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MOVING TO FRANCE

EXPLAINED: How to prove you are a resident in France before December 31st

This is a question that we are asked a lot and for many people it doesn't have a simple answer. Here's a look at the rules around residency.

Published: 25 August 2020 13:35 CEST
EXPLAINED: How to prove you are a resident in France before December 31st
Once you've settled in, how do you go about proving that you are a full-time resident? Photo: AFP

It has been pushed into sharp focus by Covid travel restrictions and also by Brexit, but from time to time you may need to prove that you are a permanent resident in France, as opposed to a visitor, tourist or second home owner.

While French people have ID cards, for foreigners there is no single system or piece of ID that proves you are a resident and the rules are different depending on where you come from.

Here's a quick round-up 

Non-Europeans

For people from outside the EU, this is is relatively simple as for them living in France requires a lot more official paperwork.

Before arriving in France for any stay of more than three months you will need to get a visa and after a certain length of time in France (depending on your visa type) you will then need to get a carte de séjour residency card. Either of these can be used to prove that you are a full time resident in France.

READ ALSO EXPLAINED How to get a visa for France

This is currently important for travel as many destinations outside Europe are still on France's travel ban list – including the USA. However full-time residents are one of the exempted categories that are allowed to travel (albeit with quite a lot of extra rules and restrictions in place).

Europeans

For people from within the EU or the Schengen zone who have moved to France under freedom of movement this is a little more complicated. France is one of the few EU countries (the UK has been another) that does not require EU residents to register for residency.

This means that Europeans have no single document or card to prove that they are resident in France.

The French government acknowledged this difficulty during the lockdown when virtually all foreign travel was forbidden. Among the groups of people who were allowed to cross the border into France were French citizens and permanent residents of France.

But whereas non-Europeans were required to show proof of their residency at the border, European citizens did not and instead the government relied on people filling in a declaration sur l'honneur – sworn statement – to say that they were a full-time resident.

If you are a citizen of an EU or Schengen zone country your passport in effect acts as your residency card –  just owning an EU/Schengen zone passport means that you are entitled to live and work in France.

British people

As UK nationals uncomfortably straddle the gap between European but no longer EU citizens, proving residency has become a big issue.

The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement gives widespread protection to British people already living in France, and (with certain caveats) allows people who are already resident here before December 31st 2020 to stay.

READ ALSO What is the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and does it cover me?

So the obvious question that people ask is – how do I prove that I was resident in France before that date?

This is particularly pertinent both to people who are planning to make the move shortly before the cut-off date and people who don't appear in official French systems because they are not working.

Many people have asked us if there is a way to 'register' as an official resident, and there isn't really.

What you can do instead is make sure that you are registered within all the systems you can be and have plenty of paperwork to prove that you are here. Some of the ways you can do this are;

 

Health system – people who have been resident in France for more than three months should register with the French health system. This has always been the case, but before Brexit many people relied on the European Health Insurance Card to get their medical costs covered. The British-issued EHIC card will no longer work after Brexit, and registering with the French system will also flag you up as a resident.

Once you are registered you will get a carte vitale health card, which allows the French state to reimburse some or all of the cost of your medical treatments. British pensioners are covered by the S1 scheme in which the UK pays their medical costs (this will continue after December 31st for people already resident) but they still need to register for the carte vitale.

This isn't the speediest of processes, so if you meet the criteria you should start now – find out how it works here.

Benefits – many British people have been loathe to apply for French benefits, worried that it will negatively affect their application to stay.

In fact being in receipt of benefits is not a reason for your application to be refused, although there are some limits around your general financial situation. There are family benefits that people with children are entitled to and you can also apply for residency as someone in receipt of chômage (unemployment benefit).

READ ALSO How much money do I need to stay in France after Brexit?

Work – if you are in work keep your employment contracts and make sure you have a full collection of payslips. You are entitled to receive a payslip giving a full breakdown of your wages and taxes/social charges every month (either electronically or on paper) so if your employer has been sloppy about this you can ask for any wage slips that you have not received. 

Tax – if you are a full-time resident in France you will have to make an annual tax declaration – even if all your income comes from abroad. However the declarations take place at a specific time of year, usually in April, so you will need to wait for the first April after your arrival to make your declaration.

EXPLAINED: French annual tax declaration system

Depending on your living situation you may also pay taxe d'habitation (the householder's tax) and taxe foncière (the property owner's tax) but these are levied via property so apply to second home owners as well as permanent residents.

Utility bills – gas and electricity bills don't as such prove that you are a resident – second home owners pay them too – but they are useful to have as proof of your address.

They're asked for in quite a wide range of official situations so if you don't have any bills in your name (for example if one half of a couple pays all the bills) it may be worth getting your name added to bills to give another strand to your official identity. If you have opted for paperless billing you can download an attestation from your energy company's website that certifies that you are the account holder.

Attestation de domicile – this is a formal declaration from the local mairie that you are indeed a full-time resident.

Not all authorities offer them and they tend to be more common in small places, but you can obtain the attestation by making a sworn declaration at the mairie that you are a resident, and you will usually also need to provide proof including ID and proof of address such as a utility bill.

The online portal through which all British people in France will have to apply for residency is not yet up and running (its July start date was pushed back to October because of the backlog of residency applications caused by the lockdown) so we don't yet know exactly what paperwork people will be asked for to prove their residency.

However the online portal that was briefly live in autumn 2019 asked many categories of people just for a straightforward proof of address, for which a rental contract or utility bill was acceptable.

READ ALSO Carte de séjour – The online process for post-Brexit residency cards in France

 

 

 

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For members

LIVING IN FRANCE

5 things Brits in France need to know about swapping driving licences

Now that the dust has settled from the somewhat chaotic post-Brexit period, the system for swapping a UK driving licence for a French one seems to be running fairly smoothly. There are, however, some things that UK licence holders need to know.

Published: 3 May 2024 17:20 CEST
5 things Brits in France need to know about swapping driving licences

This article is aimed at holders of a UK or Northern Ireland driving licence who are living in France – tourists, visitors and second-home owners can continue to drive in France on a UK licence and do not need an international driving permit.

British students who are studying in France on a student visa can continue to drive on their UK licence during their studies – if however they settle in France afterwards, they need to follow the below process for swapping their licence. 

1 You’re special

Well, maybe special is over-stating it, but the system for holders of UK and NI licence holders is different to that of other non-EU nationals, and also different to the system for EU licence holders.

The reason for this is that a pragmatic post-Brexit agreement was (finally) reached between France and the UK, in order to avoid the chaos that was triggered when thousands of Brits in France all tried to swap their driving licences at once.

Unlike almost all other post-Brexit agreements, this one applies both to people who moved to France before the end of Brexit transition period in 2021 and those who have moved here since. 

The below terms apply to everyone who has a UK or NI licence, regardless of their nationality or when they moved to France. 

2 But you still have to swap

It was technically always the case that Brits who were living in France should have swapped their licence for a French one, just as other EU licence holders do now, but in reality many people lived here for years or decades without ever exchanging their licence and there was little or no enforcement of the rule.

That has now changed and you must swap according to the following timetable;

If your UK licence was issued after January 1st, 2021 – you must swap within one year of moving to France.

If your UK licence was issued before January 1st 2021 – you only swap when you meet one of the following conditions;

  • The licence itself or the photocard is within six months of its expiry date. For more people the photocard expiry will come around first, but UK licences also require renewal when the holder reaches the age of 70
  • Your licence has been lost or stolen
  • You have been ordered to exchange your licence by a gendarme after committing a driving offence

For people who are exchanging because the licence is about to expire, it is important that you don’t start the process until your licence is within six months of the expiry date – early applications will simply be rejected.

3 It might not be as much of a nightmare as you think 

Unlike the old days when licence swaps were done by préfectures, the whole process has now moved online and is run through a single, central system.

The online portal for requesting a swap is known as ANTS and you can find it HERE.

If you haven’t used it before you will need to create an online account, or if you already have online accounts for French government services such as Ameli or tax declarations you can login by clicking on the France Connect button.

Once logged in, select Je demande l’échange ou l’enregistrement de mon permis de conduire étranger (I request the exchange or registration of a foreign driving licence) and fill in the details requested on the form such as name, address etc.

You might be pleasantly surprised by the fact the form itself is relatively straightforward (as French admin forms go), asking basic questions such as your personal details and the details of your driving licence.

You will have to upload supporting documents, but these are likely to be things that you already have to hand including

  • Proof of ID (passport or carte de séjour)
  • Proof of address (a recent utility bill or attestation from your utility provider)
  • If your driver’s licence is in a different name to your passport, you will need to supply your full birth certificate

You will also need to supply a photo – you can either use the internet-enabled Photomaton booths – find your nearest here – to create a digital photo with the required security code, or you can use the normal photo booths to print out a physical photo and send it by post after you have made your application. 

Once completed, you can use the ANTS site to track the progress of your application and upload any other documents that are requested.

4 But don’t leave it too late 

If you’re applying because your licence is about to expire then you cannot apply until you are within six months of the expiry date.

But it’s a good idea not to leave it until the last minute as the whole process does take time – things have improved massively since the dark days of 2020 and 2021 when people were waiting for years and their licences expired while they waited.

But it still takes time – the current average for a straightforward application with no extra documents required seems to be between four and five months, although processing times can vary, especially over holiday periods.

It’s therefore a good idea to make the application fairly soon after you enter that magic six-month window.

Once you make the application you should get an automated response acknowledging receipt – this is usually sent by SMS and/or email, it’s a good idea to check your spam folder if you don’t get the email.

Don’t panic if you don’t then hear anything for the next few weeks or even months, this appears to be normal. If your application is complete and there are no outstanding queries or other documents required, the next step will be a request to send in your old UK licence.

You send this by post (recorded delivery with a signature is strongly recommended) and at the same time you can download an Attestation de Depot de Permis de Conduire (certificate of deposit of driving licence) – you can use this to prove your continued entitled to drive in the period between sending in your old licence and receiving your new one.

Your French licence is then sent by registered post, and the window between posting the old licence and receiving the new one is usually not more than a month, you 

5 Help is out there 

If your application runs into problems or you have an untypical situation or find the ANTS website hard to use, don’t panic – help is available.

The Facebook group Driving in France – French Licence Applications is a good place to start with comprehensive guides and knowledgeable admins who are quick to respond to questions.

You can also chat to others in your situation and get updates on how long processing times seem to be.

If you have problems using the online system, your local France Services office may be able to help.

You can also head to The Local’s reader questions section, or email us at [email protected] if you have questions.

Digital licences

You might have heard about France’s new digital driving licence – unfortunately this is only available to people who have French citizenship (including dual nationals).

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