Collective French Punishment For Algerian Visa Applicants In 2025

A French official document showed that Paris imposed collective punishment on Algerian visa applicants, and no one else from other nationalities, in 2025. In fact, it increased the quotas granted to many of them compared to 2024, as they were granted 204,248 visas, a decrease of 18.3 percent compared to the previous year.

In this context, a document from the Directorate General for Foreigners at the French Ministry of Interior, dated January 27, 2026, concerning the provisional migration balance for 2025, which “Echorouk” reviewed, indicates that Algerians were the exception in North Africa in terms of long-term visas granted for economic reasons (work). Visas were granted to Algerians for this reason at only 9.4 percent, while the percentage for Tunisian nationals rose to 27.9 percent and the same percentage for Moroccan nationals.

These data clearly indicate that Paris grants work visas to Moroccan and Tunisian nationals significantly more than their Algerian counterparts, which confirms the existence of political considerations in this type of file.

Regarding long-term visas granted for family reasons, the document shows that the media storms raised by French media regarding the large number of files related to Algerians who obtained family reunification visas and others are unfounded. This is evidenced by the fact that 42 percent of the visas granted to Tunisians were for family reasons, compared to 28.8 percent for Algerians.

As for long-term study visas, they represented 48.7 percent of this category of visas granted to Algerians in 2025, which reflects the previous figures issued by the French embassy regarding the increase in the number of study visas granted to Algerian students, in a clear and premeditated effort by Paris to attract Algerian competencies, talents, and brains.

Overall, the total number of visas granted to Algerian nationals by the three French consulates in 2025 decreased by 18.3 percent compared to 2024. Algerians were at the forefront in terms of the percentage of visa reduction among all other nationalities, many of which, on the contrary, saw their quotas increase.

In detail, Algerians received 204,248 visas in 2025, a decrease of 18.3 percent compared to 2024, during which they were granted 250,085 visas, meaning a decrease of 45,837 visas.

In the North Africa region, the number of visas granted to Tunisian nationals increased by about 11 percent in 2025, totaling 119,887 visas, after being around 108,138 in 2024.

The same applies to Moroccans, as the visas granted to them increased by 6.1 percent to reach 300,117 visas, compared to 282,993 in 2024.

The document did not mention the percentage or number of rejected applications, but a previous report by the Senate (the upper house of the French Parliament), issued on September 24, 2025, had exposed the extent of discrimination against Algerians in visa applications, revealing high rejection rates compared to their neighbors, reaching 34.8 percent in 2024, more than double the national rejection rate in France, which was 16.8 percent.

The report then pointed out that the rejection rate for visa applications for Algerians reached 34.8 percent during 2024, which is a catastrophic rate when compared to neighboring countries, as Tunisia recorded a rejection rate of 21.2 percent, and Morocco did not exceed 12.5 percent.

The figures for rejected visa applications for nationals of the three North African countries illustrate how France treats these countries with unbalanced standards, a clear indication of “selectivity” in managing consular policy.

According to the same report, the three French consulates in Algeria granted 250,095 visas in 2024. With a simple calculation, considering the rejection rate, it becomes clear that the number of submitted applications reached 383,680, meaning that 133,548 applications were rejected.