From Wikipedia
“ The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released 30 November 1979. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imposed isolation from society is symbolized by a wall.”

I much prefer the first part of their career when Syd Barrett’s influence was significant, even when he was not there anymore. I often prefer the lesser-known, so my favorite recording is Live at Pompeii, a 1972 concert documentary.

I often thought of choosing it when the border wall policy was making the news for months on end, but that would have been too easy. A very long time ago, I used the Bee Gees song “How deep is your love?”, but adding “how tall is the wall?”, illustrating the fact that when people’s absolute despair pushes them to flee, no barriers, regulations or military border enforcement will deter them: many of them will make it to the other side.

In recent weeks a different wall has been in the news – the Berlin Wall, and with it what was then called the Iron Curtain that split Europe in two. Of course the division of Germany through the creation of Eastern Germany under Communist rule scarred Europe for almost 40 years. Very few were able to get through the Iron Curtain alive in order to escape these Communist regimes. At the same time, many managed to defect during official trips to the Western countries as athletes, musicians, scholars, and they asked for asylum in the countries where they found themselves. They obtained it right away with virtually no procedure.

Remembering my youth growing up in Europe and being aware of the alienation created by this physical wall were reasons for me to choose this title. This album is about a man suffering from mental alienation, isolating himself, suffering from paranoia. Having this idea that the wall protects him also played a role in my choice, as it resonates with the news I am getting.

THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF THE TEARING DOWN OF THE BERLIN WALL 
From Wikipedia
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961…. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin, ultimately resulting in the demise of the Wall.

Many have written about and commented on the 30th anniversary of the fall of this wall. Many have published articles, videos, testimonies from that time to commemorate this groundbreaking event, which certainly reshaped the Western world, and in my view most if not almost all the international political crises that exist today. This belief stems from the fact that there was a balance of power between two superpowers – the USA and the USSR, which had the capacity to involve their allied countries. This balance, dangerous because it was backed up by nuclear arsenals, forced those two superpowers to refrain themselves from going too far in the direction of declaring war and invading countries. From the American side the Vietnam War can be looked at from this standpoint. I believe that the invasion of Afghanistan shows the same on the side of the USSR side. At the risk of sticking my neck out too far, I might add that the more recent invasion of the Ukrainian provinces of Crimea and Donbass might not have taken place, had such a balance continued to exist in a different form. Indeed Ukraine has been asking to be part of the EU and is allied with the USA.

The vast majority of the people living in the USA, as well as many Europeans, have never experienced what it meant to face that wall. In reality the vast majority of those who had a personal experience were those who lived where these Soviet walls existed. The wall was not a tourist attraction as such until it was torn down.

It so happens that during the summer of 1975, travelling with my parents, our family experienced first-hand what it meant to face this wall. We were all visiting my uncle and aunt who lived for over a decade in Helsinki in Finland, from where we made several day-trips by car. So one day we were driving East in very thick Finnish forests until we saw road signs telling us to turn around, because the road led to the border with the USSR, which today would be Russia. For miles and miles, my father ignored those signs, which were in just about all the languages that one can think of, with very explicit images. He drove until we met Finnish army personnel holding their machine guns horizontally in shooting position. We could see the tall concrete wall with barbed wire all over it. We could see the Red Army military personnel on top of several watchtowers who spotted us, pointing their machine-guns at us. Very politely the Finnish soldier explained to us in perfect English that we had to turn around immediately and leave the premises. We did!

The USSR was governed by one of the bloodiest and all-around worst dictatorships that modern world history has known.

I did not plan the coincidence between this anniversary that so many have been celebrating, and receiving the following testimony. It truly feels like I have come full circle regarding the topic of refugees, undocumented aliens, and immigrants struggling all their lives in their new countries. So this is a story about the Iron Curtain/Wall as it was called then – about refugees fleeing for their lives and managing to get to a Western country alive. I first met such a person, an American citizen, as a client about 20 years ago. We have stayed in contact on and off, as he has continued giving me small tasks to do. Given his name, I suspected Eastern European origin or descent. Until I received this email, I did not know anything about this.

This concludes my digressions about these topics, or maybe just one topic with several facets. I had no idea that I would be receiving so many testimonies, most of them heartbreaking, but never bitter or angry. I believe that they shed a very interesting light on the two very different narratives told by each side of the argument. I fully agree that there is a need for policies, for enforcing laws, and therefore the establishment of a comprehensive immigration policy. This is true for all the Western countries faced with both an influx of asylum seekers and a large number of undocumented aliens. The truth is that this policy deals with people who are deeply scared by what they went through in their own country, as well as by what they have experienced following their arrival in the West.

TESTIMONY – “I FLED MY COMMUNIST COUNTRY”
An excellent discussion of the rights to residency and the rights of « sans papiers », about whom most of us know very little, and even that filtered through the eyes of the media. Your objective view of such situations impresses me quite often when reading your newsletter; the fact that you are helping similar situations gives your answers the sense of « du vécu » and lends them humanity.

I was never a « sans papier », but I got out of my country as a stateless person, an « apatride », which was a kind of polite term for « political refugees » used at the time by communist regimes; as one who was never involved in politics I couldn’t be called a « political refugee ». « Apatride» probably seemed a safer choice. To this day I get panicked whenever I have to deal with “official papers”, so I can only imagine what it might be to live for years without papers.

FROM THE DEFUNCT IRON CURTAIN TO THE 2019 AMERICAN CONGRESS 
I just want to add something about this testimony. All the networks in the USA are fixated with just one word: “Ukraine”. The entire political spectrum is talking about this nation, which was one of those countries under Communist Party rule, as it was located behind the “Iron Curtain”. Such rulers were taking orders directly from Moscow. This is why they were dictatorships that were about as bloody and inhumane as the USSR in those days. After the Wall disappeared, all such Eastern European countries wanted to be linked to Western Europe, which they had been part of for centuries, and at the same time they feared that Russia would continue its control over their countries. Their economic dependence – specifically, their dependence on oil and gas energy – that built up during those decades was at first enough to cripple their desire for independence. The most Western of them quickly joined the EU, including Poland, former Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. Today the EU is reaching out to countries that share a border with Russia. Two things must be said here. These countries historically have had very weak ties with Western Europe. Russia, then the USSR, and finally Russia again, has always considered them to be within its zone of influence, a buffer zone protecting them from an invasion from the West, such as the Napoleonic campaign that conquered Moscow, together with WWII and the German invasion, to mention the modern Russian era. This Russian fear of Western Europe countries is therefore many centuries old.

This is maybe a controversial comparison. I believe that one can measure the fear induced by such a change as similar to the fear growing today regarding Ukraine’s desire to be Western and part of NATO. I see this as similar to the crisis in the Kennedy era with nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba, so close to the USA. This is the historical and the cultural explanation for why Russia is trying absolutely everything it can to keep Ukraine within its influence, including a military invasion of the Ukrainian provinces of Crimea and Donbass, and being constantly present in its political life with pro-Russian political parties. The pro-Western parties are crucially counting on Western and specifically American foreign policy to help their country free itself from the Russian influence it has been under for about 75 years.

The rest is American politics and I stay away from it. I have not heard this historical and cultural explanation expressed by any American networks. Viewed from the USA, this Russian visceral fear of an invasion, and the absolute need to protect its immense territory, can be seen as unreasonable and artificial. I believe that to get an in-depth understanding of this Russian “trauma under siege” one should study the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII and attempt to understand the influence of the Russian iconic image of these Soviet soldiers heroically defending each building from the German Army with close to no logistical support in order to allow the final victory to happen. This victory came with the entire 6th German Army being taken prisoner. Occasionally I re-study it, sometimes from the perspective of military strategy, sometimes from an historical and political point of view. The narrative is that the entire nation was ready for the ultimate sacrifice to protect what they call “the Mother country.”

AN INTERESTING RESPONSE TO MY NOVEMBER ISSUE
Less than a day after sending my November 2019 issue, I receive this email as it is copied-pasted: “On 1 Nov 2019, at 00:17, this person wrote:

”I’ll be aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be everywhere-wherever you look. Wherever there is a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there is a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there…I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folk eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build—why, I’ll be there.”

So it looked familiar but I could not place it and there were no references that I could use in the message. So I did some research and found this.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7444096-i-ll-be-all-around-in-the-dark-i-ll-be
And this is how I found the exact quote from the novel “The Grapes of Wrath”

“I’ll be all around in the dark – I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look – wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build – I’ll be there, too.”

As a matter of a fact, I could have used a lot more than just the title to express this analysis. I immediately and sincerely thanked this reader who is a true fan of Steinbeck as well as of the movie on this book made by John Ford and released in 1940.

HOW CAN THERE BE A FRENCH BLACK FRIDAY?
I have already been writing about this for the last two years, and this year is even worse in terms of the advertisements. The novelty this year is that local shops are promoting their special sale on Black Friday and not just the major retail chains. At this point, I am no longer amused that some French outlets are promoting Black Friday week. It was somewhat cute last year when it showed up for the first time, documenting in this way their complete ignorance of what they are promoting. Alongside the wishes of many to get rid of Columbus Day, I like the fact that the narrative of Native Americans is increasingly being heard regarding both celebrations.

I AM THE SPEAKER FOR ANGLOPRENEURS ON DECEMBER 17th 
At the AAWE event, Patricia Smith Zraidi who runs the Anglopreneurs’ Monthly Evening Event asked me to be the speaker for the Tuesday, December 17, 2019 event. It starts at 7 PM until 10 PM and is held at: HD Diner Opéra (downstairs), 25 Bvd des Italiens, 75002 Paris. For more information check the page https://www.facebook.com/groups/anglopreneurs/

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for three weeks over the Christmas holidays, starting on Friday December 20th in the evening and reopening on the morning of Monday January 6th. 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. Of course, Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.

Best regards,

QUESTION

DIVORCE AND COMMUNAL BANK LOANS

I was married to a French woman and we moved to Lyon, France in 2015 and I completed the full-time MBA in 2017. I partially funded my studies with a student loan with a French bank, which required my in-laws to co-sign, and I took the insurance covering the cost of the loan should I be unemployed.
My wife and I ended up with an “amicable” divorce and I have been on my own trying to secure my immigration in France. I was on a spouse’s visa and not a student one. In 2017 I started working and now have a work permit from Belgium. My French bank requested proof of income and residence when I informed them of this change.
At the time of the divorce the bank refused to separate our joint loan account. It did not matter as I was making all loan payments.
In 2019 I lost my job and qualified for Belgian unemployment subsidies; I managed to continue paying my loan. Later on I lost my Belgian immigration status and therefore all Belgian social rights including unemployment subsidies. I then notified my French bank that I wanted to reinstate my unemployment insurance, which was refused on the grounds that I did not live or work in France and was therefore not entitled to coverage. I paid my loan payments and I was never told that the unemployment insurance was void once I lived out of France. The bank is now going after my ex-wife and my former in-laws while I am still charged for the insurance.
I feel that this situation is unfair and that I can perhaps at least have the insurance payments stopped and refunded so I can cover loan expenses while looking for a job. How I can best handle this? As far as I am concerned this is plain robbery!

QUESTION

MY RIGHTS AS THE OWNER OF A PARISIAN APARTMENT IN A SO-CALLED COPROPRIETE

I have been looking to buy an apartment in Paris. The wording of those ads is totally cryptic to me even though I am fluent in French otherwise! For example I see this wording on some properties that look interesting. What does “co-ownership” actually mean?
“To visit Co-ownership of 42 lots (No procedure in progress). Annual charges: 1587.00 euros.”

From Wikipedia
“The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. … Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California along with thousands of other ‘Okies’ seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future.”

Many may wonder why I chose this title when the US economy is good and there are no longer large numbers of people from middle America hitting the road for a better future in California. Set amid the Great Depression, this novel talks about not being able to earn the bare minimum to live and the despair of having to leave everything behind while holding onto an unrealistic dream.

But, to extrapolate, there are people in the USA on the right as well as the left hoping for things that are not realistic. The presidential campaign has already started and it feels like it is now in full swing when the actual vote is about a year away. Given the extreme polarization of American society, whether President Trump is reelected or a liberal Democrat wins, are we sure it will not create a crisis of the magnitude of the Great Depression, with its related migration, acts of despair and defiance of law and order?

One thing is certain, I see wrath coming out of Washington and many other parts of the country every day. I understand and agree that some expressions of great anger can be legitimate, considering what the other side of the political spectrum is doing. My point is that I see a cumulative effect of these expressions of anger, and I wonder how far it will go and what will happen if it reaches a breaking point.

France is not in a much better situation. After witnessing the gilets jaunes demonstrating Saturday after Saturday, in recent weeks we have seen members of the police forces taking to the streets of Paris to protest, while uniformed colleagues are also there to control and manage the demonstration. Does anyone else see this as a complete absurdity? Who would have thought that police would potentially commit violence against other police? It did not happen that day, but a later demonstration of firefighters ended up with a significant amount of violence. Many do not realize that Paris firefighters are military personnel, constituting a regiment. So let this sink in: soldiers fought police in the streets of Paris.

Are the grapes of wrath that far from us, or could this kind of crisis happen again?

DOES A VEGAS WEDDING COUNT IN FRANCE? 
Las Vegas has long been known as the capital of speed weddings and extravagant ceremonies. In the USA, everybody knows this and understands that such weddings are legal. Couples may have various reasons to get married there. Eloping is not one of them in our modern society, at least I hope not.

I would like to review a decision of the French Supreme Court that may astonish many Americans. Two French young adults, who were dating at the time, traveled across the USA. While in Las Vegas they thought the wedding ceremonies were fake, since they were so different from what is done in France. So, for fun, they got married. After their return to France, they did not register the marriage certificate with the French administration. Even when they had a child, it was registered as being born to unwed parents.

Several years later, the woman got married in France to another man. After 17 years, the husband came across the Vegas marriage certificate and asked that his marriage be annulled, as French law prohibits bigamy. The Versailles Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court both refused to annul the French marriage. When it comes to applying the law, the logic used was shady. At the same time, I can see why they ruled this way, since seeking an annulment after 17 years shows a significant level of bad faith, especially as the wife claimed her husband had always known about the Vegas ceremony.

On one hand, the court recognized the formal legal validity of the first wedding, stating that France must take at face value all legal American weddings and is bound by the US definition of a legal wedding. The certificate existed and the husband argued that it proved bigamy without a doubt, which is true on the face of it. But the court also reviewed the situation in another light. Is a couple married when both spouses are sure they are not, and behave accordingly? In short, the court contested the existence of the first marriage because neither of these two people had ever intended to be married.

My take is that the court did not want the husband to benefit from his proven bad faith and get away with not paying alimony or the other financial consequences of going through a French divorce.

www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2019/10/12/quand-l-epoux-decouvre-que-sa-femme-s-est-deja-mariee-avec-un-autre-a-las-vegas_6015231_1657007.html

Below is the pertinent section of the Court of Appeal decision on l’intention matrimoniale:
En revanche, la cour estime que les « conditions de fond » qui, aux termes de l’article 146 du code civil, exigent « le consentement » des époux, n’ont pas été respectées. Le « consentement » implique que les époux aient eu une véritable « intention matrimoniale ». Or, la cour considère que Catherine et Thomas « ne se sont prêtés à la cérémonie qu’en vue, manifestement, d’atteindre un résultat étranger à l’union matrimoniale ».

ARE THERE GOOD AND BAD IMMIGRANTS?
I want to share a recent exchange I had with a reader, as it shows the extreme complexity that exists when dealing with immigration. It is very common for foreigners sitting at the prefecture to complain about harsh treatment after having been called back three times or more for insufficient documentation. They see other people with thin files walking out of the prefecture after being approved, and conclude that the system is rigged, that certain categories of foreigners have more rights than others and that they are being discriminated against. I want to be very precise, here; on that level at the prefecture, there is almost never a personal discrimination, or even one based on citizenship or origin in the world. Therefore it is exclusively a perception that some foreigners have, that other foreigners with the same legal ground, have more rights than others. The next comparison is even worse for me as it opposes large categories or people indiscriminately. The most common one I have seen is comparing homeless veterans with asylum seekers, as well as stating the dreamers have more rights than people currently crossing the border with Mexico.

It is painful to me to see such claims, as they have a wide and long lasting impact without any good ever coming of them. It is a very human thing to do, comparing and wondering why discrepancies exist, challenging the notion that certain people have more rights, as if despair and hardship can be measured with a scale or a ruler.

This exchange below and the following testimonies are poignant because they show how emotional this issue becomes when one is personally involved.

1st COMMENT
I’ve been reading your newsletter for several years. I greatly admire your professional write-ups. Being an American lawyer myself, I admire your understanding of the administrative hurdles you describe, especially since these are things one does not learn in law school.

What puzzles me is: tens of thousands of immigrants, sans papiers, illegals and “in between”, are in France, and many of them receive generous benefits, such as medical care. Some may be here in good faith, but some may be pique-assiettes or freeloaders sucking what they can from the system. Indeed some of those people don’t respect France, but they somehow get along and may even obtain legal status by hook or crook. Children born in Syria to French jihadists are automatically considered French, no questions asked, while my spouse born in Châtillon-sur-Loire to naturalized, hard-working Spanish parents, schooled and raised in France, was not considered French but had to apply for citizenship and had a rocky road to get it, and sometimes the problem resurfaces.

Getting to the point, it is difficult to understand why the French administration lacks the discernment to be flexible for a well-intentioned lady PhD from Pakistan to allow her to stay with some legal status when they let much less qualified and potentially dangerous folks filter into the country. Why raise hurdles for a well-meaning, highly-educated Pakistani lady, knowing that there is such a thing as administrative discretion? I know one cannot count on one’s papers landing in a sensible bureaucrat’s inbox, so one has to give clean legal advice, as you do, and not count on “understanding” bureaucrats, but it still is puzzling given the situation.

Best wishes and thank you for your newsletter from someone who may be a future paying client and I have passed on your newsletter to some who may have become such.

MY ANSWER
Thank you very much for your message. As you are a lawyer, the answer to your frustration is the definition of the law and how it is applied.

As I explained in the 1st Q/A there is always a significant difference between the rights a person has and the rights the person can exercise, based on his/her ability to prove those rights. In other words, the justice system is by definition unjust, and this injustice must be accepted by the people who go to court seeking justice and hoping the court will make it right. Some people prove their rights with few documents, while others must bring excessive documentation to prove their rights.

Another issue directly linked with your profession is that the law applies equally and uniformly to people who fit the same profile. For example, people who have obtained asylum status have different rights from native French people, who in turn have different rights from undocumented aliens. So your wife, who was born in France, was asked for a multitude of documents to prove the status she was asking for. It makes sense because she has access to these documents. Asylum seekers who left with nothing can only rely on a handful of documents and their request will be reviewed on their testimony.

That said, the chance of obtaining asylum seeker status is rare, while for a person born in France to naturalized parents, France has 100% of the paper trail, regardless of how hard it may be to find the documents.

When it is a file for a client, we can keep our distance and treat this as a job – there is no emotion involved about which document is needed or why this one is hard to get. But when it is our file or, worse, that of our spouse and children, we take it personally because we have a protective reflex concerning them. That is the flip side of our job.

The key thing is not to compare the pain, suffering and distress of one part of the population with another. Mostly in the USA, but also in France, I have seen people comparing sans-papiers with French-born homeless people, and refugees and with homeless veterans, as if the government had to choose one over the other.

I believe there is a need for budgetary decisions to be made so that one population is not held up in opposition to another, one group slandered because the other is presented as being more deserving. But neither of us is sitting in the US Congress or French Parliament to pass laws. We can only witness decisions we agree or disagree with.

My church helps the homeless a great deal and allocates a significant budget for this. The refugee team, which I am involved with, is smaller with fewer means. I tend to choose the underdog, a pattern in my life that was strengthened when I served in the French Army. I am proud of what the church is doing and the diversity of the people we help.

I am truly sorry for what your spouse went through. In 1994, the first time I went to city hall asking how my American wife could become French by virtue of being married to a French man, the civil servant told me with a straight face that even if I had been able to fool the French army into thinking I was French, he would make sure I would not fool his office, since I could not prove to his satisfaction that I was French. He pushed just about all my buttons and smeared my wife as well. It took me about 10 years to get over this. So I am no better when it comes to this sort of thing. I took it very personally!

THEIR RESPONSE
I have enjoyed reading the past issues you were kind enough to send. My husband is French, while I was born and raised in the USA. A few years ago we moved to France to be closer to my husband’s family. We are here to stay. While I love living here, I am 53 and as you brilliantly wrote in one of your issues, I am starting all over.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. To tell the truth, I suspected what your answer would be but I pushed the “send” button too quickly. After writing my message I hesitated about sending it and consuming your valuable time.

It was quite unlawyerly and too emotional of me (particularly for a lawyer) to wish that officials might be more discerning and flexible so as to allow people of obviously good qualifications and who apply in good faith to have some leeway. It was a wish that they could use their administrative discretion and sort out the wheat from the chaff, if you will, so that honest folk applying could get a fair shake. I know that those who apply cannot expect to receive that kind of treatment and should definitely not count on it. They have to thread the needle and submit the right documents and comply, to the letter, with whatever rules or laws prevail and hope for the best.

By the way, next year I will need to apply for my fourth ten-year carte de sejour. I am apprehensive about doing it. I’ve stood in the rain and snow many times, starting 5 or 6 in the morning, only to be told as I reached the promised land at the front of the line outside the prefecture at 9am in Montpellier that they were not accepting any more applicants that day, no more numbers to hand out. I could come back and try another day. Maybe start at 4am.

Now the appointment system online is clogged by illegal operators who immediately make bogus appointments and sell them. If you are caught buying an appointment it is illegal and dangerous. But there is practically no other way to get one. Kafka would have something to say about this situation.

I proposed to an official I know that they set up a table with a person who would validate online appointments after seeing an ID card. This would eliminate the middlemen who have an illegal business selling appointments. The official’s answer? That would be too costly.

NEW STATEMENTS FROM PEOPLE WHO WERE REGULARIZED OR STRUGGLED TO KEEP THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS
I have continued to receive comments, mostly from people who read the issue last month and wanted their voice to be heard. Because I am mostly helping Anglophones, such people often come from Asia – more specifically, from South Asia and China.

COMMENT #1
Being sans papiers here in France is way too hard. You have to fight the feeling that any time you will be caught by the police. And the loneliness of being away from your family for a long time is a nightmare in your everyday life. You need to be ready to embrace the life that will happen ahead of you.

COMMENT #2
There is this idea that sans-papiers should have a worse life because they are illegal. I believe that this is wrong and offensive. It is wrong because I see French people doing illegal things all the time, illegal parking, speeding, cheating on taxes and social charges, and they boast about it. When I was sans papier, I was supposed to be ashamed and worthless. I was humiliated, taken advantage of by employers, well-off professionals who had no problem being illegal by making me work for them. My illegality was a cross I had to carry. I have always resented being seen as a criminal, when everything in my life was decent. It is true that the procedures at the prefecture can be humiliating, having to wait in line at 6AM to be among those who will have the appointment to renew the carte de séjour. Even when it was happening once a year, can it be compared to living five years with this awful knot twisting my stomach night and day? I understand that there can be some anxiety about going to the appointment at the prefecture. When I went there the first time to submit the regularization request, I could barely move, I was stricken by fear. The odds were real that I could end up handcuffed and sent back to my country. Last but not least, imagine what it takes to get the employer’s French tax documents that prove that they have the means to pay my salary. Nothing was easy, comparisons can be so painful. When I was sitting waiting at the Cité prefecture waiting for my turn to be called, knowing my request for regularization had been approved, I felt that I had as much right to be there with my legal stay, my right to work, as anyone sitting in that same room. Pain, despair, anguish, they cannot be compared from one person to the next. Now that I am preparing my carte de résident request, I am integrated, feeling safe in France. From the day I realized I had been fooled by my employers who brought me to Paris from Hong Kong, and made me a sans-papier to today, I have stayed the same, a decent woman and a practicing Christian. This is what defines me then and now.

In conclusion, I would like to address two issues:
1. Regardless of how secure the foreigner is, how strong the file, how solid the immigration status, many foreigners get panic attacks about going to the prefecture to submit their request. The fear that the civil servant they will encounter has this almighty power over their life and the slightest thing can make them lose their rights can make them sleepless or physically sick. Quite often the fear is irrational and disconnected from the reality of the procedure at the prefecture. For people who suffer panic attacks, however, it is barely controllable and reason has hardly any effect on their condition. Many of the comments I received dwell on this theme of fearing the prefecture’s decision.

2. Nearly all sans-papiers live in constant fear of being caught by the police and deported. This means that this fear also exists with people who think that there is a good chance that they could lose their legal right to live in France. These people who have reasons to fear a negative answer very often have family members, close relatives, friends, who are sans-papiers, who have been caught and deported. Some of them have gone through the regularization procedure and have difficulties maintaining this legal status. Whether sans-papier or not, explaining that the file is there, it is strong, that there is no point of fearing the police since at this stage of the game, the risk of deportation is null, it does not affect the emotional condition, the fear is strong and they suffer from it.

What I describe here about these people living in France, is also true about the similar procedures in the other Western countries that regulate their immigration with strict procedures. Based on my knowledge, the American immigration procedures objectively create even more anxiety than the French ones.

COUNTRY CODES FOR FRENCH SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS
I have explained how the French social security number is constructed almost entirely of codes representing the date and location of birth. I recently found a webpage listing all the codes identifying where a foreigner was born. The page displays them including the code 99, which means being born outside of France. I am not how useful this information is, but I assume some people will want to check their number against this list. For a reminder of how the number is constructed, see the explanations in the June 2005 and March 2019 issues.
www.insee.fr/fr/information/2028273

AAWE “RETIRE & THRIVE” EVENT
The Association of American Wives of Europeans recently held an event called “Retire & Thrive” at the American Church in Paris, where many professionals had booths and offered their services to those who attended. On such occasions I often meet my readers, and this was no exception. Some say they have followed my work for years without contacting me.

After helping put together the tables, I spent time talking to people who had all kinds of questions, not just those about retiring in the French public system. Immigration, getting a pension on both sides of the Atlantic and staying on French public health coverage were some of the topics discussed. I would like to thank AAWE for putting together this event, which was well attended from beginning to end.

I AM THE SPEAKER FOR ANGLOPRENEURS ON DECEMBER 17th 
At the AAWE event, Patricia Smith Zraidi who runs the Anglopreneurs’ Monthly Evening Event asked me to be the speaker for the Tuesday, December 17, 2019 event. It starts at 7 PM until 10 PM and is held at: HD Diner Opéra (downstairs), 25 Bvd des Italiens, 75002 Paris. For more information check the page https://www.facebook.com/groups/anglopreneurs/

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for three weeks over the Christmas holidays, starting on Friday December 20th in the evening and reopening on the morning of Monday January 6th. 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. Of course, Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.

Best regards,

QUESTION

DOES OVERSTAYING A FEW MONTHS MEAN BEING AN UNDOCUMENTED ALIEN?

I am an American student who overstayed my one-year visa. I got hired as an au pair but the family didn’t work out. My visa ended this summer. I have been searching for a job since then. Then I found out you cannot work as an au pair on a student visa so I have been wondering if it is possible to change status if an au pair host family wants to hire me? Does the prefecture grant new visas to expired student visa holders or would I have to go home? I am curious because it would cost a lot of money to do so. I finally have a family but I need to be legal again.

QUESTION

DOES PARENTAL FINANCIAL HELP CONSTITUTE TAXABLE INCOME?

I’m having issues with being taxed on money my parents gave me as a gift for rent and living expenses without having my own income in France. Is it possible to ask you some questions about this and get your insight?

From Wikipedia
“The Outlaw is a 1943 American Western film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jack Buetel, Jane Russell, Thomas Mitchell, and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, while Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director.”

It has been a long time since I used the name of a movie for my column. I will let my readers guess what or who motivated me to choose this title. Most readers will not have seen this 1943 movie: It features Sheriff Pat Garrett, Doc Holliday and the criminal Billy the Kid. There are still legends surrounding these men, who actually lived in the Wild West of the late 19th century. Today the legends are being challenged: Some say the men enforcing the law were not really the good guys and Billy the Kid was challenging a corrupt authority.

I chose the title mostly in regard to the second Q/A. I have been a militant for over 20 years in trying to assist people who are considered by some to be outlaws, the undocumented aliens, “les sans-papiers”. I believe we must look beyond their status as law breakers, especially as long as French law grants them the right to obtain a legal stay, thus blurring the line between legal and illegal. I stay on the right side of French law, which, odd as it may seem, grants right to outlaws.

MY OFFICE PROJECT HAS BEEN DELAYED 
This unusual real estate transaction goes back to shortly after I bought my current office space, when the real estate agent asked me if I would be interested in buying the space next door to mine. At the time, I saw no opportunity for its use. But after a couple of years, having built up some savings and acquired an assistant, I realized what an investment opportunity it was. After several months of negotiations, I reached a deal with the agent in early May.

The initial sale of these properties was triggered by the death of the owner, a rather old lady. There are many heirs involved, with little trust among them. I knew from the initial transaction that there might be some delay in getting everybody’s agreement, but I was confident that in the autumn I could start renovating.

In the meantime, however, one of the heirs died, leaving a son aged 17. Due to the slowness of the French court in approving the sale, it was decided to wait until he turned 18 so he could sign for himself. Hence while the offer still holds, and will almost certainly be accepted, I doubt that the transaction can go through before 2020.

The space concerned is a studio that is commercially zoned. Measuring about 28 square meters (300 square feet), it can be used for short-term, Airbnb-type rental and/or a coworking space for up to five people.

CLARIFICATION ON GETTING A CARTE DE SÉJOUR IN THE MAIL
After the September issue went out, I received this message from the reader who sent me the material for the last Q/A:
“I have just read your latest column, noting that you included my email to you, and want to clarify: 

• 1. Yes, our cartes de séjour were sent to us through La Poste; and.
• 2. The Hôtel des Impôts simply did not want to, or could not, deal with us when we turned up to register as tax residents.

Bear in mind, however, that this was 2008-2013 and this incident took place in a very rural area of Dept 86. The mairie of the small village of Brigueil le Chantre was not able to facilitate our requests, necessitating numerous visits to Poitiers with our multiple translations of police clearance certificates, marriage license, birth certificates and, in my husband’s case, Australian citizenship certificate, plus other documents that I have forgotten about. On the other hand, we were able to obtain my driver license via the sub-prefect’s office in Montmorillon, our nearest small city.

I add that nothing was straightforward or simple and we were often left with the impression that the bureaucracy did not know what to do with us. Despite the amount of time spent navigating our way through the complexities of the French residency system, albeit only temporary, as we were always intending to return to Australia, we did enjoy our time in France and wouldn’t have missed the experience for anything!

Thank you for your informative column.”

BRITISH PEOPLE WILL BE ALLOWED TO ASK FOR IMMIGRATION STATUS AFTER BREXIT
Another deadline is quickly coming regarding Brexit. The chances of an absence of agreement are greatly increasing. The prime minister is campaigning for a so-called hard Brexit. He appears not to have the support in Parliament to get it, and it is now possible that Parliament will approve an agreement that he refuses – the exact opposite of what happened with his predecessor. Because of what is at stake, I have ended up having to follow British politics. It is clear that something has to happen in about a month.

The French government continues to be lenient in its policy regarding British citizens living in France. Even if a hard, no-deal Brexit takes place, these people will have a year to ask for French residency, provided they can prove that they have lived in France for a while. This will be true regardless of whether any equivalent offer is extended to French people living in the UK.

British citizens in France, and probably other European Union countries, are securing their legal stay by asking for an immigration ID, which will make Brexit likely to have much less impact on their life. It is difficult to know which status they will get once ties are cut, but the French prefectures will certainly have to find an immigration status that fits their situation, and there are many to choose from. I am telling my clients that asking right away for French nationality, based on just the British passport and several years living in France, is not the safest way to go. Holding a carte de séjour européenne is more than enough, since it lasts five years and Brexit should be complete by then. They will then be in a clear, secure situation. Therefore I am pushing my British clients to ask for their cartes de séjour before Brexit occurs..

I am not certain, but it would make sense if, in a case of hard Brexit, British citizens would still be able to ask for French immigration status without having to hold it beforehand. But it is possible that the prefecture will not issue them a carte de séjour européenne but a standard one, which may grant fewer rights. Holding a carte de séjour européenne or a student card is not at all the same thing, by the way: The latter grants very few rights to the card holder.

The opportunity may last only for the next four weeks or so, but if you need to obtain this immigration status, make the appointment now. Even if the appointment ends up being several months after the Brexit deadline, you should obtain the carte de séjour européenne.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st
As of tomorrow October 1st, my initial retainer goes up from 270€ to 300€ and the hourly rate from 110€ to 130€. I am also blocking three hours instead of two for each meeting so I have time in between two back-to-back meetings to do administrative work. This should make it possible for me to answer emails and return phone calls more quickly. My assistant attended several meetings with clients in September to facilitate this transition. In some instances she has accompanied my clients to the prefecture. She should be able to do the same thing with URSSAF, CPAM and some other public offices. As her fees are lower than mine, this should compensate for the increase in my fees. I hope once again to be able to get back to people in 48 hours. I am sorry for my slowness in the last several months. I have tried to solve this issue to the best of my ability.

Best regards,

QUESTION

CHOOSING THE RIGHT IMMIGRATION PROCEDURE

I have been living with my French PACSed partner for several years and I hold student status as an American. I have just been hired by an IT firm in Paris for a really good, well-paid job but they have never hired a non-EU citizen. I told them that I could get a family visa. I asked the prefecture how to do it and they answered that I do not live with him. They are lying. I have been with him for three years, and I can prove it: I get my bank statement and my phone bill at that address. The rest of it is in his name and as a student I never declared my income anywhere. How can the prefecture be so wrong?

QUESTION

CHOOSING TO LIVE SANS PAPIERS

I am a PhD student from Pakistan who came to France on international mobility (6 months) in June. Now my training and work require me to get an extension of three more months, and my organization is ready to support me for an extended period of time. But my visa cannot be extended or renewed, as it is for a long séjour temporaire. I am in a situation where I cannot afford to go back to my country to apply for another visa and then come back. The truth is, as a young woman, I do not want to go back. No one is guiding me well. I wanted to ask you if there is another solution, if I can apply for a new visa while staying here in France, as the validity of the visa is till November. I tried for a carte de séjour but my visa restricts me from that as well. I desperately need your help.

BACK TO SCHOOL – BACK TO WORK
In France, la rentrée, which generally coincides with the beginning of the school year, is not just for students; France also goes back to work. I hope that you all had a nice summer. I am writing this issue as France is going through one of several heatwaves. Some of them have broken heat records. My office naturally stays cooler than the outside temperature even at the worst time of the day.

France used to be completely asleep during the entire month of August. This was called the “Sleeping Beauty syndrome.” Although long-term residents of France notice each year that it is increasingly “business as usual” on August 1, a nonchalant ambience still reigns in Paris in August.

I remember as a small child watching my dad close up his shop, just as we closed up the house for vacation. Even though there were not many employees in his carpentry shop, for me the closing symbolized what was happening to businesses everywhere in the country. In the decades after 1936, the year the law requiring paid vacation was passed, the tradition of closing everything the first day of August was the norm, and France, except in tourist areas, “went to sleep.” My current office has the same kind of roller shutter as many shops, and I often think of those days when I walked around my dad’s woodworking shop. As I often state, I rely more on my ability to craft than coming up with a genius idea on the spur of the moment.

Today, the French are legally entitled to five weeks of paid vacation, which is enough to go away at least twice a year, and long enough that you feel disconnected from the office.

I TURNED 60
Yes, I turned 60 on a road trip that took my wife and me to a remote countryside village in Tuscany, Italy. We stopped several places where the norm was 1,000-year-old buildings and cities. To top this off, our final stop was Alesia, which is about a two-hour drive from Paris.

This is what Wikipedia says about it:
“The Battle of Alesia or Siege of Alesia was a military engagement in the Gallic Wars that took place in September, 52 BC, around the Gallicoppidum (fortified settlement) of Alesia, a major center of the Mandubii tribe. It was fought by the army of Julius Caesar against a confederation of Gallic tribes united under the leadership of Vercingetorix of the Arveni (the territory is today the départements of Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal.)

“It was the last major engagement between the Gauls and Romans, and is considered one of Caesar’s greatest military achievements and a classic example of siege warfare. The battle of Alesia marked the end of Gallic independence in France and Belgium.”

As a history lover and Christian, it moves me to know I am walking around looking at ruins that date roughly from the time of Christ. My wife learned how to pronounce Vercingetorix as we looked at his statue overlooking the nearby village.

I rarely reminisce, spending most of my time dealing with today’s affairs and planning my future when I can. But when I turned 40 and then 50, these were landmark times for me, life-changing moments. My 60th birthday was no different. For several months I have reflected on the fact that I cannot continue with my current workload, even though I still feel fit and see few physical reasons to slow down. Toying with these thoughts made me wonder: How old does one need to be before one feels the need to slow down?

That is where the title of this issue comes from. The last verse hits home for me:
“No, you’re never too old to rock ‘n’ roll
If you’re too young to die
No, you’re never too old to rock ‘n’ roll
But he was too young to die.”

I see myself continuing my work and my ministries for ten years or more, God willing.

MUSIC OF MY YOUTH 
I find the album Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die! the most underrated by Jethro Tull, which is itself a very underrated band. In 2001 I joined the English Toastmasters chapter in Paris. Our first speech was to introduce ourselves. I did not follow the usual format but wrote various sections based on the Impressionist painting technique, i.e. splashes of color mingling together which at the end make a piece of art. I titled each section with the name of an album by this band:
Living in the Past
Stand up
Burst Out
Songs from the Woods
Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!
Minstrels in the Gallery
Aqualung

Like many people, I discovered this band listening to Aqualung when I was 16.

From Wikipedia:
“Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die! is the ninth studio album released by the British band Jethro Tull, recorded in December 1975 and released in 1976. … [It] is the last Jethro Tull concept album, and follows the story of Ray Lomas, an aging rocker who finds fame with the changes in musical trends.”

I love Lomas’ ability to distance himself and project himself decades into the future when his career is over and he is getting ready to be put out to pasture. At the same time, the orchestration and lyrics blend really well, as is so often the case with this band. The albumsThick as a Brick and Living in the Past are also exceptional in that regard. Writing this issue made me realize that I own most of the concept albums of that time; nearly all the major bands of the time made at least one.

I remind my readers that Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942, Mike Jagger on July 26, 1943, Roger Daltrey on March 1, 1944, and Elton John on March 25, 1947. Who would have guessed that they would still be playing, enjoying worldwide fame at the age of being grandfathers! There must be a special place for Keith Richards, born on December 18, 1943; the very fact that he is still alive is a mystery to many.

A TREASURE HUNT IS GOING ON IN PARIS!
I heard this comment recently on French national TV, and even though it is 100% false, the gigantic repairs and renovations occurring right now do give the impression that every single block in the city is undergoing massive construction.

There are three very different reasons why this is happening.

First, there is normal maintenance, which does not require much explanation. Then there is a policy that was introduced after the previous mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, was elected on March 18, 2001 – that of discouraging cars and trucks from driving within the city limits. The current mayor, Anne Hidalgo, elected on April 5, 2014, has followed the same policy. It has been said that she is even stricter regarding this goal. So all over the city, areas open to cars are shrinking, with streets losing one or even two lanes, while new bus and bicycle lanes are being created and old ones are being enlarged. Sidewalks are being widened and new-model newsstands are being installed. Of course, this work means narrowing and sometimes closing many streets, totally disrupting traffic.

Third, the gas and electricity companies sometimes need to do maintenance and dig holes, but this is marginal compared to what the Compagnie Parisienne de Chauffage Urbain (CPCU) is doing.

From Wikipedia:
CPCU “is a semi-public company, a subsidiary of the Engie group (66% owned by Engie and 33% by the City of Paris), responsible for district heating, mainly by means of a water vapor network, in Paris and in several surrounding communes (Aubervilliers, Boulogne-Billancourt, Charenton-le-Pont, Choisy-le-Roi, Clichy, Gennevilliers, Gentilly, L’Île-Saint-Denis, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Ivry-sur-Seine, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, Levallois-Perret, Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and Vitry-sur-Seine).”

District heating, also known as city heating, transports and distributes steam to a network nearly 480 km long, which heats many buildings in these municipalities. The infrastructure had not been adequately maintained for a long time, and in recent years more and more buildings terminated their contracts and chose a different way to get hot water. To deal with the competition from the electric and gas companies, the CPCU decided to undertake massive renovation and offer a more competitive service. Where this is the case, there is always a small poster stating that the CPCU is managing the construction site.

Despite the goofy “treasure hunt” statement and drivers’ exasperation, several important issues are being addressed here. Since the CPCU is partly owned by the city of Paris, it has been said that the intent is to create the maximum chaos possible on all fronts. In truth, Parisian officials believe fossil fuel use should be a thing of the past and they want to invest in public transport, including electric cars and buses, and develop other non-polluting forms of transport. The vast majority of the inhabitants and governments in most developed countries are of the same opinion, and they are implementing policies intended to phase out the use of fossil fuel.

In the USA, very few cities are more than 400 years old. In Europe, a significant share of the population lives in buildings as old as, say, Williamsburg, Virginia. Many European cities were built before cars and electricity were invented. When it came time to modernize them, the common-sense reflex was to make the oldest neighborhoods, most of them 500 years old and older, into pedestrian zones. Streets in these areas were often too narrow for even one car. At the other end of the spectrum, Paris worked for decades, from the 1960s to the 1990s, to make car traffic more fluid, to the detriment of pedestrians. On the other hand, northern European cities protected their ancient downtowns from very early on. Some cities charge stiff fees to drive inside the city center, which deters many. France, especially Paris, has never had the political will to impose such a system or to set apart large sections of the city for pedestrians. Arrondissements 1 to 4, which were the city limits before Baron Haussmann started reshaping the city in the mid-19th century, could have been pedestrianized, considering how old they are.

To illustrate my point, Henry IV (1553–1610) drained a swamp just outside the city limits of the time, which was called the marais in French. Now the famous neighborhood still known as the Marais has some of the city’s oldest privately-owned buildings, and people still live in them.

The Pont Neuf, which means “the new bridge,” is the oldest bridge in the city. Henry IV wanted it built so that Paris would grow on the other side of the river towards the Louvre.

To conclude this comparison, the city of Williamsburg was founded as the capital of the Virginia Colony in 1699, nearly a century after the Pont Neuf was finished.

Regarding the way current Parisian leaders are handling the construction, should we criticize them for the inconvenience and apparent lack of coherence, or should we support them for their goal and look beyond the honking and moaning? The prize in the infamous treasure hunt could be better air to breathe and a quieter, more peaceful city, without making it a museum for tourists like Colonial Williamsburg.

For more information, see www.paris.fr/chantiers.

THE LINK BETWEEN THE FRENCH INCOME DECLARATION, THE TAXE D’HABITATION AND RENTAL INCOME TAXATION
France’s income tax declaration requires information about your primary residence: you must state whether you are the owner, a tenant or a guest. There is also a section to be filled out if you moved during the previous or current year. The fact that half the front page is dedicated to the address shows how important this matter is to the tax office. Among other things, it enables tax officials to levy an appropriate taxe d’habitation (lodging tax) as well as the TV license fee, the redevance audiovisuelle, in the autumn. A consequence often forgotten by renters is that filing an income declaration in France triggers the imposition of the taxe d’habitation and also the taxation of the rental income the landlord receives.

There are so many dubious unwritten leases, subleases, cash rental arrangements and so on in Paris, and probably other major French cities, that many renters get into serious trouble with their landlord over having declared their income. This aspect of things is always overlooked unless a professional identifies the problem. It should not prevent people from doing the right thing, but it helps them get ready for the attack, which often occurs after the landlord receives a notice to pay taxes on undeclared rental income, along with the associated fines and other penalties. One way of knowing where you stand is whether you paid the taxe d’habitation before you declared income for the first time. If you did, then there is no danger. If you did not, and you have lived in your current place for a couple of years or more, this is a sign that your landlord is paying this tax and hopes the tax office will ignore the fact that he has a tenant there.

MY COLUMN AND MY READERSHIP
My business listing of subscribers exceeded 3,000 members this summer. This is an achievement, even though many would consider this number tiny compared to most blogs targeting the expatriate community in France. Stephen Heiner is my adviser on those topics, and also a good friend. He looked at some of the data related to my column. The average ratio of openings is 86% over the last five months and continues to grow after one month. He says that these two situations set my readership apart, and he cites several reasons:

• I have never used a list of which I was not a member.
• I have had a personal exchange with every single person who is on my subscriber list.
• The list has never been used for any promotions and has never been sold to anyone, and no one but my webmaster and I have even had access to it.
• As I have been in business for over 20 years now (since 1997), many of the readers have been my clients.

The most common referral I now get is someone who knows one of my readers and either was told I would be able to help or received an issue of my column dealing exactly with the problem they are having. Since I seldom give courses and conferences anymore, I rely on my readership, which I have long assumed was made up of past and current clients. Now I know that this impression was right, judging by the information my publishing software gave me.

As of August 30th, the entire list has 3,435 email addresses, and the business one has 3,058.

For those interested in specific numbers:

• July 2019 – sent = 2.990 – received = 2.977 opened = 2.196 unsubscribed = 4 – 74%
• June 2019 – sent = 2.946 – received = 2.941 opened = 2.466 unsubscribed = 4 – 84%
• May 2019 – sent = 2.918 – received = 2.910 opened = 2.546 unsubscribed = 8 – 88%
• April 2019 – sent = 2.886 – received = 2.880 opened = 2.704 unsubscribed = 11 – 94%
• March 2019 – sent = 2.844 – received = 2.838 opened = 2.474 unsubscribed = 4 – 87%.

I am honored, and I thank every single reader from the bottom of my heart. I look at the numbers and I feel humbled by this faithfulness. Thank you again.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2019
I plan to change some aspects of my business when I reopen the office on Monday, August 19th. The main reason is to allow my assistant to do some tasks more systematically. One of them is to accompany the clients to the prefecture, URSSAF, CPAM and other public offices. She already handles most of the dealings with the offices where self-employed people are registered. She has also accompanied my clients to the prefecture several times. As her fees are lower than mine, this should compensate for the increase in my fees. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 270€ to 300€ and the hourly rate from 110€ to 130€.

Best regards,

QUESTION

WIRING MONEY FROM THE USA TO FRANCE

I arrived a few months ago in France and settled in the countryside near Cahors. I had no problem opening a bank account by showing my American passport and my OFII identification. I heard that there is legislation called TRACFIN that regulates international wiring of money. Would the issue come up if I were going to transfer money from my American to my French bank? Does this come up if I leave that money in my US account and transfer small amounts over time? I need to bring money to France, as I am not allowed to work here.

QUESTION

FRENCH TAXATION OF FRENCH AND AMERICAN INCOME

I have been working in France and have paid my French taxes dutifully. I also paid taxes in the US on American income. For immigration reasons, I must show my French income tax statement, showing my global worldwide income for the last three years. Since they became aware of all of my revenue, I now owe them an additional 2,618€ for the 2016 and 2017 tax years. I was shocked and very upset, as I didn’t budget to pay this sum and when I declared my US revenue, I didn’t think this action would affect my tax situation in France. Does this seem right to you? Is there anything that I can do to not have to pay this huge sum for these years?

QUESTION

THE OTHER WAY TO GET A CARTE DE SEJOUR IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

I read with interest your May 19 Q&A column, in particular, your comments regarding becoming a “tax resident” of France after 183 days. Being Australian, we resided in Dept 86, the Vienne, from 2008 until 2013, having visiteur cartes de séjour.As you described, we had to provide evidence of home-ownership which was not a problem as we had purchased a fermette in 2000. Other documentation demonstrating financial security, health insurance, etc. was also required. Our visiteur status meant we had to appear at the Prefecture de la Vienne each year for renewal of our cartes de séjour. Mind you, by the time they arrived in La Poste, it was time to commence the whole proceeding again! Thank you for your column, which I find very interesting even though I do not live in France at present. And BTW, a very happy 60th!

I would like to wish all of you a great summer
and a very nice vacation;
I will start mine in about three weeks

Father & Son
Cat Stevens

It’s not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy
You’re still young, that’s your fault,
There’s so much you have to know
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy
I was once like you are now, and I know that it’s not easy,
To be calm when you’ve found something going on
But take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you’ve got
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not
How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again
It’s always been the same, same old story
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen
Now there’s a way and I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go
It’s not time to make a change,
Just sit down, take it slowly
You’re still young, that’s your fault,
There’s so much you have to go through
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy
All the times that I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside,
It’s hard, but it’s harder to ignore it
If they were right, I’d agree, but it’s them you know not me
Now there’s a way and I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go

The song “Father and Son” was recorded on Cat Stevens’s fourth album, Tea for the Tillerman, released in 1970.

The choice of this title is very unusual. I was discussing the previous title, “Hard-Headed Woman”, with a longtime friend of mine who did not know the artist or song. We were talking about what defines a “hard-headed woman”, how it can be a compliment for a woman today, and so on. As a person of conservative Asian origin, she felt uneasy about this term being applied to her as a compliment..

Looking at all the songs on the same album, Tea for the Tillerman, she picked “Father and Son”, saying she felt a lot closer to it and especially to the lyrics. She added, “This should be the title of your next issue.”

It has been a challenge as well as a difficult exercise to start drafting everything through this prism, instead of drafting first and finding a title that can unify the patchwork my column has always been.

I would like to thank you, my friend, for putting me to this test. After all, this is summertime and I am writing while on a road trip.

AN UPDATE ABOUT THE CHANGE OF RESIDENCE CERTIFICATE
I just received a message from a client about the outcome of an issue with the French consulate in Los Angeles.
Since our last correspondence, the Los Angeles office of the French Consulate has issued us a certificat de changement de résidence. They sent it with a note that this was an exception. However, we did notice they have changed the information on their website to state that you can apply for the certificat even if you are a foreigner. So, we will hope for the best for moving our Alfa Romeo, and will check into getting a tax certificate as indicated in your most recent newsletter. I love the newsletter. Your Hard-Headed Woman article is terrific.”

NEW LAW AFFECTING THE TENANT-LANDLORD RELATIONSHIP
The Loi Elan, passed in November 2018, changed a lot of things. I would like to focus on the rental side of the law. It has been said it seems to remedy some of the negative consequences of the crackdown on short-term Airbnb-type vacation rentals. I tend to disagree with this analysis, as it worsens the penalties and controls. On the other hand, it creates a specific lease that maintains the French approach to the tenant-landlord relationship while addressing the trend of people wanting to stay longer term.

Bail mobilité
The most interesting new provision is probably the,i> bail mobilité, a lease for between one and ten months that can be renewed once as long as the total stay is not be more than ten months. It only applies to furnished apartments.

The following provisions in particular that show this is not Airbnb competition:

• 1 – There is no security deposit, and the rent can be freely set as long as it stays within the rent control of the city, where applicable. Also, the lease itself must state why this type of lease is needed.
• 2 – If the rental goes past ten months, it becomes a normal furnished apartment lease lasting nine months for student tenants and one year for others.

Rent control
As mentioned above, rent control in Paris has been reinstated for a five-year test period. The administration sets a maximum that depends on location, size and a few other conditions.

Further crackdown on Airbnb-type rentals
As you will see the controls will be increased and the sanctions will be stiffened

Any private individual who does not declare such a rental to the city can be fined up to 5,000€, and failure to report the number of nights booked carries a fine of up to 10,000€.

If the booking website does not comply with its legal obligations – by, for instance, publishing properties without the city-issued registration number or neglecting to report the number of nights booked – it can be fined as much as 50,000€.

Definition of decent lodging now covers pests such as bedbugs
Infestation of apartments by vermin has become increasingly common. The normal regulation states that the tenant takes the apartment as is, and is responsible for what happens in it. Tenants often discover infestations quickly but until now, when they reported it, the owner could disclaim any responsibility.

Domestic abuse victims can leave without being liable for rent
It is difficult to find the right balance between the landlord’s right to be paid rent and a domestic abuse victim’s need to flee for her life and cut all ties with her previous life, including paying rent for a place where she no longer lives.

The law lays out guidelines for such cases. The woman is off the hook if she produces a restraining order from a judge or the record of the perpetrator’s conviction. At first sight this might seem to be of little help for the victim. But French court procedures are quite slow and can be stalled enough to get documentation. I am pretty sure that when the woman presses charges and the criminal justice system starts a procedure against the perpetrator, the landlord will go easy on collecting the money. The debt will be dissolved, legally speaking, when the above-mentioned documents are filed with the landlord.

I have no idea how the Loi Elan is going to affect landlords and agencies or how they will react. The bail mobilité will be easy to abuse, so I hope some provision for oversight is being made. I am sure that nonprofits dealing with domestic violence are preparing procedures and are training staff and volunteers to systematically make sure that this provision is properly followed. I hope the testing that landlords are supposed to carry out before renting will now include various types of infestation.

More generally, the Civil Code used to refer to normally expected behavior, exonerating a person from liability, as en bon père de famille, which literally meant “like a good father” but essentially translated as “reasonably”, the word now used (since 2014). When a law creates a new right, such as that implied by thebail mobilité, and there are no precedents, the lower courts often base their rulings on this concept.

BOOKING AN APPOINTMENT WITH MOST PREFECTURES
An article in Le Monde on June 1st carried the title Titres de séjour : le prospère business de la revente de rendez-vous en préfecture .

The article
Residence permits: the successful business of reselling appointments in the prefecture.
These days, the business of making appointments at the prefecture to apply for a residence permit is flourishing.

This formality, which has long fed endless lines of foreigners in front of the prefectures, is increasingly done online. At least half the departments in France have developed paperless procedures, which have led to physical waiting lines being immediately replaced by virtual ones. The gray-market appointment resale system had only to be brought up to date with digital technology.

“For the prefecture of Bobigny, count 15 euros for a request for renewal of a residence permit,” announces the young salesman of a shop, who in a few days and as many clicks can get an appointment for the start of the 2019 school year, while for the average person no available slots have appeared for more than six months.

For those who can’t go to a shop, there are plenty of solutions on the Internet. “Limited offer – first come, first served!” “Appointments available at very low prices!” “Only 35 euros!” On Facebook, pages are springing up and their purpose is unequivocal: “SOS prefecture appointment,” “Exceptional appointment for admission to stay,” “Getting an appointment for naturalization.” A business approach is taken for granted: “If you sponsor six people, you can have your appointment for free,” promises one site. “And we don’t forget those who … want to help! You’ll get a really tempting commission!”

The administrator of one such page explains: “The prefecture opens weekly time slots, but there are so many requests that after five minutes everything is full.” He and other intermediaries take this congestion as an opportunity to exercise their computer skills. “We have a program that automatically checks free slots, and when they appear, we register you,” says another Facebook page administrator. “First, we register you, and then you pay.”

The service is generally priced between 15€ and 200€, depending on the prefecture, the papers requested and the reseller. The Ministry of the Interior is aware of the gray market and ensures that “the facts are reported to the courts.” In early 2019, the Bobigny and Nanterre prosecutors’ offices opened investigations – a drop in an ocean of informal-sector resourcefulness, which feeds on the scarcity of appointment offers.

“The problem is the lack of slots made available,” says Nicolas Klausser, who is responsible for residence issues at Cimade [a nonprofit that works with refugees and undocumented foreigners]. “The administration does not have sufficient resources and foreigners suffer as a result.” In 2018, Cimade accompanied foreigners several times in administrative courts to denounce the public service dysfunction and force prefectures to register title applications.

In France, 3 million people hold residence permits. They may have to apply for renewal of papers, naturalization or a travel document, or exchange a foreign driver’s license for a French one, and so on. In addition to these people there are those apply for regularization of their status. The Ministry of the Interior does not deny the administrative overload exists but admits it does not know how to “statistically estimate the number of people who fail to get access to the prefectures.”

In November 2015, Cimade began developing a bot that evaluates service congestion hourly. The results can be striking. On the Cergy prefecture website, since December 2018, no bot test has managed to identify a slot to request renewal of a residence permit. In Meaux, no bot test has succeeded since December 2017. The same applies throughout April in Nanterre for naturalization applications, in Bobigny for exceptional residence permit applications. “There is no free time slot for your appointment request. Please try again later,” says the prefecture. And so on, in Metz, Strasbourg, Toulouse, etc.

Mariam is a member of the invisible contingent frantically refreshing a prefecture web page on the lookout for a slot – in vain. In France since 2013, the Guinean mother has been trying to get an appointment in Seine-Saint-Denis to ask for regularization of her status. Two or three times a month, she goes to Bobigny to seek information from prefecture officials. “Once, in the queue, there was a man who said he was a lawyer and offered to help me, for 1,000 euros to be paid in several installments,” she says.

Tati, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been trying to make an appointment at the prefecture for six months to apply for an illness-related residence permit because her son has sickle-cell anemia. “The lines were long, but I knew in the morning if I was going to get in. With the new system, I’m constantly on my phone. I wake up every night too. I’m exhausted,” she sighs. She heard about the gray market schemes that are proliferating, but never wanted to take the plunge.

Klausser of Cimade points out that people who fail to renew their papers face “major problems of disruption of their right to work or social benefits.” Those trying to regularize their situation run a risk of expulsion.

Oksüz was one of the latter group. We met him during a visit to the Mesnil-Amelot (Seine-et-Marne) administrative detention centre in early May. A Turk who had been living in France for twenty years, he was arrested at a construction site and detained. “I work in the construction industry as a carpenter or mason,” he assured Le Monde. “I am on permanent contract and have had pay slips since 2015.” As he met the criteria for possible regularization, he had tried – but failed – to make an appointment.

The Ministry of the Interior recognizes that “we can do much better, even if there is no magic formula.” An upper level civil servant at the ministry said, “In the long term, solutions must be found to simplify procedures.”

As early as 2015, a report by the Inspection Générale de l’Administration [which oversees the ministry] called for rationalization and simplification of the administrative process for reception of foreigners. “In the short term, we are trying to give the prefectures some fresh air by allowing them to recruit agents,” but there is a risk of these new resources being co-opted to meet other needs. “Credential services are stripped of personnel to cope with an increasing workload,” the ministry acknowledges. In 2018, the prefectures had to deal with a 20% increase in asylum applications and a 30% increase in the number of expulsion orders.
End of article

The Napoleonic vision was that the state had an iron fist to protect the population from wrongdoing, and this was the basis for a criminal justice system favoring the prosecution. In the 20th century, the successful fight for individual rights in virtually all possible domains severely weakened the mighty power of the state over the people. Many rightly see this as unquestionable progress. But as the prefecture procedure shows, some problems in France stem from the fact that the system continues to be structured around the type of power it used to have, and efforts to find a quick fix seldom solve the problem but instead just hide it from view. The absolute power that fathers had over their wives and children is long gone and the current balance of parents’ authority over their children is a good thing. A more democratic system is a good thing. Ascertaining the authority that the state has over the people, so that the state offers fair and equal service and protection, should be the duty of the system. I believe the French government and administration currently fall short in many instances.
www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/06/01/titres-de-sejour-le-business-de-la-revente-de-rendez-vous-en-prefecture-prospere_5470146_3224.html

WHETHER TO HAVE A CONCIERGE THE DILEMMA FACING PARISIAN CONDOMINIUM OWNERS 
Is it better to have a concierge (gardien/ne d’immeuble) or not? This question can lead to hours of discussion at the annual general meeting of the copropriété, the co-ownership group of most every condo apartment building.

The classic situation is that the concierge lives on the ground floor in a space called the loge and keeps an eye on everyone who enters and leaves the building (even though this has never been their official job), watching from behind the curtained door at the bottom of the stairs. They are in charge of cleaning and light maintenance in the common areas, and in buildings lacking mailboxes they distribute the post.

Over the past 40 years or so, I can identify three very different periods in the way the concierge was viewed. Initially no one thought of getting rid of them, as they were doing their job. Then, about 30 years ago, there was a trend of getting rid of them, for several reasons.

First, social charges had significantly increased, so employing them cost more than hiring a cleaner. Second, even though the loge was tiny, it was worth a lot of money if sold at market value. Finally, French labor law, combined with the legal protection of the domicile (which the loge certainly qualified as), made concierges virtually impossible to fire even when they did not do their job at all. So, as concierges retired, the loges were sold and a new industry developed: contractors specialized in cleaning Parisian buildings’ hallways, staircases and courtyards, and putting out the garbage bins.

Then about ten years ago I started to hear a completely different tune. Even companies that do an excellent job can never compare with the scope of the work a concierge does just by virtue of living at the bottom of the stairs. Many tenants leave a set of apartment keys with them so that meter reading can always be done and the person is never locked out of their home. Parcel delivery, which has grown enormously with Amazon and other online retailers, is a nightmare if it cannot be done during business hours. The concierge often also does cleaning and/or babysitting for a few tenants in the building and the proximity makes everything easier. Last but not least, buildings with a concierge suffer a significantly lower burglary rate than those without because the presence of a person scrutinizing everyone coming and going deters burglars.

Today, the real estate market puts a premium of about 10% on having a concierge. This is definitely something to think about when seeking to rent or buy an apartment in Paris or other major French cities. The court case detailed in this Le Monde blog illustrates the new trend very well. I hope this explanation makes it easier and more interesting to read.
http://sosconso.blog.lemonde.fr/2019/01/10/copropriete-comment-supprimer-ou-conserver-le-poste-de-concierge-3/#more-22830

SUMMER VACATION: THE OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED FROM JULY 19 TO AUGUST 19
The office will be closed for one month starting Friday, July 19, reopening on Monday, August 19. As always, I will be reachable by e-mail for emergencies and important matters. My service of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2019
I plan to change some aspects of my business when I reopen the office on Monday, August 19th. The main reason is to allow my assistant to do some tasks more systematically. One of them is to accompany the clients to the prefecture, URSSAF, CPAM and other public offices. She already handles most of the dealings with the offices where self-employed people are registered. She has also accompanied my clients to the prefecture several times. As her fees are lower than mine, this should compensate for the increase in my fees. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 270€ to 300€ and the hourly rate from 110€ to 130€.

Best regards,

QUESTION

THE LANDLORD’S RIGHT TO VISIT RENTED PREMISES

Less than two months into a one-year lease, my landlady in Australia notified me that due to changed family circumstances she wanted me to vacate the apartment right away. I balked. At about same time, the key in the apartment lockbox was removed. I consulted with a lawyer at ADIL in the 17th. They say the lease is valid, and the notice does not follow the proper notification process, so there is no reason to vacate, nor to take the walk-through meeting with the owner, who was passing through Paris. I also learned that taking the extra key was a criminal offense. I notified the owner of all of the above via e-mail, noting that using a key to enter without my permission is an additional criminal offense. I taped a note on the door in French and in English, reiterating all this. When I came back, the note had been removed and jammed under the door. I assume that someone entered the apartment again. Any idea about the best next steps? I am a poor French speaker, and over 65.

QUESTION

AUTO-ENTREPRENEUR AND CARTE DE SEJOUR

I have one simple question: Can Americans on student visas set up as auto-entrepreneurs? I ask because at our school in Toulouse we have a lot of Americans who would like to do our course to learn to be teachers, then work for language schools teaching English. They would do all this while studying French, so they arrive with the visa d’étudiant. I know they can work around 20 hours a week , but the problem is that language schools are no longer giving CDD contracts, they only take on auto-entrepreneurs.

The song “Hard-Headed Woman” was recorded on Cat Stevens’s fourth album, Tea for the Tillerman, released in 1970.

I’m looking for a hard-headed woman
One who’ll take me for myself
And if I find my hard-headed woman
I won’t need nobody else, no no no!

I’m looking for a hard-headed woman
One who’ll make me do my best
And if I find my hard-headed woman
I know the rest of my life will be blessed, yes yes yes.

I have always loved this song, and I share the inclination for strong-willed women. I am not sure how many men, even today, will feel blessed finding a hard-headed woman. My friend Richard found his mate many years ago, and she is now grieving his death. Some pending changes in state law in the South of the USA reminded me of this song describing a quest for the right strong-willed woman. I have no idea what will happen to these legislative changes at the end of the process, but I am sure there will be an increase in the number of hard-headed women throughout the USA. It will scare some or many men. It will also offer a larger choice to men who know they will be blessed for the rest of their life with the hard-headed woman of their liking.

OFFICE CLOSED FOR MY 60th BIRTHDAY
The office will close for a little less than two weeks for this occasion, from the evening of Friday June 14, reopening the morning of Tuesday July 2nd. I will only be reachable by e-mail for emergencies and important matters, as I will be outside of France. My service of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. For the first time in about 20 years, an issue of my column, that of July 2019, will probably not be sent the last day of the month, as I will still be out of the country on vacation. You may expect to receive the issue on the 2nd or the 3rd.

THE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS
In France, voting took place on Sunday May 26, which was too late for me to draw any conclusions for the current issue, so my reflections on the European elections will have to wait until the next issue.

URSSAF HAS INTRODUCTORY INFO IN ENGLISH
I recently discovered that URSSAF is now communicating in English, including a three-minute video explaining French social programs. I am tempted to dismiss this effort because the information is so basic that I wonder who in France would not already know it. That being said, my clients often need me to explain to them how the system works at such a basic level. So I admit this communication campaign might be useful to foreigners who have not figured out how France’s social programs work, starting with an overview on healthcare coverage.

I almost wish I could conduct a poll to find out how many people will take the time to watch the video and how many of them honestly learn something it. Nevertheless, this is a move in the right direction, and I hope URSSAF will continue down this path.

The main section of the URSSAF website in English starts here:

www.urssaf.fr/portail/home/welcome-to-foreign-companies.html

It includes a link to the video on the right side. Otherwise, go directly to:

THE ICONIC METRO TICKET IS ABOUT TO DISAPPEAR
The metro ticket as a means of payment for travel in the Parisian public transport system first appeared in 1900. The ticketing system went through many changes as the metro was modernized. The most recent radical change occurred between 1970 and 1973, when the ticket punchers (poinçonneurs) disappeared and stations were equipped with automatic turnstiles and magnetic tickets. Serge Gainsbourg wrote and sang a song about a poinçonneur, who punched holes in tickets before travelers got on the train:

No matter how diverse the range of various passes tailored to special user groups, there is always the need for a single-trip ticket requiring a single-trip payment. This possibility is fast disappearing. Many people help the homeless and asylum seekers in Paris by giving out a few individual tickets, making a world of difference for those needy travelers. I fully understand the need for turnstiles to evolve with more modern technology, especially considering how often the ticket-reading parts fail and require repair compared to the laser-based pass-reading parts. Still, this evolution further marginalizes what is seen as an undesirable population.

From The Local, May 20th 2019:
Paris authorities are set to launch a new paperless version of their tickets in the form of a plastic top-up card called Navigo Easy.
On June 12, 2019, tourists and occasional users of the Paris metro network will be able to purchase the contactless and reusable card for €2.
“It will work like an e-wallet,” Valérie Pécresse, head of Ile-de-France’s transport network, told reporters at the Vivatech new technologies fair on Friday.
The fare will remain the same: €1.90 for a single-trip ticket and €14.90 for ten trips.
Paris transport authorities estimate the Navigo Easy system has 5.8 million potential customers.
If it’s any consolation for those who prefer to carry on buying the small single-trip carton tickets, it won’t be until the summer of 2020 that they are completely discontinued.
For nearly 119 years, from the opening of the first line of the Paris Métro in 1900, the little rectangles of thick white paper with a black line on the back have been with Parisians.
This will signal the end of the sale of 550 million single-trip tickets every year.
By September 2019 the new digital system will be improved with the option of being able to top up on trips directly from a smartphone rather than at the counter or ticket machine.
“No more queueing at the station or station to top up your Navigo pass or to buy tickets,” added Pécresse.
But the system is currently only adapted to latest-generation Samsung smartphone users. No mention has been made yet of whether iPhone Paris metro users will have been able to go completely digital in future. Paris transport authorities plan to eventually incorporate the whole public transport network of the Ile-de-France region into the Navigo Easy system.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20190520/this-card-will-start-replacing-paris-metro-tickets-on-june-12th?fbclid=IwAR0awcBiObEDUUdpXL7hTzphM_YHPRN8iBdPYAyaL1aLaEUBjHEhAj9_XNU

FRENCH REAL ESTATE AGENTS NOW MUST ADVISE CLIENTS
For a long time, French real estate agents were reputed to lie about everything. In the last twenty years, legislation has been passed forcing the industry to give accurate information on specific topics. For example, the law known as the loi Carrez sets out obligatory information on the size of a dwelling, and other regulations specify tests that must be done at the seller’s expense including checking for possible hazards such lead, asbestos, and more, along with the status of electricity and gas.

Now the French Supreme Court, the Cour de cassation, has issued a ruling that adds a new layer of professional obligations which could radically change the way French real estate agents do business.

Until now, agencies were liable for inaccuracies, also called lying, that could be proved in court. In other words, they have been operating on what I call “French truth.” This means they saying just enough to be telling the truth, but not the whole truth. There is often a huge difference between the two. For example, stating that that no major work has been done inside the house could hide the fact that the patio and terrace were built illegally, as they are not “inside” the house.

The latest case is a milestone because a real estate agent was ruled liable for not giving a critical piece of information even though he was not asked about it.

In this specific case, a couple bought a house in southwestern France in what seemed to be a quiet place. Neither the sellers nor the real estate agent mentioned that a new highway loop would be built about 50 meters (164 feet) from the house.

The buyers sued the sellers and won the case; the sale was annulled on the grounds of willful misrepresentation or dol. This legal concept means knowingly giving the buyer a false impression about what is being bought. Staying silent about a critical element of the object purchased has long been considered dol. What is new here is that the real estate agent was ordered to pay damages for not informing the sellers about their duty to be honest with the buyers. The argument that he was not enough of a professional to know the consequences of the highway plans did not stick. The court ruled that the agent had a responsibility to disclose the plans since he knew that a road so close to the house would have an impact on the quality of life of those living in it.

Let’s hope for the best: perhaps in the future French real estate agents will inform buyers of what they know.

SUMMER VACATION: THE OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED from July 19 to August 19
The office will be closed for one month starting Friday, July 19, reopening on Monday, August 19. As always, I will be reachable by e-mail for emergencies and important matters. My service of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2019
I plan to change some aspects of my business when I reopen the office on Monday, August 19th. The main reason is to allow my assistant to do some tasks more systematically. One of them is to accompany the clients to the prefecture, URSSAF, CPAM and other public offices. She already handles most of the dealings with the offices where self-employed people are registered. She has also accompanied my clients to the prefecture several times. As her fees are lower than mine, this should compensate for the increase in my fees. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 270€ to 300€ and the hourly rate from 110€ to 130€.

Best regards,

QUESTION

WORKING THROUGH A NON-PROFIT

About a year ago, I got a visiteur visa and was able to renew it. I have always been interested in healthy food and teaching people how to eat, which means how to cook. I know many say France has the best cuisine in the world, but I see the same bad habits that exist in the USA – the fast food industry, eating processed food, and so on. This is not French cuisine, but French people are eating it. I can live off my family trust fund for years so I am not rushed to resume my career in France, but I would love to launch awareness-raising courses right away. Is it possible with my current status, or should I change and maybe wait several years? Would asking for a different visa in the USA make it possible?

QUESTION

HOW TO MANAGE A NEGATIVE DECISION FROM DIRECCTE

I am an American living in Paris. I came to France in 2016 to pursue my master’s degree in hospitality and tourism management at Paris School of Business. During my studies, I worked at Planet Hollywood as a bartender to support myself for 960 hours per academic year. Upon graduation, I was offered a full-time job as a bartender with the same employer. So I applied for a work permit at the prefecture of Bobigny while I enrolled in a master’s research program. I waited a year then received a letter from the prefecture refusing this work permit and giving me 30 days to leave France. I have 25 pay slips and 12 of them are full-time. Can I appeal the decision to a court? Can I ask for new student status?

QUESTION

LONG-STAY VISA WITH NO RIGHT TO RENEW

I am an American studying French in Paris. I have been here since March 27 and will finish the winter semester at the Sorbonne this week. I have a dispense temporaire de carte de séjour, which expires in October 2019. This has prevented me from obtaining a carte de séjour, which I was hoping would then allow me to get a work visa, as I thought as a student I was permitted to work 20 hours a week. In order to stay, I must have a job, as I have plunged below zero in my bank account. I have two job offers, but both require proper papers. I can go back to the States if necessary and deal with the French Embassy in LA, but I wanted to see if you thought you could help me with anything. I know people who are here without proper visas and seem to be getting around the system, finding work where they are paid under the table. Is it really the best solution?

QUESTION

MOVING HOUSEHOLD POSSESSIONS TO FRANCE WITHOUT A TAX CLEARANCE

We arrived in France in January and have now found a place to settle down. We are ready to move our stuff. We will be back in the USA in August, which would be a time we could hire the mover. Our one-year window to move things without fees ends on December 8, the date the visa was issued. We are within that deadline, but now we have been told that we would pay duties if we cannot prove it is our stuff. This makes no sense: the movers are taking all this from one home and moving it to a new home. How can it be an import?

The album Burn was released in February 1974 by Deep Purple. I always find it interesting that lyrics can be understood in a way totally different from their intent when they were written. Reading the lyrics of this album’s title track once again, I felt it could apply poetically to what happened to Notre-Dame Cathedral.

The sky is red, I don’t understand
Past midnight I still see the land
People are sayin’ the woman is damned
She makes you burn with a wave of her hand
The city’s ablaze, the town’s on fire
The woman’s flames are reaching higher.

It felt like the whole world watched the cathedral burning. Almost everybody was talking about this tragedy, and rightfully so. Now France needs to start the rebuilding. I hope it is well done, with the finest craftspeople doing the work. Almost certainly, the Compagnons will be called upon – possibly the same guilds that built the cathedral in the first place. Many guilds were created in about AD 1000 to make the building of churches and cathedrals possible. I find it reassuring that they have been able to maintain their traditions and craftsmanship through the centuries.

https://compagnons-du-devoir.com

https://compagnons-du-devoir.com/les-compagnons-du-devoir-caen

A NEW OFFICE PROJECT SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY THE END OF THIS YEAR
For about seven years, when I had an office near the Place Saint-Georges, I rented the other room out, usually for about a year at a time and no longer than two years. Most of the people renting it were creators of start-ups, consultants or independent contractors who needed this place to make their professional transition. I always liked being able to offer a professional setting at an affordable price and thus help people launch their careers.

As many people know, my current office has three rooms: one is where I meet my clients, one is my workroom with files, printers and a large desk, and the third contains a kitchen corner and my assistant Sarah’s workspace.

For almost a year now, I have been interested in purchasing a place in close proximity to my office in the same building. I have just received the seller’s approval from the real-estate agent. As long as the sale goes through, I should be able to offer the use of a completely independent space very near my current office. I cannot say more until I have the presale contract. But I am already thinking about offering a small discount to any of my readers who might like to use this space as an office space or Airbnb place to stay.

I will probably not have much of a summer vacation, as I will be working on this project so as to have everything ready for September. It will likely be necessary to do some renovation so that the place offers a comfortable setting.

PAPERLESS OFII PROCEDURE
The Office Français de l’Intégration et de l’Immigration (OFII), the part of the French administration dealing with the side effects of the immigration procedure, has gone completely paperless, as many of us have long wished. There is no longer a paper form; instead, an electronic procedure is activated once you arrive in France. When you receive your passport with the visa for France in it, on the next page is the URL of the website where you go to ask for an appointment once you arrive in France. It asks for your date of entry into France, and you will be asked to prove it, if possible. This seems to have shortened the time it takes to obtain an appointment.

PUBLIC HEALTH COVERAGE AND VISITEUR IMMIGRATION STATUS
French immigration law has always put an emphasis on the health insurance coverage valid in France. The most recent evolution is creating some serious problems for the foreigner holding a ‘visiteur’ immigration status. I had hoped that the prefecture had taken a definitive position after taking into consideration the vast changes set in motion by the creation of PUMA. Sadly, the prefecture has once again changed its position on whether people withvisiteur status must provide proof of health coverage.

The starting point is simple. To obtain visiteur immigration status, you have to prove that you have a certain minimum income, often retirement funds or other assets. You also have to prove that your health care is covered by a policy valid in France, and that the premiums for it are being paid regularly, either directly or indirectly (as part of a retirement package, the person often gets coverage for life, whether or not an amount is deducted from the pension for it).

Before the protection universelle maladie (PUMA) went into effect on January 1st 2016, each person covered by the couverture médicale universelle sent in an income declaration and the cost of the premium was 8%. The coverage was (and still is) free for those with annual earnings below 8,951€, which is pretty much poverty level. With the prefecture looking for annual income of at least 14,000€, the system was set up so that a foreigner covered by the public system called Assurance Maladie would easily be able to prove payment of some premium and therefore comply with the requirement.

Since the 8% of income used to calculate the premium does not include retirement income, many American retirees with visiteur immigration status can sign onto PUMA and be covered for free even if their global income is $100,000 or more, way over what the prefecture requires as a minimum.

URSSAF handles PUMA billing and collection, as it is the collection agency for social charges in France. Instead of receiving a special declaration of income, as before, they now get the information from the French tax office. This leads to several crazy situations. Some foreigners who declare their worldwide income to France without paying anything have received bills from URSSAF even though they have always been covered by the private sector. Under the old system, some foreigners paid their premiums in order to be covered by French public health program. These same foreigners now pay nothing because they do not declare their income to France.

Because of the craziness of the situation and the fact that for about two years URSSAF did not send a single bill to anyone, the prefecture agreed to renew people’s immigration ‘visiteur’ status without proof of health coverage. But my experience is that since the beginning of this year the prefecture has once again been asking for such proof. Several of my clients’ requests for renewal are up in the air, and they are waiting for the prefecture to decide about this situation. Some foreigners have ample income but do not pay anything for their public French health coverage. If that describes you, and you are about to go to the prefecture, be ready to face this issue.

MORE DOCUMENTS NEEDED FOR SELF-EMPLOYED STATUS
The prefecture has added to the list of documents required to be registered as self-employed, opening up a can of worms much bigger than you might think. The first requirement has long-lasting effects and creates serious problems.

Domiciliation professionnelle
The prefecture has a clear tendency to treat self-employed people registered in France as consultants, as if they were opening a shop, or as a limited liability corporation. Now it is asking applicants to submit a statement under oath that their business is domiciled in the home, even though all the other paperwork proves that this is the case.

The next step is that the prefecture may ask to see a lease or other document proving the grounds for the person’s tenancy. Leases almost always state that the apartment is residential and that no businesses can operate on the premises. So the prefecture requires the statement ofdomiciliation professionnelle to be signed by the landlord, authorizing something that is prohibited in the lease, as if a consultant’s activity were the same thing as having the public enter a shop or operating heavy machinery.

This has damaging consequences. Often landlords and even property agencies have people sign a hosting agreement (attestation d’hébergement), when all the utilities and local tax liability remain in the landlord’s name. Getting them to sign a domiciliation professionnelle document is close to impossible. Formerly, one way to block unscrupulous landlords was to have a business registered in the home. This meant declaring income for tax purposes and billing of business taxes at that address, documenting that the person was staying there as their primary domicile and therefore giving them domiciliary protection. This is no longer possible, however, and one might quickly need to find a new place. Thus, for people with this kind of profile, instead of risking being put out on the street, you may want to get yourdomiciliation professionnelle from asociété de domiciliation professionnelle, which may cost about 10€ to 20€ a month for the base service, equivalent to a PO box corporation in the USA.

By doing this, one gets the carte de séjour and the right to work, but gives up the right to deduct a substantial portion of the rent from one’s taxes, which can represent a significant loss. Considering how difficult it is to find lodging in Paris, this adds considerably to the existing problem.

Attestation de vigilance
This is a completely counterintuitive request regarding a review of the payment of taxes and social charges required of those with the self-employed immigration status. Until recently, URSSAF readily made available a statement of what was paid and how much the social charges were. If the statement indicated that the outstanding balance was zero, the person was paid up. The prefecture accepted this was proof of good standing.

Now the prefecture wants another document that does not show any figures but states at the bottom of the second page that the person has complied with all the requirements linked to their status. I would like to raise a couple of questions:

What other requirement could be as important as being up to date on your payments, when one knows that not declaring means getting a fine?

Would not it make more sense to match the four individual URSSAF bills, one for each quarter, with the statement wrapping them all up so as to see if anything is missing?

FRENCH INCOME TAX: TIME TO DECLARE IS NOW
Regarding the more mundane topic of income tax, I would like to remind everybody that the paper version of the 2018 income declaration must be filed in France by Wednesday, May 17th midnight. The declaration forms are available at www.impots.gouv.fr. You can 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.

Note that 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 22nd
• départements 20 to 49 by May 29 th
• départements 50 or higher by June 5th

An important reminder: if you are a French fiscal resident (i.e. if you hold acarte 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, but not meeting this obligation is illegal and can have consequences.

You are a French fiscal resident if you:

• 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.

Current government-sponsored advertising campaigns refer to paper forms as thing of the past. For now, declaring electronically gives you an extension of a few weeks.

CHOOSING BETWEEN FRENCH NATIONALITY AND A CARTE DE RESIDENT
A couple of weeks ago, while attending one of Stephen Heiner’s monthly entrepreneurs’ lunches, the topic of naturalization came up and I could see that there is a misconception about the naturalization procedure, especially when comparing it to obtaining the carte de résident, which is loosely the equivalent of the American green card.

Many people read the requirements and conclude that the naturalization procedure asks for almost nothing, as the current requirements are: 

• 1. Having had a permanent legal stay in France at all times.
• 2. Being a French fiscal resident.
• 3. Mastering the language at B1 level (the government is thinking of increasing it to B2)
• 4. Having lived in France for five consecutive years, or possibly two consecutive years for applicants who have received a master’s degree in France.

The carte de résident requirements are much stricter: 

• 1. Having had a permanent legal stay in France at all times.
• 2. Having lived in France for five consecutive years, without exception (years holding a student carte de séjour do not count).
• 3. Showing four consecutive avis d’imposition, the French income tax statement, with a consistent annual income at least equal to French minimum wage, the SMIC.
• 4. Mastering the language at A2 level.
• 5. Preferably owning one’s home, or renting with a full lease.
• 6. Preferably being covered by the French public health care system.

The requirements for a carte de résident are more numerous, more demanding, and more rigid than those for naturalization. This confuses a lot of people. They do not understand why becoming a French national looks so easy, when even asking for carte de séjour can entail a longer list of required documents.

My explanation of this apparent oddity is that the naturalization procedure is like a funnel: the entrance is wide but the exit is tiny. What I mean is that it is true that the requirements for submitting a file requesting naturalization are simple, but the ones for obtaining it are strict. There are a lot of unwritten requirements that are not mentioned in the documents the prefecture gives you when you ask for the list.

By contrast, the carte de résident procedure is like a straight pipe: If you qualify to submit the file requesting it, it is nearly certain to be approved.

Finally, in my experience, many people do not know the rights associated with the carte de résident. It gives you various types of right to work and guarantees that you can live forever in France; you can even live in another country without losing the right to live in France.

I would say the objective when asking for naturalization is to prove complete allegiance to France and, ideally, to have all aspects of your life grounded in France. Hence some of the unwritten requirements when asking for naturalization, such as holding a carte de séjour salarié as well as vie privée et familiale, which gives you a better chance of success. Otherwise, asking first for the carte de résident is pretty much an obligation. Another is earning most, if not all, of your income from a French source, ideally as an employee. This is just to give an idea of what is truly required, but, to be fair, miracles can happen, so if you think you have a special profile that offsets what is missing, you should still apply.

I would like to remind my readers who hold a ‘visiteur’ immigration status that after a lawful presence of five years and compliance with all the abovementioned requirements. They can easily get the 10-year carte de résident because they already comply with everything on the list by virtue of their annual renewals. Some prefectures can be extremely lenient with American citizens who can often renew their immigration status without complying with this abovementioned list. So this is one of the first things to check. Then the only thing that is left uncertain is their competency in French. This said, an A2-level of competency can be presumed after a presence of five years in France.

DISCUSSION OF RAISING TAXES AT THE 2019 DAVOS FORUM
The article I cite below has a direct link with the section of my January 31st issue in which the gilets jaunes movement is discussed. Their members still demonstrate every Saturday, regardless of what the government proposes. Clearly this is not something that can dealt with by announcing last-minute changes. Several other countries have also been experiencing weekend demonstrations, notably Algeria. What is going on there deserves much more attention than the Western media, including French media, are giving it. Western economies need a radical new way to address taxation, especially taxation of income and wealth. These are the tools that enable countries to deal with their primary mission of national security and inhabitants’ well-being. I am happy to see that terms such as socialism, taxation and wealth regulation are no longer considered obscene and taboo but have become issues to discuss and review. The definition of well-being varies by country but the constant decreases in the services and protection the state guarantees its people now has a visible result: multinationals have more power than many countries and their money controls democratic elections more and more, stripping away what democracy should be: the voice of people.

The following article was published in the Guardian on February 1st 2019.
Rutger Bregman had not really intended to stick it to the global elite. He never meant to have a pop at the idea that inequality could be solved by philanthropy or inviting Bono to Davos. But when the Dutch historian decided to go off-piste at the World Economic Forum and tell the assembled billionaires they should stop avoiding paying tax, he became an overnight social media sensation.

“It’s been a crazy week and just for stating the obvious,” said Bregman, when asked about a panel discussion at the WEF last month in which he said the issue was “taxes, taxes, taxes, and all the rest is bullshit in my opinion”.

Bregman had not been to Davos before. He was invited on the basis of the book Utopia for Realists, which argued for a basic income and a shorter working week, ideas that have been taken up by some of the Silicon Valley billionaires who show up for the annual event in the Swiss Alps.

But he grew more irritated as the week wore on. Bregman gave a speech to a dinner of technology chief executives and then spoke at one of Davos’s private sessions, off limits to journalists. There he was surprised and maddened by the pushback when he mentioned tax. “One American looked at me as if I was from another planet,” he said.

As a result, Bregman decided to change his plan for a panel on inequality organized by Time magazine on the final morning of Davos. “I went to my hotel room and memorized what I wanted to say by heart,” he said.

“I more or less ignored the question asked by the moderator and gave my speech instead. It was mainly to ease my own conscience: someone has to say what needs to be said.”

What Bregman said, put simply, was the Davos emperors have no clothes. They talk a lot about how something must be done about inequality and the need to address social unrest, but cavil at the idea they might be a big part of the problem.

He told his audience that people in Davos talked about participation, justice, equality and transparency, but “nobody raises the issue of tax avoidance and the rich not paying their share. It is like going to a firefighters’ conference and not talking about water.”

Nothing happened over the weekend. Bregman went back to Amsterdam wondering whether his colorful language was a mistake, but then a video of the Time panel went viral, and it has received millions of views on Twitter alone.

Bregman, 30, is not entirely surprised at the reaction. He said he is part of a generation not traumatized by the cold war and radicalized by the financial crisis of a decade ago. “When we say what’s needed are higher taxes and the response is ‘that’s communism’, we say ‘whatever’,” he said.

“I am part of a broad social movement. Ten years ago, it would have unimaginable for some random Dutch historian to go viral when talking about taxes. Yet here we are.”

As a historian, Bregman noted the most successful period for capitalism occurred in the years after the second world war, when the top rate of tax in the US was above 90%.

“This is about saving capitalism,” he said. “Most innovation has come about through government spending. During the golden age period [after the second world war], there were way higher taxes on wealth, property, inheritance and top incomes. That’s what we need today if we are going to tame this beast called capitalism.”

Bregman was born in 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall came down. He grew up in the Dutch city of Zoetermeer, studied history at Utrecht University and contemplated doing a PhD before deciding he was not cut out for a career in academia.

“I didn’t want to waste four years on an insignificant subject nobody cares about,” he said. Instead, the global financial crisis pushed him in a different direction.

“I thought that we needed historians to take the stage and explain what’s going on. When I watched the crisis on TV, the only people being interviewed were economists, and these were the guys that didn’t see it coming. I thought that we needed some historians there, so I left academia,” Bregman said.

He spent a year working on a left-of-centre Dutch paper before joining a new journalism platform that paid him a basic income and provided the freedom to write about anything he chose. Utopia for Realists was the result.

Bregman is working on a new book in which he intends to challenge the view that humans are inherently selfish. It is not true, he said, that people revert to their true, nasty selves when the thin veneer of civilization is stripped away.

“If we assume the best in people, we can radically redesign our democracy and welfare states,” he said.

Bregman bridles at being called an optimist. “I prefer the word possibilist,” he said. Optimists are the sort of chief executives found at Davos, who think globalization is working, neoliberalism is a good idea and inequality is on the decline, he added.

“A lot of great things are going on. In many ways, the past 30 years have been the best in world history. But we can do much better. I prefer the word hope over optimism,” Bregman added.

So, would he make a return visit to the WEF next year?

“I would definitely go. I would just give the same speech. It is going to be a dilemma for them. If they don’t invite me, it will prove my point. If they do, I’ll say the same thing all over again,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/01/rutger-bregman-world-economic-forum-davos-speech-tax-billionaires-capitalism

OFFICE CLOSED FOR MY 60th BIRTHDAY
The office will close for slightly over two weeks for this occasion. It will start on Friday June 14th evening and will reopen on Tuesday July 2nd morning. As always, I will only be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters as I will be out of France. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. I have not figured out how I will send the July issue considering the situation.

MY SUMMER VACATION: THE OFFICE IS CLOSED from July 19th to August 19th
The office will be closed for one month starting Friday, July 19th, reopening on Monday, August 19th. 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.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2019
I plan to change some aspects of my business when I reopen the office on Monday, August 19th. The main reason is to allow my assistant to do some tasks more systematically. One of them is to accompany the clients to the prefecture, URSSAF, CPAM and other public offices. She already handles most of the dealings with the offices where self-employed people are registered. She has also accompanied my clients to the prefecture several times. As her fees are lower than mine, this should compensate for the increase in my fees. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 270€ to 300€ and the hourly rate from 110€ to 130€.

Best regards,

QUESTION

PROBLEMS LINKED TO THE ABSENCE OF A BUILDING PERMIT

My French boyfriend owns a tiny house at the end of a courtyard in the middle of Paris, which makes for a wonderful place to live as it is so quiet, no street noise and no neighbors. When I moved in with him, there was a large toolshed against our wall which is located in a different condominium association. After several months of heavy work, which felt like a complete renovation, someone moved in and because there is a tiny brick wall between us, we hear everything, and we smell all his cooking. It has become a nightmare. When my boyfriend called the owner of this toolshed, the answer was that this is private property, he can do whatever he wants and we should get over this. Can we stop him bullying us this way? Can he face some significant consequences? Can someone sleep in what is zoned as a toolshed?

QUESTION

CHANGES TO AN APARTMENT WHILE IT IS BEING SOLD

After several years of living in France, I finally made the bold move of buying an apartment. Finding a decent place at a decent price felt like going through combat, as some places were beyond horrific.

At the time of signing the presale contract, la promesse de vente, we discussed whether anything would be left in the apartment in terms of appliances and furniture. There was an amazing refrigerator. I cannot remember seeing such a big and fancy one before, including in the USA. It was over 6 feet with the all features one could dream of. The seller valued it to be worth 1,000€ second hand. I had no idea if this was the right evaluation, as I understood that the higher we all agreed to value the appliances and furniture, the less I would pay in frais de notaire, which are in fact mostly taxes, with a tiny fraction being the notaire’s compensation.

I was shocked, when I visited the apartment minutes before the closing, to see a broken tiny refrigerator instead. I was fuming as I entered the meeting to sign. The man, the seller, never budged during the entire meeting. Both notaires tried to explain that the presale contract gave the list of appliances and furniture and it was binding. His answer the entire time was that the contract says a refrigerator and there is one, so the contract is being met. I was told by the notaires that they did not have any coercive power and there was nothing they could do. So, in the end, I gave in and signed, but I am mad as I believe I was the victim of a dishonest person. Could things have turned out differently? What should I have done?

From Wikipedia:
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is a song by Bob Dylan, written for the soundtrack of the 1973 film Pat Garret and Billy the Kid.

I personally prefer the 1987 version by Guns N’ Roses.
From Wikipedia
In 1987, Guns N’ Roses started performing the song. A live version of the song was released on the maxi-single of “Welcome to the Jungle” the same year.

When going through a time of despair in a foreign country, people may often wish to find a door that would open the way to escaping the misery. Every immigrant goes through this phase at least once in their new country of residence. In many ways it has nothing to do with how difficult or easy it is to integrate into the new land. It comes from almost physically feeling the pain of being torn apart inside, the “old you” just wants to go back home. From this, the new country seems barbaric – nothing works, nothing feels safe, there are moments of paranoia. Nowadays it is easy to go to another country; you can fly for a few hours and reach a different continent. If you are well off, you can quickly secure a home and the basic necessities of life, and the immigration procedure can even feel like a breeze when you are properly assisted. But even wealthier people, once they choose to immerse themselves in the new country and to be part of a new community, go through such crises. Wishing you were “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” or climbing a “Stairway to Heaven,” is then a familiar desire.

I had other reasons as well for choosing this title.

THE IRAQ WAR KNOCKED ON MY DOOR
Most of the time, I spend my day at the office going through my daily routine. Clients come in and leave after an hour or two. This is called “making a living.” I have the privilege of my living being my passion. Some days it even feels like I was called to do this. Clearly, I love what I am doing after close to 22 years.

Then come precious moments that are the experience of a lifetime.

I wrote about the terrorist attack against the magazine Charlie Hebdo right after it happened:

FREEDOM OF SPEECH – THE ATTACK IN PARIS ON WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7th, 2015
I drafted this entire issue, including the title, before New Year’s Eve, so I thought I was done. But now, for weeks France has been faced with a powerful and traumatic crisis after the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo. A lot, maybe too much, has been said about this.

I did not know then that I would publish the following in my September 2016 issue:

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. 

Meeting this young man, who had such a broken body, and sharing with him more silence than words for what happened to him, was chilling and made the impression of a lifetime on me.

Then came March 2019. Once again the news is about an outbreak of violence and it feels like only slight exaggeration to say that all countries now have to deal with dangerous aggression, often mass shootings.

Just a few days after the New Zealand mosque attacks, I had the usual type of meeting, discussing a project, a business plan, the outcome of the procedure with the prefecture. I have known this client for about nine months; she is tough and has a military backbone. I know from previous discussions that she did several tours of duty, mostly in Iraq. That day, we did not get any work done. There was a lack of focus; something was wrong. Finally, I asked her what has happened. All I got is, “He committed suicide.” So I asked, “Did he make it?” A painful look and she answered, “He is dead.” A brother-in-arms, very close to her, suffering from PTSD, had killed himself a few days before. She told me, in broken words, that he had fought at Fallujah and had done several tours of duty in Iraq.

Military personnel, regardless of which of the armed forces they belong to, can share and understand the bond that often exists, and the deeply disturbing effect of learning of the suicide of someone so close. I respectfully asked her if I could write about this. I would not have dared to write anything without her approval. Here is her unedited answer:

“I would not mind at all if you’d like to write about this. I think these kinds of things can be good for people to hear, even if they are a bit depressing. The problems of suicide and the struggle of veterans after the war are always kept very quiet in everyday life, but it is a subject that can always use some attention.”

This outrageous situation rarely makes the news. When it does, we see staggering statistics about how many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have killed themselves, and how many suffer from extreme PTSD. Behind these numbers are situations similar to this one, brothers and sisters in arms weeping, and parents, spouse and children devastated.

One needs to realize that all combat personnel go through tough training to carry out missions in which they risk their lives every single time. The ability to be an excellent trained warrior comes with a cost. The human cost becomes staggering for those who undertake multiple combat deployments. Living with the daily presence of death takes a significant toll on a person.

At the end of this discussion, each of us in our own words was saying that no matter how tough we are on the outside, it does not help a bit with the struggle against the enemy that is inside the soul. I knew I could not even remotely compare her military experience with mine. It would have been offensive, considering how she served while I never left France and knew I would not be deployed anywhere.

We were both teary when she left. That is how the Iraq war came to my office on March 18th, 2019. I would have loved it if it had not, but it came anyway.

RAM, MANAGING HEALTH COVERAGE FOR THE SELF-EMPLOYED, HAS MOVED
There has been some serious reorganization at RAM, the public organization that deals with health coverage for self-employed workers. I do not know how long it will operate before being completely be taken over by Assurance Maladie, but for now it still serves the people it covers, i.e. those who registered as independent workers before the 1st of January 2019.

The most important development is that the branch almost next door to the Paris prefecture, at 28 bis boulevard de Sébastopol in the 4th arrondissement, closed on March 18. The one at 59 rue Cambronne in the 15th is still open to the public without appointment from 9am to 12:15pm and 1:15 to 5pm Monday through Friday. There is also a new office at 11 rue Beaurepaire in the 10th, with the same hours.
http://www.laram.fr/agences?dpt=191

ETIAS VERSUS ESTA – TIT FOR TAT BETWEEN THE USA AND EUROPE
Members of the American expat community have been concerned after hearing through the grapevine that as of January 2021 a new EU regulation will oblige Americans to get a visa just to visit Europe. This is totally fake news, but let’s look at what is actually going on.

Since January 12, 2009, any citizen of a country benefiting from the US visa waiver program has been required to go through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) screening procedure, which the USA imposed unilaterally. The people concerned mostly shrugged, as this was one more measure by the USA to screen non-American legal aliens who wanted to come as tourists. For ten years, then, American citizens have had preferential treatment when visiting Europe, as they can just present their passport and enter, subject to a regulation that allows them to stay in the 26 countries of the Schengen area for up to 90 days within a given 180-day period.

Eventually, in an effort to unify EU security as a whole and enhance the security of the residents of EU countries, the European Union adopted the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), which is simply a European replica of ESTA. The European Commission says the new system will be enforced, as an effort to upgrade international security, as of January 1, 2021.

This will have an immediate effect on the leniency of the French police regarding North Americans who stay in France past the Schengen limits. As I have repeatedly said here, that leniency is rapidly shrinking, and no one can count on it any longer. While the fines issued are low, rarely more than 30€ to 50€ for this violation alone, the bad news is that the police stamp a record of the fine in the passport. That makes strict compliance with the Schengen regulation an absolute must anywhere within the Schengen area to avoid hefty fines and maybe a ban from entering France and all the other countries enforcing the regulation.

Once there is a central data system that all European police can check when they swipe the passport, leniency becomes impossible. Every trip that involves facing a custom passport control officer will be recorded in this database. I am just speculating, but it is possible that airlines will be connected to the database for information gathering, without being able to change the information.

For American citizens who still live most of the time in France without immigration documents, this is a powerful wake-up call. We now know the deadline after which it will be impossible for them to continue, and I am sure the leniency will shrink even more as we get closer to the date.

Help fight the tall tale about visas by explaining that it is tit for tat – ETIAS against ESTA – and the obligation to comply with the law, which should be the normal thing to do.

A READER WRITES ABOUT BREXIT CONSEQUENCES AT PREFECTURES OUTSIDE PARIS 
Prefecture of Saint Brieuc in Brittany
I am a regular reader of your column and find it extremely interesting. Your piece on Brexit is correct except not all prefectures are coping with the influx of Britons applying for a carte de séjour. We live in Còtes d’Armor. The prefecture in St Brieuc has been so overwhelmed that they cancelled all carte de séjour appointments from 18th February. They have said that they cannot process the cartes until the results of Brexit are known, and those of us who applied earlier for them will have to change them if there is no deal. The rush for them has caused a problem for third-country citizens who have applied. My American grandson has been waiting since August for his. He has been here since he was 7 and is now 19, so should have his adult carte, but due to an error by the prefecture in 2006 he had the wrong carte and now his whole life is on hold until they have the time to sort it out.

The knock-on effect of Brexit is much more far reaching than was envisioned.

So please be tolerant of my inability to juggle social media outlets. Going through my website or sending an email directly is the best way to reach me, and lately just about the only way, as I have less and less opportunity to pick up the phone since I am usually in a meeting or outside the office.

Prefecture of Nanterre, Parisian suburb
FYI, I forwarded the March 2019 newsletter you sent us to a British expat friend who has lived in France for 25+ years. In that newsletter, you suggested that British expats make an appointment at the prefecture before a no-deal Brexit takes place to establish EU status for the carte de séjour. Our friend lives in Courbevoie and told me that the prefecture in Nanterre (which handles Courbevoie) will not schedule appointments for British citizens until it is known how the UK will be treating French citizens after Brexit. So, at least in Nanterre, your suggestion cannot be implemented.

Recall what I wrote last month about this: British people living in France should not be worried about their ability to obtain a carte de séjour. Even though they will be subject to the regulations for non-EU citizens, there are so many grounds on which to issue one that it is almost certain everyone will fit one of those cases.

I will keep you informed.

OFFICE CLOSED FOR MY 60th BIRTHDAY
The office will close for slightly over two weeks for this occasion. It will start on Friday June 14th evening and will reopen on Tuesday July 2nd morning. As always, I will only be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters as I will be out of France. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. I have not figured out how I will send the July issue considering the situation.

MY SUMMER VACATION: THE OFFICE IS CLOSED from July 19th to August 19th
The office will be closed for one month starting Friday, July 19th, reopening on Monday, August 19th. 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.

MY FEES WILL GO UP ON OCTOBER 1st 2019
I plan to change some aspects of my business when I reopen the office on Monday, August 19th. The main reason is to allow my assistant to do some tasks more systematically. One of them is to accompany the clients to the prefecture, URSSAF, CPAM and other public offices. She already handles most of the dealings with the offices where self-employed people are registered. She has also accompanied my clients to the prefecture several times. As her fees are lower than mine, this should compensate for the increase in my fees. On October 1st, I will raise my initial retainer from 270€ to 300€ and the hourly rate from 110€ to 130€.

Best regards,

QUESTION

BILLING AS A SELF-EMPLOYED PERSON IN FRANCE

I am an American and after a couple of years living in France, I got the carte de séjour linked to my self-employed work as an auto-entrepreneur. I need to renew my immigration status, but I am panicking because I have had just about no French clients. Almost all my current clients are Americans and they pay me in my American bank account. I heard that I will lose my immigration status if I make less than 25,000€ in a year. In France I cannot account for more than 3,000€ but I am close to $50,000 in the USA. Am I really in danger of having my carte de séjour taken away in a couple of months when I go to the prefecture?

QUESTION

PARENTAL AUTHORITY AND THE RIGHT OF A MINOR TO TRAVEL OUT OF FRANCE

I have been a single mother for about 10 years. My son was born in France and the father disappeared shortly after the birth. We were never married and all I could ask for was some child support, which was awarded, but the father lives in Tunisia. This means I never get anything on a regular basis. It feels more like a spurt-of-the-moment thing, he remembers he has a son and I get a gift for him and some money for a couple of months.

My problem is that I often go home to the USA and my son does not have any French ID because his father has always refused to sign the French forms, or even to put in the initial court decision, issued when our son was 2, that he was allowed to leave France at all, even for vacation. Lately, entering the USA and France is becoming increasingly difficult, not to mention the hassles I get from the airline.

I got a lawyer and took the matter to court, and sued for the father to lose all his parental rights. I thought the lawyer went too far and there would be a violent court battle, since the father shows up only once in a while in the life of his son. I was stupefied to learn that he did not retain a French lawyer, and sent a whining letter to the judge saying that I was not an honest and modest enough mother and woman for his taste so that he could not be associated with me in any way, and that France has always made it difficult for him to get a visa to exercise his parental right of a visit during vacations, as the first court ruling described.

My lawyer said that under the circumstances, we will win the case. Great, but this does not answer my problem, which is how do I get the father to sign the French form for a document de circulation for my son so I can travel with him worry free?

“Money” is an iconic Pink Floyd song, written by Roger Waters, from the 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.

Like most of my generation, I owned the LP and listened to it endlessly. I am definitely a fan of their early albums, which include this one, although for me, Ummagumma synthesizes best what I like about their music, the atmosphere they created.

This is the last section of the lyrics:

Money, it’s a crime
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise that they’re
Giving none away, away, away.

Given the topics of some interesting debates right now, I thought this theme was a pertinent one to introduce this issue. Many discussions are being initiated by newly elected Democratic Representatives in the USA, putting forward policies that much of the American media sees as extremist or radical. Yet even for conservative leaders in Western European countries, similar policies are considered as givens and therefore non-political.

This is an example of how different the USA and continental Western Europe are in their government and administrative structure. I hope it will not bore my readers if I once again elaborate on the definitions of socialism and social democracy. I cannot remember how many times I tried to explain it during our 2008 summer vacation in the USA, when the words “socialist” and “communist” were applied to Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. I am pleased to see a growing number of elected officials now explaining these concepts again and outlining what they intend to do if their policies are adopted. As a Frenchman, I take no stand on whether these policies would be good or bad for the USA and the American people.

AN ICON IN PARIS HAS PASSED AWAY – PATRICIA LAPLANTE-COLLINS
When I learned in early February that Patricia Laplante-Collins had died, and read so many remembrances from people who knew her well, I checked my records. She became my client in 1999, when she was still called Patricia Collins, and I helped her with the usual administrative issues foreigners can have in France. My last assignment for her was in 2004, when she was already quite successful with her new enterprise – Paris Soirées, a series of social and networking events that she held in her home or, later, in restaurants.

She invited me a few times as a speaker. The last time was in April 2005. By then she was focusing more on art and culture, Parisian stories and history, often from the viewpoint of African-Americans in Paris. Thus my usual topics, such as immigration, were a lot more boring than those provided by other guests.

I have known steady couples who met at Paris Soirées gatherings. Over the years, I followed Patricia’s several moves from afar, watching as her business grew and she became an icon for the American community. Even though not everybody attended her gatherings, everybody seemed to know about them. With her disappeared a cultural event that will be dearly missed by many. Rest in peace, Patricia.

THE OPPOSITION BETWEEN CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM
The so-called new Democrats or young Democrats, or even Social Democrats, depending on what media one follows, are proud to announce themselves as socialist and be known as such. Only about ten years ago, that word would have disqualified any American politician: it was considered offensive and un-American. But Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist, ran in the last presidential campaign with a good deal of success. That showed vividly that something had fundamentally changed in American politics. This was confirmed in last November’s midterm election, when people were elected to the House of Representatives claiming to be associated in one way or another with socialism.

The word is widely being used inaccurately. Many Americans today talk about Venezuela as an illustration of socialism, when it is the Scandinavian countries that have best embodied social democratic ideals.

There are four main schools of socialism, which differ considerably.

The first was founded by 19th-century French Utopian philosophers; among the best known are Mr. François Marie Charles Fourier and Mr. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

The second we owe to Karl Marx, who took the work of the French philosophers and developed a historical prediction regarding the political future of the world. By doing so he established a new definition of socialism and elaborated in a new way on the historical concept of communism – a theory or system of social organization in which ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, capital, land, etc., are vested in the community as a whole.

The third version, which was in fact a perversion of the first two, was popularized by Hitler under the name National Socialism, better known by its German contraction, Nazism.

The fourth school of socialism was founded by the German Marxist reformer and social democratic politician Mr. Eduard Bernstein in the early 20th century. This is social democracy as best known today; in Wikipedia’s definition, “a political, social and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and a capitalist economy.” The first government to fully embrace it, in the form of what became known as the Nordic model, was that of Sweden in 1932.

The USSR was founded on Marx’s theory, with private ownership banned and everybody working for the well-being of everybody. The country ended up being a terrible dictatorship that challenged the USA, conquering space before the Americans and wielding military and nuclear power, dominance in sports, and worldwide political influence. Its successor, the Russian Federation, has never achieved this kind of leadership.

Most Northern European countries have lived for decades with social democrat leadership. At the Nordic model’s peak, the Scandinavian countries offered security from cradle to grave when it came to money and housing. Education, health care, highways are free, housing is largely subsidized and unemployment benefits are part of life and enough to live on.

Many multinationals arose after WWII in Germany, which also adopted a form of social democracy, so clearly such a regime is not the enemy of capitalism.

The fundamental question being asked now in the USA involves a choice between two very different political visions.

One arises from the iconic image of the self-made American, alone, successful, with little to no interference from the state, which is limited to guaranteeing security with the army and police and to building and maintaining public infrastructure. More recently, the state’s role has been extended to financially taking care of the elderly and poor with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. All three are socialist by nature and were fought as such when created. Nevertheless, at this point the USA already has some socialist programs.

The other vision stems from the time of the New Deal and WWII, when the federal government got heavily involved in people’s lives, creating jobs and raising income tax to the highest level the USA has ever known. For a historical perspective on this critical issue, consider this: the top marginal tax rate was 58% in 1922, 25%in 1925 and 24% in 1929. In 1932, during the Great Depression, the rate was increased to 63% and thereafter steadily increased, reaching 94% in 1944 on income over $200,000, equivalent to $2,868,625 in 2018 dollars.

Today the American political debate is or should be about the legacies of two American presidents, Ronald Reagan and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (I realize this debate is affected by other issues, notably certain criminal investigations.)

Here are two examples illustrating the differences between the two visions:

1 – Health care
A large portion of the French worker’s earnings finance health care programs, but an even larger portion of the American worker’s earnings finance a similar package of benefits from the private sector. The key difference is that in France, the employee and employer combine to pay social charges and taxes, while in the USA, the employee and employer pay a combination of premiums (health and retirement plans) and taxes for the basic social protection part of the costs. It is generally accepted that public health care programs, also called single payer systems, are more efficient and cheaper, and often result in more immediate treatment, especially in hospital emergency rooms.

Covering everybody, as President Obama intended to do, would make the cost of health care cheaper in the long run because the fear of medical bills would no longer discourage people from getting regular checkups. In the long run, what originally seemed to be the high cost solution would actually end up costing the least. Since 1986, most banking and insurance companies, as well as the health care industry (health insurance, pharmaceutical firms and private hospitals), have generally chosen to act from greed alone and have not served the interests of the American nation. Should the USA ever adopt a single payer program, this would not make it a social-democratic country; it would merely mean it has added one more social program to the existing ones.

2 – The 2009 GM bailout
To take just one small aspect of the Obama bailout package during the Great Recession, did the “Cash for Clunkers” program have the desired effect of getting people to buy new cars and thus help keep car makers solvent? It happened that good business news came out after the program was implemented, and this resulted in rebuilding trust in the future and in the strength of the American economy. This good news gave hope to the public that a brighter future was near. Hope and the good news that nourishes it are important variables when measuring the success of an economic policy. If getting out of the financial crisis costs taxpayer money by subsidizing so-called “poorly manufactured American cars” and deferring the consequences of the free market system of supply and demand, then this is a small price to pay compared with having the crisis last for many months or years, destroying more lives and businesses.

This and other examples illustrate that socially motivated policies aiming for the greater good of the entire population have been implemented again and again in the USA and therefore are totally compatible with what the USA stands for.

I do not believe the USA can ever come even close to the extent to which social democracy existed in Sweden. But it is possible, and even probable, that more federal and state social programs can be added to the existing ones. Today more and more American politicians are advocating free education, single payer health coverage, decent unemployment benefits, maternity leave and so on. This would be no more than following the legacy of FDR. Yes, doing so requires raising taxes. This is probably the one critical political issue that must be addressed head on. The federal government also needs a lot more methods of preventing corporate money from influencing policy. I would like to remind my readers that in March 2016, more than 40 American millionaires proposed that New York raise taxes on the wealthy, under what they called a “1% plan for fairness.” I will address this issue further next month in a discussion of the latest Davos forum. For those interested right now, here is a link.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/01/rutger-bregman-world-economic-forum-davos-speech-tax-billionaires-capitalism/

BREXIT IS HERE AND FRANCE HAS RULED 
Faced with the likelihood of chaos the day after the Brexit deadline, March 29th, France seems to have put together a solution in case there is no deal. British citizens who can prove they established their residence in France prior to Brexit will have a year to go to the prefecture and ask for immigration status based on the nature of their stay in France.

This is good news for the many I know who are still undecided and waiting to see what kind of Brexit is voted on. Most analysts now think the most probable scenario is “no deal,” which means the UK and EU do not sign an agreement addressing all the pending issues linked to Brexit. Such an agreement has yet to be endorsed by the Parliament, and due to the time constraints involved in reaching such a deal, the chances of this happening are now very slim.

British people living in France should not be worried about their ability to obtain a carte de séjour. Even though they will be subject to the regulations for non-EU citizens, there are so many grounds on which to issue one that it is almost certain they will fit one of those cases.

Nevertheless, I urge British citizens living in France to secure an appointment with the prefecture BEFORE Brexit. The difference is huge. Before Brexit the applicant gets an EU card, which offers all the rights to work and is issued on the basis of fiscal/legal residence in France. I repeat: After Brexit, based on the information I have, the request will be linked to proof that the applicant falls under at least one of the grounds for issuing a non-EU carte de séjour. That is not the same thing by any means.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BEING A PROFESSIONAL 
As time goes by, I can see how old fashioned I am. This is how I see modern communication:

Emails are professional; I write them like I would write an old-fashioned letter, maybe a tad less formal. A text message is either to state that I am on my way to an appointment, or it is a private, non-professional communication. Facebook is volunteer activity; I end up getting clients this way, and to my mind, it is the same as clients coming to me by reading my column, which is free either by email or on my website. Facebook Messenger is the same, although when the questions are too professional for my taste, I ask to receive an email so I can address the issue properly. WhatsApp is great for sending pictures when I deal with the condition of an apartment or a building; I discovered that it can be a great alternative to Skype to have this kind of meeting. But aside from that it is more a personal and private way of communicating.

I do not mind appearing as old-fashioned – I have the excuse of turning 60 pretty soon. The key reason for my choice is that I prefer working with a format and size of screen that lets me feel I am drafting a professional document that has some structure. Being French, and having gone through my entire education in France, I need to write in an orderly fashion.

So please be tolerant of my inability to juggle social media outlets. Going through my website or sending an email directly is the best way to reach me, and lately just about the only way, as I have less and less opportunity to pick up the phone since I am usually in a meeting or outside the office.

MY DAUGHTER LUCILLE HAS LEFT FOR SOUTH KOREA
My daughter Lucille has left for South Korea. I have been very open about the impressive project Lucille has been working on for years now, to live in South Korea. She has gone without any sponsor or on-the-ground support. She has studied the country for years, and her Korean is sufficient for her to be autonomous. This is a huge endeavor for a 27-year-old: she will be living there for a year. My son went by himself to Ghana for almost two months, and my wife and I travelled extensively during our 20s. As we say in French, a new page in Lucille’s life has been turned.

OFFICE CLOSED FOR MY 60th BIRTHDAY
The office will close for slightly over two weeks for this occasion. It will start on Friday June 14th evening and will reopen on Tuesday July 2nd morning. As always, I will only be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters as I will be out of France. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. I have not figured out how I will send the July issue considering the situation.

Best regards,

QUESTION

FILING TAXES IN FRANCE WITH THE WRONG ID NUMBER

I recently registered as self-employed through the URSSAF website. I am trying to contact Sécurité Sociale to find out how I can send them my dossier to get my carte vitale and be able to log on to my URSAFF account and pay my cotisations, but I’ve been run around to different phone numbers for three hours. One answer I got was that I’ll receive a bill, so I don’t need to declare. I really want to get this information squared away because I think I should be declaring my income and I want to make sure I’m doing everything right. I’m really frustrated and can’t get anyone to give me a straight answer about getting organized!

QUESTION

ILLEGALLY RENOVATING A HOUSE IN FRANCE

We are an American couple trying to buy a large property in the South of France. Just before signing the first contract (compromise de vente) with the real-estate agent, we learned that almost the entire main house burned and was rebuilt about five years ago, in 2013. The seller confirms that the structural work was done with contractors but without the insurance policy called dommage d’ouvrage and without any supervision of an architect. The seller also confirms the “smaller work” was done by family members throughout 2014, including:

• installing the heating system,
• upgrading the electricity network,
• creating two bathrooms upstairs,
• installing the wooden floor everywhere on the ground floor.

Finally, the seller refuses amendments stating that the seller retains the full responsibility for the complete rebuilding.

The property is perfect for running a B&B, and it would not take much upgrade to have a wonderful place to live and run such a business. Are we taking any risk going through with this purchase?

First of all, I would like to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous 2019!
French custom dictates that New Year’s wishes can be expressed until the end of January,
so I have managed it a few hours before the deadline.

Joseph Allen “Country Joe” McDonald composed “The “Fish” Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” in 1965, with its very familiar chorus (“One, two, three, what are we fighting for?”), which Country Joe and the Fish sang at Woodstock.

Sitting in Paris, following very closely what is going on in France and the USA, the question on my mind and on both sides on the ocean is: “Who is fighting for what?”

In the USA, there is fighting for and against “the wall”. In France, we have seen rioting on the most prestigious avenue in the country. There has been violence on both sides, with the police having the hardest time keeping control of the streets of Paris and most other major French cities almost every Saturday. Who are these people so faithfully demonstrating, and who is littering once the demonstration is over?

I have always liked the saying, “Pick your fight!” While it should never end in a fistfight, it defines a strategy that carries a lot of common sense.

Time will tell what will come of these situations. The USA will recover from the longest government shutdown in history, but it will be interesting to see who wins and who loses once life goes back to something more normal.

As for France, how can it get out of this situation of defiant grassroots opposition? Note that unions and political parties in France can organize public demonstrations in the streets very easily. This is even a topic for which the expat community makes fun of France. But in this case, none of the unions or parties have been able to organize a plan of action that enables them to become part of the normal scheme of things. In 1968, the CGT union, which was then controlled by the Communist Party, was able to take over the famous May demonstrations, and ended up obtaining a breakthrough in labor law, the Grenelle accords.

All the French leaders who matter give the impression of being numb in the current situation.

Later in this column I mention the Boston Tea Party. I started the column mentioning Woodstock and a song associated with the hippie movement and opposition to the Vietnam War.

As the song by Bob Dylan puts it, “The Times They Are a-Changin’ ” – this is obvious to everybody.

In the midst of all this, I would like to wish everybody Happy Valentine’s Day in an effort to lighten the atmosphere.

THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL’S BACK – LES GILETS JAUNES
Journalists and commentators always like to analyze in detail the “little thing” that ignites a revolution, a rebellion, unrest and so on. It is often a minor thing, with little significance and meaning unless one retraces years and sometimes decades of whatever policy creates the conditions for major unrest.

The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16th, 1773, at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. It was spurred by the Tea Act of the previous May, which allowed the British East India Company to collect taxes in the American colonies.

The colonists argued that the British constitution did not allow “taxation without representation” – and the truth can be stated like this: “Yes, we live in a colony, but we matter – and we want a say in the rules that are governing us.”

The Boston Tea Party would never have taken place, and would not have led to the independence of the USA, if the underlying demand for representation in the British parliament had not been so strongly shared by the people living in the colonies that were soon to become the 13 original states.

The parallel I see is that the price of gasoline in France is mostly made up of taxes. The average price is €1.55 a liter, or about $6.75 a gallon. The USA would never accept such expensive gas – there would be riots everywhere. In France, however, one might think that increasing the tax yet again should not have led to the riots we have seen occurring in the streets of Paris. But underneath, there was some serious and long-lasting discontent on the part of the general population.

The famous French motto “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (liberty, equality, fraternity) is visible on all French public buildings. It has its origins in the 1789 French Revolution, and was institutionalized in the late 19th century. Through the centuries the French people’s perception of it and what it stands for has changed somewhat, yet it emphases the idea that there is unity and solidarity within the French nation. I would translate fraternité today as “brotherhood”. Since 1983, French conservative and liberal governments alike have implemented pretty much identical economic policies. Equality and brotherhood have been overlooked for decades, leading to increasing erosion of the foundations of the French nation.

There is a fundamental difference between the USA and France regarding this issue. In the USA, no one has any problem with some people becoming very wealthy and being conspicuous about it. The fundamental reason is that most people believe they, too, can become rich, as this is the American Dream: It is the land of opportunity, where the sky is everybody’s limit. This is of course more a belief than a reality, but it remains a foundation of the USA as a nation.

The French overthrew their king a few times to settle definitively for a republic because, among other reasons, they had this desire for equality and fairness, and trusted the government to protect them from the excessive desires of the wealthy and powerful. This is one reason the French government apparatus is so huge, and at one time or another has included many businesses, such as banks, car manufacturers, the postal service, the railroads, and so on.

President Macron was elected on the promise that his policies would be very different from those of his predecessors. One of his themes during the campaign was that he would put equality and brotherhood back into French politics while also having a conservative economic policy. Without listing all the reforms France has gone through during his presidency, it is clear that equality and brotherhood have never been part of his government’s policy. It is even more conservative than before, with what a lot of people have described as disdain for the working class and the poor. In other words, his “reforms” could have been those of any previous government. Indeed, he should have thought twice before getting rid of the wealth tax while French employees suffered a severe loss of rights. It was a tax increase on gas and diesel fuel that ignited the gilets jaunes revolt.

This is why I see a parallel with the Boston Tea Party, and I believe that it has a lot of merit. I have no idea where it will take the French nation. I very strongly doubt that President Macron will be ousted by a revolution. Short of that, I have no idea what the outcome will be. Clearly this is a political crisis that must be addressed very seriously, not by just delaying the tax increase – which, obviously, is not the problem in itself. It is just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

THE FRENCH BANKING INDUSTRY
A recent post on Stephen Heiner’s blog and a conversation we had gave me the idea of writing about the French banking industry. One reason it is becoming a topic of discussion among many foreigners living in France is that opening and using a bank account is pretty much a must if one is to retain French immigration status. Also, since cash transactions are increasingly rare, it has become virtually impossible to live in France without a French bank account.

One oddity of the French banking industry is that the savings and loans side accounts for about half of the global market, if not more. Many people do not know this, and foreigners have no reason to find out unless they do some research on their own. There are six major independent French financial institutions: Société Générale and BNP-Paribas, which are banks owned by shareholders, and Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire, which are savings and loans owned by their clients. All others either do private banking for the rich, are French branches of foreign banks, or are subsidiaries of one of those six institutions; there are a very few exceptions, including La Banque Postale, Crédit Foncier and a few others.

For better or worse, the industry as a whole has harmonized a lot of practices, the most obvious being wiring/withdrawal capacity and the use of debit cards.

The major difference I see between the French and American banking systems is that in France, the client hardly ever needs to meet with a bank employee; everything is done via machines (mainly ATMs to deposit and withdraw money) or online. One actually goes to the bank only in specific cases, such as asking for a loan, investing in stocks and mutual funds, and opening an account. A lot of criticism I hear about French banking is the absence of personal contact with the banker assigned to the client. But that assumes French banking is the same as in the USA or elsewhere, when it is not. To adapt easily to French banking, you should first find out all the services the machines offer, often in a room located outside the branch office itself, and usually open long hours, e.g. 7AM to 10PM. Then create an account online and learn about all the services offered on the website or app, knowing that one needs a French cell phone to use some of them, such as authorizing a credit card payment on a website or adding an account to wire money to.

Yes, as with so much else in France, a foreigner must learn how the French banking industry works, because it is so different.

The second part of this topic is finding a way to open a bank account in France. The reason it is so difficult at first is a compounding effect of a French regulation and an American one. The latter is called FATCA, which I have already discussed several times. For an American citizen, opening an account in France means the bank has to report to the IRS. There is serious liability if it does not do so, but reporting entails onerous paperwork for the bank. Thus, regardless of the balance you plan on leaving in your French bank account, your citizenship is a put-off for French banks. Nothing personal here – you can blame the IRS!

The French regulation is called TRACFIN, which I have also explained several times – the name refers both to the legislation fighting money laundering and the team of investigative inspectors enforcing it. The legislation makes every bank branch manager personally and criminally responsible for any money laundering and/or other criminal activities related to moving money in and out of bank accounts for which they are responsible. Any new client appears at first to be a potential liability until the bank is sure where the money comes from, how it was acquired and so on. Once the bank is reassured about this, the account is opened. This is why the file to open a French bank account often seems worse than the one for the prefecture, which is the benchmark for many.

FRENCH WELFARE AND PART-TIME WORK
All countries that have some kind of welfare system need to address a well-known problem. When a person goes off welfare and gets a job, it can happen that the amount of money they earn is less than they were receiving on welfare. This makes any “all or nothing” system counterproductive, so there is a need for some kind of transition to smooth the path back to working.

In France, most subsidies paid by the Caisse d’allocations familiales (CAF) are linked to the amount of income declared. When the Revenu de Solidarité Actif (RSA, originally called RMI for Revenu Minimal d’Insertion) was created, the problem was identified but poorly addressed. One person I help is paid twice a year because the number of hours they work is so small, and so they receive RSA at the same time. Since CAF demands to receive a quarterly declaration, such people often end up with close to zero income for half the year because a salary of about €1300 exceeds the limit. The system does not understand that this is not a monthly income but a semiannual one.

The problem has not been solved yet by CAF, but this person will be paid quarterly and should be able to maintain all the benefits of the RSA combined with their very small salary.

On the other hand, the prime d’activité created in 2016 replaced the failing system for people holding steadier jobs with very low salaries. The calculation is complex but the end result is easy to understand. It minimizes the consequence of earning income just above the limit in the calculation of the other subsidies and thus creates a real incentive to work more. Since it applies not just to employees but also to the self-employed, it helps people with erratic income, and it applies to everybody living in France, including carte de séjour holders under certain conditions. It shows that, in reality, continuing a tad longer to subsidize an individual is a better way to get them off welfare when they are ready. What puts people on a welfare program is often a complex story with several things happening more or less at the same time.

THE MARITAL REGIME FOR INTERNATIONAL COUPLES MARRYING AFTER JANUARY 29th 2019
Without going into too much detail, this issue concerns which rule of ownership is applied to an international couple, a matter that had been regulated by the Hague Marriage Convention of March 14th 1978. The couple could choose between the regime linked to their citizenship, the location of the wedding, and the country where they spent their first significant amount of married life.

A new European Union regulation states that such couples can now only choose between the countries of which they are citizens and that where they started their married life. The latter is chosen by default, and this rule covers the entire net worth of the couple, including assets – especially real estate – in other countries. That part is one of the major changes in the new regulation.

To put this in context: in 2015, 27% of the weddings celebrated in France were what was called mixed, because they involved spouses of different nationalities.

www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2018/12/03/regimes-matrimoniaux-du-nouveau-pour-les-mariages-internationaux_5391775_1657007.html

SPLITTING PREROGATIVES IN THE FRENCH ADMINISTRATION
People who have been in France since before 2011 may remember the complicated French tax office reform when the billing-collection part was merged with the office calculating the amount of taxes owed. The root of the historic division between the two went back to Napoleon’s time and stems from a complete distrust of people: Ensuring that the person calculating how much must be paid is totally disconnected from the person collecting the amount due was a way to avoid attempted bribery of either party. Even today, when the two divisions of the tax office are located in the same building, they are physically as far apart as possible and there is next to no contact between them. Being physically closer has not destroyed the barriers created by the centuries!

This way of functioning is less and less common but has not completely disappeared. My readers have followed what feels like the endless saga of PUMA coverage, in which CPAM had delivered health coverage, and therefore reimbursements, all along while URSSAF stopped collecting premiums for two years and since December 2017 has sent invoices to people who are not covered by the system. Aside from the obvious screw-up by the French administration, this provides a very good illustration of the division of administrative processes.

Another that is not as well known is for the independents, the necessity of registering with net.entreprise.fr to declare and pay social charges (the Social Security side of what is owed) and the chosen health coverage organization that deals with medical costs. One change the internet has brought is that a single part of the administration can now calculate and collect the money owed, since everything is done through the website, making it difficult to have any personal contact with the civil servant in charge of the operation. While double registration is old hat to French people, being self-employed in France brings daily surprises to foreigners who have just started running their business. This is just a gentle reminder: Yes, it is now a legal obligation to register with net.entreprise.fr if your yearly turnover exceeds €3,973, which pretty much means everybody.

IN FRANCE THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD PREVAILS – SORT OF!
On July 11th 1975, the French law governing modern divorce was passed. To the man who drafted it, the jurist Jean Carbonnier, the foundation of French family law was “the best interest of the child”. Obviously, however, the legal understanding of this phrase can depend on what the reality is with the parents, siblings and so on. Also, I believe that an excess of the emphasis on transparency regarding a child can be completely against his or her best interests.

A groundbreaking ruling of the Nîmes court of appeal, issued on June 27th 2017, shows the limits of strict interpretation. In the case, a Napoleonic interpretation would have been that it was impossible to overrule the legal assumption that the husband is the father. In the days before DNA testing, it was difficult to dispute this assumption.

To sum up the situation, a married woman had a clandestine affair, got pregnant and gave birth. The lover suspected that he was the father and managed to arrange a DNA test. It proved, within a statistical margin of error, that he was the father. So he went to city hall and officially declared himself as such.

The married couple argued that the legal assumption was that a child born to a married couple has these two people as parents. The biological father stated that it was in the child’s interest to know who the real father was, that the DNA test left no doubt that he was the father, and that therefore the court must overrule the legal presumption that the child was born of the married couple.

This is the key quote from the court ruling:

« [S]’il est évident qu’il sera peut-être difficile pour l’enfant de devoir considérer que M. Z est son père et non pas M. Y, il appartiendra aux époux Y, et singulièrement à la mère, qui est, malgré tout, à l’origine de la situation, d’aider Anna à l’appréhender ».

In short, the best interest of the child is to know who the biological father is, and the court expects the mother to manage this difficult situation. The court adds that it is normal for this responsibility to fall on her, as she is responsible for the situation.

This ruling, after over ten years of court procedure, leaves me at a complete loss when it comes to an opinion of what is the best interest of the child. The married couple has appealed the decision to the highest French court, the Cour de Cassation, whose ruling will be very interesting. According to the legal opinions I have read, many think that this degree of transparency, considered to be in the child’s best interest, has gone too far.

How does this relate to French divorce law? In France, guardianship is decided in the best interest of the child. Many foreign mothers do not get full custody of their children. Indeed, the French court system fears that giving foreign women custody of their French children would result in their living elsewhere; in the French legal view, the best interest of the child is to stay in France.

This does not mean that, for example, an American mother divorcing her French husband cannot get full custody and the right to move back to the USA, taking her child or children with her. But the case she makes must address the right issue: the best interest of the child as the court understands it.

http://sosconso.blog.lemonde.fr/2018/11/27/le-pere-biologique-peut-il-reconnaitre-lenfant-dune-femme-mariee/

OFFICE CLOSED FOR MY 60th BIRTHDAY
The office will close for slightly over two weeks for this occasion. It will start on Friday June 14th evening and will reopen on Tuesday July 2nd morning. As always, I will only be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters as I will be out of France. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. I have not figured out how I will send the July issue considering the situation.

Best regards,

QUESTION

LOCAL TAXES IN FRANCE

I am living long term in a four-bedroom house in Cergy. All the other roommates come and go, so I am the only person living there long term.
The owner says that if I claim this address on my tax form, it will cost him an extra €2000 in taxe d’habitation, so I must use a different address.
Is this true? What do you recommend to avoid this extra cost? I have never had a landlord do this before.

QUESTION

THE IMMIGRATION STATUS NEEDED TO MARRY A FRENCH CITIZEN IN FRANCE

I am an American, currently resident in Ireland, and am looking to join my French partner in France in 2019. We are not yet married, but are looking at our options for us to live together in France and also allow me to work in France as soon as possible. Ideally, I will get a job with a French company in the coming months that will take care of my work permit; however, if this does not happen, we see two options and would greatly appreciate your help in better understanding the questions we have and deciding how to proceed:
Option 1: I go to France on a Short Stay Visa, Legal Marriage in France within 90 Days. Can I change from the Short Stay Visa to a Spouse Visa while in France? If not, would I need to go to the French Embassy in the US or Ireland and apply for a Spouse Visa? Can I work in France on a Spouse Visa? If yes, what is the time frame for being able to start working? Are there requirements for the Spouse Visa, such as French language and/or culture exam?

Option 2: I get a Long Stay Visa, I find a job in France. Can I convert the Long Stay Visa to a Work Permit immediately? If not, what is the time frame required from a visa/legal standpoint? Does it require waiting until the Long Stay Visa expires? If not, do I need to go back to US/Ireland (pending timeframe) to go to the French Embassy to apply for a Work Visa?

Please let me know if these are questions you can assist with, if there any additional information needed, and how we can proceed from here. Any help is much appreciated!