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The myths you shouldn’t believe about the rights of Brits in France after Brexit

The post-Brexit situation for Britons living in or visiting France is complicated, and not helped by a series of persistent myths, rumours and wrong information. Here we separate the facts from the fiction.

Published: 23 April 2021 13:56 CEST
Updated: 23 April 2021 14:56 CEST

The myths you shouldn't believe about the rights of Brits in France after Brexit

It wasn't just the flags that needed to be rearranged after Brexit. Photo: François Walschaerts/AFP

For Brits who lived in France before December 31st, 2020:

I’m married to a French person so I don’t need to apply for residency

All British nationals who were living in France before December 31st 2020 have to apply for the residency card known as the carte de séjour – even if they have been here a long time or are married to a French person.

The only exception to this is Brits who have dual nationality with an EU country eg France, Ireland etc.

The deadline to have made the application is September 30th, 2021 (extended from June 30th) and you can find out how to apply HERE.

I already have a European Carte de séjour so I don’t need a new one

Some Brits already applied for a carte de séjour before 2020 on the basis that they were EU citizens. However these cards are no longer valid for Brits and have to be exchanged for a new carte de séjour – this card is a specific one for Brits covered by the Withdrawal Agreement.

You make the application to exchange on the same online portal as those applying for a new card and it is a fairly simple swap process. Full details HERE.

If I apply for a residency card I will have to start paying tax in France

Not necessarily. Virtually everyone who is a permanent resident in France must fill out the annual tax declaration – this applied to British residents before Brexit and getting a carte de séjour does not change that. Whether you pay tax or not depends on your sources of revenues and whether they are taxed in the UK or not.

You can find full information in our tax declaration guides HERE.

I can keep my main residence in the UK and still apply for a carte de séjour

The Withdrawal Agreement carte de séjour is for people whose main home is in France. Many Brits with property in France have got used to splitting their time roughly 50/50 between France and the UK, but the British government’s decision to end freedom of movement for its citizens means that people now need to make a decision on which country is their place of residence. Here are some things to consider when making that decision.

“Tax residency” – the threshold at which you can be liable to pay tax in a country – is not the same as having residency status via a carte de sejour.

I’m unemployed so I can’t apply for residency

If you are unemployed and registered at the Pôle emploi (the French unemployment office) you can still apply as a jobseeker for a post-Brexit carte de séjour.

If you have never worked in France you apply as “economically inactive” – the category which includes pensioners. Depending on how long you have been in France, you may need to show some proof of your resources (more details below).

I need private health insurance before I can apply for a residency card

Only people who have been in France for less than five years and are not working need to supply proof of health cover and it is sufficient to be registered within the French health system, no additional health insurance is required.

This confusions seems to have arisen due to an early mistranslation in the English-language version of the online portal for residency applications. France’s state health insurance system is known as Assurance maladie, and the English-language portal used the literal translation of this – health insurance – which lead many Brits to believe that they needed additional private insurance. In fact, being registered in the French system and having a carte vitale is sufficient.

I only have a basic UK pension so probably won’t qualify for residency under the income requirements

This has probably been the biggest worry for many Brits, especially as the requirements were not finally clarified until the residency application site went live in October 2020.

The majority of people do not have to provide proof of their financial resources, but one group does – those who have lived here for less than five years and are not working (eg pensioners).

The French have lowered some of the standard income requirements and allowed couples to use joint resources to apply. In cases where people are under the income threshold, assets such as mortgage-free property will be taken into account.

Find the exact amounts needed HERE.

Applying for residency will be a French bureaucratic nightmare and I’ll have to supply several trees’ worth of documents

French bureaucracy has a bit of a reputation for being slow and cumbersome, but Brits who have already applied under this system have been struck by its – relative – simplicity and speed. The Interior Ministry has scaled back the number of supporting documents required and set up an online portal specifically for Brits.

Read the experiences of people who have used the system HERE.

The above answers all relate to people who were living in France prior to December 31st 2020, for people moving after that date, click HERE.

But what about non-residents – British second-home owners, Brits who do short-term work in Europe or just those who enjoy lengthy trips to France?

There are also some persistent myths surrounding these groups

I live in the UK but own property here, so I don’t need a visa for visits

This is a common trope, but unfortunately simply owning property in France does not give you any extra rights when it comes to border controls and immigration rules.

British second-home owners are now covered by the 90-day rule, which limits visits to 90 days in every 180 (either in one block or several shorter visits).

Anyone who wants to stay longer than that without taking up residency needs a visa. The only exception to this is Brits who have dual nationality with an EU country.

You can find a full explanation of the 90-day rule HERE and a guide to getting a visa HERE.

I don’t need a visa for visits if I don’t intend to work in France

Visas are required even for people who don’t intend to work here if you want to stay for longer than 90 days out of every 180. There are various different types of visa, but second-home owners who simply want to enjoy lengthy visits to their property would probably want a visitor visa.

I need a work permit for work undertaken in France, even if it’s only for a few weeks

Not necessarily. If you intend to work in France without taking up permanent residency – ie as a freelancer, contractor or taking business trips or cultural tours – you may need a work permit, but there are some sectors that are exempt from the requirement.

If you work for less than 90 days out of every 180 in France then you don’t need a visa, but if you work in multiple countries bear in mind that the 90-day limit applies to the whole EU Bloc, not just France, and each EU country has different visa and work permit requirements.

Find a full explanation of who needs a work permit in France HERE.

I have an International Driver’s Permit so I don’t need to swap my driving licence for a French one

If you are visiting France as a tourist or second-home owner then you can continue to drive on your UK licence and don’t need an International Driver’s Permit.

For residents in France who have a UK licence the situation is more complicated. This group will have to swap their licence for a French one by the end of 2021, but at present an impasse on reciprocal agreements to swap licences between the French and British governments mean no applications for a swap are being accepted.

Residents can continue to drive on a UK licence in the meantime, so most people just need to wait and hope an agreement is reached soon. For those whose UK licence has expired or is about to expire, however, the situation is grim with no immediate resolution in sight, despite pleas and petitions to the British government.

An International Driver’s Permit is not a substitute for a licence, and cannot be used if the licence it is attached to is expired or no longer valid.

If you have questions on Brexit, head to our Dealing with Brexit section or email us at [email protected]

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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.

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