What is the purpose of the Integration Curriculum for foreigners ?

The Integration Curriculum for foreign citizens is centered around the signature of a Republican Integration Contract (CIR), handled by the French Office for Migration and Integration (OFII). The OFII prescribes a volume of language training and delegates civic training to a third party in charge of dispensing it to the foreigners. All foreigners are not required to follow this integration curriculum : statuses considered as temporary and profiles considered as highly qualified are exempt.

The CIR is signed for a one-year duration, which coincides with the visa duration of the foreigner. If the integration curriculum has not been completed by the time a first residence permit application must be filed, a so-called “temporary” 1 year residence card will be issued. The underlying logic is that access to longer residence permits is conditioned to fulfilling these trainings.

The law of January 24, 2024 and the décret of July 8 2024 introduce mandatary end of curriculum exams. Starting January 1, 2026, the integration curriculum will become more than a simple, if often constraining, formality. It will turn into a real preparation for two end of period exams, whose validation target will be set by the government at their full discretion. People who have come to France to work will therefore need to prepare exams in a system that they may not know anything about.

In parallel, Article L433-1-1 of the Code of entry and stay of foreigners and right of asylum (CESEDA) catches our attention. This provision, which entered into force early 2024, forbids foreign citizens to renew their 1-year temporary residence permits more than thrice. Concretely, this article poses a limit to the number of fails accepted to the CIR exams. After three consecutive fails, or after receiving three one-year residence permits regardless of the reason (starting 2026, the multi-year residence card will no longer be granted automatically : the foreign applicant must request it explicitly), the Préfecture will no longer be allowed to renew the residence permit.

One cannot help but think about the 10 years resident card, which can be granted after 5 years of uninterrupted stay in France. By limiting to 4 years (one visa and 3 residence cards) the time allowed in France under a temporary permit, the legislator cuts off access to the resident card for these populations, to whom residence permit renewals will purely and simply be locked off. They will remain in France in complete marginality. And in complete illegality if the infraction of illegal stay were to be re-established, as it has recently been attempted, and as would wish a part of the political class, despite the fact that it has been considered unconstitutional.