French law does not provide detailed rules on the processing of statelessness claims, but OFPRA publishes brief guidance relating to statelessness applications on its website.650 If an application is approved, the stateless person will be granted a temporary residence permit and permission to work, and after three years with legal residence in France, will be eligible for a residence permit valid for 10 years.651 Negative decisions can be appealed on legal issues.652 Very few statelessness applications are submitted compared to the number of asylum applications. The approval rate of statelessness applications is generally approximately 30 percent.653 Persons granted residence permits based on statelessness benefit from: […] unrestricted access to the labour market, the possibility of family reunification with preferential conditions, access to health care and social benefits, as well as to all levels of education.654 However, negative aspects of France’s measures relating to statelessness include: […] claims for stateless status can only be submitted to the OFPRA office in Paris, in a written form and in the French language. French law does not recognise the concept of an ‘applicant for stateless status’; therefore, those claiming this form of protection (unlike asylum-seekers) are not provided with any temporary residence entitlement and accommodation services while their case is being processed. The claim does not even have a suspensive effect on expulsion measures, meaning that ad absurdum, an applicant can be deported or put in immigration detention during the procedure.655 With specific regards to Palestinians, the 2005 edition of this Handbook asserted that some Palestinians had been recognized as stateless persons in France, and granted ten-year residence permits after three years of residence in the country.656 More recently, in case 277373 from November 2006, the OFPRA concluded that the exclusion clause in the 1954 Stateless Persons Convention – which, similar to Article 1D, prevents persons receiving protection or assistance from agencies other than UNHCR from enjoying the benefits of the 1954 Convention – does not apply to Palestinians residing outside UNRWA’s area of operations, for such persons no 650 Ibid.; see also OFPRA, “Apatridie - Procédure,” accessed November 21, 2014, http://www.ofpra. gouv.fr/index.html?xml_id=186&dtd_id=13. 651 OFPRA, “Apatridie - Procédure.” 652 Gyulai, “Statelessness in the EU Framework for International Protection,” 290. 653 Ibid. 654 Ibid. 655 Ibid., 291. 656 BADIL, Closing Protection Gaps: A Handbook on Protection of Palestinian Refugees in States Signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention, 172. Survey of Protection at the National Level 131