French Sous-Prefecture refused to lodge the applications of my parents for the residence card

[jinyasha]

The French Sous-Prefecture refused to lodge the applications of my parents for the residence card (Carte de Sejour) as the family member of an EU citizen.

I'm Irish. I work and live in France. My parents are Chinese. They came to join me in France in October. We want to get the residence card for my parents as the family member of an EU citizen.

We went to the Sous-Prefecture to apply for the residence card for my parents as the family member of an EU citizen today 17 November. This is already the 3rd time we are here for this. According to the list of required documents from the Sous-Prefecture (Liste de Pieces Justificativs), we need to provide the justification of the right to stay of the host (Justificatif du droit de sejour de l'accueillant). So we provide my work contract in France and my last 3 pay slips. But the staff at the Sous-Prefecture told us that we need to provide the work contracts of my parents. I told them that I'm the host to my parents, my parents are the family member of me, an EU citizen, and we only need to provide my work contract as the justification of my right to stay. The staff at the Sous-prefecture insisted that we need to provide the work contracts of my parents. If the staff were right, it meant that France required every family member of an EU citizen to have his/her own work contracts for them to have the right to stay in France. This can not be the case. It's clearly a breach of my EU rights for the Sous-Prefecture to refuse to lodge the applications of my parents as the family member of an EU citizen on the ground that we can't provide the work contracts of my parents.

The first time we were at the Sous-Prefecture on 25 October, the staff told us that we need to provide my last 3 pay slips. The second time on 31 October, we were told that I need to provide my Irish tax return document to accompany my birth certificate because my birth certificate is from China. We were also told that we need to provide the marriage certificate of my parents. These requirements at least have some ground, however flimsy. The requirement on the work contracts of my parents has no ground at all.

Here is a link from the website of the Prefecture that clearly states that the document required is 'Justificatif de votre droit au séjour en tant qu’accueillant en France ' (Justification of your right to stay as the host in France), http://www.hauts-de-seine.gouv.fr/Demar ... nce#F19315.

I want to make a complaint to the French authority about this. Does anyone know where I can start? Is there a place in the sous-prefecture that I can lodge my complaint? Or there is an ombudsman at national level that I should go directly to? Any information is helpful. Thanks in advance.

[mgb]

There is a link to a circular of 10 september 2010 on the right side of this webpage from the french ministry of interior.
https://www.demarches.interieur.gouv.fr ... html#F2651
Maybe this writing can help.
A complaint to the ministry of interior should be possible via the contact page.

[jinyasha]

Thanks. I will try to make a complaint to the interior ministry.
If someone knows other channels for making a complaint, I would like to know about it.