1 July 2021, but a person who misses a deadline may be authorised to apply within a further reasonable period where legitimate reasons explain the delay: “Lorsque le délai de présentation de la demande de titre de séjour fixé aux alinéas précédents n’est pas respecté, le ressortissant étranger peut être autorisé à présenter sa demande dans un délai supplémentaire raisonnable, s’il existe des motifs légitimes justifiant le non-respect du délai initial” (CAA Bordeaux, 26 February 2026, no. 25BX01572, point 3). The Bordeaux court applied that safety valve strictly in the same judgment: a British resident settled in Saint-Martin since 1987 who applied in February 2022 invoked benefits-office letters and his own illiteracy in every language, and the court held those elements could not excuse the delay — mere correspondence asking for proof of residence, and illiteracy alone, are not legitimate reasons, so the préfecture had lawfully rejected the permanent-card request as out of time (“il ne fait pas état de motifs légitimes justifiant le dépôt de sa demande après l’expiration du délai imparti par l’article 8 du décret du 19 novembre 2020, de sorte que le préfet a pu légalement la rejeter comme tardive”). The lesson for anyone still without a card, including those GOV.UK addresses directly — “if you were living in France before 1 January 2021, but do not have a Withdrawal Agreement Residence Permit, you must apply for one with evidence of residence at the time, now through the local préfecture since the online service closed (GOV.UK, Living in France) — is to frame lateness as a documented story: illness with certificates, absence with transport proofs, erroneous advice with the letter that gave it, each tied to dates. A bare explanation fails; a evidenced chronology can succeed.
B. Can You Travel and Work While the Préfecture Decides?
The weeks between filing and delivery unsettle even organised applicants, because daily life does not pause: employment continues, a parent falls ill in Britain, a booked flight approaches. French law cushions this interval with paper. Anyone who applies for a card under the 2020 decree must immediately receive an attestation de dépôt, a filing certificate: “Une attestation de dépôt de la demande est délivrée immédiatement à la personne qui demande un titre de séjour sur le fondement du présent décret” (CAA Bordeaux, 26 February 2026, no. 25BX01572, point 3). Demand this document at the counter or check it arrives after an online or postal filing, and keep it with your passport and a copy of the expired card. It proves your application is lodged and under examination, which is the answer to the employer who asks whether you may lawfully keep working and to the official who asks why the plastic in your wallet shows a past date. In the Bordeaux case the claimant expressly sought, as a fallback, a filing receipt authorising work, which confirms how practitioners use this paper to bridge the gap.
Travel on an expired card with only the filing certificate calls for planning rather than panic. Within the Schengen area, border checks are intermittent but carriers check documents at boarding, and outside Schengen re-entry into France is assessed by the border police on the documents you present. No published circular guarantees that an attestation de dépôt plus an expired Withdrawal Agreement card secures every boarding gate, so treat a trip during the renewal interval as a file to prepare: valid British passport, the expired card, the filing certificate, recent proof of French address, and, where obtained, any récépissé (formal receipt) the préfecture later issues. GOV.UK handles the neighbouring situations — lost, stolen or damaged permits and changes of address — by sending residents to the préfecture and to specific service-public.fr procedures (GOV.UK, Living in France), which confirms the method: before any non-urgent journey, ask your préfecture in writing what travel paper it will provide and keep the reply. If travel cannot wait, carry the complete file and allow time at the airport. And if the card is lost or stolen rather than merely expiring, declare it immediately and request a duplicate through the channel your préfecture indicates, because travelling on a declared-lost document creates difficulties no lawyer can repair retrospectively.
Work continuity deserves its own paragraph because British residents in France are employees, self-employed professionals and company directors whose clients check paperwork. A renewal applicant holding the filing certificate remains a person whose residence application is pending, not a person without rights, and the certificate is the document to show. Dismissal or suspension grounded solely on an expired plastic card during a timely renewal application should be contested with employment advice, and any self-employed person should keep invoices, contracts and social-security declarations current so that economic continuity corroborates administrative continuity. The deeper protection, however, is structural: once you hold the ten-year permanent card, renewal is granted as of right, and refusal requires the administration to establish a threat to public order — a far narrower gate than the first-issue examination, as the next part shows through the cases the administration lost.
II. What Happens If the Préfecture Refuses, Serves an OQTF, or Your Family Situation Changes?
A. How Do You Challenge a Refusal and the OQTF That Comes With It?
A refusal rarely arrives alone. The standard préfecture order couples three decisions: refusal of the card, an order to leave French territory within — usually — thirty days, and designation of the country of return. The statute authorising that combination is explicit, and it lists refusal of issue or renewal of a residence card among its triggers: the administration may order a foreigner to leave where, among other cases, “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” (“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”) (article L. 611-1 of the CESEDA on Légifrance). Receipt of that order starts the clock. The order, the underlying residence decision, any voluntary-departure period and any re-entry ban may be challenged before the administrative court: “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” (article L. 614-1 of the CESEDA on Légifrance). In practice this means one appeal, filed fast, attacking each decision separately with its own ground — the refusal, the removal order, the departure period, the return country — because each lives or dies on distinct reasoning. GOV.UK itself points unsuccessful permit applicants toward appeal and English-speaking lawyers in France (GOV.UK, Living in France), and the two court victories below show what a well-aimed challenge achieves.
The first victory concerns the most wounding ground: public-order refusal. In October 2023 the Paris administrative court of appeal annulled a police-préfet refusal served on a British resident who had lived in France for thirty-four years, since the age of three (CAA Paris, 3rd chamber, 3 October 2023, nos. 23PA00821 and 23PA00939). The administration had relied on several entries in the TAJ criminal-history file — contempt of public officials in 2006, 2013 and 2017, armed violence in 2019, sexual exhibition and drunken violence in 2021 — yet none had produced a conviction. The court recalled the Withdrawal Agreement’s conduct regime first: behaviour before the end of the transition period is assessed under chapter VI of directive 2004/38, and later behaviour “peut constituer un motif de restriction du droit de séjour dans l’État d’accueil ou du droit d’entrée dans l’État de travail conformément à la législation nationale” (“Le comportement des citoyens de l’Union ou des ressortissants du Royaume-Uni, des membres de leur famille et des autres personnes qui exercent des droits en vertu du présent titre, lorsque ce comportement s’est produit après la fin de la période de transition, peut constituer un motif de restriction du droit de séjour dans l’État d’accueil ou du droit d’entrée dans l’État de travail conformément à la législation nationale”). It then cited the implementing decree’s refusal clause: entry and issue of the card may be refused where presence constitutes a threat to public order, and where the conduct predates 1 January 2021 refusal additionally requires “une menace réelle, actuelle et suffisamment grave pour un intérêt fondamental de la société” (“L’entrée sur le territoire français et la délivrance des titres de séjour et documents de circulation prévus par le présent décret peuvent être refusées si la présence du demandeur constitue une menace pour l’ordre public./Si le comportement à l’origine de cette menace s’est produit avant le 1er janvier 2021, l’entrée et la délivrance du titre de séjour ou du document de circulation peuvent être refusées à la condition que ce comportement représente une menace réelle, actuelle et suffisamment grave pour un intérêt fondamental de la société”). Applying that test, the court held that unconvicted file entries, the most recent post-dating the transition, could not sustain the finding against a man resident since childhood: his behaviour could not be regarded as a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat, so the refusal fell (“il n’est pas contesté que M. C… n’a fait l’objet d’aucune condamnation pour ces faits, le dernier étant en tout état de cause postérieur au 1er janvier 2021. Au surplus, il ressort des pièces du dossier que le requérant réside en France depuis trente-quatre années, soit depuis l’âge de trois ans. Dans ces conditions, le comportement de M. C… ne peut être regardé comme constituant une menace réelle, actuelle et suffisamment grave pour un intérêt fondamental de la société à la date de la décision attaquée. Par suite, M. C… est fondé à soutenir que c’est à tort que le préfet de police a refusé de faire droit à sa demande de titre de séjour pour ce motif”). The court annulled both the lower judgment and the refusal and ordered the préfet to deliver the requested card within two months of the decision (“Il est enjoint au préfet de police de délivrer à M. C… le titre de séjour sollicité dans un délai de deux mois suivant la mise à disposition du présent arrêt”), adding 1,000 euros against the State for legal costs (article L. 761-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice on Légifrance). Any British recipient of a public-order refusal should test the decision against this template: convictions or mere police mentions, dates before or after 1 January 2021, length of residence, family and economic integration — because the administration “ne saurait se fonder sur la seule existence d’une infraction à la loi” and must examine all the circumstances, and a refusal built only on file entries without convictions is vulnerable.
The second victory, from February 2026, shows the full chain from refusal to remedy. The Bordeaux court rejected the late permanent-card claim but upheld the fallback: the refusal of a “vie privée et familiale” (private and family life) card fell, and with it the attached removal order and return-country designation were annulled by necessary consequence — “la décision portant obligation de quitter le territoire français et la décision fixant le pays de renvoi doivent être annulées par voie de conséquence de l’illégalité de la décision portant refus de titre de séjour” — with an order to the préfet to deliver the private-and-family-life card within two months of notification, absent any change in law or fact (“l’annulation de l’arrêté du préfet de la Guadeloupe, représentant de l’État dans les collectivités de Saint-Barthélemy et de Saint-Martin, implique nécessairement la délivrance d’un titre de séjour à l’intéressé. Par suite, et sous la seule réserve d’un changement dans les circonstances de droit ou de fait, il y a lieu d’enjoindre au préfet de délivrer à M. A… un titre de séjour sollicité portant la mention “vie privée et familiale” dans un délai de deux mois à compter de la notification du présent arrêt”) (CAA Bordeaux, 26 February 2026, no. 25BX01572, points 9 to 11). Three practical consequences follow for any Briton holding a refusal-plus-OQTF envelope. First, never challenge only the removal order: plead the unlawfulness of the residence refusal as the lead ground, because killing the refusal kills the order built on it. Second, always include a fallback claim for re-examination or for an alternative card basis, so the court can grant relief even where the Withdrawal Agreement basis fails on a technicality such as lateness. Third, request the injunction expressly with a two-month period plus costs under article L. 761-1, since courts grant what is asked and reasoned. Note also the general refusal power the administration will cite: issue of residence cards “peut, par une décision motivée, être refusée à tout étranger dont la présence en France constitue une menace pour l’ordre public” (“La délivrance d’une carte de séjour temporaire ou pluriannuelle ou d’une carte de résident peut, par une décision motivée, être refusée à tout étranger dont la présence en France constitue une menace pour l’ordre public”) (article L. 432-1 of the CESEDA on Légifrance) — a reasoned decision is required, which is precisely what gives the judge something to review and, where the reasoning is thin, to annul.
B. Divorce, Death, and the Ballot Box: Which Rights Survive and Which Do Not?
Family events test a different question: not whether the administration may refuse, but whether the right itself endures. The architecture of the answer turns on whose right it is. A Withdrawal Agreement card issued in your own name as a British resident protects your own residence; the permanent right acquired after five years of lawful residence is personal to the holder under article 15, and renewal of the ten-year card is then granted as of right. Divorce therefore does not cancel a card that is already yours, and neither does widowhood — but each event changes what the next renewal examines. Where residence derived from a spouse, for example a non-British family member whose stay depended on the British sponsor, or a British spouse whose file leaned heavily on household evidence, the préfecture at renewal looks at your present situation: your own years of residence, your own resources or activity, your own integration. British in France reporting confirms that proof of changed circumstances such as marriage or divorce is routinely requested at renewal (service-public.fr, F35032), so declare the divorce or death proactively with the decree or death certificate, re-document residence in your own name — tax assessments, health cover, bank and utility records — and, where children are involved, the custody or residence arrangement. Our guide on the recognition in France of English divorce decrees explains how to make the matrimonial order itself opposable here, which is the prerequisite to relying on it before any French authority (British divorce in France: recognition, opposability and challenge). The error to avoid is silence: a préfecture that discovers the divorce itself, through a mismatched surname or an inconsistent household declaration, treats the file as unreliable, while a file that announces the event with supporting orders reads as the straightforward case it usually is.
The ballot box is the one loss no renewal can repair, and it surprises even long-settled residents. On 9 October 2025 the second civil chamber of the Cour de cassation, in a judgment published in its Bulletin, closed the last uncertainty: since the United Kingdom’s withdrawal, British nationals can no longer appear on the complementary electoral rolls for municipal or European elections in France, with no room for an individual proportionality review (Cass., 2nd civil chamber, 9 October 2025, no. 25-60.142, ECLI:FR:CCASS:2025:C200940, published in the Bulletin). The court adopted the Court of Justice’s two Gers rulings: on municipal elections, that since 1 February 2020 nationals of the United Kingdom who exercised residence rights before the end of the transition period “ne bénéficient plus du statut de citoyen de l’Union, ni, plus particulièrement, au titre de l’article 20, paragraphe 2, sous b), et de l’article 22 du TFUE, du droit de vote et d’éligibilité aux élections municipales dans leur État membre de résidence, y compris lorsqu’ils sont également privés, en vertu du droit de l’État dont ils sont ressortissants, du droit de vote aux élections organisées par ce dernier État (CJUE, arrêt du 9 juin 2022, Préfet du Gers I, C-673/20)”; on European elections, that the Withdrawal Agreement, read in light of the Charter, means those same nationals “ne bénéficient plus d’un droit de vote et d’éligibilité aux élections au Parlement européen dans leur État membre de résidence (CJUE, arrêt du 18 avril 2024, Préfet du Gers II, C-716/22)”. The outcome was cassation without remand of the Auch court’s judgment, rejection of the claimant’s re-registration claim for the European elections, and no referral (“CASSE ET ANNULE, en toutes ses dispositions, le jugement rendu le 14 mai 2025, entre les parties, par le tribunal judiciaire d’Auch ; DIT n’y avoir lieu à renvoi ; REJETTE la demande de Mme [U] tendant à l’annulation de la décision de rejet de réinscription sur la liste électorale de la commune de [Localité 5], pour les élections européennes”). For British residents the message is practical, not polemical: do not spend renewal energy contesting electoral-roll removal, and do not mistake that removal for any weakening of residence rights — the same court that confirms the vote is gone enforces the card, as the Paris and Bordeaux annulments demonstrate. Civic participation now runs through naturalisation where eligible, which GOV.UK presents as compatible with keeping British citizenship since France recognises dual nationality (GOV.UK, Living in France).
Conclusion
The Withdrawal Agreement card system rewards residents who treat renewal as a dated obligation rather than a formality. Identify whether you hold the five-year card or the ten-year permanent card, apply inside the two months before expiry through the channel your préfecture prescribes, and file a documented history of continuous residence with originals and copies. Secure the filing certificate the day you apply and carry it with the expired card and your passport until the new card arrives; plan any travel in the interval as a documented file, not a confident assumption. If refusal comes, read the order as three decisions, challenge each before the administrative court without delay, lead with the unlawfulness of the residence refusal, plead a fallback basis, and demand the two-month delivery injunction with costs — the Paris annulment of a public-order refusal built on unconvicted file entries and the Bordeaux annulment of a removal order carried by an unlawful refusal show judges applying these exact controls. Declare divorce or bereavement proactively with the orders that prove it, and accept the one irreversible Brexit consequence the Cour de cassation confirmed in October 2025: the municipal and European vote is gone, while the residence the Agreement protects remains fully enforceable. Renew early, evidence everything, and challenge quickly — that is the whole discipline, and it works.
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