up to eight months of waiting for identity papers

In front of the town hall of Argenteuil (Val-d’Oise), all had to wait for months to file their file. The whole of France is concerned. Between the deposit of a file in town hall and the production of papers at the national printing office, it takes an average of 50 days of waiting for a passport or an identity card. The Ministry of the Interior suggests an effect “post Covid” : many French people have postponed the renewal of their papers. There would thus be a million additional requests to process.

Most administrations are taken by surprise, as in Cahors, in the Lot. For the past few months, a town hall employee has said that she has been overwhelmed between appointments, the investigation of files and calls from worried citizens. “We realized that we had requests from very far away, from Paris, certainly from people who came to spend the stay. (…) Today, what we lack are human resources”, explains Jean-Marc Vayssouze-Faure, mayor (PS) of the city. The State has not yet granted any budget to the communities to shorten the deadlines.