France Granted More Visas in 2023 Compared to 2022

Last Thursday, the French Interior Ministry published a report on the increase in the number of immigrants who were granted visas to enter French soil in 2023, including student visas, residence permits and asylum requests.

The General Directorate of Foreigners in France reported in a report issued last Thursday that the number of visas granted by France to foreign citizens will increase in 2023.

The report published by the General Directorate of Foreigners which belongs to the French Interior Ministry stated that although the number of visas granted increased compared to 2022, the number remains far from the number granted before the “Covid 19” pandemic.

The number of visa applications to France in 2023 increased by 27.2%, while the number of visas granted increased by 40.4%. Chinese citizens rank first among the nationalities that obtained a visa to enter France, with an increase of 271.1% compared to 2022, and an increase of 327% compared to 2021.

In 2023, according to provisional data, France issued 2.4 million visas compared to 1.7 million in 2022, an increase of 40.4%. This number remains lower than the total number of visas issued before the health crisis. In 2019, France issued 3.5 million visas.

Moroccan citizens rank second, they obtained 241,571 French visas in 2023, with an increase of 69% compared to 2022.

Indians rank third, they obtained 213,500 French visas in 2023, representing an an increase of 59.8% compared to 2022.

As for the visas granted by the French authorities to Algerians in 2023, ranking fourth, according to the same report, they reached 209,723, with an increase of 59.8% compared to 2022.

The student visa is the first reason for granting a residence permit, followed by economic permits. Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are the main countries of origin of persons who were granted first residence permits.

Concerning immigrants in an irregular situation, 11,411 of them benefited from a permit relating to exceptional admission to stay. At the same time, 22,704 illegal immigrants left French territory. The total expulsions of illegal migrants is up compared to 2022 (+10.7% compared to 2022).

The number of asylum and naturalization demands is established from the information system (SI-Asile) deployed in one-stop centres for asylum applications (Guda) and supplemented by data from the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons ( Ofpra) and the National Court of Asylum (CNDA). In 2023, 167,432 requests (including minors) were made in Guda. This represents an increase of 7.5% compared to 2022. Afghanistan, Guinea and Turkey are the countries where the first asylum requests came from, the report said.

Ofpra and the CNDA issued 60,808 decisions granting protection status (refugee or subsidiary protection, excluding accompanying minors), an increase of 8.1% compared to 2022 (Ofpra recorded 142,496 requests for protection). asylum).

Regarding naturalizations, the number of acquisitions of French nationality by decree and declarations (marriage, French ascendants, etc.) decreases by 21.7% in 2023 compared to 2022. In total, 61,640 people acquired French nationality in 2022.

In 2019, the top three nationalities obtaining the largest number of French Visas were Chinese, Russian and Moroccan. That year witnessed a larger total number of visas granted to various nationalities reaching 3,534,999 compared to 2022 and 2023.

According to the statistics of the Naturalization Decree N° 0019 published in the Official Journal on January 24, 2024, the total number of naturalizations granted under this decree reached 178 with the Moroccans ranking top of the list.