France has been living with one of the most striking contradictions of its public policy. On the one hand, the State proclaims, through the law of 26 January 2024 and the order of 21 May 2025 listing occupations and areas facing recruitment difficulties, the need to open the labour market to qualified foreign workers. On the other hand, consular authorities continue to refuse, through stereotyped decisions, long-stay visas to workers whose employer has already obtained a work authorisation after a thorough examination by the French administration itself.
Two cases, the same paralysis
A forestry company and its multi-skilled worker
A company specialised in tree pruning, forestry and agricultural work in south-west France holds strategic contracts with major public and semi-public operators. It faces a critical structural staff shortage, and all its national recruitment attempts have failed. It identifies in Morocco a 39-year-old multi-skilled agricultural worker with a vocational certificate and more than nine years of experience. The work authorisation is granted and a permanent contract is signed at a salary above the minimum wage.
In March 2026, the French consulate general in Casablanca refuses the visa: the information would be “incomplete or unreliable” and there would be a “risk of misuse of the purpose of the visa”.
A logging company and its qualified lumberjack
A family logging company in the Drôme has been unable to fill two lumberjack positions despite an offer published with France Travail. The candidate selected, a 26-year-old Moroccan lumberjack, has regular payslips, social security declarations and a formal work certificate. The work authorisation is granted. The visa is refused a few weeks later, with exactly the same pre-printed wording.
Two companies, two candidates, one standard decision.
Why these refusals are open to challenge
- The work authorisation already validates the job and the profile. The consulate’s role is not to re-examine the relevance of the recruitment, the reality of the job or the employer’s choices.
- The ground is generic. A ticked box, without reference to the documents in the file, does not constitute individual examination.
- The risk of misuse must be based on facts, not assumptions about age, marital status or nationality.
- Shortage occupations: refusing a worker recruited for a job officially listed as hard to fill weakens the coherence of public policy.
The economic cost
In our practice, the time taken by appeals often exceeds the employer’s needs: by the time the court rules, in many cases the employer and the employee have moved on. Small and medium-sized companies in shortage sectors are the first to suffer.
How to obtain the visa
1. Appeal to the Commission de recours contre les refus de visa within 30 days, with a complete file: work authorisation, contract, diplomas and certificates, payslips, social security records, proof of the employer’s recruitment efforts.
2. Action before the Administrative Court of Nantes, with a request for an injunction to issue the visa.
3. Référé-suspension when the start date of the job makes the situation urgent.
In several of our cases, the mere filing of the court action led the administration to issue the visa before the hearing. Read: Visa refusals in France: grounds, appeals and solutions and Work authorisation in France.
Need help with your case?
FATOU BABOU AVOCAT assists individuals, families and companies with visas, family reunification, residence permits and appeals against refusals, before consulates, prefectures and courts.
- Bordeaux office: 11 rue Galin, 33100 Bordeaux, France – +33 9 85 40 18 64 – contact@legalfb-avocat.fr
- Dakar office: 14 rue Woro Fila, Fann Hock, Dakar, Senegal – +221 77 173 69 05 / +221 33 844 29 16 – contact@fbavocat-sn.com
- Book an appointment online
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Rules, amounts and deadlines change regularly: always have your own situation checked by a lawyer.