The French state hates single mothers!
M is Ivorian. She is in a relationship with L, a French national. They are not married, but their relationship is going well, and they decide to have a child — a French child, then.
Nine months later, M gives birth to a beautiful French baby. But L panics. A midlife crisis, too many responsibilities, the demands of parenthood: he formally acknowledges paternity at the town hall, then leaves the family home.
M hears very little from L, who shows little interest in their child.
M is no less a mother, and her baby is no less French. But the French state hates M. It suspects she had a child to obtain immigration papers. So it refuses to issue a French identity document to the child. Too bad for the baby: they should have chosen two French parents. Or married ones.
It is 2019.
Completely disillusioned, M gets on with being a single mother. She juggles odd jobs, food parcels and help from neighbours, somehow managing to provide for her child on her own.
After years of administrative limbo, and thanks to Muriel Guillain, M obtains a family-court judgment granting her sole parental authority and ordering the child's father to pay maintenance.
Even for a supposed fraudster, this is becoming quite an ordeal for a simple identity card. With that judgment, M finally obtains a French identity document for her child, almost six years after the birth. The law does not require such a judgment to obtain an identity document, as the Défenseur des droits has already pointed out. But what is one more ordeal for M?
Identity card finally obtained, it is time to apply for a residence permit as the mother of a French child. A permit to which M should be entitled, as the person raising that child alone.
But remember: the administration hates M. Nothing will ever be straightforward for her in France.
You may not know this, but the 2018 immigration reform — championed by Gérard Collomb, Édouard Philippe, Emmanuel Macron and company — made life still harder for single mothers of French children.
Since that law came into force, where a French child's parentage follows an acknowledgement outside marriage, the mother seeking a residence permit on that basis is asked to show not only that she cares for the child, but that THE FRENCH FATHER CONTRIBUTES TOO. It may sound absurd — and it is. In a situation like M's, where the father has left the household and the mother is raising their child alone, the ordinary route to a residence permit as the parent of a French child becomes another obstacle course.
To support the application, M must first find a way to obtain a family-court decision ordering the father to pay child maintenance. Overloaded courts, inadequate resources, putting children first: never mind all that. The important thing, apparently, is to stop M and her French child enjoying an ordinary family life.
In this case, at least, M already has that judgment. In summer 2024, just after her child's fifth birthday, we can finally submit her residence-permit application. I am confident: the hardest part is behind us, and we have everything needed for the application to be dealt with in good time.
But that is without reckoning with the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture: an administrative black hole.
Fifteen months after we submit the application, there is still complete silence. M has nothing but a “pre-submission” acknowledgement — overwhelmed they may be, but prefectures are certainly creative — which gives her no right to reside, no right to work, no entitlement to social benefits. Nothing.
We decide to add to the administrative courts' workload and bring proceedings to challenge the administration's silence. Knowing how long the main proceedings may take, we also apply for urgent interim relief in the hope of obtaining a quicker decision. That application is rejected, of course, for lack of urgency. You may recognise the familiar wording: the circumstances alone do not establish the particular circumstances required to demonstrate a need for a provisional measure at very short notice. Let me translate: a single mother raising her French child alone, without permission to work, has no urgent need for a residence document. She has already waited so long; she can wait a little longer.
So we wait another eight months — a relatively quick procedure — before finally obtaining a judgment ordering the Hauts-de-Seine prefect to issue M with a residence permit as the mother of a French child.
By her child's seventh birthday, M may finally be able to afford a small present.
Judgment of the Administrative Court of Cergy-Pontoise, 18 May 2026:
“Article 1: Ms […] is granted provisional legal aid.
Article 2: The implied decision by which the Prefect of Hauts-de-Seine refused Ms […]'s residence-permit application is annulled.
Article 3: The Prefect of Hauts-de-Seine is ordered to issue Ms […] with a temporary residence card bearing the endorsement ‘private and family life’ within two months of notification of this judgment.”
