Febuary 2026
As January ends in a few hours, I would like once again to wish you all happy holidays. We can hope that 2026 will bring what we wish for, even though 2025 did not do so for probably more than half of the American population. I hope we all can find a way to sincerely exchange best wishes with each other, even though in some instances this might take a near miracle. There will always be worries and looming dangers. In some cases, the dangers are at people’s doorsteps, whether at home or at work. The 2026 mid-term elections can instill hope and fear simultaneously in the same person, leading to a wide range of emotions and a lot of uncertainty about the future. Nevertheless, I wish you all.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR
WIKIPEDIA
The Dictator is a 2012 political satire black comedy film directed by Larry Charles and written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer. Baron Cohen, in the role of Admiral General Aladeen, the dictator of the fictional Republic of Wadiya, visiting the United States, stars alongside Anna Faris and Ben Kingsley.
So many books and movies are used to refer to the current situation in the USA. The novel 1984 is mentioned very frequently.
WIKIPEDIA
Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984) is a dystopian speculative fiction novel by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell’s ninth and final completed book. Thematically, it centers on totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of people and behaviors.
Not as often, the Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dictator is mentioned or referred to, as some compare the current situation to the Nazi rise in the early 1930s in Germany.
WIKIPEDIA
The Great Dictator is a 1940 American political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. Having been the only major Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, Chaplin made this his first true sound film.
Chaplin’s film advanced a stirring condemnation of the German and Italian dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, as well as fascism, antisemitism, and Nazism. At the time of its first release, the United States was still at peace with Nazi Germany and neutral during what were the early days of World War II. Chaplin plays both leading roles: a ruthless fascist dictator and a persecuted Jewish barber.
The Great Dictator is a masterpiece. It would not take much to make it a documentary. But it depicts so closely what happened in Germany during the Nazi regime that I am afraid it looks too foreign for the younger generations. It is not easy to transpose what happens in the movie to any country in the world today.
I would hope that the 2012 movie set in the USA was easier to relate to, with viewers seeing it as contemporary. Various publications have been reporting on a trend to elect conservative, sometimes far-right governments in Europe and in Central and South America. Several countries in Asia have also become more authoritarian. Each country has its own history and characteristics, and each can explain how it ended up that way. As I look at the global picture, I wonder if such a trend can be explained at the world level. American private groups and the American federal government are helping European far-right political parties. It is known that Russia, China, and maybe a few other countries are also influencing elections held in Europe, the USA, and probably in some other countries as well. It is reasonable to believe that such an intervention has an impact and can tip an election in a given direction. Strongmen prefer dealing with other strongmen.
Recently, a few personalities have stood out for implementing bold policies, such as Prime Ministers Mark Carney of Canada, Sanae Takaichi of Japan, Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, and Jonathan Motzfeldt of Greenland. They have all had to deal with striking changes in American foreign policy, although their countries and territories were, until recently, considered to be among the USA’s closest allies. In their own way, they are pushing back, and this does not always make headlines in the major Western media.
For several months, many in the media and on the internet have mentioned the fictional 1984 as a guidebook to how dictators and strongmen secure unlimited power over their citizens. It might appear to some that the 2012 movie The Dictator is now similarly used as a tutorial on how to bring about such regime change in the USA. The movie is, of course, totally fictional, and the main character is the dictator of a fictional country somewhere in the eastern Caucasus, part of the former Soviet Union.
THE NEW FRENCH EXAM REQUIRED FOR MULTIYEAR CARTES DE SEJOUR
A law approved on January 26th, 2024, on controlling immigration and improving societal integration, strengthens the requirements for proficiency in French and integration into the French Republic for foreigners wishing to remain in France for the long term.
In particular, the law specifies that as of January 1st, 2026, a civics exam is mandatory, and a certificate of success on the exam must be submitted by all first-time applicants for multiyear residence permits (cartes de séjour pluriannuelles and cartes de résident) who are nationals of countries outside the European Union.
A decree of July 15th, 2025, also made a civics exam mandatory for all naturalization applications as of January 1st, 2026. Information about the exam is available on the website of the Direction générale des étrangers en France (DGEF, Directorate-General for Foreign Nationals in France), part of the Ministry of the Interior.
To assist foreigners with the new procedures, they launched a website entirely dedicated to civics training. This training, which is part of the Contrat d’intégration républicaine (Republican Integration Contract) and provided by the OFII, helps participants understand the principles and values of the Republic, learn how institutions work, and understand the rights and duties associated with living in France.
The site brings together 222 thematic fact sheets and structured content to help foreigners in their training, deepen their understanding of essential concepts, and prepare for the civics exam. It also provides practical answers about the exam’s contents and procedures for taking it. Questions that are likely to be asked are also posted online.
The website also provides information on approved centers where the exam can be taken, located throughout the country.
This new platform will be regularly updated to offer foreigners comprehensive support in their integration process and in taking the civics exam. The requirements for naturalization applicants have been tightened as well.
For more information on this process, see the DGEF under the heading Integration et Accés à la Nationalité.
www.interieur.gouv.fr/actualites/communiques-de-presse/a-partir-du-1er-janvier-2026-reussite-a-lexamen-civique-sera-necessaire-pour-obtenir-carte-de-sejour
THE CIVICS TEST FOR THE NATURALIZATION PROCEDURE
To be naturalized as a French citizen, applicants must demonstrate their assimilation into French society, in particular through sufficient knowledge of French history, culture, and society.
The level of knowledge expected is assessed in a civics exam, which was introduced on January 1st, 2026, and consists of a multiple-choice test in French with 40 questions, including knowledge questions and scenario-based questions. The questions cover the following five themes:
Principles and values of the French Republic
Institutional and political system
Rights and duties
History, geography, and culture
Living in French society.
A minimum of 32 correct answers (i.e., 80%) is required to pass. The test is conducted digitally and lasts a maximum of 45 minutes.
To prepare for the exam, applicants can consult the citizens’ handbook, the charter of rights and duties of French citizens, and the list of knowledge questions (document available below). The scenario-based questions are not available. A certificate of success in the civics exam is one of the documents required for a naturalization application.
Applicants may be granted accommodations or exemptions from certain parts of the civics exam if they have a disability or health condition. To this end, they must provide a medical certificate attesting that accommodations are necessary, specifying the recommended accommodations, or indicating that their disability or health condition makes it impossible for them to take the civics exam.
Two organizations have been approved by the Ministry of the Interior to administer the civics exam:
(1) The Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
(2) France Éducation International.
Find approved centers and registration procedures at the following links:
Civics exam Naturalization external link.
https://formation-civique.interieur.gouv.fr
You will find the link to approved centers and registration procedures here very soon.
https://www.immigration.interieur.gouv.fr/Integration-et-Acces-a-la-nationalite/La-nationalite-francaise/Les-procedures-d-acces-a-la-nationalite-francaise
RUNNING THE BUSINESS IS NO LONGER THE ONLY FOCUS IN MY LIFE
In 2026, I will turn 67, and I will have been in practice for 29 years. Over the years, I have been more and more interested in volunteering for different causes.
I have been faithful to my church, the American Church in Paris (ACP), and I remain available to people there who seek my help and advice. I plan on continuing to be available.
A couple of years ago, my wife bought a house in the medieval city of Cluny, located about 500 kilometers from Paris. The house is close to what is left of the Cluny Abbey, which is now a museum. There were numerous reasons for this purchase, but the main one in her mind was that we would both retire there when I am done working in Paris. Another major reason was to get involved in classical music differently. Instead of singing soprano in a choir or being a soloist, she wanted to help young classical singers and other musicians. The ground floor of the house is somewhat like an extension of the abbey, with acoustical quality like that of an ancient church. We have created a non-profit organization that holds concerts and other musical events, and local musicians can rehearse there, even when we are absent. As the musical activity increases, so will our presence there.
The ACP has had an African Fellowship for about 20 years, and I have been involved in it pretty much from the beginning. This is how I learned about NGOs, projects helping people living in Africa, and so on. A Tanzanian woman, Rhobi Samwelly, founded an NGO called Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania in 2017 and established the Mugumu and Butiama safe houses to protect girls seeking to avoid female genital mutilation (FGM). Rhobi is herself an FGM survivor and Human Rights Defender winner of the Marianne Initiatives Award bestowed by President Emmanuel Macron.
Members of AAWE and ACP organized an early screening of a documentary about Rhobi’s actions, In the Name of Our Daughter. Then, in the fall of 2024, we established a French branch of her NGO. This association is registered out of my office, and I deal with the legal and administrative aspects. Members quickly organized several events and participated in others, such as the AAWE Christmas Bazaar held at ACP. When I was in my early twenties, I read a lot about sexual mutilation in Africa, and later read a series of articles in Le Monde on the issue, which ran for several weeks. So it was a topic I was familiar with, even 40 years later.
For years, I have made sure to keep my professional business and my involvement as a militant for projects and some causes separate. Now, I want to dedicate more time to the latter, and I believe I owe my clientele and my readership this information.
THE VIKING ERIK THE RED DISCOVERED AND CLAIMED GREENLAND IN 982
The saga of the hot-headed Erik the Red, who was exiled first from Norway and later from Iceland, is very interesting. Furthermore, his son, Leif Erikson, was one of the first Vikings to discover North America in about the year 1000!
Swein Forkbeard, the first king of Denmark, which then included what is now Norway, died in 1014. Denmark has been a sovereign country since ancient times, and Greenland became a fully integrated territory of Denmark in 1721. Today, it is a semi-independent territory under the political authority of the Danish crown.
In the Middle Ages, the most feared Vikings – seafaring warriors from Scandinavia – came from what are now Denmark and Norway. Today, both countries maintain a vibrant patriotic feeling.
Greenland’s Inuit people, who have lived there for millennia, clearly prefer the Danish umbrella over any other. Ideally, they would like to be a totally independent country, but this idea is not sustainable, as half of their budget is financed by the Danish administration.
The current American administration should look beyond the Danish population of about six million. Though it is minuscule compared to the American population, there is still enough Viking fighting spirit for the Danes to stand tall and fearless. International tension regarding Greenland seems to have faded for now, and the US administration has mentioned other ways to obtain what it wants. The situation is still likely to have long-lasting effects on the Danish and Greenlandic populations, as well as somewhat less severe effects on other European nations.
JAPAN WANTS TO DEFEND TAIWAN
With everything that is happening in the USA, the ousting of the Venezuelan president, and the war in Ukraine, there has not been much attention to what is happening in East Asia. Only a few media outlets spent a couple of minutes on the fact that Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has declared that she is ready to send the Japanese military to defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression.
There are a few things to unpack here. Takaichi is Japan’s first woman to serve as prime minister. Also, for a good 20 years, Japan has been increasing its military spending and is now capable of taking the offense, though this is not allowed by the constitution imposed on Japan by the Americans after WWII. Neighboring countries have mixed feelings about Japan rearming. They have painful memories of atrocities committed during the war, though they have also witnessed Japan’s recent evolution with a focus on peace and staying safe.
Until recently, the USA was considered the only country standing strong in the military defense of Taiwan. But in President Trump’s current term, he has shown little interest in protecting Taiwan. This leaves the Taiwanese population essentially stranded, as Taipei lacks the military capacity to stand alone against mainland China.
Japan believes its military can face that of China, which says a lot about its confidence as well as how strong it has become, even if it does not yet really measure up to the Chinese military.
This development also shows that the USA is no longer considered a reliable and strong ally and cannot be trusted.
Who is planning to defend Taiwanese independence, and why does this matter to Western countries? Does it matter, in fact? The situation has echoes of WWII, when Japan was on the wrong side of history. The countries in this region still vividly recall Japanese atrocities and war crimes.
The Chinese propaganda machine has been raising the specter of Japanese wartime activities almost daily, stating that the massacres and war crimes Japan committed disqualify it from protecting Taiwan. This indicates that China has become more concerned about what the “small” Japanese military can do than about how US forces would react should China invade Taiwan. It also implies that a Japanese commitment can be trusted, while an American commitment must be taken with a grain of salt.
The last time I wrote about Taiwan, a reader told me to stop discussing issues nobody is interested in. I agree that few people care about this country or even where it is on the map, and most do not see how events there could have a direct impact on their lives. But remember this: the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC), a multinational manufacturing and design company, is one of the world’s most valuable semiconductor makers, largely on contract. It produces the most sophisticated microchips used in AI, as well as many other components. Western industries and people would immediately feel the consequences if TSMC factories stopped production because of war.
MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026
I will be increasing my fees by 20% at the beginning of the next scholastic year, after the 2026 summer vacation. Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.
THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN MARCH 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on March 1st. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately, as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions, I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris
OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION
The office will be closed for seven weeks over the summer, from the evening of Friday, July 3rd, to the morning of Monday, August 24th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements. Like last year, I should be away from the office for most of the time, but I will stay in France, specifically in Burgundy.
Best regards,
QUESTION
PAYING HOUSEHOLD HELP LEGALLY WITH CHEQUE EMPLOI SERVICE UNIVERSEL
I recently retired from my French employer. A couple of years ago, I hired a housekeeper paid through the cheque emploi service universel. I just noticed that I am paying her salary, and at the same time, the government is taking money out of my account at the end of the month. Will I be getting this sum back as a reduction in taxes, or did I, in essence, pay my housekeeper double? Usually, I received a check from the CE to cover this, and now I don’t.
ANSWER
You are describing two different things. Everyone using the cheque emploi service universel (CESU) benefits from the tax credit it offers, which is 50% of the expenses incurred during the year: net salaries paid and social security contributions deducted from your bank account and paid this way to URSSAF. So yes, you will get a tax reduction.
CE stands for comité d’entreprise. While you worked for this large employer, you benefited from many social programs sponsored and managed by the unions in charge of running the CE office. Any business of more than ten employees must have a CE, managed by a union representative. The CE office starts to represent the employees once there are at least 300. Your message leads me to assume that, while you were an employee of a very large employer, since your CE reimbursed you for what was not covered by the CESU tax credit. While being employed, the cleaner cost you nothing.
It is worthwhile to take a look at the CESU program in more detail.
French pay slips are a full page long, with about twenty deductions. Even accountants have special software to issue them, as it is difficult to keep up with changes to the calculations. One problem the government faced when seeking to simplify the hiring of home help was issuing the pay slip. In 1994, a breakthrough came when URSSAF, the collection agency for social charges, was put in charge of issuing such pay slips. Here is how it has worked from the beginning: the employer pays the employee (e.g., nanny, babysitter, cleaner, tutor). The employer reports to URSSAF the employee’s name, the number of hours worked, and the amount paid. This is enough information for URSSAF to issue the pay slip. Today, this declaration is done online. At the end of the following month, URSSAF takes from the employer’s bank account the amount of social charges related to the salaries paid previously.
At the end of the calendar year, URSSAF issues a statement with the amount you paid, adding the social charges to the salary, and you declare this amount on your income tax form. It has always been a tax credit, as this was the strongest incentive to hire such workers legally. It is cheaper to declare them this way than to pay them under the table.
One interesting aspect of the CESU program is that it can also be used to pay undocumented aliens, who lack a French social security number. URSSAF can register them using their name and the date and location of their birth (information that is critical for the creation of a French social security number). URSSAF clearly states that it has no authority to check whether an employee hired this way has the right to work. Thus, it is simple to legally declare undocumented aliens and pay the social charges, and in some cases even their income tax, through this setup. The employer gets the tax credit linked to this procedure while hiring someone who does not have the right to work or even live in France.
Regularization of an undocumented alien on the legal grounds of being an employee requires showing pay slips proving some seniority in the job. In other words, the pay slip is a critical document for regularization. Living three years in France and working for a minimum of eight months for at least 18 hours a week qualifies an undocumented alien to obtain a legal stay in France.
QUESTION
BEING APPROVED AND DENIED BY THE PREFECTURE
After holding a visiteur carte de séjour as an American retiree for a few years, I asked for the private life status a couple of months ago, as I had an appointment at the big prefecture. I PACSed with a French person, and she had moved in with me a couple of months before that ceremony. Since my old card was up for renewal, I chose to take advantage of this opportunity to change it. Uploading the documents took a long time, but it felt easy. I had all the documents ready; there were many of them! The meeting went great, I did not even need to show the file I sent out, even though I was asked to come with it. Yesterday, I got a postal letter from the prefecture stating that my request was denied. I was not told to leave the country in 30 days; there was no expulsion order. It just said that our cohabitation was too recent, and I did not comply with the one year of living together. The letter tells me to submit a new request when it happens.How come I was not denied right away if I did not qualify? They accepted my request twice! I have a récépissé that is still valid. Should I worry that I lost my French residency?
ANSWER
It may look like the prefecture has changed its mind, but in reality, that is not the case. The preferential treatment American citizens often get may blur their understanding of the situation. Keep in mind that the legal mechanism of this procedure is that the French partner conveys to the foreign partner the right to live in France, along with all rights to work in France. The building of the file is counterintuitive; the presence in France of the French partner is as important as the foreign partner’s situation. So let’s start with what the law demands to obtain the carte de séjour you seek. You must be PACSed and must have lived with your partner for at least a year. The registration of the PACS can happen at any time, as you may have begun living together much earlier.
This is an indication of what the file should contain:
• 1 – the complete identity of the applicant
• 2 – the complete identity of the French partner
• 3 – proof of living together, at least one piece of proof per month, and ideally from two different organizations
• 4 – the most recent PACS certificate and the initial one
• 5 – proof of the applicant’s presence in France
• 6 – proof of the partner’s presence in France
Now I would like to explain what happened to you, assuming that you live in Paris. I want to reassure you that the prefecture only told you your file did not meet the requirements, while acknowledging that you are lawfully PACSed with a French citizen; you need to wait until you can prove one year of living together. Your right to live in France legally should be completely secured.
Here is what is likely to have happened.
1 – You went to the website démarches numériques (previously called démarches simplifiées) and uploaded the file you had prepared.
2 – The file must have been convincing enough that the prefecture gave you an appointment. The section that was the least reviewed must have been the one on “living together.” Since everything else was solid, the office chose to have colleagues in the prefecture decide if it met the requirements.
3 – During the appointment, you got fingerprinted, you signed the form asking for the carte de séjour, and you may have been asked for some recent documents to update the file. The civil servant at the appointment has no authority to make a final decision on whether the file meets the requirements. In any case, at this level, the file looks strong enough. You walked out with a récépissé valid six months from the date of the appointment.
4 – Finally, your file was carefully reviewed in the back office. It may have been a close call, but in the end, your file did not pass.
As you seem to have realized, the letter from the prefecture is not the usual negative answer, an obligation de quitter le territoire français, which is now systematically associated with an expulsion order. The letter just states that you must wait a while, and then you will qualify. The prefecture had two initial looks at your file and determined that it was good enough to go to the next step. Your American citizenship and your age probably worked in your favor. Without knowing the contents of your file, I would guess that a younger, non-American foreigner would have had the first request submitted to démarches numériques denied without any explanation other than it does not comply, since that initial step is pretty strict in its evaluation of the files.
I am making another assumption regarding the letter you obtained. Either the file did not show an entire year of living together, or there were enough months without documents to significantly weaken the proof of living together for one year. Therefore, it is probable that your file will prove adequate before the expiration of the récépissé, so that you will be able to upload a file again and have a valid French ID at all times. Looking back and now understanding the situation, I hope you are reassured, and you are thanking the prefecture for treating you in such a favorable way, so that you do not have to worry about the validity of your immigration documentation. Appearances can be misleading.
DISCLAIMER
Please forward this message to all those who would be interested in its contents. The information contained in this newsletter is intended only as general information. I strongly urge readers to seek professional guidance concerning the legal and tax matters mentioned. This newsletter is intended as a general guide and is not to be taken as professional advice.