Towards a Private Sponsorship Model in France

Private sponsorship feasibility study

The study describes how complementary pathways for refugee admission in France have progressively developed. France has considerably expanded its offer of legal pathways since 2015. They are mostly ‘bottom-up’ and ad-hoc initiatives that are based on the longstanding government practice to issue long-stay visas with a view to the recipient then requesting international protection in France. Although these initiatives have not been formalised, they provide the grounds for further developing a sustainable private sponsorship programme, complementary to the resettlement programmes, and that fully take into account the protection needs of refugees.