COPY LINK

BREXIT

EXPLAINED: What does the delay in launching the carte de séjour website mean for British residents in France?

The French government announced suddenly on Friday that its new online portal for residency applications for British citizens - scheduled to go live in July - would be delayed for three months. So what does this mean for British people living here?

Published: 30 June 2020 15:40 CEST

EXPLAINED: What does the delay in launching the carte de séjour website mean for British residents in France?

Photo: AFP

Since the UK first voted to leave the EU four years ago, there has been much uncertainty for British people living in France – or those planning to move here – about their status.

And an announcement on Friday that online residency applications for Brits would be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic has caused further confusion and worry – but what does this delay actually mean and what do we know about the process?

What's new?

The French government previously announced that all carte de séjour (residency permit) applications for British people would be made via a special online portal. This is still the case, but instead of opening up in July as planned, the portal will now not go live until October.

The goverment says this is because authorities are still dealing with a backlog of residency permit applications from people of other nationalities which built up during the lockdown when government offices were closed. They say delaying the opening of the site until October will give them time to clear this backlog and ensure that British applicants don't wait too long.

How does this delay affect the deadline?

It doesn't. There are in effect two 'deadlines' for British residents and neither are affected by the site delay.

The first deadline is December 31st, 2020 and this is the date by which you must be legally resident in France to be covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. So anyone planning a move to France needs to do so by this date in order to benefit from the more generous residency provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement. This date marks the end of the transition period, assuming it is not extended.

By that date you need to be legally resident in France – this is not quite the same as simply being on French soil, check out the qualifications for legal residency here.

The second deadline is June 30th, 2021 and by this date all British people living in France need to have made their application for a carte de séjour.

Crucially this deadline is for you to have made your application, not for you to have received the card.

So if you do get stuck in an administrative backlog (and we all know that French bureaucracy is not always the fastest) there is no need to panic if your card does not arrive before July 2021, as long as you have got your application in then you are covered.

How does the delay affect the process?

Again, the actual process of applying for the card does not change, it just means that you can't now start until October.

Every British person in France needs to use the online portal to get a new residency card, although if you already have a carte de séjour permenant the process is more straightforward and is largely just a swap of the old card for a new one.

Everyone else needs to make a new application and you can find out more about how to do that here.

Everyone makes their application on the site, and applications are then passed to the préfecture where you live for processing.

Anyone who successfully made their application on the no-deal website that was briefly live in October last year should have received an email earlier this year informing them that their application will be transferred to the new system – so those people do not need to make a fresh application.

How long will it take to get the card?

This is a good question, but unfortunately not one that we can answer at this stage. Many people who applied for residency cards shortly after the initial Brexit vote experienced long delays, which is the reason a lot of people were concerned about a delay in opening the website.

Although we have not seen the new site yet, it is modelled on the online application process for a no-deal Brexit that was briefly online in October last year. People who used that site noticed that it was considerably more straightforward than the local procedures and asked for a lot less in the way of supporting paperwork – meaning that in theory it should be quicker to process.

However the actual application will be processed by individual préfectures, so there may well be wide variations in processing times depending on the workload of the préfectures involved. Some préfectures – including Dordogne – that have a high number of British residents have received funding for extra staff to process applications but many others have not, so officials will be processing these applications in addition to their normal workload.

But as outlined above, the July 2021 deadline is the deadline to have submitted the application, not to have received the card. So if you find yourself caught in a administrative backlog you will not be penalised for this.

Should you be worried?

The uncertainty surrounding the process has made this a stressful past four years for British residents in France, and of course another delay is not ideal.

However citizens' rights expert Kalba Meadows of the group France Rights says there is no need to panic.

“We completely understand that people are worried by the delay,” she told The Local.

“But just to put things into context: less than a handful of countries have so far begun implementing the citizens' rights part of the Withdrawal Agreement. Some don't intend to begin until January 2021 while others still haven't set a date. So even with a start date of October 1st France will still be one of the earliest to begin implementation, and we will have nine months to make our applications.

“There is no reason why even 200,000 people – which we believe is the upper end guesstimate of the British population figure in France – should not be able to apply within a nine month period.

“The other thing to note is that three months has been taken off the application time, NOT the time available for processing. There is no deadline within which préfectures must process applications – the date of June 30th 2021 is the date by which you must apply, NOT the period during which applications must be decided. We will be deemed to have the right of residence until our applications are processed – whenever that is, and we will have a certificate of application which will prove this.”

For more information on residency, citizenship, healthcare and driving after Brexit, head to our Preparing for Brexit section.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

9 things Brits need to know about moving to France since Brexit

Brits who want to move to France now face a radically different process from those who took advantage of EU freedom of movement to make the move before Brexit.

It’s a more complicated process – but it’s still possible and 8,700 UK nationals moved to France in 2023.

Here are some of the big things you need to know before making the move.

1 Visa

The biggest post-Brexit change is that Brits moving to France now require a visa (unless they have dual nationality with an EU country).

The visa must be applied for first, and only when it is granted can you make the move – you cannot come to France and then apply for residency (unless you are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement, more on that below).

There are various different types of visas depending on what you intend to do in France – work, study, retire etc – and many of them contain conditions eg people on a ‘visitor’ visa are not permitted to work in France.

It makes things less flexible as it’s harder to change your plans once you have arrived. It also means that it’s harder to have a ‘half and half’ lifestyle – eg retire from your day job and move to France to run a gîte or B&B.

Explained: What type of French visa do you need

The best visa type is undoubtedly the ‘Talent Passport’, so it’s worth checking whether you fit any of the criteria for this visa type.

2 Residency card

Once you have your visa and have moved to France this is very far from being the end of the process.

You will need to apply for a residency card after a certain period (usually three months but different visa types have different rules) and according to your personal situation you may also be required to attend a compulsory medical, language classes and ‘integration’ classes through the French office of immigration and integration (OFII) – more on that here.

3 Health cover

When it comes to health there is some good news – Brits have retained many of their pre-Brexit rights to healthcare.

While you may need to provide proof of private health cover for your visa (depending on the visa type) once you have been resident in France for three months you are entitled to register in the French health system, which covers most of your medical costs.

Full details on how to register HERE.

Brits who are retired and have reached UK pension age also retain their right to an S1 – the status which entitles you to register in the French health system, while the UK continues to pay your medical costs.

4 Remote working

The rise in remote working means that the dream of moving abroad seems much closer for working-age people – since you will be able to work remotely in your native language, maybe even keep your existing job and simply relocate.

While this is possible, you need to do careful research in advance to ensure that work is compliant with your visa and tax situation. Unlike some countries, France does not have a ‘digital nomad visa’ or other visa types aimed at remote workers, in fact the visa rules were written before remote working became widespread, which is why there are some grey areas.

Most lawyers advise getting a working visa (salarié if you are working remotely for a French company as an employee, or auto-entrepreneur for freelancers) and paying social contributions in France. Find full details on visa and tax implications.

You also need to be aware that being a remote working can have an effect on your long-term plans in France – for example if after five years of residence you intend to apply for French citizenship you will need to prove that the ‘centre of your economic activity’ in in France. If all your work is done remotely for foreign companies then this could be a reason to have citizenship refused.

5 Working restrictions

If you want to work in France (remotely or not) you first need to check if there are any restrictions on your profession – certain types of work are ‘regulated professions’ in France, which means you will need specific French qualifications and/or registration within a French guild or professional organisation. The number of professions that are ‘regulated’ is surprisingly wide – taking in everything from chimney sweeping to hairdressing.

The next step is whether your qualifications will be recognised in France – EU countries generally recognise most of each other’s qualifications apart from in certain specific areas like medicine, but this is no longer the case for qualifications gained in the UK – more details here.

There are also certain jobs that are restricted to French citizens only, while others – including working in the public sector in positions including being a librarian – are limited to EU citizens only.

In visa terms, the simplest way for working-age people to come to France is as a salarié (employee) but to do this you will need a job already in place and your new employers will have to act as sponsors for your visa and may also be required to get a work permit for you. All of which means that Brits are less attractive as employees than EU citizens, which makes getting a job harder.

The other option is to be self-employed as either a freelancer, contractor or running a small business – this is a more complicated visa to get, requiring a detailed business plan. Once in France you need to register yourself as a small business/self-employed and register with Urssaf.

6 Tax

If you are living in France, then you will need to do the annual income tax declaration – even if all your income comes from abroad and you are retired/not working in France.

Full details on that HERE.

This was in fact the case before Brexit as well but previously there was a little more flexibility for people who split their time between France and the UK. These days if you want to be here for the majority of the year then you will need a visa/residency card, which removes much of the ambiguity about who is a ‘resident’.

The main post-Brexit difference is the rate at which prélèvements sociaux (social charges, similar to National Insurance) are charged on overseas income (eg earnings from work in the UK or income from renting out a UK property).

The rate is 7.5 percent for income from an EU country and 17.2 percent for income from a non-EU country – after Brexit, UK income switched to the non-EU rate.

7 Driving licence

Foreigners who make France their home will sooner or later need to swap their driving licence for a French one. This too was the case even before Brexit, but many UK or NI licence holders never got round to making the switch, and there wasn’t a lot of enforcement of the rule.

This has now been tightened up and UK/NI licence holders will need to swap their licences for a French one – the exact details of when you make the swap are slightly different for Brits than from other non-EU nationals due to a specific UK-France deal. Find full details HERE.

If you want to bring a car with you from the UK to France, you will also need to re-register it as French – full details HERE.

8 Banks

Most people moving to France will want to set up a French bank account for daily life, but you may also need a UK account, especially if you are a pensioner as some pensions will only pay into a UK account.

However since Brexit some of the biggest UK high street banks have been closing the accounts of their customers who do not live in the UK.

Alternatives include specific ‘expat’ accounts or internet banks – more details HERE.

9 The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement

It’s worth mentioning the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement even though most of it will not apply to newcomers. In brief, the citizens’ rights part of the Withdrawal Agreement covered people who moved to France prior to December 31st 2020, and intended to give them an easy way to remain in France and retain at least some of their pre-Brexit rights.

In general it does not apply to newcomers unless you are a close family member of someone who is covered by the Withdrawal Agreement – either a spouse or civil partner (in which case you must have married/ registered your partnership prior to December 31st 2020) or child. These people have a different path to residency, and can arrive in France and then request residency via the local préfecture of the family member who is already living here.

It’s also worth mentioning because of how different it is to the situation for new arrivals. It’s normal to ask Brits already living in France how they found the whole process – but if someone starts to tell you that getting residency is easy, the first question that you need to ask is when they moved here.

Those here prior to 2021 did indeed get an easy process – they had a special website to apply online for (free) residency cards and received straight away either a 5-year or 10-year card. This is a totally difference process to the one for Brits moving to France now.

If you’re asking around you would be better talking to Americans, Canadians or other non-EU nationals since their process is much more similar to that now in place for Brits.

. . . And new deals/visas/residency permits for Brits

Every now and again UK media will report which great excitement the possibility of a ‘new deal’ for Brits that will make moving to France, or buying a second home here, easier.

These reports should all be taken with a pinch of salt – there are currently no negotiations underway that would affect the process of Brits moving to France, and even if something is proposed in the near future it will likely take years to come into effect because these types of international agreements usually happen slowly.

A proposal for a ‘youth mobility scheme’ from the EU was rejected out of hand by British politicians before it had even been formally offered.

SHOW COMMENTS

Url copied to clipboard!