You moved to France before the end of 2020, applied for the special Brexit residence card in 2021, and have lived quietly under French law ever since. That five-year card, the one marked Article 50 TEU\/Article 18(1) Withdrawal Agreement, is now reaching its expiry date, and the question arriving in solicitors’ inboxes across the Dordogne, Brittany and Paris is always the same: what exactly must I file, where, and by when, to turn this card into the ten-year permanent one, and what happens if the prefecture says no? The answer matters more than most renewals, because the Withdrawal Agreement protects your right of residence directly, yet only a valid card proves it to employers, banks, airlines and border officers.<\/p>\n
This guide explains the renewal of the British Withdrawal Agreement residence permit, known everywhere as the WARP card, as it works in autumn 2026 when the first five-year cards expire. It sets out who moves automatically onto the ten-year permanent card, the two-month filing window and the exact papers the prefecture asks for, what long absences, divorce or a late application change, and how a refusal is challenged before the administrative courts while your rights stay protected. Every decisive rule below is quoted from its official source so your adviser can verify each point.<\/p>\n
French law starts from the Withdrawal Agreement itself, the treaty signed on 24 January 2020 organising the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, and from the French decree that puts it into practice for residence: decree no. 2020-1417 of 19 November 2020 on the entry, residence, professional activity and social rights of foreign nationals covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. If you were settled in France before 31 December 2020 and held less than five years of residence when you applied, you received the first-generation card. Article 12 of the decree<\/a> states: “Lorsqu’ils satisfont aux conditions pr\u00e9vues par le pr\u00e9sent d\u00e9cret et sous r\u00e9serve des dispositions de l’article 28, les ressortissants \u00e9trangers mentionn\u00e9s \u00e0 l’article 3 et s\u00e9journant en France depuis moins de cinq ans b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient d’un titre de s\u00e9jour portant la mention \u00ab Article 50 TUE\/Article 18(1) Accord de retrait du Royaume-Uni de l’UE \u00bb. Ce titre a une dur\u00e9e de validit\u00e9 de cinq ans \u00e0 dater de sa d\u00e9livrance.” In ordinary language, a foreign national covered by the decree who has lived in France for less than five years receives a residence permit, called a titre de s\u00e9jour, marked Article 50 TEU\/Article 18(1) United Kingdom Withdrawal Agreement from the EU, valid for five years from issue. Cards issued in the autumn of 2021 therefore expire in the autumn of 2026, which is why prefectures are handling the first great wave of renewals right now.<\/p>\n The second-generation card is the permanent one, and the statute gives it as of right, which the French express with the phrase de plein droit, meaning the administration has no discretion once the conditions are met. Article 21 of the decree<\/a> provides: “Sous r\u00e9serve des dispositions de l’article 28, un titre de s\u00e9jour d’une dur\u00e9e de validit\u00e9 de dix ans portant la mention \u00ab S\u00e9jour permanent – Article 50 TUE\/Article 18(1) Accord de retrait du Royaume-Uni de l’UE \u00bb est d\u00e9livr\u00e9 de plein droit au ressortissant \u00e9tranger mentionn\u00e9 aux 1\u00b0 \u00e0 4\u00b0 de l’article 3 s’il satisfait \u00e0 l’une des conditions suivantes :” A ten-year permit marked Permanent Residence, Article 50 TEU\/Article 18(1) Withdrawal Agreement, is issued as of right to the covered foreign national who meets one of the listed conditions. The condition that concerns almost every British reader is the second one: “2\u00b0 Il a r\u00e9sid\u00e9 en France pendant cinq ann\u00e9es et y s\u00e9journe r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement conform\u00e9ment aux dispositions des articles 13 \u00e0 19.” Five years of residence in France, in compliance with the substantive residence conditions, opens the permanent card. The first condition covers the smaller group who already held a permanent EU residence card issued before 1 January 2021 under the old free-movement rules. Either way, the logic is the same: five years of lawful residence converts a temporary Brexit status into a permanent one, and the prefecture, the local state authority that issues residence permits, records that conversion on a card valid for ten years.<\/p>\n This mechanism comes straight from the treaty, as the highest French administrative court confirmed when British residents challenged the decree itself. The Conseil d’\u00c9tat, the supreme court for administrative law, ruled on 22 March 2022 in decision no. 453326, on claims by an individual applicant and the association EUBritizens seeking repeal of decree no. 2020-1417. The court quoted the treaty’s promise word for word. The Conseil d’\u00c9tat recalled<\/a>: “Aux termes du paragraphe 1 de l’article 15 de cet accord : ” Les citoyens de l’Union et les ressortissants du Royaume-Uni, ainsi que les membres de leur famille respective, qui ont s\u00e9journ\u00e9 l\u00e9galement dans l’\u00c9tat d’accueil conform\u00e9ment au droit de l’Union pendant une p\u00e9riode ininterrompue de cinq ans ou pendant la p\u00e9riode indiqu\u00e9e \u00e0 l’Article 17 de la directive 2004\/38\/CE, acqui\u00e8rent le droit de s\u00e9journer de mani\u00e8re permanente dans l’\u00c9tat d’accueil dans les conditions \u00e9nonc\u00e9es aux Articles 16, 17 et 18 de la directive 2004\/38\/CE. Les p\u00e9riodes de s\u00e9jour l\u00e9gal ou d’activit\u00e9 conform\u00e9ment au droit de l’Union avant et apr\u00e8s la fin de la p\u00e9riode de transition sont prises en compte dans le calcul de la p\u00e9riode n\u00e9cessaire \u00e0 l’acquisition du droit de s\u00e9jour permanent. “” Union citizens and United Kingdom nationals, and their family members, who have resided lawfully in the host state for a continuous five years acquire the right to reside there permanently, counting lawful residence both before and after the end of the transition period. The court added the document rule from Article 18 of the treaty: “L’\u00c9tat 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 r\u00e9sident sur son territoire dans les conditions \u00e9nonc\u00e9es au pr\u00e9sent titre, qu’ils demandent un nouveau statut de r\u00e9sident qui leur conf\u00e8re les droits pr\u00e9vus au pr\u00e9sent titre et un document attestant ce statut, qui peut \u00eatre sous forme num\u00e9rique.” The host state may require residents to apply for a new resident status and a document evidencing it. The practical meaning for 2026 is direct: the permanent right exists under the treaty, but the ten-year card is the document that proves it, and the renewal application is how you obtain that proof.<\/p>\n The same ruling settled a fear that still circulates in British forums: that a ten-year card is somehow inferior to the old EU permanent residence, which had no expiry date, and therefore discriminatory. The court rejected that argument on both treaty and equality grounds, holding, in the operative part of the ruling<\/a>: “ce droit \u00e9tant mat\u00e9rialis\u00e9 par la d\u00e9livrance d’un titre de s\u00e9jour d’une dur\u00e9e de dix ans renouvelable de plein droit sauf si la pr\u00e9sence de l’\u00e9tranger en France repr\u00e9sente une menace pour l’ordre public.” The permanent right is given concrete form by a ten-year permit renewable as of right unless the foreigner’s presence threatens public policy, known in French as ordre public. It then explained, on the discrimination plea<\/a>, why British holders cannot compare themselves with holders of the ordinary indefinite resident card: “le principe de non-discrimination en raison de la nationalit\u00e9 \u00e9nonc\u00e9 \u00e0 l’article 12 de l’accord de retrait ne concerne que les situations relevant du champ d’application de l’accord”, the treaty’s non-discrimination principle covers only situations within the scope of the treaty, and differences between British beneficiaries and third-country nationals reflect different legal situations. The claims were dismissed in full, as the operative part records<\/a>: “Article 1er : Les requ\u00eates de Mme A… et de l’association EUBritizens sont rejet\u00e9es.” The decree stands, the ten-year renewable card is the correct document, and renewing it is the correct procedure. There is a nearby but separate track worth knowing about: Article L. 426-4 of the Foreigners Code<\/a>, the code governing entry and residence known by its initials CESEDA, allows holders of certain ordinary ten-year resident cards to claim an indefinite permanent resident card, “une carte de r\u00e9sident permanent, \u00e0 dur\u00e9e ind\u00e9termin\u00e9e, peut \u00eatre d\u00e9livr\u00e9e \u00e0 l’\u00e9tranger qui en fait la demande, \u00e0 condition que sa pr\u00e9sence ne constitue pas une menace pour l’ordre public et qu’il satisfasse aux conditions pr\u00e9vues \u00e0 l’article L. 413-7.” That indefinite card belongs to the general immigration system, not to the Withdrawal Agreement system, and the Conseil d’\u00c9tat confirmed the two systems run on separate rails. Do not apply for one when you need the other: your renewal is the ten-year Withdrawal Agreement permanent card under Article 21 of the decree.<\/p>\n The filing window is short and it is the single most important date in this whole process. The official service-public.fr information page<\/a> sets the rule: the renewal application must be filed in the two months before the five-year card expires. The renewal application must be made within the two months before the five-year card expires. If your card expires on 14 October 2026, your window opens on 14 August 2026. File on the first day of the window rather than the last, because prefectures close online slots, postal delays eat days, and any request for an extra document then still lands before expiry. The same page confirms the prize: the new card lasts ten years. And both the French administration and the British government agree on the price. Service-public.fr confirms the card itself is free of charge. The British government’s own living-in-France guidance<\/a> gives the same three instructions in English: renew the initial Withdrawal Agreement Residence Permit before it expires, through the local prefecture, free of charge. Renew before expiry, pay nothing, and deal with your local prefecture: those three instructions, one French and one British, say the same thing.<\/p>\n Where you file depends on where you live, and the method depends on your prefecture, because France deliberately left each local authority to organise its own intake. Service-public.fr explains that each applicant must check the website of their home prefecture, which sets out the simplified local procedure for filing the renewal. Check your home prefecture’s website, which sets out the simplified local procedure: depending on the area, you file online, by post, or at the counter after booking an appointment. In Paris you go through the Pr\u00e9fecture de police, the Paris police prefecture that handles residence permits for the capital; everywhere else it is the prefecture or sub-prefecture of your home address. Whatever the channel, keep dated proof of everything: the online confirmation receipt, the registered-post slip, the appointment email. If the file later goes missing or a deadline is disputed, that proof is what the court reads first. Readers who only arrived in France after 1 January 2021 follow a different system entirely, with visas and ordinary permits rather than Withdrawal Agreement cards, and the cabinet’s separate guidance on changing status from a visitor card explains that parallel track for newcomers who do not hold a WARP card at all.<\/p>\n The papers themselves are deliberately light, because a renewal is a check of continuity, not a fresh examination of your whole life. Service-public.fr lists exactly five items: a passport in date (passeport en cours de validit\u00e9); proof of address such as a utility bill, tax notice or rent receipt in your name (justificatif de domicile); three identity photographs, with an e-photo code if you file online, since French administration now uses standardised digital booth photographs; the expiring residence card itself; and, where the applicant’s situation has changed through divorce, marriage or widowhood, documentary proof of that change. Behind that short list sits the formal order every prefecture applies, the order of 20 November 2020 setting the documents British nationals must supply for Withdrawal Agreement cards, which standardises the evidence nationwide so no prefecture may invent extra requirements. Update your civil status before you file: if you married, divorced, were widowed or moved house since 2021, bring the marriage certificate, divorce decree, death certificate or new proof of address, because a file whose story contradicts the prefecture’s records is the classic trigger for a request for further evidence that pushes the decision past your expiry date. The British guidance adds the standing duties between renewals: report changes and request a replacement through the official foreigners portal if your personal details change, for example after a change of address or marital status, if the card is lost or stolen, or to add your marital name alongside your birth name. A lost card is an administrative nuisance, not a loss of rights, but declare it promptly and travel with your passport plus any receipt while the replacement is prepared.<\/p>\n Two household situations need planning now rather than at the counter. First, children who arrived as minors before 31 December 2020: service-public.fr states that a child who arrived while a minor must apply for a Withdrawal Agreement card in the year following their eighteenth birthday. A teenager who turned eighteen in 2025 or 2026 needs their own application this year, separate from the parents’ renewal, and the parents should diary that deadline alongside their own. Second, family members joining you from Britain: reunification under the treaty remains possible for spouses, durable partners, young or dependent children and dependent parents whose link predates the transition, but the newcomer must apply within three months of entering France. Do not confuse that three-month newcomer deadline with your own two-month renewal window: they run on different clocks for different people, and missing either one converts a simple file into a late file with explanations to give.<\/p>\n Start with the reassurance the decree writes in plain terms, because it governs every difficult file in this section. Article 27 of the decree<\/a> provides: “Dans l’attente de la d\u00e9cision de l’autorit\u00e9 administrative comp\u00e9tente ou d’un jugement d\u00e9finitif en cas de recours juridictionnel contre le rejet par l’autorit\u00e9 administrative d’une demande de titre de s\u00e9jour, les ressortissants \u00e9trangers mentionn\u00e9s \u00e0 l’article 3 continuent \u00e0 b\u00e9n\u00e9ficier du droit de s\u00e9journer, du droit d’exercer une activit\u00e9 professionnelle et des droits sociaux en r\u00e9sultant, sauf en cas de demande frauduleuse ou abusive.” While the administration decides, and while a court case against a refusal runs to a final judgment, the covered foreign national keeps the right to stay, the right to work and the resulting social rights, except for fraudulent or abusive applications. A pending file is therefore a protected file: once your renewal is lodged, you remain lawful, employable and covered for healthcare while the prefecture examines it, and a refusal followed by an appeal extends that protection until the judge decides. This single article is why the worst response to a problem is to do nothing: lodge the application, even late, because lodging switches the protection on.<\/p>\n Late filing itself is a mistake, not a forfeiture, and the administration’s own pages show a tolerant practice for this population. Service-public.fr records that people who missed the original 4 October 2021 deadline for the first card may still apply afterwards, which signals how prefectures treat late Withdrawal Agreement files in general: examine the substance first. If your two-month window has already closed, file immediately with a short dated letter explaining the delay, attach the full standard file, and keep the proof of sending. The decision-maker then rules on your five years of residence, not on your diary management, and Article 27 covers you while the answer comes. The same substance-first logic applies once the permanent card is held: Article 24 of the decree<\/a> states: “Le ressortissant \u00e9tranger titulaire du titre de s\u00e9jour d\u00e9livr\u00e9 en application des articles 21 et 22 en obtient le renouvellement de plein droit, sous r\u00e9serve des dispositions de l’article 28.” The holder of a permanent Withdrawal Agreement card gets its renewal as of right, subject only to the public-policy exception. Renewal of the ten-year card is therefore even more mechanical than the first upgrade: no fresh five-year test, no discretion, only the ordre public check described below.<\/p>\n Absences from France are the second great source of anxiety, and the decree answers with a number: five years. For the upgrade to the permanent card, Article 21<\/a> closes with this safeguard: “En cas d’absence du territoire fran\u00e7ais pendant une p\u00e9riode ne d\u00e9passant pas cinq ann\u00e9es cons\u00e9cutives avant la fin de la p\u00e9riode mentionn\u00e9e \u00e0 l’article 1er, le ressortissant \u00e9tranger mentionn\u00e9 au pr\u00e9sent article ne perd pas le b\u00e9n\u00e9fice du droit au s\u00e9jour permanent.” Absence of up to five consecutive years does not destroy the permanent right. The mirror rule, Article 23<\/a>, draws the line beyond it: “En cas d’absence du territoire fran\u00e7ais pendant une p\u00e9riode de plus de cinq ann\u00e9es cons\u00e9cutives, le titre de s\u00e9jour d\u00e9livr\u00e9 en application des articles 21 et 22 n’est plus valide.” More than five consecutive years away invalidates the permanent card. Note the word consecutive in both provisions: a British resident who spent two years in London caring for a parent, returned to the Dordogne, then spent summers in Britain, has not broken continuity the way a single unbroken six-year departure would. Count your longest single unbroken absence, gather the travel evidence that proves the returns, boarding passes, ferry bookings, French utility bills and tax notices bridging the gaps, and present that timeline in the file before the prefecture has to ask. Covid-period stranded stays and documented caring duties are facts to evidence, not legal excuses to plead, and a clear chronology with exhibits beats a long explanatory letter every time.<\/p>\n Divorce and widowhood change the file but do not end the protection by themselves. The renewal list expressly anticipates them by asking for proof of any change through divorce, marriage or widowhood, which means the prefecture re-examines the basis of residence rather than refusing outright. A British spouse covered in their own right through five years of residence keeps their own upgrade path regardless of the marriage. A family member whose residence derived from the marriage must show either their own five-year footing or another basis the decree recognises, and one specific safety net deserves mention: the decree gives the British husband or wife of a French national the permanent card as of right where married life genuinely continues. The wording of Article 22 of the decree<\/a> requires that “la communaut\u00e9 de vie entre les \u00e9poux n’ait pas cess\u00e9 depuis le mariage”, that shared married life has continued since the wedding, that the French spouse kept French nationality, and that a marriage celebrated abroad was transcribed onto French civil-status registers. Divorced readers should therefore file with the divorce decree plus proof of their own residence history, and reframe the application around their personal five years rather than the ended marriage. Widowed readers file with the death certificate and the same personal history. In both cases the five-year residence clock, which the treaty counts across the pre- and post-transition years, usually does the decisive work.<\/p>\n A refusal of a Withdrawal Agreement renewal has only one lawful foundation, and knowing its narrowness is the whole strategy. Article 28 of the decree<\/a> provides: “L’entr\u00e9e sur le territoire fran\u00e7ais et la d\u00e9livrance des titres de s\u00e9jour et documents de circulation pr\u00e9vus par le pr\u00e9sent d\u00e9cret peuvent \u00eatre refus\u00e9es si la pr\u00e9sence du demandeur constitue une menace pour l’ordre public.” Residence documents under the decree may be refused where the applicant’s presence threatens public policy. For old conduct the bar rises higher: “Si le comportement \u00e0 l’origine de cette menace s’est produit avant le 1er janvier 2021, l’entr\u00e9e et la d\u00e9livrance du titre de s\u00e9jour ou du document de circulation peuvent \u00eatre refus\u00e9es \u00e0 la condition que ce comportement repr\u00e9sente une menace r\u00e9elle, actuelle et suffisamment grave pour un int\u00e9r\u00eat fondamental de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9.” Conduct before 1 January 2021 justifies refusal only if it represents a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to a fundamental interest of society. A spent youthful conviction, an old driving ban, a historic police caution in England: none of these is automatically a present threat in 2026, and the prefecture must explain, with dated facts, why the threat is real and current rather than historical. Read the refusal letter against this article line by line. If it invokes public policy without identifying a present threat, or recycles pre-2021 facts without explaining their present gravity, the decision is vulnerable on its face, and that vulnerability is the first ground of the appeal.<\/p>\n The courts have already annulled a permanent-card refusal built on exactly that kind of reasoning, and the judgment is the template for every Withdrawal Agreement challenge. The Bordeaux administrative court of appeal ruled on 27 September 2022 in case no. 22BX00439, where the prefect of Gironde had refused to renew a ten-year resident card and offered only a one-year temporary permit instead. The court recalled the governing rule<\/a>: “Aux termes de l’article L. 314-1 du code de l’entr\u00e9e et du s\u00e9jour des \u00e9trangers et du droit d’asile, alors en vigueur : ” La carte de r\u00e9sident est valable dix ans. Sous r\u00e9serve des dispositions des articles L. 314-5 et L. 314-7, elle est renouvelable de plein droit. “” The ten-year card is renewable as of right, subject only to the exhaustively listed exceptions. It then struck down the prefecture’s reasoning: “la pr\u00e9f\u00e8te de la Gironde ne pouvait l\u00e9galement se fonder sur le motif tir\u00e9 de ce que son comportement constitue une menace pour l’ordre public pour refuser de renouveler sa carte de r\u00e9sident.” The prefect could not lawfully rely on a generic public-policy motive to refuse renewal. The court annulled both the lower court’s judgment and the refusal, then ordered the administration to issue the card: “il y a lieu d’enjoindre \u00e0 la pr\u00e9f\u00e8te de la Gironde de d\u00e9livrer un tel titre de s\u00e9jour \u00e0 l’int\u00e9ress\u00e9 dans un d\u00e9lai de deux mois \u00e0 compter de la notification du pr\u00e9sent arr\u00eat”, with 1,200 euros of costs against the state. Transposed to your file, the lesson is precise: renewal as of right means the prefecture must point to a specific statutory exception, and a vague appeal to behaviour or old convictions, without fitting the legal pigeonhole, loses in court with an injunction to deliver the card within two months. Quote this judgment in the appeal, attach the refusal letter beside it, and let the contrast do the advocacy.<\/p>\n The same case law warns against filing a thin appeal, because courts uphold refusals that are properly reasoned and evidenced. The Douai administrative court of appeal ruled on 19 March 2024 in case no. 23DA01015, where the prefect of the Nord had refused to renew a permit and ordered the man to leave France within thirty days. The court examined<\/a> the standard pleas British appellants also raise: inadequate reasoning, called motivation insuffisante, failure to examine the personal situation, called d\u00e9faut d’examen personnalis\u00e9, and breach of private and family life. It applied the text of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights: “1. Toute personne a droit au respect de sa vie priv\u00e9e et familiale, de son domicile et de sa correspondance. \/ 2. Il ne peut y avoir ing\u00e9rence d’une autorit\u00e9 publique dans l’exercice de ce droit que pour autant que cette ing\u00e9rence est pr\u00e9vue par la loi et qu’elle constitue une mesure qui, dans une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9mocratique, est n\u00e9cessaire \u00e0 la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 nationale, \u00e0 la s\u00fbret\u00e9 publique, au bien-\u00eatre \u00e9conomique du pays, \u00e0 la d\u00e9fense de l’ordre et \u00e0 la pr\u00e9vention des infractions p\u00e9nales, \u00e0 la protection de la sant\u00e9 ou de la morale, ou \u00e0 la protection des droits et libert\u00e9s d’autrui.” Everyone has the right to respect for private and family life, and interference must be lawful and necessary in a democratic society. On the facts the applicant lost: a cousin in France, voluntary work and health issues did not prove deep integration where he was single, childless in France, and had parents and two young children in his home country, where he had lived until age twenty-eight. The court concluded: “le pr\u00e9fet du Nord, en refusant le renouvellement de son titre de s\u00e9jour, n’a port\u00e9 aucune atteinte disproportionn\u00e9e au droit de M. A… au respect de sa vie priv\u00e9e et familiale au regard des buts poursuivis par un tel refus.” No disproportionate interference, plea dismissed, and the final order: “Article 1er : La requ\u00eate de M. A… est rejet\u00e9e.” The appeal is rejected. The message for a British appellant is practical rather than discouraging: win on the law where the prefecture overreached, as in Bordeaux, but never rely on bare assertions about your French life. Evidence every link: school certificates for children, employment contracts and payslips, tax notices spanning the five years, medical follow-up letters, mortgage statements, proof of elderly parents cared for in France. The prefecture’s file against you is usually thin; make yours thick.<\/p>\n The procedure for challenging runs on three clocks that must be diarised the day the refusal arrives. First, the informal appeal to the authority itself, the recours gracieux, or to its hierarchical superior, the recours hi\u00e9rarchique: Article L. 411-2 of the Code on relations between the public and the administration<\/a> states: “Toute d\u00e9cision administrative peut faire l’objet, dans le d\u00e9lai imparti pour l’introduction d’un recours contentieux, d’un recours gracieux ou hi\u00e9rarchique qui interrompt le cours de ce d\u00e9lai.” Any administrative decision may be challenged by an informal or hierarchical appeal within the litigation deadline, which interrupts that deadline. Write within two months, ask expressly for withdrawal of the refusal, attach the missing or corrected evidence, and the court clock pauses while the administration answers. Second, the court appeal itself before the tribunal administratif, the local administrative court: Article R. 421-1 of the Administrative Justice Code<\/a> provides: “La juridiction ne peut \u00eatre saisie que par voie de recours form\u00e9 contre une d\u00e9cision, et ce, dans les deux mois \u00e0 partir de la notification ou de la publication de la d\u00e9cision attaqu\u00e9e.” The court must be seized within two months of notification of the contested decision. Ask the court to annul the refusal and to order the prefecture to issue the card within a fixed time, with a daily penalty, called an astreinte, of for example 100 euros per day of delay, following the pattern the Bordeaux court used when it ordered issue within two months. Third, where removal is ordered alongside the refusal, through an obligation to leave France, the OQTF, act within days not weeks: Article L. 521-1 of the Administrative Justice Code<\/a> allows the urgent judge to suspend a decision “lorsque l’urgence le justifie et qu’il est fait \u00e9tat d’un moyen propre \u00e0 cr\u00e9er, en l’\u00e9tat de l’instruction, un doute s\u00e9rieux quant \u00e0 la l\u00e9galit\u00e9 de la d\u00e9cision”, where urgency justifies it and a ground raised casts serious doubt on the decision’s legality. The full text reads: “Quand une d\u00e9cision administrative, m\u00eame de rejet, fait l’objet d’une requ\u00eate en annulation ou en r\u00e9formation, le juge des r\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9s, saisi d’une demande en ce sens, peut ordonner la suspension de l’ex\u00e9cution de cette d\u00e9cision, ou de certains de ses effets, lorsque l’urgence le justifie et qu’il est fait \u00e9tat d’un moyen propre \u00e0 cr\u00e9er, en l’\u00e9tat de l’instruction, un doute s\u00e9rieux quant \u00e0 la l\u00e9galit\u00e9 de la d\u00e9cision.” File the annulment appeal and the suspension application together, flag the Article 28 defect and the Article 27 protection expressly, and travel with the court receipts until the order arrives. Throughout, Article 27 keeps you covered: residence, work and social rights continue while the final judgment is awaited, so an employer who questions your right to work during the appeal can be shown the decree’s own wording alongside the pending-appeal receipt.<\/p>\n A British resident whose five-year Withdrawal Agreement card expires in 2026 faces a procedure that is urgent in timing but favourable in substance. First, the upgrade track: five years of lawful residence opens the ten-year permanent card as of right under Article 21 of decree no. 2020-1417, the application goes to the home prefecture within the two months before expiry, it costs nothing, and the five standard documents plus proof of any change in civil status complete the file, with the Conseil d’\u00c9tat’s 2022 ruling confirming the ten-year renewable card as the correct treaty document. Second, the safety net: late filing is repaired by filing now, absences of up to five consecutive years preserve the permanent right while longer ones end it, divorce and widowhood redirect the file onto the applicant’s personal five years, and Article 27 keeps residence, work and social rights alive while the administration decides and while any court case runs. Third, the challenge track: refusal is lawful only on the narrow public-policy ground of Article 28, with a heightened present-threat test for pre-2021 conduct, and the Bordeaux annulment shows courts strike down vague ordre public reasoning with an order to deliver the card, while the Douai rejection shows thin files lose, so evidence the five years thickly and diarise the three clocks, informal appeal interrupting the deadline, court appeal within two months, urgent suspension where removal is ordered. File early, prove continuity, and answer a refusal with the decree’s own words: handled in that order, the 2026 renewal converts a Brexit-era temporary status into a permanent French residence that then renews itself as of right.<\/p>\n A telephone consultation within 48 hours with an avocat of the firm to review your WARP expiry date, your renewal file and your deadline before the two-month window closes. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write via our contact page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your five-year Brexit residence card expires in 2026. How to get the ten-year permanent WARP card, what to file within the two-month window, and how to challenge a refusal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80312,80314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2120515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-desk","category-decryptage"],"yoast_head":"\nB. Papers, prefecture and timing: how do I file the renewal without breaking continuity?<\/h3>\n
II. My Renewal Is Late, Refused or Questioned: How Do I Stay Lawful and Challenge the Decision?<\/h2>\n
A. Late filing, long absences and divorce: which situations still save the right of residence?<\/h3>\n
B. Refusal and removal order: how do I challenge the decision before the administrative court?<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case.<\/h2>\n