The French government has issued a circular to expedite the renewal of residency permits for over 930.000 foreigners. This measure follows the lead of Spain, which recently announced the regularization of 500.000 immigrants living in the country.
According to the newspaper PublicThe French Ministry of the Interior has set strict targets and mandated the hiring of 500 new agents to reinforce the force..
The plan includes the automatic renewal for 12 months of the receipt for applications under review in the digital system. Furthermore, French municipalities are prohibited from requiring unnecessary additional documents to avoid further delays in the processes.
The French government's priority is professional immigration. The country is suffering from a labor shortage and seeks to prevent workers from having their contracts suspended due to delays in renewing their documents.
Catarina Zuccaro, a lawyer based in Portugal, observes that France and Spain adopt integration measures. "The principle is the same in both countries: those who already work, pay taxes, and have lived in the territory for years are part of society and deserve legal security," she says.
In Italy and In Portugal, the scenario is the opposite.Following the dissolution of SEF, the new Portuguese agency AIMA inherited approximately 900.000 pending cases. According to Zuccaro, the State has only extended the validity of expired documents by decree, which he classifies as a "postponement" and not an administrative decision.
Italian legislation has been systematically tightening immigration rules. Experts point out that the country is experiencing a moment of legal uncertainty, despite Italy facing a labor shortage and having one of the oldest populations in Europe.
