COPY LINK

BREXIT

What to do if you have missed France’s Brexit residency deadlines

Since Brexit, there have been big changes for Brits living in France, and the French government has put in place a number of deadlines for paperwork - with those deadlines now passed, what should you do if you missed them?

Published: 21 January 2022 16:41 CET

What to do if you have missed France's Brexit residency deadlines

Photo: Oliver Hoslet/AFP

The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement guaranteed that Brits already legally resident in France before the end of the Brexit transition period (December 31st 2020) could stay here.

There was, however, an important caveat – those who were resident had to apply for a new post-Brexit residency card in order to regularise their status.

Brexit Withdrawal Agreement – what is it and does it cover me?

This applied to everyone – even people who had previously held a European carte de séjour residency card, people who have been here a long time, and those married to French nationals.

Those who previously had residency rights through a British family member (eg an American on a spouse visa connected to their British spouse) must also apply for the new card.

There were only a very few exceptions;

Under 18s (who must apply once they turn 18)
Brits who have dual nationality with France or another EU country
In certain circumstances, diplomats or posted workers are exempt

The deadline to have applied for the new post-Brexit residency card was September 30th 2021, and the deadline to be in possession of the card was January 1st 2022. Those living in France without the card are considered to be living in France illegally.

But if you’re reading this article with mounting horror and realising that you missed the deadline, what should you do?

It depends on your circumstances;

The online portal set up to deal with post-Brexit residency applications is now closed, but there are two groups who can apply directly to their local préfectures.

Under 18s – a residency card is only required for over 18s. But British children who were living in France before December 31st 2020 are entitled to apply for the post-Brexit residency card as soon as they turn 18.

The application is done directly to their local préfecture and requires only ID documents and proof that they were in France before December 31st 2020, such as a school enrollment card.

Family members – Brits who were living in France before December 31st 2020 have the right to be joined later by close family members, including spouses or partners.

This application is done directly at the local préfecture and requires proof that the relationship began before December 31st 2020 – this needs to be legal proof so we’re talking things like marriage certificates, rather than holiday snaps. You also need proof that the partner/family member is covered by the Withdrawal Agreement and has their post-Brexit residency paperwork.

You can find more detail HERE on paperwork requirements.

Others

If you don’t fall into one of the above categories, you were living in France before December 31st 2020 and you don’t have the new post-Bexit carte de séjour residency card then the likelihood is that you are now an undocumented migrant and could be committing an immigration offence.

Already applied

If you have applied for your status but don’t have the card, then you need to contact your local préfecture as a matter of urgency. If you have proof that your application was made before the deadline then you won’t be in any legal trouble, but you do need to chase up your application and get the card as soon as possible.

The great majority of the roughly 200,000 applications received have now been processed, but there have been some administrative glitches where people’s applications have been lost or – in the case of people who applied on the no-deal portal that was briefly live in October 2019 – not correctly transferred onto the new system.

The proof of application refers only to those who made the application on the special website that went fully live in 2020. All Brits were required to apply on this, and applications made directly to préfectures pre 2020 are not valid.

Not applied

It was a legal requirement to have made your application before the deadline date of September 30th 2021.

However, the political rhetoric coming from the French government has – so far – been quite sympathetic to Brits caught up in Brexit upheavals.

But if you are in breach of the requirements then the onus is on you to sort this out, and the sooner you do this the more sympathetic reception you are likely to receive.

The first step is to approach your local préfecture – take all relevant paperwork including proof of residency in France before December 31st 2021 and be ready to explain, with supporting documentation if you have it, why you did not apply in time.

There is a provision in the Withdrawal Agreement for late applications to be made, but it is vague when it comes to accepted reasons for the late application.

The French government states only “you were unable to make your request for legitimate reasons (for example, reasons related to your state of health, force majeure etc”.

Force majeure is also the phrase used in the Withdrawal Agreement, and the key is that it’s a major event that made it impossible for you to apply in time.

If you are worried that your French is not up to complicated conversations with the préfecture, there are a number of organisations who can help you – see here.

You can find more details of the new requirements in our Dealing with Brexit section.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

'I feel exiled': How Brits in Europe are locked abroad with foreign partners

Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, many of whom have foreign partners and children. But if they want to move to the UK to live and work it will soon become more difficult.

When it comes to getting a partner visa, the UK has some of the strictest rules in Europe. In addition to hefty fees and a healthcare surcharge, the Home Office requires British citizens and long-term residents who bring their foreign partner to the UK to have a minimum income showing they can support them without relying on the social security system.

The minimum income up until now was set at £18,600 (€21,700), or £22,400 (€26,100) if the couple had one child, plus another £2,400 (€2,800) for each other child.

But these income requirements will rise steeply from April 11th 2024.

How it works: What Brits in Europe should know about UK’s new minimum income rules

From this date the minimum a British national or long-term resident will need to earn if they want to return home will increase to £29,000 (€33,800) and up to £38,000 (€44,313) by spring 2025, although there will no longer be an additional amount for accompanying children.

Alternatively, families need to prove they have at least £62,500 (€72,884) in cash, which from 11 April will increase to £88,500 (€103,207).

‘Family life has been destroyed’

To put this in context the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests that around 50 percent of UK employees earn less than the £29,000 threshold and 70 percent less than £38,700. The Observatory also says that while the number of people affected by the policy is small compared to the overall UK immigration (family visas represent 5 percent of all entry visas), the impacts on concerned families can be “very significant”.

The Migration Observatory notes that other European countries apply income thresholds to sponsor foreign partners. Spain, for instance, requires sponsors to have an annual income equal to the social security salary. In Denmark, sponsors must not have claimed social benefits in the three years before the application. But in Spain and the US, the partner’s foreign income also counts towards the threshold.

So what does this mean for mixed British and international families living in Europe who might want or even need to return to the UK to live?

Campaigners have complained that many Britons with foreign partners have simply been “locked abroad” or families have been separated while they try to meet the minimum income or savings requirement.

Reunite Families UK, a non-profit organisation supporting people affected by the UK spouse visa rules, says this policy causes distress, especially for children.

Some 65 percent of respondents in research carried out by the group said that their child received a diagnosis of a mental health condition due to the separation of their parents.

“Since its introduction, this policy has destroyed the family life of countless people and children,” Matteo Besana, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at Reunite Families UK said.

“Women have been forced to become single parents to their children and live away from their partner and the father of their children only because they didn’t meet the threshold.

“As shown by our research on the mental health impact of the policy, these are scars that, particularly for children, will be carried for the rest of their lives,” Besana said.

The people most likely to be affected are women, who tend to earn less or not work because they took on caring responsibilities. Also heavily impacted are people under 30 and over 50 years of age, people living outside London and the Southeast of England where wages are higher, and those belonging to specific ethnicities, according to the Migration Observatory.

The Local spoke to two British women, in Italy and Sweden, struggling to return to the UK with their families because of these rules.

More savings needed

Sarah Douglas, who has been living in Italy since 2007, was planning to return to Scotland with her Italian husband and three children.

“It was always our long-term goal to move back to the UK after we had our children and once we’d have saved enough to buy a home in the UK,” she said.

“In hindsight, we should have gone after the Brexit referendum, but in the beginning it wasn’t clear what the final deal would be and I naively assumed that situations like mine would be taken into account and we would have the right to return… Once it did become clear, we were in the middle of the pandemic and it wasn’t the time to move,” she said.

Having stayed home to take care of the children, Sarah will find it hard to land a job near her family in Scotland that meets the minimum income required to sponsor a foreign partner for a UK visa.

Her husband, a computer programmer, has been trying to get an employment visa, “but most of them state that you must already have permission to work in the UK,” Sarah says. And applying for British citizenship is not an option for a non-UK resident spouse.

‘People need to be aware’

Sarah and her husband are trying to save as much as they can, an alternative to the income requirement, but the amount they need is rising to almost £90,000, meaning it may be a long time before they have enough to move home.

While the aim of the UK’s policy is to ensure families moving to the UK are not a burden on the taxpayer, the reality is that people arriving on a family visa are not able to claim any benefits from the UK government.

“They should judge the overall financial viability of the family unit, rather than just the earning potential of the sponsoring partner,” Sarah says.

“We could live well with my husband’s salary and he could work remotely. We are stable and financially secure, but because I don’t earn any money, they say we are not able to support ourselves.”

Sarah says that most of the British public are unaware of the minimum income requirement.

“People think if you are married, your husband is allowed to come to the UK, but when I say no, it doesn’t work like that, they are really surprised. A lot of people are not aware of how this could affect them,” she said.

Looking for a job from abroad

Another British women who lives in Sweden with her South African husband and two children and plans to move to the UK told The Local how the minimum income requirement had put them in a “precarious and stressful situation”.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous said: “After having the two children, I was very fortunate to find a research position and do my PhD, which is a salaried position in Scandinavia, and now that I finished, we are looking to leave.

“But I need a job in the UK to sponsor my husband, and as a new graduate with limited work experience, it is not easy. It is even more difficult when you are not in the country and I missed out on opportunities because they wanted an immediate start. I really don’t want to move without my whole family,” she said.

She says the UK’s policy is “gendered and geographically discriminatory” because it makes life harder for women and also harder for anyone who is planning to move to a part of the country that isn’t in London, where salaries are higher.

“I feel exiled from my country and separated from my family there,” she said.

Her husband, she argues, has his own company and could continue working remotely from the UK, earning well above the requirement. He would also pay taxes and national insurance while having to pay the healthcare surcharge, a form of double taxation, she argues. But that would not entitle him to a visa.

“Our house is on the market now. We have booked removal companies for the 6th of June. The dog is booked for his transport. I just think this policy is so out of touch with the modern world,” she said.

Reunite Families UK has called on the government to recognise the right for British or settled citizens to bring their close family members to the UK and scrap the minimum income requirement. Alternatively, the group says the rules should take into consideration the earning potential of both partners and consider “the best interests of children”.

A petition on the UK parliament website asks the government to reconsider the minimum income policy. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it will have to be debated in parliament.

This article has been produced by Europe Street news.

SHOW COMMENTS

Url copied to clipboard!