The strong impact on professional immigration processes of France’s new “Asylum-Immigration“ law

Following a heated 6-months long debate, the French Parliament adopted on August 1^st the “Asylum-Immigration” law which, according to the Government, strived to “better welcome foreigners based on their competence and talents”.

Its impact is indeed strong in two aspects regarding professional immigration processes:

• First off, all employees moving to France under the Intra-Company Transfers (ICT) scheme, whether posted or attending trainings in France, will now need to prove a 6-months seniority within the Group (versus 3 months before) but most importantly, the Residence Permit linked to these processes is now non-renewable and the law’s article 29 puts in place a “hiatus period” of 6 months of residence outside the EU in order to reapply for the status. Finally, this category of resident permits is no longer accessible for the EU residents, meaning only non-EU residents can apply for a ICT trainee or ICT worker status.
   
• Secondly, the law’s article 27 grants the Government to create at a later stage, without having to go through the whole legislative process, a common Resident Permit for employees and temporary worker statuses. It is not yet clear whether the Government can also modify the conditions for obtaining these resident permits or not. Likewise, the law grants similar powers to reform and simplify the regime of Work Permits for certain categories of employees and certain companies recognized by the State. Once again, it is not yet clear how these categories (employees and companies) will be defined.

Since the President did not yet sign the text into law and the text has been brought to the attention of the Constitutional Council on August 6^th, the law’s real impact is hard to define as of now but Home Conseil Relocation’s Immigration Department is on alert to implement the new timeline for ICT workers into its mobility strategy. Don’t hesitate to contact us for further details.

Sources :

• assemblee-nationale.fr
• assemblee-nationale.fr
• lemonde.fr