(FRANCE) Amnesty International has accused France of running a short-term residency system for migrant workers that it says is locking people into exploitation and uncertainty, releasing a report on November 5, 2025 that describes a pattern of wage theft, bureaucratic breakdowns and precarious living conditions. The rights group said its findings, based on research between April 2024 and September 2025, show that the policies and administration around residence permits are pushing thousands into poverty and abuse, even when they are working legally in sectors with chronic labor shortages.
“This situation is as cruel as it is unacceptable. Thousands of migrant workers, primarily racialized individuals employed in key sectors of the French economy, including construction, domestic work, and cleaning are living permanently under the threat of having their residence permits refused or not renewed. Many have spent decades in France enduring this constant uncertainty,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
The organization said it interviewed 27 workers of 16 nationalities and consulted 39 experts, including sociologists, lawyers and union representatives, to document how policies and administrative procedures expose people to exploitation and leave them dependent on employers who can threaten their status.
Amnesty International’s report centers on what it calls a short-term residency system for migrant workers that allows people to stay for a maximum of four years but, in practice, can trap them in repeated renewals and unstable work arrangements. The group says that despite working in key jobs, many face “wage theft, extended working hours, and cases of sexual and physical violence,” and risk losing salaries and social security benefits when bureaucratic systems break down. The report says delays at prefectures and glitches in the digital platform used to file applications can leave people unable to pay rent or buy food when they are kept from work for weeks or months awaiting documents.
One of the workers cited in the report is “Nadia,” a 45-year-old care assistant from Côte d’Ivoire and a single mother who has been in France since 2015.
“I always stayed on my path – it’s the State that derailed me.”
According to Amnesty, she has navigated a series of one-year, two-year and three-year permits despite being in a sector with severe labor shortages, but continues to face uncertainty and administrative hurdles that make it hard to plan her life or secure stable housing.
The report argues that the short duration of residence permits and what Amnesty calls a “mountain of obstacles to renew them at prefectures” manufacture insecurity among legal foreign workers. It says this churn of temporary documents keeps people dependent on employers for renewals and work authorizations, which can become a lever for exploitation. Workers can be left in limbo if an employer delays or refuses to file the necessary paperwork, according to the report, and some are threatened with dismissal if they insist on proper contracts or pay slips needed for renewals.
Amnesty points to the 2024 French Immigration Bill as tightening the screws further by introducing stricter conditions for family reunification and delaying access to social benefits for migrants. While the report focuses on residency and work permits, it sets those changes against what it describes as a wider policy environment where administrative controls and digital systems can suddenly cut people off from jobs and support. When documents lapse because a renewal is delayed, the report says, employers may suspend contracts and payroll, and social security contributions can stall, causing immediate financial harm.
A major target of the group’s criticism is the digital administration system known as ANEF, which the government introduced to streamline routine procedures. Amnesty cites a December 2024 analysis by the Défenseur des Droits, the French ombudsman, to argue that the platform has exacerbated problems, not solved them. According to that assessment, technical bugs, confusing design and inadequate support have left many unable to submit files or secure appointments, with their lives and salaries disrupted while systems reset. Amnesty says computer errors and widespread delays are not isolated incidents but a pattern that compounds the vulnerability inherent in short, renewable permits.
Those failures can spiral quickly, the report says. When an application stalls online or a prefecture fails to process a renewal, foreign nationals can slide into irregular status, with employers interrupting work and agencies suspending benefits until new documents are issued. Amnesty notes that people in this limbo risk removal orders, known in France as OQTFs, even when the underlying issue is administrative inaction rather than wrongdoing by the worker. The organization underscores that these shocks hit sectors that rely on migrant workers—such as construction, domestic work and cleaning—where shortages already strain services and infrastructure.
Amnesty International also highlights recent developments in administrative law that offer limited recourse. The Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court, has reaffirmed the right to a timely response from authorities, according to the report, allowing foreign nationals to seek court intervention or monetary compensation when delays cause concrete harm. Amnesty says those rulings matter, but the pathway to relief remains lengthy and complex for people already struggling to keep their jobs and comply with renewal timelines.
On the employer side, the new immigration law adds a sharper deterrent by introducing administrative fines of up to €20,750 per foreign worker for companies that hire or retain employees without proper permits, rising to €62,250 for repeat offenses. While intended to curb illegal employment, Amnesty argues the penalties could increase pressure on lawful workers whose papers are caught up in administrative disruptions, giving employers more reason to end contracts when renewals stall instead of helping staff resolve issues at prefectures or online.
The rights group says the combined effect of short-term permits, employer dependency and administrative failures creates a system where legal migrants are constantly at risk of falling out of status through no fault of their own. It describes a cycle in which a delayed appointment or a frozen online account pushes a person into a gap, triggering job loss, the halt of social security contributions and possible eviction. Once an OQTF is issued, Amnesty says, the person can face a heightened risk of exploitation, taking informal work at lower pay without protections to survive.
The report grounds its claims in the research conducted between April 2024 and September 2025, drawing on firsthand accounts from 27 workers and assessments from 39 experts, including sociologists, lawyers and union representatives. Amnesty says the breadth of nationalities—16 in total—shows that the problems are structural rather than confined to any single community. The organization stresses that the accounts repeatedly returned to the same themes: unstable permits; the necessity of employer cooperation; and a digital interface that can crash or lock out users, sometimes for weeks, with little human support to fix problems.
Amnesty’s investigators also heard of long working hours and underpayment in sectors where schedules are hard to monitor and workers are easily replaced. By its telling, some people described being asked to work off the clock or warned not to report injuries for fear that paperwork would trigger scrutiny of their status. When a renewal was pending, workers said they felt forced to accept any shift or task given, all to avoid conflict with the employer whose documents they needed to keep their job and stay in the country.
The report places special emphasis on the way the short-term residency system intersects with family life and housing. Stricter rules for family reunification introduced in 2024 mean more people are waiting longer to bring relatives, Amnesty says, while delays in accessing social benefits can destabilize household budgets already strained by rent and rising costs. In the cases described, when a renewal lapsed because an appointment was postponed or a PDF failed to upload in ANEF, the loss of income threatened food shopping and rent, and families were pushed to borrow or run up arrears.
Nadia’s account, the report says, fits that pattern of long-term stay intertwined with administrative fragility. After ten years in France, with experience in a care sector short of staff, she is still renewing one-year, two-year and three-year permits with little certainty about what comes next. The organization frames her statement—“I always stayed on my path – it’s the State that derailed me.”—as emblematic of workers who comply with rules and work consistently but are destabilized by the very systems that are supposed to protect their status.
Amnesty International says the central fix is to move away from churn and towards stability, calling for a single, more secure work permit that reduces the power imbalance with employers and cuts exposure to administrative breakdowns. It urges authorities to simplify procedures, strengthen safeguards against failures that freeze salaries or benefits, and ensure that delays at prefectures or in digital tools do not automatically push people into irregular status. The group adds that any digital interface should be matched with accessible human support, particularly for people who struggle with online systems or do not have steady internet access.
The organization is also pressing for clearer accountability when administrative systems fail. By its account, the possibility of asking courts to intervene or seeking compensation for harm caused by inaction is not well known among migrant workers and is hard to pursue without legal help. Amnesty says authorities should proactively prevent disruptions—especially in renewing documents for people already employed—rather than forcing individuals to file legal actions after damage is done.
The report comes amid continued debate over how to fill jobs in sectors with chronic shortages while keeping firm control over migration. Amnesty International argues that France’s current approach undermines both goals, by discouraging people from staying in lawful work and pushing some into the shadows. It frames the short-term residency system as a driver of instability, saying it “traps migrant workers in a cycle of discrimination,” and warns that more complex rules on family reunification and access to benefits will only deepen the precariousness.
Officials have promoted the digitalization of residency procedures as a way to streamline work and reduce queues, but Amnesty’s account, backed by the ombudsman’s December 2024 findings, suggests that ANEF’s technical bugs and confusing design can lock users out at crucial moments. For people who depend on continuous employment and on-time renewals, a frozen portal or an unanswered prefecture email can mean a missed paycheck, suspended contributions and rent unpaid by the end of the month. Authorities, the report says, should ensure the platform functions reliably and that alternatives exist when it does not.
The report notes that legal pathways to challenge inaction have been reinforced by the Conseil d’État’s position on timely administrative responses, but says those remedies are “after the fact” and do little to prevent the cascade of harm that can follow an expired card. Amnesty wants a safety net that keeps people working and covered while a renewal is pending, along with guarantees that employers cannot use the risk of delays to threaten termination.
France has made the ANEF platform a central gateway for residence applications, renewals and work authorization requests; a government overview and access point is available via the ANEF online residence permit portal. Amnesty International says that system should be part of the solution if it is stable and backed by human support, but warns that in its current state it amplifies the fragility built into short, renewable permits and the power imbalance with employers who control paperwork.
Amnesty’s conclusion is blunt: the country’s short-term residency system is not just inefficient but harmful. It says the current framework keeps legal foreign workers off balance, exposes them to exploitation and threatens homelessness and poverty when paperwork falters. Until France simplifies procedures, strengthens safeguards and offers a single stable work permit, the group says, migrant workers will remain one glitch or delayed appointment away from job loss and forced irregularity.
This Article in a Nutshell
Amnesty International’s November 5, 2025 report finds France’s short-term residency system pushes legal migrant workers into exploitation and poverty. Research (April 2024–September 2025) includes testimony from 27 workers of 16 nationalities and input from 39 experts. The report highlights wage theft, long hours, employer dependency, and administrative failures—especially ANEF glitches and prefecture delays—that interrupt pay and benefits. Amnesty urges a single stable work permit, simplified procedures, human support for digital systems, stronger safeguards, and clearer accountability for administrative harm.
