Most people stay away from bus stops. They are known as dreadful places, always found in bad neighborhoods. They cannot be associated with pleasant journeys. Even the worst train stations I have gone through do not have the gloomy lighting and the shaggy feeling one gets when entering a bus stop, getting off a bus, and getting ready to take a bus.I really like the movie Bus Stop; Marilyn Monroe acts using her inside brokenness in a very skillful way. Her character is about broken dreams and severe disillusionment, a woman with a golden heart stuck in a horrid place.

From Wikipedia
Bus Stop is a 1956 American romantic comedy film directed by Joshua Logan for 20th Century Fox, starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray and Hope Lange.
…it was the first film she appeared in after studying at the Actors Studio in New York. Bus Stop was based on two plays by William Inge, People in the Wind and Bus Stop. The inspiration for the play Bus Stop came from people Inge met in Tonganoxie, Kansas.

Considering how often I got on and off the bus at bus stops, I ended up being able to see past the gloom, which is maybe the cheerful image needed to celebrate Christmas this year. I wonder how many people will manage to celebrate Christmas this year with a cheerful heart, having a wonderful time with family and friends, partying as they always do. Some people in the USA seem to feel like they are sitting in a bus stop without knowing how they jumped off the bus. Others feel as though they are stuck in a bus they have not chosen. This Christmas, I remember the people I met in those buses, in those bus stops, those people I ended caring about because I got to know them quite well. Ultimately my bus stop vision is an allegory about immigrants leaving with the hope of a better future elsewhere and arriving at their destination with cumbersome luggage, and mixed feelings of excitement and fear about their new lives.

I would like to wish you all
A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
I am looking forward to the year to come, 2017.
Like many, I feel that 2016 was a very hard year and I am eager to let it go.

THE GREYHOUND LESSON
As a French person, I wish to avoid making yet another comment about the results of the latest American presidential election. I heard and read way too many comments, but one in particular caught my attention. It was about not knowing how angry the white working class was.

In 1981, I had just turned 22 and was taking my second trip around the USA. I toured the country exclusively on Greyhound buses. Starting from New York City, I went to Denver, stopped in New Mexico, Arizona, LA, SF and Reno, entered Yosemite Park by way of Nevada and left via the main entrance in California, then went back to SF. After that it was Portland OR, Spokane WA, Cheyenne WY, then a long stretch to Birmingham AL and north to Indianapolis and Notre Dame IN before returning to NYC and then taking a round trip to Vermont.

Basically living off the Greyhound buses taught me the size of the country. I got a physical experience of how big it is, like an imprint on my sore body, riding all those miles. Also, in the summer of 1981 it felt as though the entire American population thought Soviet tanks were in Paris because France had elected a Socialist president a couple of months before with the help of the French Communist Party. So everybody thought I was a political refugee, and the way I was welcomed was quite impressive. This was very different from the current position of America (and most of the Western world!) on how to handle refugees.

What may be more relevant to the recent election is that I met the people who rode the buses, waited in the bus stops, ate in the diners. Being French among them made me an oddity, to put it mildly. We shared hours of discussions, and I learned who they were and, I believe, who they still are. I liked the fact that in the traditional American education system, students from middle school on were expected to work for their spending money. Many would earn the money to pay for their college tuition. So, for several years, they often shared the workplaces of blue-collar workers and got to know them. When they started holding executive positions, they could usually understand the practical consequences of their decisions for the people working for them.

Over the years, however, this practice has disappeared in the USA as tuition has skyrocketed and student loans have become common. Maybe the resulting disconnect between economic classes has affected the evolution of the country. I am sure that 35 years later, members of the white working class rarely live any better than they did then, and probably worse. I believe, and many observers agree, that it is this segment of American population that made the election of Mr. Trump possible.

I feel that I was privileged to have the life-changing experience of that American journey. As a law student in Paris fully financed by my parents, I was going back to a very different life than that of the people I met. This was a summertime trip that lasted three months. In addition to the bus trip, I worked in a port warehouse in Stamford CT doing hard labor, loading and unloading rolls of material on trucks. This is one reason I have the highest respect for the old-fashioned American work ethic. People had to work hard to get where they were, and being an upstanding member in the church and the community was also important.

AN UNUSUAL USE OF A MAID’S ROOM DURING WWII
A reader sends this reminiscence:
“In 1939 my family was living on Blvd Jules Sandeau and my father, fearing the possibility of Paris being bombed, moved us to the south of France. After the debacle and capitulation in 1940 he returned to Paris and moved some of our valuables to the chambre de bonne. After the war when he returned, the apartment was cleaned out but the chambre de bonne was intact. That was a plus for their difficult access. That is another story for these chambres.”

LEAVING FRANCE, CONTROLS AT THE AIRPORT – EU REGULATION
Another reader writes:
“On 2 October, my wife and I left CDG for Minneapolis. At the immigration kiosk I presented our American passports. My wife’s is virgin, as she usually travels to all other countries, other than the US, on her French passport. The immigration officer looked in vain for an entry stamp and asked when she had last entered France. I told him she was a French citizen. He asked for and got her French passport, and that was that – for her passport. He then asked me when I had last entered France. My answer was slow in coming as it had been well over a year. He then asked if I was married to her. I said yes, and that was that for me. (I have a carte de résident.) Lesson: French immigration authorities have joined their EU compatriots in checking Schengen entrance dates.”

RETENUE À LA SOURCE – INCOME TAX WITHHELD BY THE EMPLOYER
I wrote the following section for the July-August 2015 issue. Since then, aside from a few snippets in the media, it seems nobody is talking about this enormous reform to the taxation method except the people who are working on it. If you go to government websites, there is detailed information explaining what is going to happen, but it seems that nobody cares. This will be a radically different way to pay income tax in France. Therefore, I am republishing this July-August 2015 section.

France is one of the last Western countries where income tax is paid by the individual directly and not withheld by the employer. There are many cultural and historical reasons why the French people are reluctant to change this set-up, but all of them combined are not enough to explain why it has not yet been done. There is only one technical reason that withholding tax would be very difficult to set up. It is called the quotient familial. I believe France is the only country that taxes the family as a group rather than individuals.

• This means the amount of tax you owe changes if:
  – You get married,
  – You get divorced,
  – You have a child,
  – The child leaves the home,
  – A family member dies, and/or
  – A family member becomes disabled.

These events occur frequently enough in the course of a lifetime that if France had withholding taxes, such happenings could significantly change the amount withheld. A withholding system works well only if there is just a small discrepancy at the end of the year. This is why the French system prefers to have taxes paid in three installments. The first two, in February and in May, are calculated on the amount owed the year before, and the last one on the amount of taxes owed for the year.

Now, however, the government is determined to have a new withholding system go into effect on January 1st 2018. Neither employers nor employees are very happy with this. Employers do not want an extra task to complicate the French pay slip even more. Employees do not want the change, as it will mean the employer will know much more about their private lives. Employees will be required to inform employers right away of any of the abovementioned changes in their life. The employers will then be obligated to inform the tax office to calculate the new amount owed. Considering the level of distrust that French employees have toward their employers, this could create major difficulties.

It is going to be interesting to see if this measure actually goes through. Most likely it will, but I can see a lot of problems arising from it, and there will be a lot of unhappy people in France before everything settles down.

To ease the transition to the new method, the French administration will start setting up tools in the second quarter of 2017. It will send employers the rate of income tax their employees paid in 2016. On January 1st 2018, employers will start withholding an amount based on that rate, which will be reviewed in September 2018.

I strongly advise anyone who is an employee in France to be extremely attentive in 2017 regarding this reform. If need be, ask your employer how it is handling the change, what tax rate it has for you, and so on. Keep in mind that even though French employers have paid social charges for decades, they are not really equipped to deal with this. It is important to note that the employee, not the administration, will be responsible for telling the employer when to change the rate because of a change in family situation. Culturally speaking, this is not going to be easy.

MORE ON SENDING A TEXT MESSAGE TO PICK UP A CARD AT THE PREFECTURE
The document officially called feuille de mise en salle but often referred as fiche de renseignements changed sometime in November at the Paris Prefecture. In the personal information section, it now states that : “nécessaire pour l’envoi du SMS pour la remise du titre”; that is, translated into English “needed for transmission of the text message advising one to pick up the title” which means the new carte de séjour. I know that the prefecture can change this document again at any time, but the new wording is a clear indication that the French administration considers the system of notification by SMS to be here to stay.

NEW LEGISLATION REGARDING FRENCH IMMIGRATION
On November 3rd I was at the Paris prefecture with clients and there was a traffic jam at the printer-copier. A new regulation to be implemented on November 1st, which is a national holiday in France, was close to 300 pages long. Its printing for this office was taking a long time, keeping the civil servants from doing their job, which includes making a copy of each récépissé issued with the number the applicant is being called by. The civil servant dealing with our request explained that the work done by the entire office on November 2nd had been piled up as they were waiting for guidelines on what to do and which card should be awarded to whom. The upshot is that it is now official: the multiyear cards are now available.

However, the bad news is that the tax linked to the carte de séjour has skyrocketed. Renewal used to cost 110€ because the card is only valid one year; this was less expensive than the initial card or the ten-year carte de résident. Now, just about all cartes de séjour will cost 269€ to renew. The official reason given is that, regardless of how long they are valid, they all cost exactly the same to produce.

There are so many flaws in this logic that I will just review the ones I find the most offensive. The first and most obvious is that it makes a carte de séjour ten times as expensive as a carte de résident. A carte de séjour carries a lot fewer rights, so for the users, who most of the time are poor immigrants, this increase in cost is going to be very onerous.

An underlying principle of the French administration is that a service and the price charged for it are not connected. The idea of le service public is that everyone must have access to a given service offered by the administration and its cost should not be a barrier. But in this case, the population concerned does not vote and does not really have a means of voicing its opposition, so revenue from card renewal is easy money.

Choosing to have all cards priced at the highest level is a political decision that goes against this very basic French principle. Furthermore, the price is way too low if one looks at the cost of just the wages of all the civil servants who have to spend time working on renewal requests. It is way too high if it is just the cost of each card’s actual production that is taken into consideration.

Also, making it financially difficult to obtain the card is a way to increase the number of people who lose their legal right to live in France simply because they lack the means to pay such a large amount in one lump sum (269€ is 16% of the monthly minimum wage in France).

The new legislation also involves intrusion into people’s lives. Previously, the civil servants based their decisions simply on the documents submitted to them. As long as the originals looked authentic, the documents were trusted. There is always a police check before the card is produced, but what the police do in this respect is up to them.

• Now, however, the prefecture has been given direct access to several databases:
  – The état civil, i.e., everything pertaining to the person’s birth, marriage, divorce, children, and so on.
  – Social charges and organizations dealing with people’s employment or profession, i.e., all the information that carries the French Social Security number. Even though this is a lot less information than for the American counterpart, it is still a lot!
  – All programs linked to social services, whether through the Caisse d’allocations familiales (CAF) or the Caisses primaires d’assurance maladie (CPAM).
  – All records from schools and universities, including children’s report cards, as well as school-based extracurricular activities.
  – All utilities contracts, including internet access and both fixed-line and mobile phones, going back five years.
  – All bank statements going back two years.

This will definitely eliminate fake originals and related cheating. It will also put a lot of people in a delicate situation if their life is a tad messier than the paperwork in their dossier shows.

The only good news that I can see in this is that now some types of cards can last for more than one year. This is especially true for employee (salarié) and private life (vie privée et familiale) cards, since student cards have been multiyear for a while. People holding visiteur cards will continue to renew yearly.

For more information (in French), see :  www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2016/11/03/loi-sur-les-droits-des-etrangers-les-decrets-enterinent-des-reculs_5024888_4355770.html

APPOINTMENTS MADE BY THE CRE IN PARIS ARE VERY EARLY
There is a new situation that only affects a few people but provides a good illustration of what happens when one division of the French administration does not care at all what other divisions require. The result is that applicants are caught in the middle and have to handle an impossible situation.

It is possible to immigrate to France with a visa for self-employed professionals. When the procedure happens in Paris, the first step is to go to the Centre de réception des étrangers (CRE) to get an appointment for the Cité prefecture and a récépissé. This serves as a French ID (which the visa is not) and enables the applicant to register with URSSAF, the Maison des Artistes or AGESSA, which in turn process registration for all related agencies.

It used to be that the prefecture appointment was scheduled about two months later, sometimes more. This was great because four offices must respond in due time in order to make the file complete for the appointment. In short, once registered, the foreigner had time to start working, get all the necessary documents and be ready for the appointment without too much hassle.

At the beginning of this year, however, the period was shortened to about six weeks. That was the bare minimum possible, and it meant the statement of health coverage was never ready on time to be sent and needed to be picked up. But for one of the last cases I submitted at the Cité prefecture, the appointment was one month to the day after the CRE visit: from October 14th to November 14th. The agencies involved are going slower, too: even though the client picked up the statement from RSI regarding health coverage on November 13th, it stated that the request was in process. The next appointment is at the end of March 2017.

The situation became even worse with a new client, when I went to the CRE on November 17th to start this same procedure and the latest appointment we could get was December 1st. This person was not even allowed to get a récépissé because, we were told, the visa, which lasts three months, would be still valid and therefore it was impossible to issue one. There was no point in going to URSSAF without it. Thus the meeting at the Cité prefecture that is supposed to finalize the procedure now will start it. I tried everything I could think of to get the civil servants to understand. Even without my asking to see the manager of the CRE, he kindly came out of his office and said he was sorry but that the software blocked the issuance of the récépissé.

Some people might be happy to have appointments so quickly, and I would share this feeling if applicants really benefited from this and could be done dealing with the prefecture sooner, which I admit is quite an appealing prospect. But as the above description shows, the actual result is that it stretches out the process by many months, which makes it completely counterproductive.

A similar topic, which I need to address in the next issue (for February 2017), is the fact that people with universal health coverage (CMU), now called universal health protection (PUMa), have not paid any premiums for an entire year. The people in charge explain that the situation will be fixed in 2017, probably in the first half of the year. The problem is that foreigners holding the carte de séjour visiteur must show that they pay for their coverage, which proves that they are not destitute. The prefecture refuses to renew the carte de séjour without this proof.

REDESIGNING MY WEBSITE
Since my Christmas vacation starts soon and there is no January issue, during this time I plan on having my website redesigned, mainly so as to use more recent software to update and manage it. This means there may be a couple of days when the site will not be online, and I may have difficulty accessing my email. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but we will do everything we can to keep this outage as short as possible.

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for three weeks for the Christmas holidays, starting on Friday December 16th, reopening on Monday January 9th. 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. I did not take any vacation time last summer, so now that I am settled in the new office with my new corporation, I have decided to take some time off, close to the normal length of my vacation. Of course, I will honor the prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.

I would like to remind everyone that there is no January issue.

Best regards,

QUESTION

RENEWING THE CARTE DE RÉSIDENT

My 10-year card came to its expiration date at the end of October. Knowing this I recently called and obtained a renewal appointment in August. I did get the official document in the mail but I was wondering if it is still legal for me to work here while waiting. So I called a second time and was told to go to the CRE in the 17th district to get a récépissé. The agent had told me I needed all kinds of docs – like phone/gas bills, copies of my passport and current resident card, etc. – but when I got there, the only thing needed was my convocation and a PHOTO (the photo was the only thing the agent did NOT mention on the phone). Fortunately, there is a Photomaton on the ground floor AND a change machine.. So I was in and out in about 10 minutes – a miracle. If I understand correctly, I’m now still “legal” up through my convocation date. I hope this will work for traveling as well because I must make a trip to England in the near future. Neither of these two documents feel like they are proper ID, and I do not trust the prefecture.

QUESTION

HOW TO OBTAIN A CARTE DE SÉJOUR AS A SELF-EMPLOYED PERSON

All by myself, I got a self-employed immigration visa from the French consulate in Chicago. I showed them what I do as a branding consultant specialized in the fashion industry, and got references from the couple of businesses in France interested in what I do. I am planning my arrival in Paris but I cannot find any information that makes sense regarding the steps I should take to secure my right to work and live in France. On the bottom of the visa is “carte de séjour à solliciter dans les deux mois suivant l’arrivée”, which I understand means that I must ask for my immigration ID within two months after I arrive. The consulate did not give me any other information other than to contact the prefecture. I tried and get no answer by email and once I got someone on the phone and did not at all understand the explanation. Can you tell me where and when should I go?

“Riders on the Storm” is a song by The Doors from their 1971 album, L.A. Woman. Foreigners living in a new country often feel as though the waves are pushing them in a different direction from where they would like to go.

For such a short issue, the October 2016 installment triggered many more responses than I had expected, mainly about living conditions in Paris but also about banking in France. Therefore, I have decided to use several of them to show the diversity of the responses I got – especially the ones dealing with maids’ rooms. I get the feeling people living in them are feeling the crunch; even though they are not complaining about it, and are happy to have found a home, one can read between the lines how hard their lives in Paris are.

I am happy to be able to let their voices be heard, and I thank them for sending their reactions to me.

GETTING FINED IN SWITZERLAND FOR OVERSTAYING IN THE EU
A reader writes:
“In 2013, I was leaving France, on my way to Tel Aviv, having stayed 20 days beyond the 90 days allowed me as a tourist. I had a scheduled stop in Switzerland, where I was sent to the immigration office to be questioned about the reason for my overstaying in Europe; then I was fined 350 euros. Good thing I had a valid credit card! There was also a lengthy talk concerning the seriousness of my offense, which was way before the recent terrorist attacks in the EU; I can’t imagine what it would cost me now.”
MY ANSWER
I have been stating for years that many European countries issue fines to non-Europeans overstaying in the EU. This policy was being implemented gradually until the most recent terrorist attacks, but since then its evolution has been swift throughout the EU. Anyone planning on traveling extensively in Europe without an immigration status is bound to be fined or worse. One client with a spouse and daughter has a carte de séjour visiteur. Since they are Americans and travel a lot, they chose France for their residency because, after doing considerable homework, they concluded that the process of getting immigration status was easier in France than anywhere else in the EU. This says a lot about the laws and procedures in the other EU countries.

THE PARIS PREFECTURE HAS MADE PICKING UP CARDS A LOT MORE DIFFICULT
The Paris prefecture has changed its procedure for delivering the plastic carte de séjour ID card. It used to be possible to pick it up any time during the two months starting from the date specified on the notification letter. Some of my American clients were able to pick it up at or near the expiration date of the card itself. This leeway was very useful.

About two months ago, the prefecture changed its procedure. It now sends a text message giving an appointment about two to three weeks later. That appointment is a window of about two hours on the date the card will be ready. Clearly the system is not working well, however, since the card sometimes is not there or cannot be picked up at the designated appointment time.

Therefore I asked if it was possible to come at another time: would the prefecture send another text message? Can the foreigner show up anytime? For the moment, no new appointment is made but the card can be picked up any day starting at 2PM. However, I also learned that the system will eventually evolve into very strict observance of the following procedure: If the foreigner cannot make the initial appointment, the prefecture will send a second message for an appointment three months later. If that appointment is missed, the card will be destroyed.

Implementation of a new policy takes a long time, and often changes are made during that time. In any case, it is obvious that this text message policy is here to stay and the prefecture wants much better control, making sure that people who hold the carte de séjour actually live in France.

The immediate consequence is that foreigners living in France must plan trips and vacations accordingly. There are two ways of dealing with this new rule. The first one is to make sure you are back in France no later than one month after your appointment to request the renewal of your card at the prefecture. If you are planning a long absence from France, do not leave until you pick up the card, which means scheduling your departure at least two months after the said appointment at the prefecture. It is clear that this will have an impact on when and how you book your appointment, especially around Christmas time, summer vacation and other prime travel seasons.

For example, if the card expires on Dec 5th and you plan on spending Christmas in the USA and returning to France on January 15th, I can see two possible solutions:

With the first scenario, the first thing to do is to secure an appointment at the prefecture to ask for the renewal of the carte de séjour as close as possible to Dec 15th or your departure date. That makes it very likely that you will receive the text message at about the time of your return flight, making it possible for you to pick up the card. If you have the appointment before the expiration date, you run a risk of missing the meeting to pick up the card unless you shorten your trip.

The alternative is to wait until Dec 1st or thereabouts to book the renewal appointment, which could be as late as four months later, April 1st. This would then mean getting a récépissé before the card expires. It should last at least three months and cover the entire Christmas vacation. The latter solution may seem a lot more daring, as it pushes back the appointment, but it could be safer, since it allows one to renew and pick up the card without any worries regarding the vacation.

This situation puts a huge twist in the titre de séjour renewal and should not be taken lightly. Indeed, missing the first appointment could mean coming back to France or the Schengen area without a valid immigration document, and we now know the consequences can be very serious, even when returning to France, though it seems France remains more lenient than many other European countries.

I will make sure to keep my readers informed as the situation evolves. I recently had to redo my French passport and French national ID card, and both times I received a text message. It appears this method is here to stay. Some of my clients who do not have a French cellular phone have given my number so they would be informed. The system assumes that everybody has such a phone, which is not true. So it creates a new insecurity in this procedure for people who are already in precarious situations. I hope that the text message system for the carte de séjour becomes as reliable as the one for the French ID documents. I also hope the system for retrieving the card remains reasonable, even though unfortunately this does not seem to be the case right now.

NEW COMMENTS ABOUT DEPOSITING CASH IN A FRENCH BANK ACCOUNT
A reader writes:
“A short note to let you know I have had the same experience … regarding cash deposits. My bank, HSBC, Auteuil branch, accepted cash deposits until July 2016. Then they completely refurbished the place, and now there is an automatic teller where cash has to be deposited. To activate it, you need to use your bank card.

“Same situation at Banque Palatine (where I have my professional account and where I need to be able to deposit cash). My branch at Auteuil never accepted cash, so I used to go to Doumer branch to deposit cash. Now they do not accept cash anymore. Banque Palatine has what they call a mur d’argent at the Matignon branch where you need to use your bank card to do the transaction.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult to make cash deposits. My bank understands that the cash deposits are related to my work, but they do not accept cash in my branch. So I have to take an hour of my time to go to the branch that accepts cash.”

Now I understand better why there is a need for a bank card to deposit cash. Each bank is different! Also, I see a trend of French banks closing branches in Paris as well as reducing the services offered by leaving fewer machines on the premises. The idea behind this is that clients increasingly being urged OR encouraged to bank by internet.

ANOTHER COMMENT ABOUT FRENCH BANKS
On this topic, another reader says:
“I have been spending three summer months a year in France for a while now, and I have often withdrawn $3,000 in euros from an ATM in France only to deposit it in the French bank account, using the same ATM, for living expenses. Other friends of mine have done the same thing. I guess that is now out the door.

“I have been declaring my French account on my US tax declaration, since my balance exceeded $10,000 during the 2015 year. I have been wiring multiple $10,000 sums at exchange rates of 1.12, 1.10 and last at 1.08. I am now set for my expenses here, including all automatic payments for taxe d’habitation and the like. Never has anyone questioned the wires at either end.

“Back to the Carte Bleue. As expected, I had to file US tax form W9 supplying the BNP with my tax ID (SS#) last year. But this year my life partner’s Carte Bleue expired? Was canceled?. The bank demanded she stop at the branch and fill out a W9 form before they would give her a replacement card. I was very surprised and told them so, given that she is NOT on the account but is simply an authorized user. I lost the argument and we did as they requested despite not thinking it proper.”

MY ANSWER
I have had an American social security number since I was 21, so the IRS demanded that I sign the US W9 tax form, stating that I was not an American. Since I did it right away, there were no negative consequences regarding the services offered by the bank.

The wire transfers are probably accepted since they come every month at about the same time and therefore it looks like you are moving money to pay your bills. The pattern that is a red flag is several wire transfers of about 1,000 euros from a foreign source, made daily or thereabouts, which clearly indicate that someone wants to receive a larger sum of money while bypassing the declaration both sides are asking for.

COMMENTS ABOUT LIVING IN THE MAID’S ROOM ON THE LAST FLOOR
1st comment
“I had a friend who lived in a tiny maid’s room on the 6th floor. She paid a lot because she had a beautiful view and was in Paris. I once went to Rue Saint Dominique where an old lady was renting a similar room. You had access to her house for laundry but the room was your home. It is true such rooms are small and sometimes ridiculously priced but people still rent them because the other apartments are too expensive.”
My answer
I find it interesting that people are still offering services such as laundry in their homes, allowing tenants to come in and out of their apartment. As for the general idea that the steep rents are just a result of supply and demand, this is absolutely true. As long as people agree to pay exorbitant amounts for unsafe lodgings, there is not much that can be done to stop it.

2nd comment
“Your last issue reminded me of the numerous moves of my office when I was a lawyer in Paris. Once I had my archives on the 6th floor without an elevator in a maid’s room in the 16th and my secretary refused to help as it was not part of her job description!”
My answer
That is an interesting use of a maid’s room, especially the type that is totally unsuited for living in according to today’s regulations. I am not surprised by your employee’s reaction, although I would have thought that carrying files is part of her job description. Still, she is not supposed to work as a mover. There is a fine line here.

3rd comment
“For a few months, I lived on the 8th and last floor of a building in Place des Ternes. Several chambres de bonne made quite a spacious apartment with a large bathroom equipped with a bathtub and a washing machine. But the tiny spiral staircase was so narrow and the steps too small; I had to tiptoe going up, and coming down was scary as the steps could not accommodate the foot of an adult. One more thing: you get dizzy going up or down this stuffy spiral stairway to hell.”
My answer
This comment is a good illustration of the extreme situations Parisian real estate can present. Given the location and size, the rent must have been quite high, even with the serious drawback that those stairs represented. If ever the demand for Paris rentals significantly decreases, this type of apartment will be the first to take the hit, as its level of comfort is totally out of line with the route one must take to get to it.

4th comment
“A sad part of Paris history – the maid’s room – barely a space to navigate and reminding one of class differentials – not a morale boost. Lucille writes beautifully and [her words are] touching.”
My answer
Baron Haussmann (b. March 27, 1809, d. January 11, 1891), as the préfet de Paris from June 23, 1853, to January 5, 1870, largely designed the Paris we know today. This drastic reshaping occurred during the second half of the 19th century, and therefore it is no surprise that class differences are reflected in the design of the buildings erected then; this occurred into the 20th century. The buildings are a product of their time, and as such, there is nothing sad about them. But the living conditions of their residents, then as now, are too often a sad story.

5th comment
“I love that your daughter, Lucille, helps you with the titles of your columns and sometimes the topics. Also, I really enjoyed her story about her friend’s maid’s quarters or chambre de bonne. Of course, I live in such a room. It is so small I have to go outside to change my mind.  But each time I climb the 117 stairs, I thank my lucky stars that I have a room here in Paris, dark or otherwise, and shelter from the cold nights. But, really, it is so good of you and Lucille to care about so many of us, especially those who are financially ???? challenged. Thank you!”

My answer
Thank you for your testimony. I like to hear from people who live in chambres de bonne as they are permanent homes for them. You do not see maids’ rooms the same way. You are happy that they exist and you put up with everything so you can live in Paris, often in the same neighborhood as your employers.

6th comment
“I find your previous issue about the maids’ rooms and the service staircase misleading and offensive. My experience is that the worst violations do not always happen on the last floor where the maids’ rooms are, even when the only access is the gloomiest staircase. Those rooms are small and often have inadequate comfort, but I did finally find peace and safety in one of them. Holding a real lease and having the utilities in my name makes me safe in my home. The room is for sure tiny but it is my kingdom, I am alone and I know that I am safe. “Here are just a few things that happened to me and caused me to feel this way. I had just arrived in France and was living in my employer’s home. Shortly after arriving in France, I found out that I had a serious medical condition and I needed surgery, which required a three-weeks convalescence. When my employer learned that, she told me that I would lose my ‘home’ and my job if I underwent this surgery. The lavish luxury of the place that I also enjoyed did not change the fact that it was a place of death. “When I was discharged from the hospital, I shared a tiny room on the third floor of a residential building in Paris during my recovery. It was the size of a maid’s room. The kitchen was installed underneath a bunkbed, which was almost at the level of the ceiling. There was no available space, just a tiny path. “A few years later, I got a maid’s room in the 16th. I was told I would sign a lease, but I was left instead with a very short note. When I tried to get the electrical meter in my name, I discovered that I was renting from a crook. No electricity had been paid for seven years on that meter. With some help and good guidance, I was able to work with EDF to clear up the situation, since they found the owner responsible. That same day, I received death threats from people banging on my door in the middle of night. The gardienne was extremely angry at me, advised me daily to move out if I wanted to stay out of trouble, and said I should fear for my life. With some good support, I held fast and one day the crook and the threats disappeared completely. “So today I savor the peace and safety I get from being home. Do not speak negatively about those maids’ rooms. They are our homes, and we have come a long way when we can rent by ourselves rooms that comply with the regulations and are put up for rent by law-abiding landlords. You should talk about the awful people who make our life pure hell. The buildings are not the problem, and climbing six flights of stairs is a small price to pay to be safe and have enough space around the bed to move around and feel free. I hope that you get the message.”
MY ANSWER
What can I say? I totally agree with you that the living condition of maids’ rooms might be harsh but that is nothing compared to what you went through, which was a nightmare. Too often you must deal with unscrupulous people for work and for lodging, and if you are an undocumented alien, it is even worse since they know you have hardly any ways to fight for your rights. I agree that, in the grand scheme of things, “the buildings are not the problem.”

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for three weeks for the Christmas holidays, starting on Friday December 16th, reopening on Monday January 9th. 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. I did not take any vacation time last summer, so now that I am settled in the new office with my new corporation, I have decided to take some time off, close to the normal length of my vacation. Of course, I will honor the prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.

Best regards,

QUESTION

BUYING REAL ESTATE IN FRANCE: THE FLAW MIGHT NOT BE WHERE YOU ARE LOOKING

After living more than a decade in Paris, my husband and I chose to move to the countryside in the southwest of France. After several months of searching we found a wonderful old farm with several buildings, at least two of which are well equipped and easy for us to move into. During what was supposed to be our last trip there, before we made the offer, we had a huge setback. We discovered that a windmill farm is to be installed within a mile of the house. Of course, no one told us about it, and when we asked the real estate agent and the seller about it, they completely denied that this project existed, saying that it had been abandoned a very long time ago. But after further research, we found out that there is a small section of the property that the seller did not put on the market, which corresponds to the location where some of the windmills would be. This is highly suspicious. Now the real estate agent is threatening us, saying we must go on with the sale since during one of our last visits we reached an agreement on the price of the purchase. We refuse to buy in those conditions and they refuse to listen to us. Can they really force the sale on us? I refuse to be the victim of crooks.

QUESTION

EMPLOYEE CARTE DE SEJOUR RENEWAL WHEN ONE IS UNEMPLOYED

After having been a student in France I managed to obtain the employee carte de séjour with a one-year labor contract. I am not sure if the prefecture did it on purpose, but the card expires the very day my contract ends. This creates an absolutely impossible situation, since I do not see how I can renew my card as I am really not sure that I will be employed with a new contract the day of the appointment. I am seriously afraid that I will lose my residency for a very stupid reason. This is totally unfair. Do you have a solution?

This is a very common expression in the USA, where everybody thinks they will climb the ladder of success all the way to the top when in fact few make it..

Not used as often is climbing the ladder of awareness.

For almost a month, I have climbed up and down the steps of my old office during the move, cleaning up before the movers came.

This issue discusses apartments and maids’ rooms on the top floor, some of them accessible only by the service staircase.

Now that all these transformations in my professional life are almost completed, I can again envision somehow climbing a ladder of success, one which will not be measured only by the money I make. I can feel that a new era has started. Sitting on the ground floor, I look at the courtyard and then at the sky, back and forth. Expressions have a way of flavoring life, from here to the sky.

THIS ISSUE IS SHORTER THAN USUAL AS THE MOVE TOOK A SIGNIFICANT TOLL
From the beginning of September until Monday the 26th I was dealing with the move – first the preparations, which include not just packing boxes but also managing the phone lines, internet access and, even more complicated, mail forwarding for me and the many clients who receive mail at my place. The two rooms dedicated to my professional use are now fully functional and decorated to my taste. The third one still needs a final touch. Interestingly, it took me much longer than I expected to arrange the new office space, as this is the first time I have had one room for office work and another for meetings, which meant that I had to fully separate these two aspects of my practice.

I HAVE MOVED!
Even as I send out this column I am still getting used to the new place, which among other things challenged me to find the right decor for each room.

Here is the information my clients will need to come to my new office.

The address:
61 rue de Montreuil
75011 Paris

The nearest metros:

• 1 – The Rue des Boulets station on line 9 is the closest, a 3-minute walk. From the station, take the small Rue des Boulets. The first street on your right is Rue de Montreuil and the building is a short distance down on the right.
• 2 – Nation (RER A, lines 1, 2, 6, 9) is a 6-minute walk. From the RER station, take the Boulevard Voltaire exit and the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine escalator, then walk straight onto Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine; from the Metro station take the Boulevard Diderot-Avenue Dorian exit to Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The third street on your right is Rue Gonnet; take it to Rue de Montreuil and the building will be in front of you.
• 3 – Faidherbe–Chaligny on line 8 is also 6 minutes away. Upon exiting, Rue de Montreuil is in front of you, slightly to your left; just keep walking to number 61.
• 4 – Reuilly–Diderot, on lines 8 and 1, is about a 9-minute walk. Take the Rue de Reuilly exit. Cross Rue de Reuilly, and on your left take Rue Claude Tillier. At Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, look for the small Rue Gonnet on the other side of the street slightly on your right, and take it to Rue de Montreuil.

At number 61, walk through the hallway and stop by the sign marked “C” (Bât C), on your left, then my door is opposite, on your right. It looks like a tiny house. The name Taquet is on the bell on the right side of the door.

One major advantage is the very large choice of public transportation, including buses.

RENT CAP LEGISLATION IS NOW IN EFFECT, AT LEAST IN PARIS
Government attempts to protect consumers often either fail or take a very long time to kick in because court hearings are required to force people to comply with the law.

More than 18 months after a new law including rent caps was voted in, I explained in my November 2015 issue how it would work. Now many aspects of it have gone into effect and it is working rapidly.

Among other provisions, the law of 24 March 2014 pour l’accès au logement et un urbanisme rénové created a sort of court, the Commission de Conciliation des Rapports Locatifs de Paris, which is somewhat informal but can still rule and have its decisions enforced. It is now possible to get a hearing within a few months, and if the commission rules against the landlord, the rent must be lowered right away.

Of course, landlords continue to fight this procedure and claim that with such low rent they are losing money and will be forced to sell their properties. That is a completely different debate. For right now, I am just saying that the procedure works for normal residential leases, whether for furnished or unfurnished housing. (It does not apply to very short-term rentals of the Airbnb type.)

My experience is that more and more landlords are renting completely outside the law on this type of contract for people who want to settle in France. That means the proof of address that the prefecture and other organizations expect people to have are not available, creating a nightmarish situation.

The market is swift to move away from unwelcome legislation. If you plan to live in Paris or another major city in France, expect to go through several lodgings before finding the right place with the right lease.

To find out how much the rent for a particular apartment should be, according to the government, check this site:www.encadrementdesloyers.gouv.fr

For more information (in French), see http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2016/07/01/encadrement-des-loyers-c-est-un-chateau-qu-elle-veut-aux-frais-de-la-princesse_4961887_3224.html?xtmc=encadrement_des_loyers_c_est_un_chateau_qu_elle_veut_aux_frais_de_la_princesse&xtcr=1 

A STAIRWAY TO HELL
I would like to share an experience my daughter, Lucille, had. For about ten years now she has helped me choose the titles of my columns and sometimes the topics, and has reviewed sections before the final editing. For 25 years, we have lived in an apartment right above the ground floor shops in a building that is small but dates from the Haussmannian era. The maids’ rooms are accessible by a tiny elevator installed so that it fits the staircase.

During an internship last year, Lucille became friends with a young woman of about the same age who came from the countryside and ended up renting a tiny room in another building that was only accessible by the service staircase. Lucille went to see her friend, and that first visit made quite a powerful impression on her. Lucille had thought she knew Paris, the city she was born in, but then she discovered a dark side of the City of Light.

“We entered through the majestic main door and immediately crossed the courtyard and opened a tiny door. Suddenly, I was in a little courtyard, and in front of me was the narrowest staircase I had ever seen in a building. I got scared just looking at it; it was steep and very badly lit. My first thought was how do we manage if someone comes down? Do we get run over? Then I hoped that only healthy young adults lived up there. Even though I was 24 and used to climbing stairs, climbing like this completely drained me, both physically and mentally, because of the fear of slipping and stumbling down.

“The day I helped this friend move out, we carried down her bags and suitcases. No description needed: we were drenched and totally exhausted by the time we got the last bag down to the last step. Then the gardienne saw us. She scrutinized us intensely, checking the bags we were carrying as if we were stealing things. She kept an eye on us all the time, then reminded us of the rules about leaving furniture in the common areas, apparently afraid we would leave a chair or something like that behind us. My friend had told me that the gardienne had looked at her suspiciously from the minute she moved in, keeping an eye on her all the time.”

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MAIDS’ ROOMS IN HAUSSMANNIAN BUILDINGS
In the old days, when Baron Haussmann was rebuilding Paris, wealthy families lived in grand apartments of around 100 square meters (1,076.4 square feet) or more and had one or more maids’ rooms so their servants could live in close proximity. I addressed an aspect of this issue in the second Q/A of the February 2013 issue. Here was the question (I will send a copy of this issue upon request, as it is too old to be found on my website):

“I have been surviving in Paris as a student for several years now. In my mid-20s, I enjoy the physical exercise of walking in the city, taking public transportation and carrying everything, including my grocery shopping. I do not need aerobic sessions since I have always lived in a maid’s room on the top floor, which is most of the time inaccessible by the elevator. So climbing six or seven flights of stairs keeps me in shape.

“I recently moved into a very upscale building in the 7th district of Paris where there is the main entrance, with the large staircase and the elevator, and there is the service entrance, which is an iron door on the side of the building; the related staircase is tiny, steep and poorly lighted and it is absolutely the only way to access the last floor, where my room is.

“I have been asked to tutor several children in the building who live in the nice residential apartments of the lower floors. I earn some money this way, and I like it. One of the families is my landlord, and this is how it started! The problem is that the concierge has declared war against me and she screams at me that I do not belong there every time she sees me in the main staircase. She does not believe that I tutor children in English. She is now threatening to get me evicted since I do not comply with the bylaws of the building, which would be a violation of my lease. Now I am getting really scared. What should I do?”

This clearly indicates that even though all social classes lived in the same building there was strict segregation between the maids (later au pairs) and their employers, with different staircases. Usually the elevator only served the large family apartments. The maids had to climb around six floors using dirty, shabby staircases that were often narrow, steep and poorly lighted. The main apartments’ kitchens each had a door opening onto that dreadful staircase so that the servants could start work in the kitchen without bothering the rest of the family.

Now, however, even though au pairs are still quite popular, they rarely live in the same building as their employers, and the so-called maids’ rooms have completely changed tenants. For about 30 years or so, poor students lived there, but an accumulation of laws narrowing the definition of a decent lodging determined that most of those rooms were unfit to live in.

According to the current definition, to be considered habitable, a space must have at least one room measuring 9 square meters, with a height of at least 2.2 meters and total volume of 20 cubic meters. It must have a functioning heating system, as well as a WC with a door, and either a bathtub or a shower – unless it is a maid’s room, in which case the WC must only be in the building and easily accessible.

Given the difficulty of installing functional plumbing in many such rooms, over the years people have taken to buying contiguous maids’ rooms, knocking down the walls and creating decent-sized apartments. Or people who live one floor below may create a duplex. Either way, owner-occupants in these new apartments are asking to have the elevator go all the way up and to have the common areas outside their apartments look decent, instead of bare hallways on the last floor and disgraceful staircases. These owners belong to the same social class as other owners in the building and they feel unfairly discriminated against.

The problem is that these buildings were never designed for such amenities, and the changes involved are very expensive, if they are feasible at all. In most cases, it is only possible to open a small corridor so that people living on the top floor can reach their apartments via one flight of the service staircase after taking the elevator up to the next-to-last floor.

The Paris Court of Appeal ruled on November 5th 2000 that owners on the top floor of a building in the 7th arrondissement of Paris had a right to have the elevator extended to the last floor since they were offering to pay for the work needed. They owned and lived in a 50-square-meter apartment there. The owners’ council had systematically voted against the project at its annual general meetings.

More recently, however, court rulings have gone against such modifications, partly out of fear that the new apartments will be used for very short-term Airbnb-type rentals. This shows that the courts are pre-emptively enforcing the city regulation against such rentals. It has reached the point where the city of Paris may envision expropriating such rooms.

There is another twist to the situation. There are still many maids’ rooms, most of them with a shower but only one common toilet for the entire floor. The rooms are often rented to maids, nannies or caretakers, often foreigners, who may live crowded together into a 9-square-meter room with bunk beds sleeping 3 people or more. I know, for example, that Filipinos often live in these rooms, and their rent is still quite high. The monthly rent for a 15-square-meter room with shower and WC is about 600€, which is close to half the net monthly French minimum wage. The high rents explain why the rooms are so crowded.

Maybe it is time for the tenants of these rooms to take their situation to the authority I mentioned above, the Commission de Conciliation des Rapports Locatifs, to get the amount of rent adjusted to a more reasonable amount reflecting the size and comfort offered. I urge people to spread this information to people in this type of situation.

MY FEES ARE GOING UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2016
It has been about six years since my fees last increased. On October 1st, I am raising my initial retainer from 250€ to 270€ and the hourly rate from 100€ to 110€.

Best regards,

QUESTION

FRENCH BANKS HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH CASH BEING DEPOSITED IN AN ACCOUNT

Last summer, a teller at my bank, Société Générale, told me that as of September even my own branch of Société Générale would no longer accept cash deposits. Cash deposits would have to be made via automated teller. This would require my having a Carte Bleue – something I do not have and do not need, which would cost me money. I have plenty of American credit cards. The point of acquiring a Carte Bleue (which, again, is only to be had for a fee) would simply be to enable me to put money on my French checking account. American checking accounts pay interest (albeit nominal). French checking accounts, these days, not only do not pay interest (they have not done so in my lifetime), but charge you a fee to maintain them. American credit cards are mainly free, and even pay the holder benefits for using them. French credit cards not only offer no benefits, but come with a fee. The differences are great, and so I wonder, are French banking procedures regulated by legislation, or do the banks simply do as they please? And if the latter, how do they get away with it? Too little competition?

Face to face with…
Indeed face to face with what?
The answer to this question makes all the difference in the world.
It can be good but most of the time it is bad.
Foreigners are faced with all kinds of difficult situations, with doubts, misunderstandings, and this list can go on for a very long time.
“In the face of death”: for most of us, it is just an expression, which, thankfully we just about always misuse.

In this column, I describe my encounter with one of the victims of a recent terrorist attack that occurred in France. This person came to my office and I was face to face with a reality that shook me to the bone.

Life is rarely a bed of roses; being an immigrant too often feels like being comfortable will never happen again. Reminding people that it is back-to-school time on September 1st for French students in Paris, and that taxes are due in two weeks looks very small in comparison.

SOMETIMES AMERICANS ARE NOW HELD OR FINED FOR OVERSTAYING IN FRANCE
For as long as I can remember, I have assured American citizens that the French police, including those working in airports, will not give them trouble when they leave France or reenter it even if they are not staying legally in France. But that now seems to be changing, though I have not received enough accounts from people to be able to map exactly what is happening or what the pattern is. Of course, this is not really something one can go to the authorities and ask about.

Since early this year, I have been aware of increased scrutiny. It is now common for people to be asked to show their French ID card when they leave or enter France; in such cases, presenting only an American passport is not enough. More and more frequently, in the case of a foreigner who is unable to prove full compliance, the police check the prefecture database, see the person’s actual status and give a little lecture about keeping one’s status legal at all times. The most common case so far is that of traveling on an expired card, which usually involves having secured an appointment for renewal but not carrying the récépissé, the temporary ID card that covers the time up to the appointment. To my knowledge, here has been no real punishment to date, just a stern lecture on what the law is.

The reason I mention all this is that one of my clients actually got fined leaving France on an expired carte de résident. It had expired over six months before, and the person had nothing in the making, no appointment upcoming, no file submitted. I was told that the person had to pay a fine of about 100 euros, which is not much compared to what the other EU countries inflict in the same situation.

The conclusion I have reached is that the fight against terrorism has changed a lot of things, including the leniency that used to benefit North Americans. The case of the fine is the worst story I have heard so far, but I expect to get more and more feedback, as there is a staggering number of North Americans who have lived in France for years or even decades without legal immigration status. I expect these people to have an increasingly difficult time at French airports.

Also, I have seen the Paris Prefecture getting a tad stricter on the requirements to obtain or renew a carte de séjour. My concern is that a passport stamp from the airport showing that the holder has left France without holding either a récépissé or a convocation, which I define as having no valid documentation, could tick off the prefecture. I would remind everybody that traveling outside France without a récépissé, which means that one is traveling on an expired French ID card, should be legally interpreted as having moved definitively out of France. Therefore the traveler is considered to be a tourist entering France under the 90-day visa waiver program. I wrote about such a case in the March 2016 issue, in which the person had never had a French ID and requested one a few days after their most recent arrival in France..

My advice is very simple: this situation is here to stay and likely to worsen. As much as possible, everybody should have legal status in France and keep it that way all the time. Traveling under dubious immigration status, in my view, means a risk at the airport and then another one at the prefecture. How much of a risk, I do not yet know.

PARIS – CITY OF LIGHT AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY
The Ritz palace hotel has just finished a complete renovation, which lasted nearly four years. It is the latest Parisian palace to undergo extreme renovation. In the last 15 years or so, pretty much one palace has reopened every year after having been closed for several years. This trend basically started in 2000, when the Royal Monceau and the Meurice closed for several years.

Most articles mention that the competition has increased with a new generation of fine hotels. Not all the new hotels get the “palace” classification, but the quality of comfort provided by those newcomers is challenging the Parisian palaces, who are being forced to undergo renovation.

There was a time not too long ago when the clients of palaces were looking for the traditional premium service; WiFi in the suite or state-of-the-art plumbing and so on was not on their agenda. As did the British aristocracy portrayed in Downtown Abbey, clients expected quality service of a different kind. It is almost as if they were looking for a kind of idealized old-world luxury in their accommodation. While this is more an image than reality, the longing for a certain style of living, staying away from modernity, was what certain clients used to look for.

As things have evolved, probably due to globalization and a change of culture, clients have begun to expect palace hotels to offer exquisite and modern service, and the industry had to quickly adapt.

Even though it is not at all the same quality of service, I can compare this to the success of very short-term rentals against the hotel industry in Paris. Clearly more and more people prefer this type of service, having the feeling of staying in a home but also generally having the latest technology available, especially in very old buildings (there are still 17th century buildings in some parts of Paris). These guests want to experience WiFi and cable TV while enjoying the idea that these walls have seen centuries of history.

There was a time when traveling in Europe meant learning to enjoy living history with a different type of comfort and service. Today access to the latest technology has become the most important factor, even for palace hotels. Yes, there is more to it than that, but this trend cannot be denied.

WHEN THE REALITY OF TERRORISM KNOCKS ON MY DOOR
Since the early days of 2015, terrorism has been in the news, and continues to hit targets all over the world. It hit once again in France this past July. We all read about it. The news coverage depends on where the attacks happen, how many people died or were injured, and so on. It is very sad to say, but in France it is starting to become a fact of life; it is clear that the Bastille Day attack is unlikely to be the last one. Getting information, or maybe an excess of information, through the media for such events still does not make these attacks real or personal unless you know someone who is a victim. Then you are faced with the evidence of what a mauled life is.

No one in my close circle of friends or my family has been a direct victim of one of these attacks. But this summer, one of the victims, a survivor who was badly hurt, came to my office and sat in front of me. Then I was faced with what terrorism does. Adding insult to injury, the couple has been sent back to the prefecture again and again for close to a year. Yes, they are also victims of the too-familiar runaround: being told that a document is always missing, that “this is insufficient information.” To add to the problem, the French spouse is dealing with a severe medical condition, does not have perfect documentation and never mentions that the physical handicap came from being the victim of terrorism.

A beautiful soul in a broken body, this is my visualization of what terrorism does to people. In many ways, I feel honored that they came to me on the immigration issue. It made me feel humble, at a time when I was impatient over everything that was needed to make a move and change in my professional life possible. When I compare our situations, my struggles become minuscule and should be put in perspective.

I never know who will walk through my door when a first-time client arrives. Sometimes my work takes on a different dimension. Fixing the lives of these victims is impossible; most of the time, they are left with a permanent handicap. But I can do my utmost to make sure that this couple’s administrative situation is swiftly fixed. In many ways, I feel like I owe this to them, and not just because I am paid. It feels like too little, too late.

The victims of terrorism now have a face.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2016
It has been about six years since my fees last increased. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 250 € to 270 € and the hourly rate from 100 € to 110 €.

MY OFFICE WILL NOT CLOSE IN SEPTEMBER BUT I WILL NOT BE VERY AVAILABLE
I need to get the new office ready and clear and clean the old office. On top of that there will be a transfer of the internet line and account. So I am hoping that I can have everything taken care of by Friday September 23rd. So more than ever, the best way to contact me is through my cell number cell :

(33) (0)6.16.81.48.07. and by E-Mail: qa@jeantaquet.com. 

Thank you for your understanding.

THE NEW OFFICE
Since early June, I had been worried about finding the right place for my new office. To sum up the challenge: really professional office spaces start at 50 square meters, or about 540 square feet. I need about half of that, and I found exactly that, 29 square meters. In early July, I found a place that met nearly all my requirements: ground floor, courtyard, quiet, with excellent public transportation. So we all hope the deal can go through now that France is waking up from its August nap!

It is located in the 11th arrondissement between the following stations:

1. Rue des Boulets (line 9)
2. Nation (RER A and lines 1, 2, 6 and 9)
3. Faidherbe-Chaligny (line 8)
4. Reuilly-Diderot (lines 1 and 8)

I am a little bit superstitious about all this and so will not give any more details until I have the keys in my hands. I have already written down directions on how to get there from each of these stations.

ALLIAGE SARL IS GONE, REPLACED BY A SURVIVAL KIT FOR PARIS SARL
Alliage and I shared our business and most of the time had offices together. Legally speaking, this partnership started in September 2000 and stopped at the end of July. So I was faced with not just finding a new place, which was already a serious challenge, but also had to re-create my business set-up with a family-owned limited liability corporation. Since I have used the name A Survival Kit for Paris for 20 years now, I decided to name the new company that. It has been up and running as a legal entity for a couple of months, and I put it into full use in July to take over my billing.

I admit that I have spent some time looking back on these 16 years of business partnership and what it made me achieve. I am not a nostalgic guy, as I always have ideas and projects for the future. At the same time, the partnership was good for me and my business, so I want to thank Isabelle Russo, the senior manager of the now defunct Alliage, for her significant contributions to my success.

TAX OWED ON 2015 INCOME IS DUE SEPTEMBER 15th
The income tax payment schedule in France has three notable dates each year: February 15th, May 15th and September 15th. The system is set up so that on each of these dates, people pay part of the total tax due, usually in three approximately equal installments. The first two payments are each equal to one-third of the taxes owed the previous year, since the tax collection agency, the Trésor Public, does not know the amount for the current payment year until it is notified by the Centre des Impôts, which receives the income declaration of the previous calendar year in the spring. There is a special office in the Parisian suburb of Créteil for residents of Paris. It used to be that these two divisions of the French fiscal administration had different locations. Today they share the same buildings, but still function as separate entities.

“RETENUE À LA SOURCE ” INCOME TAX WITHHELD BY THE EMPLOYER
France is one of the last Western countries where income tax is paid by the individual directly and not withheld by the employer. There are many cultural and historical reasons why the French people are reluctant to change this set-up, but all of them combined are not enough to explain why it has not yet been done.

There is only one technical reason that withholding tax would be very difficult to arrange, and that is the concept of the quotient familial. I believe France is the only country that taxes the family as a group rather than individuals. This means the amount of tax you owe changes if:

• You get married,
• You get divorced,
• You have a child,
• The child leaves the home,
• A family member dies,
• A family member becomes disabled.

These occur frequently enough in the course of a lifetime that if France had withholding taxes, such events could significantly change the amount withheld. A withholding system works well only if there is just a small discrepancy at the end of the year. This is why the French system has taxes paid in three installments.

Now, however, the government is determined to have a withholding system go into effect on January 1st 2017. Employees will be required to inform employers right away of any of the abovementioned changes in their life. The employers will then have to inform the tax office so it can calculate the new amount owed. I do not have much further detail. I have no problem seeing how it will work for employees. For professionals I see only the possibility of continuing the old system of declaring and then catching up if there is a discrepancy.

Best regards,

QUESTION

A MISTAKE ON A FRENCH BIRTH CERTIFICATE

My wife and I recently were recently naturalized and received our French passports and national ID cards. During this procedure, I discovered that there is an error on my daughter’s French birth certificate, acte de naissance from 2013. Her birth certificate indicates I was born in “West Chester” instead of “Chester.” I possibly made this error when I registered her birth and the civil servant did not verify my birthplace on my carte de séjour. Because of this, the mairie in the arrondissement will not add my daughter to our livret de famille. The civil servant said I needed to go to a tribunal to get a rectification. I went there and the information was wrong. There they told me to contact the procureur as if it was a criminal case. Does this make me a criminal? As I just became French, this makes me feel awful and outraged.

QUESTION

THE JUNKMAIL RECEIVED AFTER REGISTERING A BUSINESS IN FRANCE

I am American and was a French university student for two years before I decided to be a consultant in my field. So I managed to get the self-employed status from the prefecture and I registered right away after that with URSSAF. Until then everything went fine. For two months now, I have been receiving mail I did not expect. It all looks very official, some are requests for money, some are forms for registering, some are both. I am very confused as I do not see the documents I was expecting. My reflex would be to answer all of them but the people at URSSAF warned me that there are crooks sending out requests for payment. I cannot see the difference between the good and the bad mail. Can you tell me how to find out who are the bad guys?

The vote held on June 23rd in the UK is on my mind tonight and overshadows everything else. This title sums up what the EU is going through. After 40 years of being in a relationship, even a bad one, splitting is always very painful and destructive. It takes a long time to establish a new balance

So even if the latest news does not make it easy, I would like to wish all of you a great summer and a very nice vacation.

BREXIT
Normally I never react right away to current events, but this is way too big not to make an initial analysis. Most comments are extremely negative and I share the view that it is going to be a lot worse for quite a while before it gets any better. Now I also believe that it could be a blessing in disguise. The EU must move forward after decades of staying the same in terms of creating a federal country. The UK was the main resistance to this. There could be a chance once the turmoil is over to bring back the EU vision of the1970s. I remind my readers that the UK joined the EU in 1974!

The reason Brexit is so painful to me is that the British people voted without understanding what they were voting for. They did not realize how false the anti-Europe slogans were during the campaign and how strong and solid the ties were within the EU, including the UK. They have now lost so much, certainly a lot more than they will ever gain. The rest of the EU, and especially what I consider today’s beating heart of the union – Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Luxemburg, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal – will never depart.

A little background might be useful here. From Wikipedia: “The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was an international organisation serving to unify certain Continental European countries after World War II. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, which was signed by Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The ECSC was the first international organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism, and would ultimately lead the way to the founding of the European Union.” I cannot imagine what it would be like to erase 60 years of living together.

FRENCH ESTATES AND SPLIT OF OWNERSHIP
In the USA, setting up a trust is quite common when one wants to settle his or her own estate while still alive. The key to the success of this process is, I believe, the fact that the rules and the beneficiaries are clearly defined. There is great peace of mind in knowing that everything is well organized.

French law does not have the same legal tool, and tradition favors two completely different legal mechanisms: indivision and démembrement de la propriété.

Under French law all the children must get the same amount of net assets. When it is difficult to sort this out, the assets are either sold and the money is split (démembrement), or each one becomes owner of his/her portion (démembrement – indivision). I believe the weakest point of the latter set-up is that if one wants to leave, he/she has priority over the others, as expressed by the legal concept nul n’est tenu à l’indivision,meaning that no one can be forced to stay in the joint ownership. Since there are no defining rules for the daily management of this arrangement – and no trustee – it often happens that as time goes by the heirs reach a point of disagreement and if the others cannot buy out the dissenter, the property is sold.

The another way of addressing split of ownership of an estate is the démembrement. The Latin-derived word used is usufruct in English, usufruit in French (from usus, the right to use, and fructus, the right enjoy the “fruit” or benefit of the property, e.g. by collecting rent). The split is between a person who holds the title but has no other rights, a concept called bare ownership or nu-propriété, and another person who has full use of the property, which means either living in it or renting it out.

Unlike the previous situation, it is impossible to get out of this situation unless both parties agree to sell their respective rights together. That is, the bare ownership, i.e. the title, can be sold but it stays just as “bare” of other rights for the buyer. But the usufruct is attached to one designated person and cannot be passed on to anyone else.

Problems often occur when upkeep, renovation or repairs need to be done. The law states that daily upkeep and small repairs go with the usufruct, and structural repairs and renovation go with the “bare ownership”. One can immediately see that there might be some disagreement between these two people regarding the definitions of small repairs and structural repairs.

Recently the Cour de Cassation ruled on this issue, stating that, for example, changing the front door, the gutter, the WC, or the shutters is linked to the usufruct. To avoid lawsuits, the parties are now advised to draw up a contract that is very similar to a lease defining the rights and obligations of both parties, thus avoiding interpretation of the law specific to the matter.

About a year ago, the law changed and foreigners living in France now can choose the law of their country of citizenship to govern their estate. What I have described above may be a good reason to choose a legal regime other than that of France. It might also be advisable to speak to a notaire about the matter.

http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2016/05/07/comment-se-partagent-les-frais-d-un-bien-immobilier-en-indivision_4915320_1657007.html

NEW REGULATIONS REGARDING MANDATORY SCHOOLING IN FRANCE
As in most Western countries, there is an obligation to school children in France between ages 6 and 16. The parents are responsible for making sure the schooling occurs, but the choice of how it happens is up to them. There are in effect four types of schooling in France:

• Public school
• Private school with a contract with the state
• Private school without a contract
• Homeschooling
• Public school, as its name implies, is run by the government; the teachers and everyone else working there are civil servants. They must do exactly what the Ministry of Education rules.

Some private schools have signed a contract with the state, and therefore are more or less government-monitored. Their teachers are paid by the state and they must have education and diplomas meeting government standards. Their teaching is monitored by the state regarding the topics for each grade. The main difference is generally that religious instruction is included on top of the school curriculum, and there may be a slightly different orientation in the teaching methods, some philosophical or religious views, and so on.

Until very recently, private schools without a contract, had no interaction with the French administration. For a long time such schools had only to send a note informing the government of their establishment and that was that. Neither the teachers nor the curriculum were verified. Now, however, new regulations have changed this: the school must obtain government approval, which means presenting the teachers, the staff, the curriculum for each grade, and so on. Time will tell how much control is exercised and how rigid the requirements will be.

Homeschooling was unheard of in France until recently. I am sure it always existed but on a minimal level, and there were objective reasons for that: the authorities did not see it as a threat. Also, when it did happen, it was done through the Centre National d’Education à Distance, a division of the Ministry of Education.

On June 9th, however, the Ministry of Education, in addition to cracking down on non-contract private schools, warned that homeschooling might be limited as well. Its reasoning is that a growing segment of the population has radical views that are incompatible with the French way of life, and that children educated at home are in danger of being taught dangerous views. Many people might immediately think of radical Muslims and terrorism, but while it is true that this danger exists, today all three monotheistic religions have among them radical groups that refuse to accept the authority of the state, preferring allegiance to their religious beliefs.

My concern is that a wide range of alternative schooling methods be preserved. Some, like Montessori, are not recognized by the French authorities, which I find odd; thus, they cannot sign a contract with the government. This type of school should easily be approved. I worry that the government is taking too narrow a view of the situation and treating proven methods of education the same as schooling by religious extremists and cults only because they differ from the traditional approach. Still, the statistics make it clear that the number of parents choosing the “Montessori type” of schooling is growing, so this issue should be addressed and these schools should be fully recognized.

A BIG STEP FOR MY PRACTICE
The family-owned SARL A Survival Kit For Paris now officially exists and has a bank account. It is premature to switch my complete accounting over to this account as long as I stay in the current office at 7 rue Ganneron. Therefore I do not yet accept payment in that name, but for me it means everything is ready to transition to the new set-up.

INCREASE OF MY FEES ON OCTOBER 1st 2016
It has been about six years since my fees last increased. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 250€ to 270€ and the hourly rate from 100€ to 110€.

MY OFFICE WILL NOT CLOSE DURING THE SUMMER VACATION
Since my office situation has not been resolved and I do not anticipate being able to move before August or early September, I am not planning any vacation time and do not expect to go away for any length of time this summer. Depending on the outcome of my office search and how quickly it proceeds, this could change some – but not much, considering the fact that any changes would be last minute.

Best regards,

QUESTION

FRENCH SHORT-TERM RENTAL AND PRIMARY RESIDENCE

We moved to Paris a few months ago from the USA on a visitor visa. While staying in a short-term rental, we tried to rent long term in Paris and it ended up being a complete mission impossible. Even when we offered to set aside six months or even a year’s worth of rent, we were only offered leases that stated that this would be our secondary residence. So we gave up and agreed to sign the one that seemed to be best protecting our interests. We might be buying an apartment in a few years or even sooner so we are determined to stay in France, but can we be thrown out of our current apartment in a year or less?

QUESTION

REGISTERING A SMALL BUSINESS IN FRANCE SINCE URSSAF CHANGED REGULATIONS ON MICRO STATUS

I obtained a professional immigration visa at the French consulate in Atlanta, as I work in the advertising industry mainly for fashion companies. After a few trips to Paris, I made enough contacts to try relocating in France. After I arrived I found out that I cannot get the professional status I want. I know that my business is going to grow slowly and it might take several years before I exceed the 32,000€ billing limit of the micro BNC income tax status. But I found out by going to URSSAF that the only way I now can get this fiscal status is by signing up for auto-entrepreneur fiscal status. Then I called the prefecture and found out that my visa does not allow me to choose that status and I must stay with the traditional BNC, which means paying TVA, keeping books and therefore hiring a French CPA to do the year-end declarations and so on. I feel like I have been cheated by the system. Can this be fixed or am I really to be penalized and have to accept this full-grown business status, which is costly and cumbersome?

No Protection (1987) is the second album by Starship, the band that came after Jefferson Starship and Jefferson Airplane, all three of which were led by the singer Grace Slick. Many of the issues I address this month deal with maintaining, providing or diminishing protection for people. One twist, especially in France, is that once the law favors one party, the other is exposed to greater risk. France has insisted for centuries that the law must be fair, which means providing for “unequal treatment”. The logic here is that the underdog must be protected and helped. The recently proposed labor law (loi travail) submitted by Labor Minister Ms. Myriam El Khomri would take away a lot of what is seen as protection for employees; as a result, a lot of demonstrations and strikes have been happening all over France. Nearly everybody agrees that the old way of addressing the situations where there is built-in inequality must be changed, but there is a lot of disagreement as to how it should be changed..

Even French divorce law, which seemed to be widely accepted, is now being criticized in the media, mainly for reasons I will explain below. Interestingly, and in a purely French way, changes that occurred decades ago in other Western countries could now definitively take place in France. This is being done by a liberal government led by Mr. François Hollande, a member of the Socialist Party. If one can see past the current demonstrations, violence and name calling, this is a very interesting time for France.

By the way, the weeks of “Nuit Debout” sit-in demonstrations at the Place de la République also show a desire to change, but in quite the opposite way.

Whether to maintain protection or reduce it, as well as whom to protect, is a very hot topic right now.

BREAKTHROUGH REGARDING DIVORCE IN FRANCE
Divorce has been possible without proving fault since the passage on July 11th 1975 of a law mostly drafted by the legal scholar Jean Carbonnier, which made the judge the cornerstone of the proceedings so as to ensure the fairness of the divorce.

There are four types of divorce proceedings, whose interpretations have changed over the years but which have pretty much kept the same name and logic.

• 1. Le consentement mutuel is a mutually agreed upon divorce, in which the couple is in agreement on all issues needed to divorce.
• 2. La demande acceptée, now called le divorce pour acceptation du principe de la rupture du mariage, means the couple agrees on at least one thing, the fondamental decision to divorce.
• 3. La rupture de la vie commune, now called le divorce pour altération définitive du lien conjugal,indicates that the couple no longer live together and have not for a number of years (formerly seven, now two years).
• 4. Le divorce pour faute used to entail any breach of the legal obligations within a marriage but now the grounds are limited to violence and various forms of coercion resulting in one spouse being truly scared of the other.

In all of these proceedings, the judge is seen as the person making sure each spouse fairly shares both rights and responsibilities. In consentement mutuel (mutual agreement) proceedings, the judge’s role is to make sure that the agreement is fair and that neither spouse has been threatened to obtain the desired result.

On May 4th, however, the Chambre des Députés, the French equivalent of the House of Representatives, approved a provision in a judicial reform bill that would give notaires the responsibility of reviewing and recording mutually agreed divorces, instead of having the judge hear and rule on the case. This means the deputies believe the chances of coercion of a spouse are no longer of much concern. On this topic, I could write a lot about recent immigrants to France who are not yet integrated into French culture, so I disagree with the assumption that the risk is negligible and believe it should still be taken into consideration.

From what I understand of the vote, notaires, acting as neutral professionals, will determine if the split of assets and debts is fair, as well as the sharing of responsibilities regarding alimony, child support, visitation rights and so on. If they see any discrepancies, however, they cannot rule, since their involvement is purely to register divorces. We will see how often such proceedings work with only a notaire, and how often a judge will have to get involved and rule on certain issues. Also, a minor child can ask to be heard by a judge in mutual-agreement proceedings.

The couple can always go to a judge if they realize they were not in as complete agreement as needed and they cannot reconcile their views.

The reasons given by the government for the change are to make divorce cheaper (50€ is the recommended cost of the registration) and to clear crowded family court dockets of this type of proceeding. In much of France, mutual-agreement divorces constitute a majority of divorce decisions; they account for over 60% of Parisian divorces, for example. Clearly it would benefit the court system to be able to restrict its business to family cases that really need a judge’s attention.

The lower cost may be illusory, as notaire proceedings will require each spouse to have a lawyer; before, a couple who managed to agree on everything could get a divorce with just one lawyer.

One small detail that could complicate matters, even though it looks like the people will be saving a lot of money, is that notaires have their own jargon and way of thinking, which lawyers readily understand but which can be very puzzling for French laypeople, and even more so for foreigners. In family courts especially, the judges are often women. Generally the judge met with both spouses, together and then individually, making sure they agreed with the contents of the document drafted by the lawyer. These three meetings are mainly intended to make sure the wife is not being coerced into the divorce and is not renouncing her rights. Today it is possible that men could be coerced through blackmail into an unfair agreement. In most people’s experience, judges use plain language and couples rarely complain of trouble understanding what the judge says. The way notaires work in France is evolving towards more client service, including being better understood. But it remains to be seen if they will do as well as judges with this task. It is far from certain, since thus far in the legislative process, the three meetings have not been mentioned.

I just hope the use of the new proceedings will be for the best and notaires will be strong enough to refuse to register an agreement where the wife or husband gives up their rights to everything and states that they are fully OK with it. I also hope they will be wise enough to understand that some people may need clarification concerning the process, the consequences and the implications for both parties.

http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2016/05/05/le-divorce-par-consentement-mutuel-sans-juge-vote-par-les-deputes-en-commission_4914097_1653578.htmlhttp://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/07/11/01016-20150711ARTFIG00128-en-quarante-ans-le-divorce-par-consentement-mutuel-n-a-pas-conquis-toute-la-france.php

MOST WIVES IN FRANCE NOW HAVE A HIGHER EDUCATION THAN THEIR SPOUSES
Until the 1960s, men in France tended to marry women of low education; it was assumed in those days that higher education and being a good wife at home were not compatible. This belief was common among men born before WWII.

France continues to be a patriarchal society, therefore it is still harder for women to get a job than men; in addition, they continue to be paid less, by 19% on average. Studying longer is seen as a way to offset these two obstacles, and consequently today in a majority of couples in France, the woman has a university diploma. Meanwhile, uneducated men have the hardest time getting married or finding a long-term partner.

As this trend of women having university degrees continues, it will be more and more common for the wife to make more money than the husband. It does not need to be prevalent to modify the balance in society. I find this evolution very interesting.

http://www.lemonde.fr/campus/article/2016/04/14/les-femmes-sont-desormais-plus-diplomees-que-leur-conjoint_4902195_4401467.html#8TDtr9d51J4ftSRj.99

THE PNR DATABASE AND POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES FOR TRAVEL IN THE EU AND THE SCHENGEN AREA
For over a decade the USA has kept a database of everybody traveling into and out of the country, with particular attention to foreigners entering the country legally without a visa. The US police have the ability to learn right away if a foreigner has stayed in the USA more than the 90 days authorized by the visa waiver program.

In Europe, there is no such database, though many governments have asked for it. For several reasons, the European Parliament was slow in approving its creation. In addition, some governments did not feel comfortable sharing information between their intelligence services so that terrorists could be tracked down.

Therefore, the recent creation of the Passenger Name Record (PNR) was approved only by a very small margin, 32 to 27. Right now everybody says they want the data to track terrorists and people involved in other serious crimes, and I believe that is true. I do not see any hidden agenda here.

On the other hand, once the database is created, it can be used for many other things. One that would be easy to set up is identifying and fining people who overstay the 90 days allowed by the visa waiver program. Several countries in the Schengen area already severely fine foreigners identified as having overstayed. Today these people are only caught when they get to a border and their passports are checked. Once the PNR is fully functioning, if all European police forces have full access to it, each member country can add software that matches people overstaying their visas with people traveling. The police could know in advance who is traveling in this situation, and handle them right off the plane if need be.

I have no idea if the French police would ever be interested in apprehending North Americans who have overstayed their visas. Right now nothing indicates that they are. But it would not take much for other Schengen area police forces to catch people. The absence of border controls does not mean there are no controls; on the contrary, there are many. My experience is that until recently they were mostly done near the Spanish and Italian borders, where a lot of undocumented aliens enter France, and at the Belgian border where drug smugglers come from the Netherlands. It is perfectly legal for Germany, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands to fine people who overstay at the Schengen level; as long as it does not involve a border control, it would be in full compliance with the Schengen agreement— for example, picking up a person getting off a plane.

People who are in this situation should not panic. The PNR has just been voted in and for many reasons it will be a long time before it is fully operational. Still, we now know it will exist and it will be used. The rest is speculation. My personal opinion comes from what is going today and what could happen when countries have full access to the information. Now may be the time to reconsider this lifestyle.

UBER IN FRANCE AND URSSAF’S REQUALIFICATION ATTEMPT
The French administration has won in court regarding one aspect of Uber’s activities. But now the administration has found a more definitive way to get rid of Uber in France.

The key to Uber’s system is that its drivers are self-employed and run their business the way they want. In several US states, this arrangement is being challenged on the grounds that the drivers should be considered employees. Now URSSAF is doing the same thing in France. The key difference is that in France the financial consequences are much worse. Social charges are calculated differently between the self-employed status and the employee status.

Two things are happening and are independent one from the other. The first most important one is that the employer is said to owe the employee’s and employer’s social charges calculated on the money the driver has received. This means that the entire amount of the social charges is owed by the employer. The second consequence is that the drivers are reimbursed the amount of social charges they have paid as self-employed.

This amounts to a huge amount of money, to which URSSAF adds fines and penalties with interests for late payment going back as much as three years. If URSSAF wins its case, Uber might have to file for bankruptcy to handle such a debt. One nasty twist is that even if Uber takes the matter to court and obtains a favorable decision, it still owes the money the entire time. This means URSSAF can use all the collection methods at its disposal, including freezing bank accounts, blocking money that Uber’s creditors owe, and so on, so it can dry up Uber’s cash fast.

The legal ground for this action is that, under French law, if an individual is a subordinate of a company, he is an employee no matter what his legal status is. URSSAF is trying to prove that this lien de subordination exists between Uber and its drivers.

I do not wish to comment on the quality of the service Uber offers, or on the fact that many black and Arab drivers, those who have the hardest time getting decent jobs, have found working with Uber to be a good opportunity. As far as the big picture goes, whether this attack on Uber is a good or a bad thing for France is a very complex question. One thing I am sure is that there will be intense lobbying by employers to stop or reduce this attack, as it is clear that French business owners are part of the trend to make their workers self-employed as much as possible.

It has reached the point where people speak in French about the uberisation de la société, which describes the disappearance of social protection for French employees, as well as for tenants and so on. That gives an idea how important this action is for France, as it will set the trend for the rest of French society.

An article in Le Monde also illustrates very well the evolution towards less protection for the employees.

http://www.lemonde.fr/economie-francaise/article/2016/05/17/l-urssaf-poursuit-uber-pour-requalifier-ses-chauffeurs-en-salaries_4920825_1656968.html#Z8ThiT8Otb0xpmj4.99

INCREASE OF MY FEES ON OCTOBER 1st 2016
It has been about six years since my fees last increased. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 250€ to 270€ and the hourly rate from 100€ to 110€.

MY OFFICE WILL NOT CLOSE DURING THE SUMMER VACATION
Since my office situation has not been resolved and I do not anticipate being able to move before August or early September, I am not planning any vacation time and do not expect to go away for any length of time this summer. Depending on the outcome of my office search and how quickly it proceeds, this could change some € but not much, considering the fact that any changes would be last minute. By the way, I have formed a new corporation, called “A Survival Kit For Paris.”

Best regards,

QUESTION

THE CONSEQUENCES OF AN UNWELCOME PROMOTION

After many years in France, I hold a carte de résident and I have been working for my employer for years. It is a job, and only a job … I do not want to say more. About two months ago I got a promotion and my new boss is plain awful. One could speak of harassment and degrading methods. I have worked on some projects with him and he is very abusive. Without waiting for me to sign the addendum to my contract, they gave me a new office, a new boss and more work to do with a meager increase in pay. I am reminded daily that if I do not sign the contract, I will not keep my raise. Considering the situation, I truly miss my former position; at least I could work in relative peace and get things done.
Do you think it is possible to get my job back? I never accepted the change and I have no intention of signing at this point. So what do I risk?

QUESTION

WHAT IS TAXABLE INCOME IN FRANCE?

Having lived here for many years, I have to fill out US tax forms as well as French. One thing about the French system I’ve never really understood is their “logic” about income: Brut, Net, Abbatu [sic], Imposable € each one is different. But why not just say you made this much and this is what you owe in taxes?

The Other Side of Life is the twelfth album by The Moody Blues, released in 1986. I have listened to their albums since I was a teenager, and have always found both the music and the lyrics thought-provoking and uplifting.

I chose this album more for its title than any of the lyrics, as it reminds me that life would so much simpler if we could see the other side of an issue, know what the other party was thinking, understand another type of logic, such as French logic, which so many people see as a contradiction in terms. Most of the topics I address this month attempt to show the two sides of the issue and how important – but difficult – it can be to figure out “the other side,” whatever it may be. It is really not about who is right or wrong, just an illustration of how things can go wrong due to misunderstandings.

THE FIRST RENEWAL OF THE EMPLOYEE CARTE DE SÉJOUR

Obtaining the employee carte de séjour is a rather long and tedious procedure since it requires authorization from the Foreign Labor Office (Main d’Oeuvre Etrangère) of DIRECCTE, which is the regional business, competition, consumption, work and employment department. The MOE office has a veto right based on the unemployment ratio in the applicant’s profession. While reviewing files, MOE civil servants surf the web and check out a few things before making decisions. There are a lot of negative answers.

To inspectors, everything looks suspicious. The civil servants of DIRECCTE always assume that there is an underhanded scheme to discover. Therefore, when a foreigner asking for the first renewal of the carte de séjour has started working for a different employer, they immediately suspect fraud. Was the first employer bribed to sponsor the foreigner? Was the employee so bad that the he or she had to be dismissed after such a short time?

Article 5221-36 of the labor code (code du travail) states that renewal of the right to work can be refused if the foreigner changes employers during the first year, unless the change is involuntary on the part of the employee: Le premier renouvellement peut également être refusé lorsque le contrat de travail a été rompu dans les douze mois suivant l’embauche sauf en cas de privation involontaire d’emploi.

This means it is suspicious to leave your job for a better one, and the person can be punished for that, whereas it is understandable and therefore acceptable when the employee is laid off or fired – which looks very unfair to American eyes.

Such situations happen quite often, however. It is often difficult to find a job in France. It almost always takes a long time, several months, if not years, so foreign students often latch onto the first good offer received. This means they make sure that they submit the file requesting the change of status before the immigration card expires. Since such decisions need to be taken early, the students obviously cannot predict the results of their intensive job searches. Therefore it is extremely common that several months later these foreigners get interviews and possibly are offered better jobs. An agonizing dilemma starts right there: if a different request is then submitted to DIRECCTE, it can seem inconsistent, and the civil servants look at this change negatively. Foreigners can also wait to change jobs until the procedure with the first employer is finalized. Then and only then, they change jobs, i.e., after getting the immigration status. But choosing that option is contingent with taking a rather high risk of being denied the right to work as an employee because of this abovementioned legal provision. Until recently the student carte de séjour only lasted a year. Although its validity can now be up to four years, students still must deal with the quandary described above.

The reality is not as harsh as the above description. Usually taking what is obviously a better job, especially with better pay, secures the right to live in France rather than risking it. Nevertheless, I find this provision very French because a dismissal is seen as “one of those things” and has no negative implications for the employee, while taking a better job looks suspicious.

LIST OF COUNTRIES WHOSE CITIZENS NEED NO VISA TO ENTER FRANCE

Many Americans traveling to France think that entering the country without a visa is normal and that everybody is treated the same way. The truth is that France offers this privilege to the citizens of very few countries. Here is the list:

Albania,* Andorra, Antigua, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Bosnia, Brazil, Brunei Dar-es-Salam, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Herzegovina,* Vatican/Holy See, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Macedonia,* Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro,* Nicaragua, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Serbia,* Seychelles, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan (passport bearing number of the identity card), Uruguay, USA, Venezuela.

*holders of biometric passports only

As many of those countries are small Caribbean island nations the size of an American city or county, this right is granted to relatively few people. One consequence of the recent terrorism is that the list could shrink even more.

FRENCH MINORS NEED PARENTAL AUTHORIZATION TO LEAVE FRANCE

The National Assembly voted on October 8^th 2015 that a minor desiring to travel outside of France had to have authorization from his or her parents to leave the country. The new law was pushed through the Assemblée Nationale very quickly, though my research indicates that the measure has not yet gone into effect.

The necessity of such parental authorization was the norm for a very long time and it was abandoned in 2013, since it was considered at that time that traveling within the EU did not pose any dangers and EU law granted freedom to travel throughout EU territory.

What made the October vote urgent was not that EU countries have become more dangerous, but rather that the EU is facing a global risk. Enforcing this law in airports is expected to stop minors from traveling to Syria and enrolling in ISIS forces. On the other hand, because of regulations within the Schengen zone, it is possible that minors’ IDs will not be checked until they leave the European zone by car or train. Trips to Syria are much more difficult when they necessitate crossing Europe by train or car instead of taking direct flights to destinations outside of Europe like Turkey.

It does not seem that the legislative process is finished: this provision has not yet been implemented. So it would appear that what was considered urgent in October is no longer top priority, despite the recent terrorist attacks in Europe.

This measure applies to French children. Foreign children need to hold a French ID for minors called the document de circulation hors du territoire français or titre d’identité républicain, since as minors they cannot hold a titre de séjour. Both parents must submit written agreement to permit the issuance of such a card.

FRENCH INCOME TAX: TIME TO DECLARE AND PAY

Regarding the more mundane topic of income tax, I would like to remind everybody that the paper version of the 2015 income declaration must be filed in France before Wednesday May 18^thand the second partial income tax payment (deuxième tiers) is to be paid before May 15^th(midnight, in both cases). The forms are now available on the website www.impots.gouv.fr. It is now possible to file your declaration on this website, provided it is not your first time. To do so, you need your tax ID number and some access codes.

If you file online, the deadline is later. The schedule depends on your postal code:

• départements 01 to 19 must file by midnight on May 24^th
• départements 20 to 49 by May 31^st
• départements 50 or higher by June 7^th.

An important reminder: if you are a French fiscal resident (i.e. if you hold a carte de séjour or an immigration visa validated with an OFII stamp, and comply with the requirements), you must declare your worldwide income to the French authorities even if you have no income in France and do not have the right to work in France. There is no penalty for neglecting to file. However, not complying with this obligation is illegal and can have consequences. The second Q/A this month shows how critical filing will be for people insured under the CMU (now called PUMA)

The four situations that define a French fiscal resident are:

1. Staying in France for 183 days in a calendar year, whether you have legal immigration status or not.
2. Having immediate family members who reside in France (a spouse and/or children).
3. Having a French employer.
4. Running a French business, even something like tutoring schoolchildren in English.

There are now government-sponsored advertising campaigns stating that the paper form is a “has been” and that filing on paper is obsolete. Right now, declaring electronically gives you an extension of a few weeks. I believe the next step will be that using the paper form will engender additional fees, thus creating a financial incentive to go paperless.

INCREASE OF MY FEES ON OCTOBER 1^st 2016

It has been about six years since my fees last increased. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 250€ to 270€ and the hourly rate from 100€ to 110€.

MY OFFICE WILL NOT CLOSE DURING THE SUMMER VACATION

Since my office situation has not been resolved and I do not anticipate being able to move before August or early September, I am not planning any vacation time and do not expect to go away for any length of time this summer. Depending on the outcome of my office search and how quickly it proceeds, this could change some – but not much, considering the fact that any changes would be last minute.

LOOKING FOR AN OFFICE

I have to move by September 15^th and have started looking for a new office. Here are the characteristics I have in mind:

• Very quiet, which means in the courtyard rather than on the street
• On the ground floor or one floor up, or in a building with an elevator
• Monthly rent no more than about 1,000€ TTC
• One room or, at most, two rooms, about 30m² to 50m²
• Completely independent entrance which is not shared with other offices
• No more than a five-minute walk from a major metro stop.

Best regards,

QUESTION

WHY CHANGE THE PICTURE IN THE CARTE DE SÉJOUR RENEWAL?

I am an American and at the end of December I went to the prefecture for the annual renewal of my carte de séjour. It was my 11^th time going through this process, and, for once, everything went smoothly. They called my number within 15 minutes of my scheduled time; the interview itself took less than a half hour. I found myself standing on the banks of the Seine at 10h.
 
Twelve weeks later, I went to pick up the card only to discover that they did not have a card for me. They needed another photo even though I had given them the required photos in December. No one would explain why a single new photo was now required. (C’est nécessaire, monsieur. C’est tout.) So I went into the hallway where there was a photo machine, paid my 5€, and handed the new photos over to them. They clipped out only one and returned the others to me along with a note saying I could pick up my new card in a month!
 
I was just wondering if you have heard of anyone else going through this sort of thing, and if, by chance, you know why the extra photo was required.

QUESTION

WHAT HAS CHANGED NOW THAT THE PUBLIC HEALTH COVERAGE CALLED CMU HAS BECOME PUMA?

I saw an article on french-property.com about British people retiring early in France and getting French health care coverage and how new legislation affects foreigners. There is no longer Couverture Médicale Universelle (CMU), which has been changed to Protection Universelle Maladie (PUMA). What interested me was the mandatory wait before signing on to this new program. This would seem to cover my case, though the article does not go into details about the French government wanting 8% of my total worldwide income as a health insurance premium. I will be 70 years old in April 2016, and as an American I would certainly not be one of the “early retirees” that the British-oriented newsletter is worried about.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is a song by the Rolling Stones on their 1969 album Let It Bleed.Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by “Rolling Stone” magazine in its 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

This is true for everybody no matter what the situation is. If only people were reasonable regarding their wants and if only they could choose wisely! Being a foreigner adds a considerable twist because foreigners are uprooted from their homes, what they are viscerally attached to. Therefore they miss the life they had before on many occasions: home, family, a social status, the ability to fit in, favorite foods, and so many other things. I find it interesting to see how often the craving for a particular food is stronger than the desire to see family members. This shows how deep-seated these physical and emotional yearnings are. This can be summed up this way: ” why can’t I get this here?” Being an immigrant always means being torn apart and these hankerings are just the most visible illustration. To add insult to injury, the laws of the country make it even harder for foreigners to get many things, and this is very true about France. I have countless examples of this. For example, there is the legal obligation to carry an ID in France, except that for the French nationals, the first issuance and the renewal alike of the carte nationale d’identité is so much easier to get than any carte de séjour, which is the equivalent for foreigners in France.

In this issue, a minor change in URSSAF regulation has created a nightmare for immigrants because the prefecture has not taken it into consideration. In this situation, the foreigner is caught between a rock and a hard place when each authority applies its own rules and ignores the difficulties created for the foreigner. Then what appears to be a positive development, such as the creation of a multi-year residency card ( carte de séjour pluriannuelle),is seen by the NGOs who defend the rights of foreigners as a possible regression because it could make it even harder to obtain the ten-year carte de resident. A tiny detail shows that this concern is plausible, since the new cards will last up to four years when the previous ones lasted for three, but cannot be renewed which means the benefits of this status last for only four years instead of six. I do not see this as progress.

The Rolling Stones played very recently in Cuba in front of half a million people. Public opinion regards this as excellent news, maybe because the Stones attracted such a large crowd although they had never played in Cuba before; or maybe it is that Cuba has changed so much in the “right” direction that the Stones were allowed to play; or maybe it is the fact that the members are all past retirement age and yet are still playing strong. Maybe the Stones got what they wanted after all.

CHANGE IN MY BUSINESS
Things are changing fast. I was hoping that I could keep the offices that Alliage SARL rents but the cost is too high if there is no tenant in the other two office space areas, and I did not want to spend too much time managing their rental, which always bring complications. Renting out one set of offices would have been OK, but not two, I finally decided.

So I will soon be looking for a new office. Here are the characteristics I have in mind:

• Very quiet, which means in the courtyard rather than on the street
• On the ground floor or one floor up, or in a building with an elevator
• Monthly rent no more than about 1,000€ TTC
• One room or, at most, two rooms, about 30m2 to 50m2
• Completely independent entrance, not shared with other offices
• About five minutes’walk from a major metro stop.
• That would be a pretty good start.

NEW URSSAF REGULATION HAS DRAMATIC EFFECT ON IMMIGRATION ISSUES
Since time immemorial in France, self-employed status has been obtained by professional who sell services or expertise (profession libérale), merchants who sell goods (commerçants) or craftsmen (artisans) .

Then, under a law passed on August 1st 2003, the tax administration created a very simplified fiscal status defined as ’93micro’94 that did not require keeping a full set of books. For the profession libérale it was régime special micro BNC, which stands for bénéfices non commerciaux; the others had micro BIC, which stands for bénéfices industriels et commerciaux. The translation would be industrial and commercial profits and the other one would be non commercial profit.

The critical innovation with the micro status was that profit was defined by law rather than the person’ s account books. Profession libérale had a limit, most recently, of 32,900€ in sales per complete calendar year and the profit equaled 65% of total sales. For commerçant the latest limit was 82.200€ in sales and profit equal to 29% of sales, and for artisan it was 32.000€ and 50%.

On January 1st 2009, the auto-entrepreneur fiscal status using the same limits as the ’93micro statut’94 came into effect and was a huge success right away, with the profession libérale and commerçant artisan.

So for seven years these two varieties of legal status have existed side by side, MICRO BNC/BIC and auto-entrepreneur. This situation was great since it allowed non-EU citizens living in France to develop businesses following prefecture guidelines although prefectures consider auto-entrepreneur to be similar to commerçant artisan, making it extremely difficult for anyone working in a profession libérale category to obtain a carte de séjour as an auto-entrepreneur. Nevertheless, it was relatively easy for foreigners to obtain the right to work in France, secure their stay in France, and even bill clients in other countries, including the USA, under the traditional MICRO BNC status.

However, at the beginning of 2016, under a new regulation, URSSAF completely put an end to the MICRO regimes, leaving only auto-entrepreneur status. This really hurts non-EU foreigners, who are now stuck with the impossible choice between auto-entrepreneur (and thus incurring the wrath of the prefecture) and the régime réel,the fiscal status corresponding to higher revenues (annual sales of more than 32.900 €; requires dealing with the French value-added tax (TVA) and itemizing expenses). This means foreigners will not only have to deal with a new country and a new way of doing business, but also dive fully into the complex French tax system.

I asked the manager of the prefecture office dealing with the Americas what the new guidelines were as a result of this radical change. His answer? He did not know of the change, and there was no adaptation of prefecture policy. I pleaded for some understanding of the awful consequences for foreigners stuck in the middle. He finally understood how bad the problem was but could do nothing about it.

I am actively trying to find a solution to avoid this nightmare but for the moment I am not sure what can be done. When I told someone at URSSAF what the prefecture official said, she was stunned. How was it possible, she asked, for the prefecture not to take into consideration this new regulation that has just gone into effect? I will be sure to keep my readers informed of any further developments.

URSSAF’S PARISIAN BRANCHES NOW REQUIRE APPOINTMENTS
French officialdom has long allowed people to be served at various agencies without an appointment. There are often long lines as a result, and France is famous for that, even though it is becoming less and less common. Today people’s expectations and modern schedules mean that long waits in line have become less acceptable. Accordingly, URSSAF is changing its policy: as of April 4th 2016, anyone wishing to meet with an URSSAF official must make an appointment.

There are several reasons to seek such a meeting: registering to start a business, changing one’ s address, closing one’ s URSSAF account, asking for a schedule of payments, disputing the amount charged, and so on. With this agency, it is a lot more efficient to meet an official in person and get the business done well the first time. To book an appointment, go to www.iledefrance.urssaf.fr and click on ’93nous rencontrer’94.

There are two branches of URSSAF in Paris: one in the northern part of the city at 11 rue de Cambrai in the 19th arrondissement and the other in eastern Paris at 3 rue de Tolbiac in the 13th. The latter is very easy to get to by metro and/or RER C (Bibliothèque François Mitterrand station) and easy to find; the former is hard to get to and hard to find (between metro stations Corentin Cariou and Porte de la Villette on line 7).

MAJOR CHANGES REGARDING THE MULTI-YEAR CARTE DE SEJOUR
The government has been talking about creating several new types of carte de séjour. There are several ways to obtain a “carte de séjour” that lasts several years. Until recently there were eight types of categories “(mentions)” stated on the card itself: “visiteur, étudiant, salarié, vie privée et familiale, commerçant-artisan, scientifique, artistique” and “compétences et talents”.Now law 2016-274 relative au droit des étrangers en France, passed on 7th March 2016, combines the last three into a category called passeport talent. The law can also address several other situations that are not yet clearly defined yet. One thing I find interesting is that the passeport talent is not supposed to be renewed. Previously foreigners could have six years with the former three types of status, but now it goes down to four. The law clearly states that it is expected that these people will leave France unless they can secure another type of immigration status.

Another change is that students can now receive a multi-year card. This mostly concerns students working on a doctorate, which can take several years; there is little reason to review their situation every year. The same logic applies to some employees. Expatriates could already receive a three-year card, and now it can last for four years. People with a French contract working under local labor laws will also benefit.

One non-profit organization helping foreigners in France fears that the prefecture will soon make it even more difficult to obtain a carte de résident, which is valid ten years. Depending on how many people benefit from the other multi-year cards, this is a real risk.

Finally, the autorisation provisoire de séjour (APS) is getting better in two ways. The APS for students holding a master’s degree can now easily be changed to an employee APS, and they can better retain this status even if they change employers early on. There is also one now for the self-employed, which lasts one year and allows people to register and start a business before having to go to the prefecture to submit their file. In the latter case, the APS should help in obtaining the carte de séjour if the prefecture is fair.

NOTAIRES MUST GUARANTEE A PERFECT PROPERTY TITLE OR INFORM THE BUYER
I write regularly about the notaire and how important this professional is in the purchase of real estate in France. An article I read in the November 15th 2015 issue of Le Monde illustrates again how critical the notaire’s work and how perfect the property title must be when one buys real estate in France. The article covered a lot of issues but I would like to focus on one particular.

A house was destroyed by a fire. The owner then discovered that it had been built without a permit and that its location had since been declared off limits to construction because of flood risk, so she was not allowed to rebuild. She sued the notaire for failing to discover the lack of building permit, which exposed her to this risk; the house had been built less than 30 years before the fire, and the statute of limitations in property cases is 30 years. The notaire had an obligation to check the history of the house all the way back to its origin, including the paperwork and authorization needed to erect the house.

The lawyers of the notaire argued that such verification was not mentioned anywhere as being necessary and therefore no error was made. But the French Supreme Court ruled on December 5th 2014 that the notaire had a professional obligation called the devoir de curiosité ’96 essentially, a duty to investigate out of curiosity at how things happened. This creates a very broad obligation, as it defines the notaire’ s duty as not just going down a list of things that need to be checked but also doing a second or even third round of checks, depending on what documents turn up in the initial round.

As the Supreme Court put it, ’93ni la formalité d’une déclaration d’ouverture de chantier, ni l’existence d’une garantie d’achèvement ne dispense le notaire, tenu d’assurer l’efficacité de l’acte de vente en état futur d’achèvement, de vérifier le commencement effectif des travaux, et d’informer les acquéreurs des risques qu’ils couraient’94 (neither a declaration of the start of construction nor a guarantee that the construction was correctly done exempts the notaire from checking the validity of the purchase of a planned house and the condition in which the work started, and informing the buyers of any related risk).

In other words, if a buyer is informed of such risk and goes ahead, the notaire incurs no professional liability. This decision is good news for buyers of real estate in France, as it illustrates that the lack of title insurance in France is offset by the strictness of the notaire’s professional obligation to either draft a perfect title or inform the buyer of all issues preventing one.

FRANCE CONTINUES TO HAVE MORE BABIES THAN THE REST OF WESTERN EUROPE
In 2014, out of the 5.1 million births in the European Union, France accounted for 819,300 ’96 the highest number in the EU. The French birth rate is 2.01 children per woman of child-bearing age. Nevertheless, this is below the replacement rate needed to keep the population from dropping, which is 2.10.

The average age for having the first child is now about 30, which shows that the trend of having children later and later has continued. The figure I find interesting is that 56.70% of babies in France are born out of wedlock. In Iceland, the rate is even higher at 66.9%. But in most of Europe such figures indicate a change in how society sees marriage, rather than teen pregnancy.

In the USA, being born out of wedlock largely involves teen pregnancies and single motherhood. These phenomena are comparatively rare in France and most of the rest of the EU. Much of European society considers marriage to be just one option for living as a couple and having children.

Thus, one obvious conclusion one can draw from the out-of-wedlock figure is that a majority of stable couples in France are not married. With civil unions now legal in three-fourths of the 28 EU countries (the exceptions are Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), there is an official alternative to marriage, which fully recognized in France. « PACS’couples (those bound by a pacte civil de solidarité or PACS) are treated by society and the authorities the same as married couples for almost everything.

These developments may be somewhat related to the fact that France is now considered a secular country, with the Roman Catholic Church no longer universally recognized as an authority. But countries with higher numbers of Catholic people, such as Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, have out-of-wedlock birth rates above 20%: Ireland’s is 35.1%, for example, and Portugal’s 45.6%. So if the decline of church authority is one explanation, it cannot be the only one. Germany’ s rate is 34.5% and the Scandinavian countries all exceed 50%, while France tops even them. This issue must looked at country by country, taking into account the specific situation of each ’96 which includes, of course, its history and the prevalence of a religious authority.

I would like to remind everyone that there is no January issue.

Best regards,

QUESTION

THE RIGHT OF A MINOR CHILD TO TRAVEL WITHOUT PARENTS

I have been living in France for over ten years and early on I had a child in Paris with a Tunisian who ended up moving back there shortly after our daughter’92s birth. Shortly after her birth, I took the father to court to rule about guardianship, visitation rights, and child support. The outcome was that my daughter lives with me, and I receive some money for her but I must have his written authorization for her to leave France. Lately, he has finally come to Paris to see her. She is in her last year of elementary school and the school hopes to take the students to London for a week this summer before they go on to middle school. So the teacher has asked the parents to get the paperwork ready for the students to participate to this field trip. This is when I discovered that my daughter cannot go because she does not have a document de circulation and when I went to the prefecture to ask what I needed to do, I was told that I needed a sworn statement from the father authorizing the issuance of this document. Her American passport is not enough, she must also prove that she resides in France. Of course, I have not said a thing about the court ruling. Her father is taking advantage of the situation and is blackmailing me; he wants her to visit him regularly, unaccompanied, in Tunisia, and he wants to lower his monthly contribution. Can I get this document without his consent?

QUESTION

A WATER DAMAGE CLAIM AND INSURANCE COMPANY DEMANDS

I am an American living in the USA and I have owned a very cozy apartment near Les Invalides for about ten years. I recently suffered serious water damage from my neighbor upstairs. The décor and especially the paint job is very refined and therefore very expensive. The various experts, the neighbor, the syndic employee managing my building, my contractor, and other people visited my apartment to appraise the damage. Based on what I have been told, my expert is waiting for several documents before stating if I will be reimbursed in full. I have been told many times that French insurance companies reimburse a tiny fraction of the damage incurred. I just received a letter from my expert, saying he wants a « relevé d’hypothécaire », an « attestation de non credit » or « autorisation de paiement de la banque »,and an « attestation notarié de propriété.

I am very confused by what appears to be a request for documents authorizing an automatic payment withdrawal from my bank. But perhaps I misunderstand the request? Can you help me understand what is being asked for and why they need these items?

Who the fool is depends on which side of the issue one is standing. It happens that in France and in the USA in very different ways, there is an ever-growing portion of the population that is looking for new ideas, new solutions, and aspires to radically change the society. At the same time, there is probably about the same number of people who fear those changes and express the desire to at least keep things the way they are and even to go back to some better situations that existed in the past. In the USA, this is illustrated in the presidential race by Bernie Sanders for the first group and Donald Trump for the second. Interestingly enough, in France the first group could be represented by Emmanuel Macron, the finance minister, and the second group, by those in professions who have been violently demonstrating these last months. It is interesting to see that Bernie Sanders and Emmanuel Macron have opposing views on many topics, to start with, their opinions concerning whether big business should be favored or opposed. One evolution everybody agrees on is the fact that the Internet delivers a gargantuan amount of information to absolutely everybody and for the most part absolutely free of charge. I see the consequences in France of this worldwide evolution linked to the Internet. Not all segments of society have yet been able to use it to their advantage. This said, the traditional French society was not equipped to deal with modern-day expections of customer satisfaction. France has considerably improved the quality of its service and this started even before the Internet was created. Today the French population accepts a much wider range of culture and tradition, and pays more and more attention to what people want. Most of the issues I address this month show how a profession, an administration and some people are disconnected from today’s reality in France. More and more often the individual is informed and therefore makes an educated choice, and the professional discovers too late that the client was not captive, and that he has lost his client. Old-fashioned restaurants, cafés, taxis and landlords are feeling the pressure. One illustration of this trend is shown by a recent study – regarding the decline of the traditional cafés in France. The main two reasons were the poor service and the unwillingness to offer soft drinks people wanted, especially the so-called diet ones. It is also interesting to see that even the French administration is being forced to adapt to people’s expectations – very slowly, as expected, but still moving in the right direction.

So who is the fool, the French taxi driver hoping he can keep his job and sell his license for a reasonable price when he retires, or the Uber driver who thinks he has a promising future in France? Rather than answer this question as well as the one of this month’s title, I will let readers decide for themselves.

CHANGE IN MY BUSINESS
I have carried out my work as an employee of the company Alliage for more than fifteen years. I had many reasons to choose this set-up, the most obvious being that employee status, even though quite expensive in terms of taxes, offers substantial peace of mind since France favors the employee status. Now, after significant improvements in the self-employed status in France, I am envisioning doing business through my own set-up. At the same time, Isabelle Russo, Alliage senior manager, has decided to dedicate most of her time to her career in the entertainment industry. A few years ago, she qualified as a show producer and has since built a business.

As the situation evolves I will keep my readers and clients informed.

MORE READER TESTIMONY ON PROBLEMS WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES
I wrote an article in the AAWE news publication on my daughter’s and my experiences with the Open Skies program of AA, British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways, etc., in Newark last July. Several other AAWE members had similar experience with this program at that time and I would bet it was the same situation that your reader described. I do believe that attention should be directed to abuses by this consortium, often chosen because of price. Having worked for Pan Am in Africa, I was appalled by their inconsideration for their passengers’ welfare. I would like to describe what happened to us this past summer, which is now common American airline behavior, leaving passengers stranded.

“In July, our travel agent here arranged a three-week trip from France to the U.S. for us. All went well until we checked in at 3:30 p.m. to board our return flight for Paris, scheduled to leave at 6:45 p.m., a flight confirmed by American Airlines four months previously. The British Airways service manager informed us that our flight had been canceled but that he had chartered a plane from another company and that we would be boarding about 8 p.m. The plane and an Iberian crew arrived and we boarded. There was a long wait before we taxied to the take-off runway. Once there, there was another long wait before one of the crew announced that they had “heard” something and that we needed to return to the terminal. At the terminal, the captain announced a fifteen minute wait for a mechanic and, after another wait, we were told to disembark. The British Airways staff avoided our questions about a future departure, instructed us to pick up our luggage and, if necessary, line up for hotel vouchers or for taxis to return home, for those living in the area. For the large number of us returning home to France, they offered the phone number of British Airways and told us to call for onward reservations. Faced with protests, the station manager commented that he had no facilities for making reservations and a staff member added that, if the staff were to do this, they would be at the airport all night! It was up to each passenger to make his own onward reservations.”

FOOD WASTE RECYCLING IS NOW MANDATORY IN FRANCE FOR SOME RESTAURANTS – DOGGY BAGS ARE BECOMING COMMON IN FRANCE
Bringing doggy bags home could be seen as a non-issue but since it happened in France, it indicates a significant change in French culture. For a long time, the main reason French restaurants would not agree to prepare doggy bags for their customers was that leftovers would not taste as good as freshly prepared food so there was a risk of damage to their reputation.

The truth is that the vast majority of French restaurants are not so exquisite that eating their leftovers would be an insult to their cooking.

Another reason brought forward was that in modern cuisine the portions are so small that there is nothing left over, since servings are supposedly just the right quantity to allow one to fully appreciate the meal. It is true that modern cuisine in France is often characterized by a very large plate with a small quantity on it. But it is always possible to make a mistake and order too much. So this is not sufficient to refuse to pack leftovers in a doggy bag.

What I truly find interesting with this issue is that a law had to be passed before restaurants would agree to box up leftovers: the clients did not have enough power to change the professionals’ attitude about this. This says a lot about how professionals resist change and customers are left with hardly any power to bring about change themselves.

Even more interesting is the motivation for this law. It has nothing to do with customers’ rights. The French parliament is determined to reduce waste, especially food waste, for environmental and fairness reasons. The new legislation approaches the issue by obliging businesses to decrease the amount of waste they generate, ideally to zero. An initial law in 2012 has forced businesses producing more than ten metric tons of waste per year to diminish this volume.

On January 1st 2016, another step in this effort went into effect, requiring restaurants with capacities of around 150 to 200 people to find ways to diminish their waste. As one aspect of this campaign, it is suggested (although not obligatory) that large restaurants give out doggy bags (or, as the government has suggested calling them, “gourmet bags”). On the other hand, the reduction of waste is mandatory, and the doggy bag is the simplest way to do so.

During the COP21 climate conference held in Paris in December, the city of Paris launched its own campaign by making free deliveries of special boxes, meant to keep leftovers safely, to 100 Parisian restaurants. This and other incentives could bring about the charge faster.

Culturally speaking this is a revolution in France and it will be interesting to see how fast French society can change on this issue. Perhaps one day all French restaurants will offer doggy bags, not because of waste reduction laws but because French people expect it. We shall see, but it is worth paying attention to this development.

UPDATE REGARDING NOVEMBER 2015 Q/A: FRENCH LAW DOES NOT EASILY ACCEPT NAME CHANGES
The November issue presented the situation of an American woman whose first name on her passport did not match that on her birth certificate so the city hall in her French town refused to marry her using her passport name and would only issue a marriage license under her birth name.

Now we have some good news: when the prefecture got the French marriage license, which had a different name from the passport and the woman’s oldcarte de séjour, it chose to ignore the discrepancy and issued her a newcarte de séjour, based on her marriage to a Frenchman, using the name on her passport and previouscarte de séjour.

One might have worried that the discrepancy would create some problems. The French administration is very picky regarding this matter. French law pretty much forbids use of a name, whether first or last name, that differs from the birth certificate or marriage license name, unless it has been approved.

The prefecture’s decision illustrates quite well what I called “French law and its blind eye” in the July-August 2009 issue, trying to explain the French understanding of what is legal, illegal, and “tolerated.” 
A reader asked a question to which the answer was much more complicated than it might have seemed. The usual understanding in many countries is that what is not clearly defined as illegal is considered to be legal. This is as black and white as it gets, but it does not apply in France.

Here the prefecture chooses to ignore the law in favor of the individual, preferring common sense and avoiding making waves over the normal application of the law. This type of bending is critical for France, which has way too many laws and would be even more crippled by them if what I have called this “grey” system did not exist. Sometimes there are provisions that institutionalize personal evaluation of a situation, such as theopportunité des poursuites and therequalification des faits. The first, in criminal law, allows the state not to prosecute a proven criminal deed. The other is an attempt to fight a loophole in the law.

STATISTICS ON THE NUMBER OF FOREIGNERS LIVING IN FRANCE AND ON FRENCH NATURALIZATION
In December 2015 I addressed the issue of making it easier to obtain French nationality. Since then I have come across some data on which it is interesting to comment.

In January 2016, the Direction Générale des étrangers en France published data regarding foreigners living in France. Last year, 2,734,413 held an immigration ID granting a legal stay in France, i.e., atitre de séjour.This included EU citizens. Overall, the estimated number of all foreigners in France was 4 million. And 212,365 foreigners immigrated legally in France in 2015, a 0.7% increase from 2014. Also, 86,608 foreigners became French.

A little bit of background is needed to understand what happened. During the Sarkozy presidency, from May 2007 to May 2012, the policy was to restrict naturalization. In 2009 and 2010, 90,000 naturalizations occurred (the procedure takes about two years). But in 2013, the worst year, there were fewer than 70,000. Since then things have improved, almost reaching the level prior to the restrictive policy.

In 2015, 28,529 undocumented aliens in France obtained residency permits, down from 32,244 in 2014. And 26,700 people obtained political refugee status, up 22%. Most were Syrian or Sudanese, with 5,000 requests each. The approval rate increased by 33.3 % from 2014. However, the rate of success, including requests on appeal, was less than 32% in 2015, at 26,700 approvals for 79,130 requests. This is still very low, so refugees should decide early what they will do in the case of a definitive refusal.

For more information (in French), see www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2016/01/15/regularisations-demandes-d-asile-visas-les-chiffres-de-l-immigration-en-2015_4848157_3224.html

SHORT-TERM RENTAL AND THE PARIS CITY HALL RAIDS
On January 12th the Paris city hall launched another major raid in the 1st and 6th arrondissements to find short-term rental apartments.

Last May, 80 buildings were checked in three days in the Marais. On average, the city checks 400 to 500 apartments a year. In 2014, 20 owners were sentenced in court and the total fines for the year came to 560,000 €. The average fine is 10,000 € and the maximum is 25,000 €.

City hall claims the fines are way too low compared to the rent, which it says averages 1,000 € a week. It is asking the government to quadruple the fines so as to fight this problem more efficiently. Furthermore, the city plans to increase its team of inspectors from 20 to 25 people in the near future.

Currently the law allows an owner to rent out a primary residence no more than four months per year and the city clearly is not going after such people. Instead it is targeting people who rent out apartments all year round and in effect run a business this way. Paris has become the top destination for clients of Airbnb, which has about 50,000 apartments in the city advertised on its website. At the current rate of inspection it would take 100 years to check them all, so clearly the odds are still in favor of the short-term rental industry.

But if the maximum fine eventually reaches 100,000 € per sentencing, is it worth it to take the risk? Many owners would not have this kind of money.

For more information (in French), see www.lemonde.fr/immobilier/article/2016/01/12/a-paris-une-nouvelle-operation-coup-de-poing-contre-les-meubles-touristiques_4846091_1306281.html

CONSEQUENCES OF A TAX AUDIT FOR AUTO-ENTREPRENEURS AND, MORE IMPORTANT, TO THEIR SO-CALLED CLIENTS
Despite years of articles in the French media detailing the horrid consequences ofauto-entrepreneur status, it continues to be seen by the public as a wonderful solution. The tax authorities, URSSAF and labor inspectors are all working toward the same goal: determining whether eachauto-entrepreneur is really an independent worker. This means checking that each one has established a legitimate business with several clients and a real range of services, and a related fee policy.

Under the French legal concept called thelien de subordination, employees are defined as subordinates. If anauto-entrepreneur is not free to offer his/her services on his/her own terms, the inspectors have the right to requalify the person as an employee. The main consequence is a significant financial burden for the employer in terms of social charges. The newly defined employee is reimbursed for the social charges paid and the employer is charged the related taxes, since the amount paid is now considered net salary. As the sums were not paid on time, the inspectors add the usual late fees and interest. This can be lethal for the business and the employee is almost certain to be out of a job right away.

As I have explained several times, catching the companies that abuse the system is quite difficult. On the other hand, systematically checking theauto-entrepreneurs themselves is very easy and fast. One looks at their invoices: if the same name appears several times and constitutes the majority or sole source of income, the inspector knows that corporation can be nailed for fraud. There is no more need to search for a needle in a haystack.

• These are the points the inspector checks to evaluate the situation:
• How many clients: just one or several?
• Is theauto-entrepreneur a former employee of the company?
• Is the work organized by theauto-entrepreneur or by the so-called client?
• Is theauto-entrepreneur in a position to take initiatives and change the way the work is done?
• Does theauto-entrepreneur use his own material and equipment or that of the client?
• Does theauto-entrepreneur choose the schedule and location of his work?
• Does theauto-entrepreneur must report frequently to the client?

All this enables the inspector to determine how much the freedom theauto-entrepreneur has to perform the work. If there is not enough freedom, subordination is proved and the consequence isrequalification with its dreadful financial consequences for the employer. If the fraud is considered blatant, it becomes a felony, travail dissimulé (Article L. 8221-5 of the Code du Travail). The employer then faces three years in jail and a maximum fine of 45,000 €, above and beyond the tax bill explained above.

Now a new scam has appeared, just as horrid but harder to catch. Almost all employers, when hiring a new employee, require a trial period ranging from one to six months, during which the employer can dismiss the employee without giving any reason, although the employee is covered by French law in all other respects. But a growing number of employers, once the right candidate is chosen, require the relationship to start withauto-entrepreneur status instead of the regular trial period. The registration is quick and easy, and the person wants the job, so they register for the status. The employer can then ask for insane working hours without having to pay overtime and can keep theauto-entrepreneur on his/her toes the entire time. At the end of the contract, there may be no more need for theauto-entrepreneur who is dismissed after having been used and abused.

For more information (in French), see www.lemonde.fr/emploi/article/2016/01/20/travailler-avec-des-auto-entrepreneurs-attention-au-salariat-deguise_4850689_1698637.html

THE MOST COMMON SCAMS FRENCH LANDLORDS PULL ON TENANTS
Here are the most common scams of French landlords, according to data published in Le Monde. The link to the article is at the end of this section.

Some 2,500 emails received by the Confédération Générale du Logement in 2014 have been classified by topic.

• 1 – The most common complaint is the poor condition of the lodging, with factors such as severe dampness, water leaks, defective electrical systems and unsanitary living conditions. This represents 13% of the complaints and the share is growing, which shows that landlords are unwilling to do the minimum repairs needed.
• 2 – The second commonest complaint is failure to reimburse the security deposit, which accounted for 12% of the emails. In 95% of the cases, the landlord claimed repairs were needed as justification for keeping the security deposit.
• 3 -In third place is a sudden increase in condo charges that the tenant must pay. It is almost always accompanied by a demand to pay the past balance, which can go back several years. This represented 8.5% of the complaints. The bad news is that the money is owed since the tenant uses the services of the condominium.

For more information (in French), see www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2016/01/07/locataires-contre-proprietaires-les-litiges-les-plus-courants_4843172_1657007.html

Best regards,

QUESTION

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE PREFECTURE ISSUES A WRONG DECISION

I live in Paris and am interested in buying self-defense articles like a lipstick stun gun and/or pepper spray (mobile phone, key chain or other form). I would like to know whether these are legal (at least for women) in France and where I could buy such items. Could I order online or do I need to find a store and buy with my ID? Some friends advised me to get them from the police. Also, are there professional training courses for self-defense in Paris for foreigners? 
If you could refer me to particular locations it would be greatly appreciated.