“Dreamer” is a hit single from the band Supertramp’s 1974 album Crime of the Century.
Some people dream of living in France. For generations, many French people dreamed of emigrating to California. Most people dream of a better life lying ahead.
All people who emigrate to another country – or, less dramatically, move to another state – are motivated by that belief that life will be better elsewhere. It is more often a dream than a planned action. My professional experience of over 20 years in the business is that moving to France as an immigrant is the pursuit of a dream, as it is impossible to plan everything when making a move of this magnitude.
If there were just one thing I would retain from my years of living in the USA, it is the core belief that one should follow one’s dream and that the sky is the limit in life. A good part of my adult life has been governed by this gift that the American nation gave me – along with my spouse, pretty much at the same time!
I just would like to add that Crime of the Century is my favorite album by Supertramp. Given my comments below about the DACA policy in the USA and what will happen to the “dreamers,” I find it quite a propos that the song “Dreamer” is on this album.
One thing I am 100% sure of, Roger Hodgson never made that connection!

CAN WRONG BECOME RIGHT? – DACA VS FRENCH POLICY
I would like to describe the history and provisions of French policy regarding how undocumented aliens can become legal residents of France. This is by no means an attempt to take sides regarding the US policy known as deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) or what the rights of the “Dreamers” should be. I just want to bring the French perspective to an issue all Western countries have: “What do you do with undocumented aliens who are already in the country?”

The authorities’ official and first answer is: “Deport them to their country of citizenship.” This is the first thing to do because they have no right to be there. But we all know that there are many more who stay than are deported. Therefore, sooner or later another question arises, “Are there situations in which giving them legal status makes more sense than deporting them?” In several countries the answer is linked to the length of stay in the country.

This question is the one raised by supporters of the DACA program and the Dreamers – a nickname based both on “American Dream” and the long-delayed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. It refers to people who arrived illegally in the USA with their parents when they were babies or small children and today are adults still living in the USA, such as a 22-year-old who arrived at age 5, has lived there for 17 years and is the parent of two children who are Americans, as they were born in the USA.

French policy took a radically different perspective 20 years ago and has been more or less the same ever since, under both conservative and liberal governments.

On May 12, 1998, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, then minister of the interior, issued a memorandum called a circulaire spelling out clear guidelines on how undocumented aliens could obtain legal status in France. One of the best-known provisions that has been little changed is that a 10-year presence in France, proven beyond a reasonable doubt, grants the right to status as a legal resident for life.

The logic of this policy and all those that followed is that France benefits more by granting such people a legal stay than by forcing them to keep living clandestinely. These are people who, despite having an illegal immigration status, have managed not to be caught by the police for years and are so well integrated that they can document living in France for 10 straight years with utility bills, bank statements, pay slips, income tax declaration and payments, and often health coverage from the public system. Given how tight the net of the French administration is, the fact of their achieving this proves that these applicants have mastered French red tape, probably better than a native French citizen. The guidelines require the applicant to prove their stay with at least one valid document per calendar quarter. The sum of all this documentation indicates a real and respectful integration, which is rewarded with legal immigration status.

The latest addition to the policy is a circulaire of November 28th 2012 by Manuel Valls, which came shortly after the end of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s term. It added more situations and made it easier to obtain legal status.

Today the private life and professional life of an applicant form the basis for the grounds for a legal stay. Almost all the grounds require a proven stay of at least five years in France.

Here are the situations that enable an illegal immigrant to obtain legal status.

PRIVATE LIFE – VIE PRIVEE ET FAMILIALE

Parent of children going to school

Spouse of a legal immigrant

Minor who became an adult (the situation of the Dreamers)

Spouse of a French or EU citizen living in France

Parent of a French citizen

EMPLOYEE
Three-year presence in France and 24 months working at least 18 hours per week
Or
Five-year presence in France and eight months over the past year or 24 months working at least 18 hours per week.

It is absolutely clear that France and the USA take opposite approaches to this problem. The very practical French approach violates the law, as it grants rights for committing the daily illegal act of living in the country without legal immigration status. Should the policy be condemned for encouraging people to break the law?

Considering how rigid the requirements are, however, the undocumented aliens who meet them thus prove that they abide by the law regarding pretty much everything in their life except immigration itself.

So, should this long-term upstanding behavior be rewarded? France has said yes for 20 years.

Regarding DACA and what is happening to the Dreamers, there is one aspect rarely mentioned on either side of the issue. From a practical point of view, what is in the best interest of the USA and its citizens?

Many Dreamers have children who were born in the USA and are American citizens. Should the administration protect them? Should decisions be made in the best interest of those citizens? Do they have the right to pursue happiness as established by the 14th amendment to the Constitution?

I do not have a problem with a conservative approach to the immigration issue, such as deporting illegal immigrants. That is simply strict application of the law. But I believe the Constitution limits the extent to which the law is applied, how the judge rules, and so on.

I know for a fact that French law cannot be a model, as it goes so far in the other direction. I am unqualified to come up with a solution regarding DACA. I just see that there is nearly complete bipartisan agreement that such a solution must be found. A very recent CBS poll shows 90 percent of Americans favor allowing those who registered for DACA to stay in the USA.

What I see here is that the USA as a country and as a nation of almost 326 million people is hurt by this. It is estimated that there are 3.6 million Dreamers, which more than 1 percent of the American population.

THE NEW CEILING FOR MICRO-ENTREPRENEURS (FORMERLY AUTO-ENTREPRENEURS)
I have been slow at addressing this issue mainly because of incoherence in what was being presented, and I still see the new system as incoherent. Nevertheless, this is the new regime and there is nothing I can do about it. The new figures apply to the fiscal year 2018.

Service providers’ annual revenue ceiling went from 33,100 euros to 70,000 euros
The annual ceiling for sales activities went from 82,800 euros to 170,000 euros

As for the calculation of profit, the ratios stay the same:

• Profession libérale (professional) – the profit is 66% of sales.
• Artisan (craftsperson) – profit is 50% of sales.
• Commerçant (merchant) – profit is 29% of sales.

Other features include the following:

1 – Immediate payment of social charges, monthly or quarterly
Being a micro-entrepreneur has this excellent feature: You declare your revenue either 12 times or four times a year, paying the related taxes at the same time, thus immediately freeing the business from tax debt. This is a wonderful change from the previous system, which delayed the payment of some social charges by up to 18 months. It should clearly be adopted for many other types of business, as it prevents people from spending tax money so that they are unable to pay their taxes.

2 – TVA
The sales tax called value-added tax or TVA is the single largest provider of funds to the state coffers, so any change could have serious consequences for the budget. Previously the auto-entrepreneur income ceiling was low enough that it did not have much effect on the amount of TVA collected.

Now, the decision made is the one I feared, which I detailed in my November 2017 issue. While the income ceiling has doubled for payment of social charges, the old limits still hold for TVA:
33,100 euros for annual revenue ceiling and
82,800 euros for sales.

In my view, the best feature of the auto-entrepreneur status was that no accounting was needed. As it was 100 percent sales based, the only things one needed to do were issue invoices and receipts, and keep track of the amount invoiced to make sure not to go above the limit. Now, to pay the sales tax to the state, one must do some accounting and itemize each sale in order to separate out the amount of tax. The TVA calculation is a lot more complex, as it deals with both purchases and sales. The amount paid for purchases bears TVA and therefore becomes a credit. The amount collected from sales includes the TVA charged. The TVA owed is the difference between the two.

To do this calculation, one must itemize everything, including all spending. This is what I call doing full accounting, so professionals might as well take advantage of having done the work, and claim their true expenses. But that would mean renouncing the micro-enterprise benefit, which is too bad.

SUMMER VACATION: PERIOD THE OFFICE IS CLOSED THIS SUMMER
The office will be closed for less than a month, from Friday, July 23rd, reopening on Monday, August 20th. 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. The prefecture appointments already scheduled will not be affected – I will be there.

THERE ARE THREE AMERICAN NOTARIES PUBLIC IN FRANCE
For a long time, I believed the only American notary public was at the US Consulate in Paris. But I recently discovered there are two others, at the Marseille and Strasbourg consulates.

The question of when and how to get documents notarized comes up all the time. I find it very interesting that France, a country known for its obsession with documents, requiring handwritten signatures everywhere, does not have any notaries public and has no idea of the concept. France, despite its obsession with having everything verified, evaluated and done with precision, has never really questioned the validity of a signature, considering it pretty much sacred, even though this is an exaggeration.

Another point is the common confusion by American people in France who think that a notaire is a notary public.

French notaires have three hats:
Tax collector. The so-called frais de notaire in a real estate transaction are for the most part taxes that the notaire collects.
Official supervisor. The notaire represents the interests of France first and foremost. The duty of the notaire is to guarantee that a deed is in the best interest of all parties involved.
Private adviser. As a professional, the notaire establishes a personal relationship with the client and can be a normal legal adviser, either paid by a standard fee or according to a fee schedule. This is the least important of notaires’ duties/missions.
The notaire in France has a monopoly on real estate transactions, signing of prenuptial agreements and handling of estates. The scope of their power is impressive. While a notary public guarantees the validity of a signature, the notaire guarantees the truthfulness and legality of an entire deed. So it is not at all the same job.

On occasion I have had a French notaire act as a notary public. I do it less and less, as on the American side the certification does not fit what is expected. It is ironic that the document is not accepted because of insufficient certification, when the professional who did it has so much more power and better credentials than an American notary public. This is just one more of the countless oddities one encounters going from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other.

REGISTRATION ON MY MAILING LIST
The EU General Data Protection Regulation came into effect on May 25th 2018. It guarantees greater protection of your personal data. If you wish to continue receiving my newsletter, you do not need to do anything; by this lack of action, you authorize me to send you my column 10 times a year.

I assure you that I will use your data for our communications exclusively and will not share any information of yours in any circumstances. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, you always have the possibility of unsubscribing from the mailing list with the link at the bottom of the issue.

I have patiently gathered addresses and entered them by hand, one at a time, into my mailing list throughout the 20-some years I have sent out my column by email. No one else has ever had access to the list, nor have I ever shared it. So I feel fairly confident that the list is quite well protected, especially after I recently had my website security upgraded.

Best regards,

QUESTION

NAME CHANGE AND THE FRENCH ADMINISTRATION

I have asked for a long-stay visa at my Chicago French consulate and I showed the French health insurance policy I bought in France which is approved by the Parisian prefecture as part of the documents requested on the list. This policy was refused because it does not offer repatriation back to the USA.
This makes no sense since I plan on living in France for the foreseeable future and I have no interest in going back to the USA as it is now. I much prefer being treated by French medicine, as I have been told it is one of the best of the world.
The woman at the consulate did not want to hear a word of what I was saying, and stated that repatriation was on her list in order to issue the visa, so either I showed another policy fast which includes it or I would not get the visa.
Can you explain what is going here?

QUESTION

IS EMIGRATING TO FRANCE THE SAME THING FOR FRENCH NATIONALS COMING BACK HOME

Your articles are very interesting and very much appreciated. I wish you would address some issues that some French retirees (for ex. with US and French social security) would face returning to La Belle France after having spent many years abroad (50 years in the US for instance, as in my case). Some of us worked for a few years in France before leaving for new horizons.
We all have the same questions:

• health coverage with the Sécu.
• paying taxes in France.
• buying vs renting real-estate.

From Wikipedia:
The Gospel Train (Get on Board)” is a traditional African-American spiritual first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. A standard gospel song, it is found in the hymnals of many Protestant denominations and has been recorded by numerous artists.

The original meaning of the word “gospel” is “good news.” The title may be deceiving, since this month once again I do not have much good news to offer. But I enjoyed drafting the section about the SNCF and the trains, and thought it would be nice to refer to it.

HAD TO BUY A NEW COMPUTER URGENTLY IN EARLY APRIL
In early April, my computer was stolen. This disorganized my work a lot more than I would have thought.

After trying for a week to use my son’s computer and my backup, I found that several programs were not compatible. After a week I gave up and bought a new one with a French keyboard, which I was not used to.

Now I am starting to catch up with the work that accumulated during the two weeks where I could not be efficient on the computer. I tried my best and prioritized as much as I could. If I missed anything, just send an email again and I will get to it.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

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 2017 income declaration must be filed in France by Wednesday, May 17th and the second partial income tax payment (deuxième tiers) is to be paid by May 15th (midnight, in both cases). The forms are already available at www.impots.gouv.fr. It is possible to file your declaration on this website, provided it is not your first time. To do so, you need your tax ID number and some access codes

• .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 a carte de séjour or an immigration visa validated with an OFII stamp, and comply with the requirements), you must declare your worldwide income to the French authorities even if you have no income in France and do not have the right to work in France. There is no penalty for neglecting to file, 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 call the paper form a thing of the past and say filing on paper is obsolete. For now, declaring electronically gives you an extension of a few weeks.

RETENUE À LA SOURCE – INCOME TAX WITHHOLDING STARTS ON JANUARY 1st 2019
I first mentioned that this would happen in my July-August 2015 column. Now the tax office is communicating by email and letters in the mail informing everybody that this enormous reform to the taxation method is in place and people need to get ready for it.

France is one of the last Western countries where income tax is paid by the individual directly and not withheld by the employer. There are many cultural and historical reasons why the French people have been reluctant to change this set-up, but all of them combined are not enough to explain why it has not yet been done.

Under the new system, everybody, even the self-employed, will make monthly payments.

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

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

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

Neither employers nor employees are very happy with the coming reform. Employers do not want an extra task to complicate the French pay slip even more. Employees dislike the fact that employers will know much more about their private lives: Employees will have to tell employers right away if any of the above-mentioned changes takes place, and employers will have to inform the tax office to calculate the new amount owed. Given the level of distrust French employees have toward employers, this could create major difficulties.

For self-employed people, the tax office relies on the previous year’s income and the amount of taxes owed to determine how much money will be taken out monthly. The same reasons for a radical change in the amount of taxes owed also apply here. Presumably the person in this situation can tell the tax office directly to modify the calculation accordingly. Knowing how such withholding is done today – it is set in stone for the entire calendar year – I am really not sure this has been changed to accommodate the above situations.

PACS DISSOLUTION: THE LACK OF A COURT DECISION CAN COMPLICATE MATTERS
A faithful reader who is a marriage counselor has sent me a comment worth reflecting on.

“Thanks for your latest column which, as usual, is full of useful information and interesting reflections. On the subject of the PACS, it might be useful to point out that a PACS can be unilaterally abrogated at the request of one of the partners. This happened recently to one of the women in my support group. A few days later the man showed up at the couple’s flat late at night with the police and literally threw the woman out in the street with her belongings!”
My reaction: There must be a lot more to the story, given how primary domicile is protected in France. But this illustrates one of the downsides of the PACS. Since there is no judge or notaire involved in the dissolution, the partners are left to determine the split of assets and debts on their own, as well as finding a way to agree on practical matters so each partner can leave the relationship with what is theirs.

It is rarely the case that the agreement is amicable, given how often relationships end in acrimony. This is a good opportunity to remind you once again that a PACS can indeed be unilaterally abrogated, and the consequences can be terrible. In such cases, filing in court is often the best thing to do, particularly if one partner is being bullied as described above and may have trouble securing their rights.

AN AMERICAN GOT FINED LEAVING FRANCE FOR OVERSTAYING THE 90-DAY PERIOD
It is clear that the French police at airports are getting stricter about overstaying. I learned from one of my clients that an American citizen was fined about 100€ for overstaying the 90-day Schengen limit. As far as I know, this person has actually been living in France without any immigration status for a very long time and has regularly overstayed in the past, always by a few days or a few weeks.

Therefore, to me this is a signal that the French police are now looking at what is inside the passport and not just the first page. While other feedback I am getting indicates there are still many going through without any consequences, the trend is clear. There will come a day when overstaying will mean paying a fine.

FRANCE IS FACING MORE AND MORE STRIKES
At the time of writing, the national train company SNCF, university students and Air France are on strike. I do not intend to discuss or even review the new government policies against which people are striking.

Foreigners are generally amazed at how and why French people go on strike. In many countries, labor and management negotiate, with a deadline. If an agreement is not found by then, the confrontation leaves the negotiating table and goes into the streets, with demonstrations, picketing and so on. It becomes an arm-twisting match.

In France, on the other hand, strikes and street demonstrations occur before negotiations really start, since France has never had a culture that promotes negotiation and compromise as a way to obtain negotiated agreements. The public and private sectors both are then crippled, and for the same reason. It is almost as if each party is presenting its position as definitive, with no room for negotiation. Strikes then become a way to determine who wins. In the end, there is little negotiation. Either the unions are unable to mobilize enough people and there is a lack of popular support, so the reform goes into effect pretty much as is. Or the strike is strong, picking up momentum and public support, in which case the government is left with little option but damage control. The reform is stopped, and the status quo – which is not good most of the time – is maintained.

Given the nature and extent of President Macron’s reforms, it was clear that no matter how much of a wizard he is in public relation and negotiations, there would be strikes and strong opposition. Personally, I was surprised the strikes did not start much sooner, and they are a lot less severe than I expected. The credit goes to President Macron, who has done quite well so far.

Clearly the SNCF needs to be drastically reorganized, as the overall quality of service is poor, the trains are often not on time, the comfort in the trains (aside from the TGV) is not great, and the suburban trains and infrastructure are in bad shape; by the way the Parisian suburban train system has already started its makeover. There is a need to shift the focus away from the TGV so the rest of the system can deliver decent service.

There is fierce debate about the special status the SNCF employees have, especially the ones operating the trains. The cheminots – the name today refers by extension to all the people working at the SNCF – have an honored history:

From Wikipedia:
The Battle of the Rails (French: La Bataille du rail) is a 1946 war movie directed by René Clément which depicts the efforts by French railway workers to sabotage German troop transport trains.

During the war, members of the CGT union, many of them also members of the Communist party, launched their own battle against the Germans, making it more and more difficult for the Wehrmacht to move troops, artillery and other weapons. This, among many other things, had a measurable impact on the success of D-Day, for example. At the end of the war, the surviving leaders were decorated as exceptional warriors. It is interesting that even today this has an echo in the general population, much more than one would expect some 75 years later.

This overly emotional discussion of whether rail workers deserve their so-called perks distracts from a more interesting issue, which I believe should be the main one. Trains today are powered by electricity and there are railroad tracks everywhere in France. Is it time to favor rail over road, to fight global warming? It could be a good idea to promote and heavily invest in train transport both for shipping and travel as a way to fight fossil fuel usage. Then the government could emphasize the fact that the men and women of the SNCF take extra pride in the work they do for historical reasons. At first there should be no discussion about their contracts. Developing and improving the quality of the services the SNCF offer will reassure these workers about the future of their jobs. Then modifications in their status, perhaps offering less job security and discontinuing benefits inherited from the past, would not alarm them when there is a plan lasting a decade or more designed to make the SNCF become more competitive in transporting both goods and people.

For those who think this is pure utopia, check out how much the Paris metro is being renovated, as well as the Parisian suburban trains and infrastructure. There is a huge amount of work to be done before people see a measurable result. Just the number of stations fully closed for months for a complete makeover the last ten years, gives a pretty accurate indication of the work’s scope.

You may think I am comfortable and not affected by this, but I recently waited over an hour in the cold for a train at a station in Versailles. This is sometime inconvenient to me, as it is to so many others almost everyday.

Best regards,

QUESTION

NAME CHANGE AND THE FRENCH ADMINISTRATION

I am an American citizen born in Israel and I moved to France about two years ago. Due to my age and medical condition, I registered with my local CPAM. I have had problem after problem with them. Nothing was good enough for them to register me. Now that I have the temporary number that means I am covered, they have refused my birth certificate and the documents proving my name change. My first name, chosen by my parents, was that of my paternal grandfather. It was a quite an oddity (I was never called by it), and we moved to the USA when I was young, where everyone called me Billy. So I applied for an official name change, which was fine for many years. Much later in life, it became evident that it would be a good thing to change again. I then chose David.
The prefecture reluctantly accepted all the paperwork, officially translated, of all this and I now have my carte de séjour.
CPAM refuses the same documentation even though everything is explained and clearly spelled out. They now want an attestation de concordance. What is that? Am I being discriminated against? What can I do to be certain that this is truly the last document they need? Frankly, I do not trust them anymore. How can I report this anti-Semitic discrimination?

QUESTION

NATURALIZATION AND NON-COMPLIANCE WITH FRENCH INCOME TAX FOR STARTING A BUSINESS IN FRANCE?

I came to France as an American holding a long stay visa. After a few years I managed by myself to become self-employed and got the related carte de séjour and I was very proud of myself. This year I got the carte de résident, which lasts ten years. So I decided that I would ask for French nationality and went to see a lawyer, who told me that I did not qualify because I was cheating on my taxes. I left the firm outraged at such an unfair accusation.
Every year I fill out the form sent by RSI, and I pay on time all the tax bills I receive from URSSAF, RAM, and CIPAV. I have a perfect record for that. Once a year I send my #1040 to the IRS. The lawyer mentioned the French income tax I was not paying. What was he talking about? As you can see, I have always paid my taxes on time!

“Ball and Chain” (also known as “Ball ‘n’ Chain” or “Ball & Chain”) is a blues song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in the early 1960s and best known through the version by Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, who first performed it at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.

Some Americans have long looked at living in France with horror because of what they see as an absence of freedom and an omnipotent state regulating every aspect of people’s lives. This was never true, however, and the last 30 years have seen modernization of the French administration, linked to drastic changes in the legal system that have increased the rights of French citizens and others living in France.

Nevertheless, many see the protection universelle maladie (PUMa) as an imposition of this magnitude. Another vestige of the old view that the state knows best is the way French law and courts still limit rights regarding name changes. And there was a time when getting married with a prenuptial agreement was seen as being the prisoner of an institution – wearing a ball and chain. As for the other topics below, I will let you decide if there is a connection.

UPDATE ON PUMA, WHICH TURNED INTO A NIGHTMARE FOR MANY 
I would like to thank the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO) for its help on this issue. They are on the forefront of this, and as far as I know are the only organization actively helping members deal with the problem and possibly lobbying in favor of a change. In particular, I would like to thank Eric Fenster, the AARO member who helped me draft this section.

We had feared that the new system would result in adverse situations after being implemented for about two years without collecting premiums for the coverage offered. In fact, the situation is even worse than I had expected. I would like to highlight some of the worst examples I know of (and I am not sure I have identified all of them).

1 – The 2016 premium came due after all.
In almost all situations, especially in the private sector, people expect to have to pay health insurance premiums on time. For over a year, the impression was given that the premiums for 2016 would not be collected. I was one of the few doubting that this would be true once the administration got its act together. Sure enough, it was announced that January 15 was the deadline to pay the 2016 premium. But this came as a surprise to many.

2 – People have been charged for coverage they do not have.
Since December 2017, foreigners who declare their foreign income in France while being properly covered by a private health insurance policy have received bills from URSSAF for 2016 coverage that they have never had. The reason is that URSSAF, instead of checking the database of the caisses primaires d’assurance maladie (CPAM) to find out who was covered by the old couverture maladie universelle (CMU, which PUMa replaced), got its information from the tax office and never checked if people were covered by the public system.

People who received the URSSAF bill had subscribed in good faith to private medical insurance, and no public authority had given any notice of an obligation to join the public system. Indeed, for nearly two years no one was even able to answer questions from those who had heard about PUMa.

When I learned from my AARO connection that many Americans had received the bill, we began to help them contest it on the grounds that it charged for a health coverage system in which they were not enrolled, even though French legislation stated that payment liability did not begin until the date of enrollment.

3 – People are not being charged for coverage when they need it.
This might sound like good news but it can have very adverse consequences. URSSAF was supposed to charge 8% of the global taxable net income for the year, payable per quarter. It took considerable work to figure out that some income, mainly retirement income, is exempt from this 8% premium calculation. For many foreigners who have retired in France, most if not all of their taxable income is retirement income. So they received a letter stating that they owed nothing.

The problem is that the prefecture insists all foreigners have comprehensive coverage from either the public system or a reputable company and also pay for health coverage. So foreigners who were covered by the CMU and now PUMa must show that.
First, they have sufficient assets or income from a foreign source and that the annual net income exceeds minimum wage (14,000€).
Second, that in the case of being covered by the public system, the income used for calculating the 8% premium exceeds 9,654 euros. If the income on which the calculation is based is less, the foreigner pays nothing for the health coverage.
In the past, the prefecture has always interpreted the absence premium payments, as indicating insufficient income, as they then expect a minimum income of 14,000 euros for the same period. In such situations, the prefecture systematically denies renewal of the carte de séjour based on insufficient funds entitling the foreigner to free coverage. It was somewhat logical to expect foreigners to pay for their coverage. Today, though, many foreigners have an income far exceeding this amount and yet the new way URSSAF calculates the premium results in their coverage being free of charge. The main reason is that pensions are not used in URSSAF’s cotisation subsidiaire maladie (CMS) calculation, i.e., the name of the premium paid for the public coverage.

I have no idea how the prefectures will address this issue. If they do not get new guidelines, I fear the worst, i.e., refusal to renew cartes de séjour. I really feel that one part of the administration is not keeping another part informed, and the refusal to renew the “visiteur” immigration status will come as a very nasty surprise. One can hope that properly documenting the way the CMS is calculated should force prefectures to reconsider their procedures in view of this radical change.

4 – Some people previously covered by CMU never declared their income to France.
Holders of a carte de séjour visiteur can have the card renewed without showing a French income tax statement. I advise my clients nevertheless to show the two first pages of their last #1040 to the prefecture just to prove that they had made an income declaration. But whether these people have complied with French fiscal law is irrelevant here.

Because URSSAF got only tax information from the French tax office and not CPAM, such people never got a letter and were never charged, but they continue to be covered, as CPAM does not verify whether the insured is paying into the system.

How long will this situation last? What are the likely consequences regarding the premiums owed and not paid? I ask the same question about the fact that there was no filing in France even though the person was clearly a French tax resident.

I fear the worst, as URSSAF can easily and rightfully consider this as tax cheating. In this specific instance, to help understand the gravity of the situation, I would compare URSSAF to the American Social Security.

SOUVENIR SOUVENIR – I SERVED IN THE FRENCH ARMY AS AN OFFICER
Even though I lived some years in the USA, as a Frenchman I clearly see several topics with a non-American eye.

I did my military service as an officer, having the rank of lieutenant when I left. I trained a platoon through boot camp. I was on active duty for nine months in a military academy, mainly as a juriste, but doing all the chores like any other lieutenant.

My military specialty was firearms. I trained many soldiers on the full range of firearms, from the traditional long rifle to the fully automatic machine gun.

Anyone who has been in the military has a similar experience of having been surrounded by firearms – that is the norm.

There is one experience I would like to share. The officer of the day, who is on security duty for 24 hours straight, sleeping next to the main gate, is obliged to carrying a loaded handgun at all times. The lieutenants, the youngest officers, most often served as duty officer. We were trained to be tough, and on we duty we knew what to do; military discipline ran our life, especially at such moments.

I can still remember, over 30 years later, the heaviness of this responsibility. It felt like I had about 20 pounds more on my shoulders. I took the duty seriously; in retrospect, I believe that carrying a loaded gun all the time and being the one allowed to use it in case of danger added to the weight. Of course, I never had to use it, but living with this responsibility makes one act in a more responsible, more controlled way.

The day I was discharged was the last day I operated a gun. In all my years of living in the USA, I had many opportunities but I never fired a gun. In my mind and in my life, guns are associated with a military uniform.

I know very well that the US constitution is understood to dissociate the right to bear machine guns from being in the military.

My point is that anyone who carries a firearm should be well trained, should handle the firearm responsibly as it is lethal in a manner of seconds, and should comply with security guidelines. My point of view – which I admit is a French point of view and could be completely irrelevant in the USA – is that the issue should be about the training. Getting a gun license should be like getting a driver’s license. I would go so far as to say that, just as there are several types of licenses, for driving vehicles ranging from a motorcycle to a 16-wheel tractor-trailer, there could be a similar range from permits allowing ownership of traditional hunting guns up to fully automatic machine guns.

FBI CHECK FOR VISA PURPOSES
Asking for French immigration status requires submitting proof that one does not have a criminal background. The French administration asks applicants to prove that there are no criminal convictions on their record.

In the USA, this is done through an FBI background check. The problem is that it used to take a few weeks. Now it takes several months. But in immigration visa requests, the applicant often has just a few weeks in the USA to get such documentation. Many have already settled in France in order to have everything ready to submit solid proof of an address in France and to make it easier to obtain the visa. Therefore, some private companies have managed to speed up the process.

More information can be found on the FBI website:
http://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/identity-history-summary-checks
http://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/identity-history-summary-checks/list-of-fbi-approved-channelers-for-departmental-order-submissions

AARO RECORDED MY 2-HOUR PRESENTATION ON DECEMBER 18
The presentation, on “Coping with French Administration,” is now accessible from my website, too, at http://www.jeantaquet.com/aaro.

I have been happily surprised by the number of people who have contacted me after watching it. I thought that a 2-hour recording was quite long, but these people did not seem to agree.

Here is AARO’s introduction to the video:

French Logic
Jean started the talk by telling the audience that France is logical. This got a good chuckle, but he continued to explain exactly how that logic works. It starts with the French Revolution and having to deal with the old elite (aristocrats) and establishing a fair system for all to be equal under the law. This was achieved with the Napoleonic Civil Code. The way that France can maintain its republic is by treating all equally and that means through identity, not aristocratic rank. Identity is established by name, date and place of birth, domicile, and profession. Your name, your birth certificate, and proof of where you live and what you do. (Reporter’s note: In France, the extrait d’état civil, which is the birth certificate document, contains more than just your birth information, which is why the administration frequently wants to see a recent one.) That is the logic behind the constant request for documents.

The video is accessible on the AARO website at:
https://aaro.org/events/event-reports/641-coping-with-french-administration

Best regards,

QUESTION

WHAT DOES A PRENUP DO?

I am American and intent to marry my French fiancée in France.
We are signing a prenuptial agreement with two major components in mind. First, my business is to remain my property after the marriage to protect the accounts of my spouse from debt and creditors. All earnings and debts will remain with me.
Second, to protect our inheritance from our parents, we both wish our inheritance to remain our own; assets are to remain the property of the inheriting spouse.
Which marital regime would best suit these provisions? Can a regime be created to address ONLY these two issues?

QUESTION

WHAT HAPPENS AT OFII DEPENDS ON IMMIGRATION STATUS

I have a question about the renewal of my titre de séjour salarié. In the list the prefecture gave me to renew my carte de séjour, one of the last things that is listed is a bilan de compétence. After doing some research, I have found that the OFII sometimes does not require this. How do you know if you need it or not? If I do have to do it, it is very expensive. … My job does not require me to do this so it means it would be up to me to pay for it. I have seen prices up to 1300 euros.

QUESTION

AS A MARRIED WOMAN, WHAT IS MY LEGAL NAME IN FRANCE?

While in Brive in the South of France with my husband, I got a message from my son who was staying at our apartment in Paris saying that the prefecture called and said there was a problem with my visa. My son understood they wanted to put both names on my visa, but I only need to have my late husband’s last name as my legal name on my US passport. So, anticipating some serious problems, I asked my sister back in Seattle to get a copy of the death certificate of my late husband. I am afraid that I will need to show them an original document with a seal. The states are so afraid of identity fraud that they make records difficult to access and she might not be able to get it.
Is it possible to convey to them that my last name is the one on my passport and leave it at that? What’s wrong with these people? Can’t they accept that a passport is an official legal document, which should not be questioned?

As I sit in my office on a Saturday evening, sending out this issue on the very day of Halloween and deciding on its title, I can only think of all the people celebrating tonight in disguise or costumes. “Master of Disguise” is a tune on Just Testing, the tenth studio album by the British rock band Wishbone Ash, released in 1980. I have been a fan of this lesser known British band since I was 19; it has often been seen as a precursor of metal rock  opening the way to Black Sabbath, for example.

Here are the lyrics:

I’m a master of disguise,
Mystery in your eyes,
Travelling the backroads of your country.
Well, you think you’ve got my number
And then again, you wonder
Will you ever get to find the real me.

Things are not always
As they first may seem
It’s like living in a dream.

So you’d like me to reveal
All that I know and feel
At the risk of causing panic and destruction.
Well, there’s a method to this madness.
I don’t mean to cause you sadness
My course is strictly governed by instruction.

Things are not always
As they first may seem
It’s like living in a dream.

I’m a master of disguise
Not about to compromise
My position in this scheme of worldly values.
Ah, they’re calling out my name.
I’ve promised to remain
Ever faithful to the memory of what is true.

Things are not always
As they first may seem
It’s like living in a dream.

Oh, I’m living in a dream,
I’m high, I’m high.
In the cold, cold night, I’m high.

www.lyricsfreak.com/w/wishbone+ash/master+of+disguise_20147191.html

Living as an expatriate, one can develop a cautious attitude, a fear that yet another bad thing will happen soon. It can reach the point on occasion where it feels like there is some kind of demonic figure plotting a series of adverse experiences, ruining one’s life.

One reason I chose this song is the poetic way the lyrics describe the rather unreal figure of the master of disguise. The unpleasant events that many expats experience can be explained one by one in a reasonable and rational way. When someone lives in his or her own country, such events are often explained with Murphy’s Law, the idea that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. For an expat, however, it often feels very personal, causing anger that he/she wants to direct towards someone  if only a shadowy”master of disguise” or chief conspirator, among many other possible epithets. Most of the topics addressed in this issue deal with this fear or impression of duplicity.

CAP ON RESIDENTIAL RENT CHARGED IN PARIS
I have been hearing a lot of criticism of the latest legislation establishing rent control in some major French cities. But I would remind my readers that several American cities have strict rent control, which has existed for decades in some cases.

As Wikipedia explains (as of October 20, 2015): -Between 1919 and 1924, a number of cities and states adopted rent and eviction control laws. Modern rent controls were first adopted in response to WWII-era shortages, or following Richard Nixon’s 1971 wage and price controls. They remain in effect or have been reintroduced in some cities with large tenant populations, such as New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California. Many smaller communities also have rent control, notably the California cities of Santa Monica, Berkeley and West Hollywood, along with many small towns in New Jersey. In recent years, rent control in some cities, such as Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been ended.-

I feel that I needed to start with this because I have often heard French people complaining that rent control is a liberal measure, a stupid regulation, out of touch with the reality of the real estate market and something that would never exist in the USA.

I would also remind my readers that the only time previously that France had a similar regulation was in 1948, when the country was just coming out of the war and there was not much lodging available. So whether this kind of policy is a good thing or not, let’s be clear about the record: parts of the USA have had rent control legislation longer than France has and that affect a much larger portion of the population.

As is often the case, the attempt to make sure that legislation is fair results in French law being difficult to understand and even harder to implement. But, to keep it short and simple, here is what the law amounts to: a landlord cannot charge more than 20% above what the government considers to be the normal market price, although I will not attempt to explain how this amount is calculated nor who is supposed to do the calculation.

That being said, one rule of thumb is especially true regarding Paris: the smaller the apartment, the higher the rent in terms of euros per square meter. One reason for this is supply and demand: The trend is for families to move to the suburbs when they have children  sometimes even with the birth of the first one. Thus, in the market for family-size apartments with four or five bedrooms  which are large apartments by Paris standards  there is less imbalance between supply and demand. In contrast, maid’s rooms, studios and one-bedroom apartments are in high demand because there are always a lot more candidates wanting to rent than there are apartments of that size available.

• There were a couple of other changes in favor of tenants in the law:
• The notice period to leave the rental place is now one month for all leases, even those signed before the law began to be enforced.

The security deposit must now be reimbursed within one month. This is to help the mobility of the tenant when it is time to move.

The upshot is that the market is such that it is now even more difficult to rent in the affected cities, especially Paris, where landlords and agencies are demanding guarantees that most people cannot meet. A tenant’s take-home pay is expected to be, ideally, four times the amount of rent plus charges. But it is very difficult to find a decent 30-square-meter apartment for less than 1,000 euros a month, which means a net salary of 4,000 euros a month. But the average French monthly salary is 2,128 euros.

For further details (in French), see http://www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2015/09/21/les-droits-des-locataires-renforces-au-compte-gouttes_4765423_1657007.html

AUTO-ENTREPRENEUR – THE FRENCH ADMINISTRATION IS FIGHTING BACK
There are still several issues with this fiscal status. Most people perceive it as a legal status for people working as independent contractors, but in fact the legal statuses for such contractors are:
Merchant = commerçant
Craftsperson = artisan
Professional = profession libérale

I would like to focus on just one issue, which results from a very typical French approach. It starts with the state checking for compliance with the law and assumes that the authorities need to check on people, that they cannot be assumed to take care of themselves. One needs to follow this logic to understand what is at stake here.

Everybody now agrees that the auto-entrepreneur status does not at all do what it was intended to do; for years, various governments have wanted to change it so it better reflects reality.

The initial auto-entrepreneur concept stemmed from Nicolas Sarkozy’s promise during the 2007 presidential campaign that people would be able to “work more to make more money”. The idea was that employees should have the right to work legally on the side on their own behalf as self-employed people.

But people registering for auto-entrepreneur status have never been asked whether they are employed, so from the beginning a lot of unemployed people signed on to the program, hoping to get some small jobs this way. Unfortunately, even today French society is somewhat negative about independent workers, so few people are ever taught business skills, unlike in the USA and some other countries.

URSSAF is now convinced, and rightfully so, that a large number of people registered as auto-entrepreneur should in reality be employees of their clients, even though there may be more than one employer. What defines employee status under French law is the subordination of the employee to the employer (le lien de subordination du salarié envers l’employeur).

In a first case of its type (but I doubt it will be the last one), the Brittany branch of URSSAF is openly stating that it is auditing all auto-entrepreneur to determine whether in fact they should be employees. What the office is discovering is that city halls are among those abusing the system  even the local French administration is cheating on this issue.

If you run a legitimate business and you choose this fiscal status, rather than a more traditional one, for all the benefits it offers, then you should know it is quite probable that you will be audited. Therefore, you must keep your records totally clean. Even though there is no obligation to keep detailed accounting, there is a legal obligation to document your sales with a receipt or an invoice, as well as your professional spending, in case you go above the limit. You should also keep any contracts (which is obvious) or exchange of emails showing the terms of the business agreement. This is the most important, since it is what the inspectors are after.

Now, interestingly enough, this audit campaign has created such an uproar and has so disorganized activities held in schools (which is what most towns were hiring auto-entrepreneur for) that the government may decide to stop the auditing and let the corrupted system continue, as it helps local governments function despite insufficient funding of extra-curricular activities. I will keep you posted.

For more on this issue (in French), see http://business.lesechos.fr/entrepreneurs/auto-entrepreneur/auto-entrepreneurs-betes-noires-de-l-urssaf-202723.php?UO3TPuVDQdbbJuE1.99#xtor=CS1-60

THE REFUGEE CRISIS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN FRANCE
Since my work includes helping foreigners who lack immigration status in France to obtain the right to be here legally, I meet people who have been refused asylum but have stayed in France, and some who are still undergoing refugee proceedings. Consequently many people have asked me recently about my position on the current crisis and its consequences for France.

My first comment is that, just in the last century or so, France has had many waves of immigration and absorbed them all, sooner rather than later; with each new wave previous immigrants were seen as integrated in French society:

• 1. The first wave in modern times came from Poland and started in the late 19th century. By the time it ended in 1931, some 500,000 people had immigrated to France.
• 2. The second one came during the winter of 1938-39, when in just a few weeks about 500,000 Spanish people came to France at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
• 3. The third wave occurred right after WWII; between 1945 and 1970, 1.8 million Italians came to France. It was the third wave of Italian immigration and the biggest by far.
• 4. The fourth one lasted about fifteen years, from 1958 to 1975, when 730,000 Portuguese came to France.

5. The fifth wave was from Algeria. Since 1830, when France colonized much of North Africa, the Algerian population had been French and there had always been some emigration to metropolitan France; in fact, the Great Mosque in Paris was built in 1926 for the Algerian community. But a massive wave started when Algerian independence was declared in 1962. By the time it ended in 1982, the Algerian population of France had grown from 350,000 to 800,000.

I could continue with more recent ones, but today’s world is such that immigration to France now has several origins and tends to be more ongoing.

The arrival of 24,000 Syrians in France may be a wave, but only a small one compared to what I have just described. Those who say the French economy is bad and cannot handle that many should recall the half-million Spanish people arriving during the French Great Depression.

I do not underestimate the difficulties generated by this latest wave, nor its immediate consequences for both the people who already live in France and the newcomers themselves. For one thing, some offices at the Paris Prefecture already have a backlog, and the part of the prefecture dealing with foreigners could be quite clogged in two years or even sooner. The current ratio of success for those seeking refugee status is about 20% initially and 38% after appeal to the Cour nationale du droit d’asile. While the French government has stated that people will be much better treated in the current crisis, I strongly doubt they will all obtain legal status in France. I am pretty sure that less than half will be successful  but this would nevertheless be a significant improvement. That is why I expect a serious surge in the prefecture’s workload once these people complete the refugee procedure and start to comply with the regularization guidelines.

In short, I do not see major problems caused by integrating the latest groups over a reasonable period, about five years, though there will be complications for a lot of people along the way.

I NOW HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT
I have finally gotten into the swing of things, and I now have a functioning paypal account. As it is becoming increasingly difficult to wire money both from American and French banks through their websites when you are out of the country, PayPal will be a reasonable alternative.

My ID with them is my email address: qa@jeantaquet.com

Best regards,

QUESTION

IS A COPY OF MY ID CARD ENOUGH TO COMPLY WITH THE LAW?

I am an American living in Paris and was robbed recently of my wallet containing my carte vitale, Visa debit card and carte de résident. After going through a long and painful process of replacing everything, mainly with the prefecture, I would like to know if I can simply carry around a photocopy of my carte de résident and leave the real card safe at home. It was very difficult to get it replaced.

QUESTION

FRENCH LAW DOES NOT EASILY ACCEPT NAME CHANGES

I am American and I have been living in France for six years. Last week I submitted my request for a wedding ceremony at our local city hall. The first time I came to France I was 20. Hoping that I would be moving here, I thought about changing my first name to one that sounded good pronounced in French because I didn’t like how my birth name was pronounced with a French accent and changing it would make it easier living in France. When back in California, while renewing my CA driver’s license, I decided to change my first name to the name I had in mind. After that, all my legal documents were made using my new French first name, including my US passport, my Social Security card, my university diplomas, etc.

Needless to say the French local city hall was not happy with the discrepancy between the first name on my birth certificate and the one on my passport. They told me that the file was incomplete. They wanted me to bring them a document from the American Embassy in Paris. So I had a sworn statement notarized declaring that these two names represent the same person.

That document was enough for the local city hall to accept that the two names refer to the same person, but little did I know that they would say they would only marry me under the name on my birth certificate and not my legal name that I have been using in the USA and in France for over 25 years.

To avoid having to go to the US for a formal court-ordered name change only to rectify my birth certificate, we were hoping there was some law that would give priority to the name that is on all my legal documents (including US passport) and that the local city hall would have to let me get married in what has been considered my legal name for years.

It seemed like they were just being stubborn without a real LAW behind their conviction that I would have to use the birth name. I will be going to ask the prefecture in person this week to ask about what to do regarding the renewal of my immigration ID card if my livret de famille does not bear the same name as my carte de séjour.

Have you ever heard of a situation like this one? I am a Paris resident so even getting my name changed in CA might not be possible since CA law requires you to be a CA resident to do a name change there but I do not think I can get a name change in Paris.