Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
Paywall free

HEALTH

LATEST: France in lockdown: What are the rules and what is banned?

Since president Emmanuel Macron outlined the drastic measures France is taking to halt the spread of coronavirus, the rules have been tightened. Here is what daily life in France now looks like.

Published: 16 March 2020 21:46 CET
Updated: 24 March 2020 11:27 CET
LATEST: France in lockdown: What are the rules and what is banned?
French police will be controlling those leaving their homes. Photo: AFP

The French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe addressed the country in a televised speech on Monday evening, announcing new and firmer rules on the lockdown that entered into effect a week ago to try and halt the spread of the virus and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

 

The new rules were compiled in a decree signed by the PM that entered into force on Tuesday, March 24th – one week after the lockdown started.

Here is the latest information on what is and is not allowed.

French PM Edouard Philippe said the rules on leaving one's home during lockdown would be tightened in a televised speech on Monday. Photo: AFP

Stay home and avoid contact

This is the big one. Everyone in France has been ordered to stay inside their homes, venturing out only for essential reasons. The restrictions started at 12 noon on Tuesday, March 17th.

At present the lockdown is for 15 days, but health chiefs say this is highly likely to be extended.

People can only go out for the following reasons

  • To travel to and from work IF your work is essential and cannot be done from home
  • To buy food and essentials
  • To attend medical appointments – IF they cannot be postponed or done from afar (online sessions)
  • For vital family reasons 
  • For individual physical exercise, but this must be done alone and follow specific rules. For more on the types of exercise allowed, click here.
  • To attend a legal summation by French police, justice or official administration 

Anyone stepping out of their homes will need to present a certificate, available to download from the government's website, stating their reason for being out (although a hand written version will be accepted for those people who do not have printers).

People breaking these restrictions will face a fine of €135. On Sunday, authorities reported that police had issued move than 90,000 fines since the beginning of the lockdown.

France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has previously said the fine could rise to €375 if people continue to flout the rules.

According to the new decree, a second breach registered in the 15 days following the first breach will be punished with a €1,500 fine. Anyone who breaks the rules four times risk a €3,700 fine and up to six months in prison.

READ ALSO Lockdown permission form – how it works and where to find it

 

One hundred thousand police and gendarmes have been mobilised to effectuate controls. Roadblocks have been set up on both major and secondary routes to control cars driving by.

Social distancing

When people are out they need to practice social distancing – keeping at least 1m apart from the nearest person – including when waiting in a queue.

French authorities have urged people to continue to practice the health advice that was issued at the beginning of the outbreak

  • Cough or sneeze into your elbow
  • Use disposable tissues and throw them away
  • Wash your hands regularly, especially after being outside and before you eat
  • Do not shake hands, even from a distance of 1m away.

Remote working

All businesses are required to organise for their employees to work from home if at all possible, and adapt their business practices if necessary. Employees whose work genuinely cannot be done remotely are still permitted to travel to work, but will need to fill out both the travel form and a form outlining why their work is essential – available here.

Photo: AFP

Army deployed

Military personnel have been deployed to help health services in the Alsace region in north east France. The Grand Est is the worst affected area of the country with hospitals and medical services already overstretched.

Contrary to rumours, France has not been not put under martial law and soldiers will not for the moment be enforcing curfew measures. 

Travel ban

The European Union closed all external borders for 30 days from Tuesday at noon to curb the outbreak, though citizens of EU countries are allowed to return.

For the moment, the UK is exempt from this ban, although France's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says the country 'may find it difficult' to accept people from the UK if the country does not tighten its own controls. 

Travel around France is only permitted for essential reasons, although tourists are permitted to travel to a port or airport in order to get home.

Financial help

France had already announced a package of financial measures for both businesses and employees hit by the crisis, but these have now been stepped up further with the creation of a €450m fund for businesses – many of which face weeks of zero profits as they are not able to open.

In addition to the already announced tax breaks, businesses can also suspend payments on rent, gas and electricity.

READ ALSO What financial aid are France's small businesses and self-employed entitled to?

The 'partial unemployment' scheme has also been greatly enlarged so that anyone not able to work because of the crisis can claim benefits, while still having their job held open for them when things return to normal. Employers are barred from firing employees during this period.

Elections postponed

The second round of voting in France's municipal elections – due to take place on Sunday, March 22nd – has been postponed. 

Suspension of pension reform

In what he probably felt as a personal blow, Macron on Monday agreed to halt his pet project of reform of the French pension system, the highly divisive bill currently making its way through the French parliament (and the cause of the weeks of strike action in December and January). 

Member comments

  1. Why is the UK exempt? Does that mean hoards of germ infected British arriving for Easter. I do hope not.

  3. @Chez Moi No. Just being sensible. If want to come across real xenophobe, read the comments in the Daily Mail to see what they say about us French.

  4. The UK may not be exempt for long, the French Prime Minister has stated that they will not be allowed to enter France soon if the UK government does not take measures to restrict movement to the degree that countries in Continental Europe have. Time will tell if they follow through on that.

  6. Boggy. Over here in the grand est we are far more pissed off was th trainloads of Parisians arriving. My medicinn traitant is already knackered and we’ll just imagine the rest.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

SHOW COMMENTS