Asylum and Refugee Status in France 2026

Asylum and temporary protection are different regimes with different rules. This page explains the difference, the bodies, the steps and the time limits, with no legal promises. For your own situation, turn to a lawyer or a specialised association.

Asylum or temporary protection

• Temporary protection (protection temporaire) is the EU’s exceptional mechanism for people displaced from Ukraine on or after 24 February 2022: Ukrainian citizens who lived there before that date, stateless persons and third-country nationals who had international or equivalent national protection in Ukraine, and their family members. In France they are given a temporary residence permit (APS) for 6 months, renewed for as long as the protection lasts; it gives the right to work, and the employer needs no permit. The protection is extended to 4 March 2028 (EU Council decision 2026/1912 of 30 July 2026; the new period applies from 5 March 2027).
• Asylum (asile) is refugee status or subsidiary protection; OFPRA decides.

These are separate regimes: a person under temporary protection can also apply for asylum, stays under temporary protection while the application is examined, and keeps it after a refusal for as long as it lasts.

The bodies

• SPADA - the first-reception structure: outside Île-de-France you go straight to the SPADA of your département; it fills in the registration form and gives you an invitation to GUDA, where you are seen within 3 days (10 days at busy times; OFPRA, version of 3 June 2025).
• GUDA - the one-stop window at the préfecture (préfecture + OFII), which registers the application. In the Val-d’Oise, a pôle territorial France Asile has worked in its place since 19 May 2025.
• OFPRA - the body that decides on asylum.
• CNDA - the national asylum court, the appeal instance.
• OFII - reception conditions and the ADA allowance.

Steps to apply

1. SPADA - get the registration form and the invitation to GUDA.
2. GUDA - the application is registered and you receive an attestation de demande d’asile, which gives you the right to stay while it is examined. It is valid for 10 months in the normal procedure and 6 months in the accelerated one, and is renewed for the whole procedure. In the Dublin procedure no such attestation is issued.
3. OFPRA - send the completed application within 21 days of the date the attestation was issued; usually there is a personal interview.
4. OFPRA decision arrives in your personal online account or by registered letter. If you do not open the account within 15 days, the decision counts as served on the day it was posted, and that is when the appeal period starts.
5. Appeal to the CNDA - within 1 month of notification in the normal procedure and 10 days in the accelerated procedure (the same for an inadmissibility decision and the border procedure). Details are in the table below.

CNDA appeal deadlines

The deadlines in the table are for applications lodged from 12 June 2026; for earlier ones the appeal period is 1 month.

In the normal procedure you ask for a free lawyer (aide juridictionnelle) within 15 days of notification, and the one-month appeal period is suspended meanwhile. In the accelerated and border procedures the request for aid has to be written into the appeal itself. Sources: OFPRA and the CNDA, versions of 11 June 2026 and 21 July 2026.

What the accelerated procedure is

From 12 June 2026 an application goes into the accelerated procedure if the applicant is a citizen or habitual resident of a safe country of origin, or of a country where the average EU protection rate is no higher than 20% (by Eurostat data); also for a repeat application, one lodged more than 90 days after entry, and in a number of other cases. In itself this does not change how the case is examined on its merits, and OFPRA can move the application into the normal procedure.

The two forms of protection

• Refugee status (persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinion) → a 10-year resident card. The préfecture’s time limit for issuing the card is 3 months from the status decision; you apply online (ANEF) right after the letter recognising you.
• Subsidiary protection (no grounds for refugee status, but a threat of the death penalty or torture, or a serious individual threat in a conflict) → a multi-year card for up to 4 years.

OFPRA first examines refugee status, then subsidiary protection. For 2025 OFPRA issued 156,509 decisions, the protection rate was 41.2% (38.8% in 2024), and the average processing time was 163 days, or 5.4 months (OFPRA report, 27 July 2026).

The right to work and the allowance

The right to work is not immediate. For the first 6 months after you apply, no work permit is issued: for applications lodged from 12 June 2026 the 6 months count from registration at GUDA, for earlier ones from the application reaching OFPRA.

If OFPRA has still not decided after 6 months, your employer requests the work permit: it needs your attestation de demande d’asile and a job promise or contract. The request is examined under the general rules for foreign workers, taking the employment situation into account; the administration has 2 months, and silence means consent; the permit is valid no longer than your récépissé (6 months) and is renewed until OFPRA decides. The exception is the Dublin procedure: from 12 June 2026 people sent to another EU country by a transfer decision have no access to the labour market. Source: service-public, F2741, checked 16 September 2026.

The ADA allowance (allocation pour demandeur d’asile) is a daily amount by household size:

If OFII has not offered housing, €7.40 a day is added. The amounts are from service-public, page F33314, checked 1 April 2026 (currently being updated); French Guiana and Saint-Martin have different ones. You receive the ADA from age 18, with OFII’s reception conditions accepted, with the attestation and with the application to OFPRA lodged within 21 days (except in the Dublin procedure). OFII manages the allowance and the ASP agency pays it onto a payment card issued by OFII. People under temporary protection may also be entitled to the ADA.

Where in the South the application is registered

An application is registered not by the préfecture of each département but by one of four (service-public F2232, version of 7 May 2025; the page is marked as being updated):

The préfecture you need is not necessarily the one in your own département. We do not give addresses or opening hours for SPADA and GUDA in the South here: we have no official list for them.

A warning

This is general information, not legal advice. Asylum is a serious procedure with real consequences; for your specific situation, turn to a lawyer or a specialised association. Appeal deadlines and work rights depend on the date the application was lodged (see above); check the current rules on ofpra.gouv.fr and service-public.gouv.fr.

In our chat you can ask which associations help asylum seekers in your city.

The “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - support, moving and life in the South

See also:

• How to move to France: every legal route
• Residence permit (titre de séjour) in France, step by step
• Working in France as a Russian-speaker
• Ukrainians in France: community, chats, life
• Temporary protection in France: who qualifies and how to get the APS