The candidate
Our client, a Senegalese national, is an industrial maintenance technician, married and father of two. He holds a technician’s diploma in electromechanics obtained in Dakar in 2011 and has nearly ten years of experience in the agri-food industry, first as a maintenance agent, then team leader, then maintenance supervisor in Guinea.
The recruitment
In France, an agri-food company had been publishing offers for a maintenance technician for months without finding a candidate, in one of the occupations where recruitment is hardest. It selected our client after a demanding process and offered him a permanent contract. The French administration validated the recruitment by granting a work authorisation in October 2023.
The refusals
In January 2024, the French consulate general in Dakar refused the visa, citing a risk that he would remain illegally in France and “unreliable” information. In May 2024, the Commission de recours contre les refus de visa confirmed the refusal on other grounds: his profile would not match the job, the company would have filed several similar applications at the same time, and his diplomas would be doubtful because they predated his current birth certificate, drawn up in 2013.
The explanation was simple: like many inhabitants of his municipality, our client had been the victim of a massive fraud at the local civil registry, widely reported in the press. His birth record had been reconstituted by court decision in 2013, identically: same name, same date and place of birth, same parents.
The court’s decision
By judgment of 28 September 2026, the Administrative Court of Nantes ruled in our client’s favour:
- his diplomas and experience match the job; the fact that they predate his birth certificate does not undermine them, since he had a previous record affected by the fraud;
- the suspicion about the employer was not established: the administration produced no evidence of the simultaneous applications it alleged;
- the refusal was annulled and the Minister of the Interior must issue the visa within three months, with €1,200 awarded in legal costs.
Lessons
- A refusal must be based on facts: an assertion unsupported by any document cannot justify it.
- A reconstituted civil status is not a doubtful civil status.
- A career path is proved document by document: diplomas, work certificates, payslips.
But more than two and a half years passed between the consular refusal and the judgment. Read: The lives behind visa refusals.
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.