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The circular of 21 September 2009 states, inter alia: ‘Under [Regulation No 562/2006] ..., pursuant to Articles [5(1)(b)], 7 and 13 thereof, checks must be made that the conditions of entry into the Schengen area of third-country nationals subject to a visa requirement are satisfied. Those conditions are possession of a visa or holding a “valid residence permit”. The definition of residence permit given in Article 2(15) of [Regulation No 562/2006] shows that that concept covers all documents permitting residence in the national territory of a Member State and re-entry into its territory, with the exception of temporary permits issued pending examination of a first application for a permit or pending examination of an application for asylum. The Conseil d’État has also held ... that a foreign national holding a document permitting residence in France, even temporarily, may leave France and return to it, provided that that permit has not expired, without having to apply for a visa. If the provisions of [Regulation No 562/2006] and the case-law of the Conseil d’État are read together, the following conclusion can be drawn: (1) the holder of the following documents may return freely into the Schengen area: (a) all temporary residence authorisations (with the single exception of residence authorisations issued in connection with examination of an application for asylum); (b) acknowledgements of receipt of applications for renewal of a residence permit. That information was, in accordance with Article 34 of [Regulation No 562/2006], notified by France to the European Commission so that the other Member States in the Schengen area could be notified. (2) the holder of the following documents may not return freely into the Schengen area, under the exception stated in Article 2(15) of [Regulation No 562/2006]: (a) residence authorisations issued in connection with examination of an application for asylum; (b) acknowledgements of receipt of a first application for a residence permit or of an application for asylum. Third-country nationals subject to a visa requirement and who have left France in possession of either a temporary residence authorisation issued in connection with examination of an application for asylum, or an acknowledgement of receipt of an application issued in the same context, or an acknowledgement of receipt of a first application for a residence permit, therefore cannot re-enter the Schengen area unless they are in possession of a visa. The rule in this area is the possession of a consular re-entry visa. That rule does not however preclude the possibility, in certain exceptional circumstances, that the prefectural authority may exercise its discretion in individual situations to issue, for easiness, a prefectural re-entry visa ... The exceptional cases of issue of such a visa may include, on submission of adequate supporting documents, cases of force majeure, business travellers, stagiaires, humanitarian cases, students during school or university vacations. It must however be borne in mind that with the exception of the prefectural re-entry visa issued to foreign children, which was the subject of notification to the European Commission ([Official Journal of the European Union] of 1 March 2008 [alien minors]), the prefectural re-entry visa normally authorises the crossing of Schengen area external borders only at a French point of entry. ...’