ANEF: the new online titre de séjour portal, and why your status keeps changing
ANEF is the portal that replaced most paper titre de séjour renewals. Here's how to read the statuses, what an attestation de prolongation does, and what to do when the dossier stalls.
Since 2024 most préfectures have shifted titre de séjour renewals, changes of status, and certain first-issue dossiers to the ANEF online portal (Administration numérique des étrangers en France). The shift cut paper queues but introduced a new vocabulary of statuses and notifications that nobody explained, plus a stack of email-PDFs that look identical at a glance. This guide is for the day you log in and your status has changed and you have no idea why.
Where ANEF actually lives
The portal is at administration-etrangers-en-france.interieur.gouv.fr. You sign in with FranceConnect (Impôts, Ameli, La Poste, MSA, MobileConnect) or a dedicated account if you don't have FranceConnect yet. Every notification ANEF sends arrives both as a portal message AND as an email to the address you used to register — but the legal weight of the deadline counts from the portal message date, not the email date.
The status vocabulary
Attestation de prolongation d'instruction
Probably the most useful ANEF artefact for the renewal anxiety months. If your existing titre is about to expire and ANEF hasn't decided, you can download an attestation de prolongation that legally extends your stay rights for 3 months at a time. Renewable. Counts as a valid residence document for banks, employers, landlords, and Schengen-zone travel. Get it from the portal as soon as you see your titre is within 60 days of expiry.
When the dossier stalls
Stalls past the published median processing time (usually 4 months for renewals, 6-8 for first issues) are common but workable.
- Send a polite relance via the portal messaging. Reference the date of submission and the current status. Agents do read these.
- Apply for an attestation de prolongation if your existing titre is within 60 days of expiry. This unblocks employment and travel even if the dossier is still pending.
- If you've passed 9 months on a renewal with no movement, you can file a référé-mesures utiles at the tribunal administratif — a fast-track injunction asking the préfecture to decide. Win rate on these is high.
- Contact your CIMADE, GISTI, or local immigration solidarity association. They have monthly meetings with préfectures and can flag your file directly.
Don't lose your access to the portal
Use the same FranceConnect identity (and the same email under it) for the entire dossier. Switching FranceConnect providers mid-procedure creates a parallel account and your dossier appears empty, which triggers polite panic. If you do need to switch, contact ANEF support via the portal BEFORE deleting the old account.
When in doubt
ANEF PDFs all look alike: bleu marianne header, dense legal French, a deadline somewhere on page 2. Photograph the PDF (or upload it directly) into Mes Papiers and we'll surface the type (request / decision / convocation), the deadline, and the next step — whether that's reply with documents, collect the titre, contest the refus, or download a fresh attestation.