If your order was issued in Seine-et-Marne or Val-de-Marne, the Melun administrative court will rule on it. Here are the deadlines that apply, how hearings run there, and what the firm does for you.
The competent court depends on the department where the decision was taken — not on your current address or where you were stopped.
People held at the Mesnil-Amelot facility fall under Montreuil (centre no. 3) or Melun (centre no. 2). Decisions taken within the Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport area fall under Montreuil; those of Orly airport fall under Melun.
The Melun administrative court covers two departments: Seine-et-Marne and Val-de-Marne. Created in 1996 to relieve Paris and Versailles, it has chambers dedicated to immigration cases and an urgent-applications chamber.
It is therefore a court with two prefectures: your order may come from Melun or from Créteil, with distinct practices. Orly airport also falls within its jurisdiction, as does detention centre no. 2 at Le Mesnil-Amelot — no. 3 falling under Montreuil.
If your claim is dismissed, the appeal goes to the Paris administrative court of appeal — no longer Versailles, since 1 September 2020. That matters: the Paris court’s case law is not identical to that of Versailles, and it is the one to keep in mind from the first instance onwards.
The deadline does not depend on the court and, since 15 July 2024, no longer depends on whether a voluntary departure period was granted: it depends on your situation. It runs from notification, and it is strict.
Two derogations apply in detention: five days for a foreign national who no longer has the right to remain under paragraph 3 of Article 68 of Regulation EU 2024/1348, and seven days where a transfer decision to another European State has been taken (art. R. 921-2-1).
Two departments, two prefectures: check on your order which one issued it. That is what shapes the argument, not where you live.
Always rely on the address and time printed on your summons — turning up at the wrong place on the day of the hearing can cost you the case.
Do not confuse two summonses. The hearing on your detention — before the sitting judge of the judicial court, who reviews the deprivation of liberty — is not held in this court but in a delocalised annex next to the detention facility at Le Mesnil-Amelot, and has been since October 2013.
The Melun administrative court, for its part, rules on the OQTF itself, on its own premises. The two sets of proceedings run in parallel, with distinct deadlines: forty-eight hours to apply to the administrative judge, ninety-six hours to challenge the detention order before the judicial judge. Detention centre no. 2 at Le Mesnil-Amelot falls under this court.
Detention: your rights and the deadlines, in detailAppeals against removal orders are usually heard by a single judge, in sessions where several cases follow one another. Yours will rarely last more than fifteen to twenty minutes.
Your presence is not compulsory, but it counts: the judge may ask you about your life in France, your family, your work. A strong case argued before an empty chair loses some of its force.
Bring identity documents and the original of your order. The firm prepares you for the questions and stands with you before the court.
Before Melun as elsewhere, everything turns on the quality of the file and on meeting the deadline:
Send us your order: within 24 hours the firm tells you which deadline applies and which grounds can be raised.
This page is for information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Deadlines and procedures depend on the exact content of your order and on the date it was notified.