“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.

Back in Black was the seventh album by the Australian band AC/DC, released on July 25th, 1980. Malcolm Young, its co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter, died in November, although that did not motivate my choice of title. AC/DC fans are well acquainted with the brutal and unflattering lyrics this band is known for, associated with a heavy metal sound. The title song from this album is about disillusionment and having to come back to an unfriendly environment. How many Americans will feel this way traveling back to the USA for the holiday season? And how many Americans living in France will feel this way on their way back to France after the holidays?

HOW CAN A FRENCH BLACK FRIDAY EXIST?
The title of this column actually came to me when I was feeling completely exasperated at seeing “Black Friday” advertised everywhere in France (in English!). I wondered how many of people would even know what it referred to. How can you have a “Black Friday” if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday? The adoption of this term is totally insane and I believe it illustrates 100% bad taste consumerism. In the USA, many consider “Black Friday” offensive for various reasons, a tendency that has grown with every passing year. Some believe this is insanity in consumerism, citing the craziness when crowds – I would call them hordes sometimes – enter the shops. Others focus more on the idea that family life should take precedence over consumerism, as the day after Thanksgiving is usually a de facto national holiday. There are other criticisms, but I see particular merit in those two.

France does not celebrate Thanksgiving, and this holiday, unlike some others, cannot be easily exported, as it is part and parcel of the iconic history of the birth of the USA and the infancy of an early settlement in the New World.

So my choice of title can be understood in many ways. The very point of calling the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” is that it is the starting point of the Christmas shopping season, when many stores truly break even and get into “the black,” which means having money in the bank instead of being in the red! One can hope that small businesses will also go “Back in Black” and that they too will benefit from the seasonal improvement of the economy, at least in France.

I would like to wish you all
A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
I am looking forward to the year to come, 2018.
Like many, I feel that 2017 was a very hard year in which to stay focused on the issues that matter.

AARO HAS INVITED ME TO DO A PRESENTATION ON DECEMBER 18th 
The Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO) has asked me to speak about “Coping with French Administration” on Monday, December 18th, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.

The event is open to the public. It will be held at Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris. For more information and to reserve a seat (€10 – seating limited, registration required), see.

https://aaro.org/events/upcoming-events/event/102-coping-with-french-administration

This is their text presenting the event:
“Join us to hear Jean Taquet, a legal consultant, talk about the ins and outs of French Administration regarding living in France temporarily or indefinitely. Topics will include how to get, retain, change or upgrade your residency status; become covered by French health insurance; open a bank account; be an employee, an entrepreneur, a retiree; and how to surmount the paperwork and the bureaucracy.”

HOW EMAIL AND SOCIAL MEDIA HAVE CHANGED THE WAY I WORK
I started my business in July 1997 when telephone and fax were the backbones of communication with clients, as they were in those days, for me and many others, the only immediate means of communication. I remember how we had a phone message notebook to make sure we called people back, and were judged by how quickly we managed to return calls. We needed a dedicated line for the fax machine; documents were sent this way.

Then there was the postal mail. Even today in France, a lot of things are still done by postal mail. Twenty years ago it was the normal way to send anything the least bit official. How often did we hear “The check is in the mail!”? It was the common way to send a payment, as wire transfers were complicated and expensive.

Today, corresponding by fax is an oddity, but it is still the only thing some divisions of the French administration accept, making them a laughing stock, and not just to Americans living in France. Postal mail is still important even though, as in all western countries, the volume of mail has considerably decreased. Even traditional Christmas letters are now rarely sent by mail, but go by email as an attachment and often with a lot more pictures! I still make sure I check the mailbox at the office every day, though the home one is more often forgotten.

I remember an American and a good friend of mine who used to live in Paris complaining about ten years ago that people dared to call her cell phone before trying the landline. The latter was the important one, and some of us can remember when many American homes where a teenager was living had two phone lines. Today I am rarely called on my landline; and the cell phone has replaced it. We have reached the point where calling is no longer our first reflex. Actual voice calls are now a lot less common than text messages and social media messages.

I freely admit that I have followed this trend, as I like writing. Professionally I favor emails by far, at least for now. I consider text messages and social media, in my case Facebook, as personal tools – non-billable ways of communicating. I have replaced phone calls with Skype or FaceTime. So do not be surprised if I do not return calls as quickly as I answer emails!

THE PUMA BILLING SYSTEM IS STILL NOT READY 
On January 1st, 2016, a form of insurance called protection universelle maladie (PUMA) replaced thecouverture maladie universelle (CMU), which had worked very well for foreigners who chose to sign on to the public healthcare program.

Since then, for many people, it has been a situation of URSSAF saying, “Your account has been closed; please refer to CPAM if your account is still open”; then their caisse primaire d’assurance maladie (CPAM) would reply, “Your account works well, you are covered, and we know nothing about billing – we are not involved with that.”

In other words, the answers people have been getting from CPAM and URSSAF have been murky at best, and “We do not know anything” when they were being honest!

As I have already noted, many of my American clients freaked out more than once upon hearing such statements. For them, their coverage was at great risk, since it had been months (now almost two years) since they made their last payment into the system. I fully respect their concerns, knowing how easily insurers drop those who do not pay their premiums.

In early October 2017, the people concerned received a letter from CPAM stating that finally things were falling into place and that billing would resume later that month. It went on to explain the calculation of the premium: 8% would be based on the 2016 income declared to the French tax office. Then in late November, many received another letter but from URSSAF stating that bills would be issued by the end of the month. As usual, they are not capable of meeting their own deadline, even though the French administration is moving, slowly but surely. URSSAF’s latest answer is that the first invoice (appel de cotisation) should be sent in mid-December. So I anticipate that at the latest they will be issued in January. The payments are expected to be made within one month. Always keep in mind that you can ask for a schedule of payments, even though these premiums are paid quarterly.

There is also the issue of foreigners holding a carte de séjour mention visiteur who do not declare income in France since they do not stay more than six months a year. I intend to investigate this situation, which covers several of my clients. If people are in France less than six months a year, they are not considered residents of France, even if they have a French address and a French bank account, and have held a carte de séjour for several years. For a while, the CPAM guidelines stated that even carte de séjour visiteur holders who declared income in France were not allowed to register. That nonsense has since stopped, but clearly they are still worried about proving French residence in terms of physical presence. Current applicants must send updated utility bills, internet bills and so on, three or sometimes four times, just to convince CPAM that they are indeed resident in France.

So this creates serious concern for people who are to renew their carte de séjour visiteur in the near future –in December and, most likely, in January. All they can show is a letter stating that they will receive a bill shortly, plus their claim that they have received nothing. As any junior lawyer knows, it is basically impossible to prove that something has not happened. So I hope we find a way out of this situation, knowing that both URSSAF and CPAM have been unwilling to help in any way. I think it will be hard to get a statement out of either of them explaining the situation.

I will keep my readers informed as things unfold, since finally, after almost two years, they are in fact unfolding!

DOES FRENCH GRAMMAR HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH SEX EQUALITY?
As far back as I can remember, since I was a very young boy, this issue has always come up one way or another. I was in elementary school when my mother stopped going to her gym class. There had been only women and so the teacher addressed them as “Mesdames,” but then one man joined and from then on the teacher called them all “Messieurs” even though the ratio was probably 30 to 1. My mother could not stand it and quit the class. Right now there is a very serious debate in France on whether French grammar should be changed so that it enhances equality between the sexes, mainly so as to address situations like the one I have described.

I want to stay away from this debate, as I feel totally incompetent as a grammarian, whether in French or in English. I would just point out that English as it is spoken all over the world stigmatizes gender differences a lot less. And yet Anglophone countries are facing sexual harassment issues as much as France, and many other countries, for that matter.

Women in many countries, including France, the USA and the UK, have been revealing sexual harassment and even criminal offences, by prominent men. Have Western societies at last reached such a turning point that there will be no going back? Perhaps, but it is too soon to be sure.

In the 1970s I saw the Scandinavian countries address gender equality in a definitive way. From education to the surrounding culture and the media, it felt like everything needed to change, pretty much overnight. These countries now face their own issues, mostly related to immigration and integrating the refugees who have arrived in recent decades. Nevertheless they remain steadfast on gender equality, in a way that is somewhat mindboggling for the rest of the world. I saw what it took for these countries to turn things around on this issue.

Clearly education – in the broad sense, not just in schools – has something to do with changing behaviors and expectations. The way language and grammar deal with gender affects people nearly as much as the way people speak and the words they use. But I am not sure that changing grammatical rules is the top priority in this matter. I might go so far as to say that significant improvement could be made without changing French grammar, which might be the right fight at the wrong time, when more urgent and effective measures should be taken.

On a totally different and much lighter note, I would point out that French is already quite complicated when it comes to mastering masculine and feminine. Adding another layer of complication will not make it any easier to learn.

For more info (in French), see http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/education/article/2017/11/08/apres-l-ecriture-la-grammaire-inclusive_5211949_1473685.html?xtmc=inclusive&xtcr=8

HOW TO FIND OUT WHERE A FRENCH WILL IS HELD 
Someone recently asked me, “How do I know if my deceased French resident client has a French will?” The American answer would be, “Who is their lawyer? Where is their safety deposit box?”

It is quite common in the USA for an individual to have a private lawyer, and many more keep valuable stuff in a safe at home or safety deposit box at the bank. This is mainly because most wills in the USA are drafted by lawyers and are witnessed, and thus in many ways are more public than French wills.

By contrast, the typical French will is handwritten on a completely blank sheet of paper by a person who is totally alone in the room. A French will is generally one page long, rarely more than two. So it is hardly an excruciating physical exercise, even now when few people write by hand anymore. One reason French wills are so short is that it is impossible to disinherit your children or, more recently, your spouse or to favor one child over another. In fact, there used to be so many limits that many thought it was not worth writing a will. The most common will, in my experience, pretty much just states, in this order:
1 – I bequeath everything to my surviving spouse.
2 – I bequeath the rest of my estate in equal shares to my children.

A notaire then takes this document and registers it, for a cost of about 30€, at the central database in Aix-en-Provence.

At the time of a loved one’s death, sometimes even before contacting a notaire, it is possible for a member of the family who is considered to be “the public” by the notaire profession, to check whether the deceased left a French will. However, it is only possible to see if the will exists and which notaire registered it. So it helps to know whom to contact to handle the estate.

Here is the site to check. One needs to know the details of the deceased and the closeness of the relationship to the deceased in order to get access to this information. A third party cannot get it.
http://www.adsn.notaires.fr/fcddvPublic/profileChoice.htm

THE FRENCH ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO REVIEW HLM LEASES EVERY SIX YEARS
HLM stands for habitation à loyer modéré, or low-income housing project. Most American or British people think of public housing as rundown, poorly maintained and dangerous. That is true in some cases in France, but the vast majority of HLMs are in much better standing. I know a few in Paris that look like quite desirable places to live, and there are HLMs in some of the most expensive districts of Paris. So people should look at French housing projects very differently from American or British ones.

However, it is true that there are problems with the HLM program. To start with, obtaining an apartment takes ages. There was a time when it took ten years except in a dire emergency. Another problem, linked to waves of immigration, is the lowest income families had top priority, which reduced social mixing and resulted in ethic enclaves about twenty years ago, which still exist today. At the other extreme, some Parisian HLMs lost tenants when the family income rose to the point that they were no longer eligible to live there.

In early 2011, an experiment started modeling the amount of rent paid compared to the income earned by the family so as to allow a much wider range of people to live in the same building. One positive financial effect of this experiment is that higher rent is being paid. It also helps keep the buildings in good condition, as people with higher means often have higher expectations.

Meanwhile, the solidarity and urban renewal law (SRU), passed on December 13, 2000, specifically article 55, obliged all major French cities to have a minimum of 20% social housing or be fined. The fines have risen with the passing years so that now only a handful of cities are not compliant. The most notorious one is Neuilly-sur-Seine, whose mayor has full support from the voters to pay the ever increasing fines, no matter how high. But this is a true oddity compared to the rest of France.

A new housing bill, into which the strategy is to be incorporated, is expected to be discussed by the cabinet by the end of the year. It would allow the HLM program to check their tenants’ situations every six years. It is meant to address a particular dysfunction in the system. Say that a young family with two small children gets a three-bedroom apartment. Twenty years later, the parents move out but one of the children stays in the apartment as a newlywed and starts a new family. The old parents still pay the rent and are considered on paper to be the tenants. This shows how much people cling to such housing, knowing how difficult it is to come by. Such situations are not being addressed because they do not create any incidents that would force the management to review who was living there. The biggest problem for HLM authorities is fluidity: People moving out should leave the place for people who deserve to move in. The system would be a lot less clogged if this happened. The proposed housing bill, to be discussed soon in the cabinet, targets exactly that.

It will be a long time before France restores safety and order in all neighborhoods, including those with high concentrations of the worst HLM projects. But I believe these kinds of actions, taken one after another, go in the right direction, although it will be hard to change the true ethic enclaves.

For more info (in French), see
http://www.lemonde.fr/logement/article/2017/09/18/locataires-hlm-le-maintien-dans-les-lieux-sera-reexamine-tous-les-six-ans_5187202_1653445.html

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for three weeks for the Christmas holidays, starting on Friday December 15th, reopening on Monday January 8th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. I did not take much of a summer vacation so I have decided to take some time off, close to the normal length of my vacation. Of course, I will honor the prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.

Best regards,

QUESTION

OWNING FRENCH REAL ESTATE THROUGH A CORPORATION

I am a partner in an American LLC, which purchased a village house in France in 2006 through the establishment of an SCI. For a while now, we have been receiving requests from the tax inspector for information about the value of the property, the identity and addresses of the partners in the SCI, and the financial conditions under which a transfer of shares would take place. We have provided this information but the requests keep coming. Also, we have no idea what the current market value is. Since the LLC is owner of the SCI, to what extent are the individual partners subject to taxation if/when they decide to sell a share?

QUESTION

CHOOSING FRENCH HEALTH COVERAGE BY WORKING IN FRANCE

My wife and I are American retirees who permanently moved to France this past summer. Our primary income comes from our pensions and my Social Security. We would like to sign up for French national healthcare but are concerned about how much it will cost us. We have health insurance coverage from our retirement and, although it is annoyingly difficult to obtain pre-authorization for medications – we have to pay first and file a claim, and French doctors and pharmacies are baffled by it all – the amount we pay for the insurance is far less than 8% of our gross income. And that’s factoring in the additional premium we have to pay for the “Schengen” insurance that is necessary for the visitor visa (even though our retirement health insurance covers up to 90% of our health insurance costs).

My wife has dual American and Hungarian citizenship and I am American only. Although I have no plans of becoming self-employed in France, my wife does. She has her master’s degree in English and plans to start a business teaching English as a second language.

From the internet, it appears that she could become a micro-entrepreneur and, in that capacity, obtain French national healthcare. What is not entirely clear is, assuming she could do this, whether I could also be covered as a family member. Also, if she pursues this course, we are not sure if our US pension and Social Security income would be factored into the amount we would pay in social charges. Another issue is the effect on the healthcare coverage if she either does not earn enough money to sustain the business or terminates the business.

From Wikipedia: “Déjà Vu is the second album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and their first in the quartet configuration of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It was released in March 1970.” This French expression is common enough in English that the band named one of their albums after it.

Many people see the Brexit “leave” vote and the election of President Trump as a series in which the French presidential election could be the next event to come, with populist views winning votes and, in the case of France, a far-right president adopting isolationist policies and severely limiting immigration.

We know that recent polls have been relatively inaccurate and polling agencies are now careful to explain that the margin of error is substantial so the result of the election cannot be predicted. I believe the pollsters are going from one extreme to the other, but maybe that is not such a bad idea. The presidential campaign is now running full blast, with a debate, polls and media coverage, and almost daily findings of illegal conduct by prominent politicians. Feels like déjà vu of the American campaign.

Foreigners too often repeat the same mistakes again and again, thinking they are doing the right thing since it is what they have always done back home. In this month’s column, a non-EU citizen asserts to the prefecture that she has rights and should not be treated in such an unfriendly way being required to,go back there again and again, when in reality she is an undocumented alien and the way she is being treated is in accordance with her illegal stay in France. Another is convinced that since she has not paid for certain services, she is not entitled to them and is outraged as a result, although as it happens the French administration makes it possible to retain the right to services without paying for them for a while – even a long while.

The title Déjà Vu is a reminder that if you feel like a problem is coming up repeatedly, you may be doing something wrong. As a foreigner you will often be wrong, at least at first and possibly for quite some time.

DETAILS ON HOW FRENCH AND US PENSIONS WORK TOGETHER

Another reader comments, regarding the Q&A in February’s column regarding the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP):

“The writer said: “I was, however, shocked to find out . . . my US benefits will be cut by 40% to 50% unless “vous est attribué dans le cadre de l’accord entre la France et les Etats-Unis” ’.

“The writer’s specific case may cause a reduction of 40% to 50% (or more), but the full story of the application and calculation of the WEP is more complicated. It is often misunderstood, but the TOTAL American Social Security benefit may NOT be reduced by a specific percentage. That is because while a French pension generally returns 50% of eligible earnings, the US calculation is ‘progressive.’

“After a person’s best 35 years of earnings are indexed for inflation, the lifetime average monthly wage is calculated. The pension paid on that figure is 90% of the first ‘bend point’/tranche, which in 2017 is $885. (So the pensioner gets 90% of $885 = $796.)

“To this is added 32% of the average lifetime monthly wage between $885 and $5336, and to this is added 15% of any amount above $5336. (There is a maximum pension because contributions are paid only up to a an earnings ceiling, just as in France.)

“This hints at the reason, sought by the writer, of why he is ‘penalized.’ The American calculation system is weighted toward people with a lifetime of low income so as to help assure they are not in poverty once they retire.

“If the worker has earnings unknown to Social Security, such as foreign employment, the calculation is distorted. The person may very well have had a high lifetime income, but the pension would be calculated as if he did not.

“The WEP therefore changes the percentage of return for the first bend point from 90% to 40%. In 2017, the return on the first bend point under the WEP would be $885 x 0.40 = $354 instead of $796. The maximum reduction is therefore $796 – $354 = $442. There is no reduction of amounts calculated for the 32% and 15 bend points.

“That’s the first thing. The second is that the WEP has a limit. The reduction cannot be more than 50% of the foreign pension. Again, this is to protect people with small pensions. So if your writer had a French pension equivalent to $700, the WEP reduction would be $350, not $442.

“The third condition says that anybody with 20 or more years of ‘substantial earnings’ (an amount defined annually) will have the WEP reduction lowered by 5% per year, such that a person with 30 years of substantial earnings in the US will have NO WEP reduction because of foreign earnings. This is not the case of your writer, who has 10 years.

“The fourth point is the most fun. The bilateral social security accords are called totalization agreements. They say that if a person does not have enough units to qualify for a pension in one country, he may use units from the other country. So if your writer had only nine years’ work in the US, where ten are required, he could ‘borrow’ four trimesters from his French employment and thus be eligible for a US pension. This is totalization.

“It is important that the foreign (e.g. French) credits add nothing to the AMOUNT of the US pension; they just make the person lacking units eligible for one.

“As for Americans, the agreement says that if totalization was needed to qualify for the French pension, then there will be no WEP reduction! THAT is probably the meaning of: ‘unless “[il] vous est attribué dans le cadre de l’accord entre la France et les Etats-Unis.” ’

“The agreement’s totalization provision must be invoked to avoid WEP. According to the CNAV, this will happen automatically if application for the French pension is made using the application (form SSA-2490) via the US Social Security website. To make certain of this, the issue should be discussed with the FBU officer at the US embassy.

“I know this has worked, although it doesn’t seem to make sense since only one quarter is needed to claim a French pension, but US Social Security explains: ‘Under French law, a worker can qualify for an old-age pension based on as little as one calendar quarter of contributions but the benefit amount is reduced for workers with less than 150-160 quarters (depending on year of birth). Under the agreement, France will compute an old-age pension based on French credits alone as well as a prorated benefit based on U.S. and French credits, and then pay whichever is greater.’

“On a related matter, Americans receiving US Social Security retirement benefits should know that their US or non-US spouse is usually entitled to his/her own retirement benefit, based upon the primary earner’s record, which is up to 50% of the primary worker’s benefit.

“This is also true for divorced spouse(s) for each marriage that lasted at least ten years and provided the spouse(s) has/have not remarried.

“The spouse(s) can also get a survivor benefit (réversion), which is 100% (unlike the French 54%) if the survivor waits until full retirement age, and is not means-tested. This applies to divorced spouses if the marriage lasted ten years. Unlike France, US Social Security does not pro-rate benefits among multiple spouses; each gets the survivor benefit.

“The WEP reduces a spouse benefit but does not reduce a survivor benefit!”

THERE IS A LIMIT TO A NOTAIRE’S PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

I frequently find new precedents giving more responsibility to notaires and thus extending their professional responsibility and liability. However, a recent precedent puts a clear limit on how far a notaire needs to go to protect the interests of property buyers.

In 2008, a couple in the South of France bought a mazet or maset, a small rural building of a single room, in bonded masonry (which may or may not be covered with mortar) and roofed with tiles. Such structures are common in Languedoc, particularly in the departments of Gard, Ardèche and Hérault, where until the early 20^th century poor city dwellers used them as week-end houses.

During the course of the purchase procedure, the couple explained that they wanted to upgrade the mazet into a real house. Later they learned that the mazet was not considered a house to start with and therefore could not be used as a permanent dwelling, so their building permit request was denied. They sued both the seller and the notaire for not explaining that their plan was impossible to achieve.

The Cour de Cassation ruled against the couple, arguing in plain terms that you know what you are buying; for example, no one would buy a toolshed and decide to make it into a house. I am sure the notaire had told them that the property was zoned as farmland, which limited its usage. I can understand that foreigners who want to buy cute real estate on the Riviera end up being fooled since mazets look like tiny houses and are at least 100 years old.

For more information (in French), see http://sosconso.blog.lemonde.fr/2017/01/17/avant-dacheter-une-maison-pour-la-retaper-on-verifie-quon-en-aura-le-droit

BEING MARRIED AND CREATING A HOUSEHOLD FOR FISCAL PURPOSES

I have occasionally had to deal with cases where one spouse, often the wife, has settled in France and holds immigration status while the husband continues to work in the USA and lacks any immigration status in France. For the French resident spouse, obtaining a visa and later a carte de séjour is not much of a problem but getting a carte de résident is more complicated, since one must prove a minimum of integration and roots in France. Having a spouse who live outside of France without starting divorce proceedings indicates that ties with the USA are still strong, which can militate against the request. My last such client held a carte de séjour visiteur for ten years before she got the carte de résident.

On the fiscal side, the situation is even more interesting. Tax form 2042, which everybody fills out with their basic information, treats couples who live apart, without a legal separation, the same as divorced couples (although the husband can decide to become a French fiscal resident, since the rest of the family lives in France). When my client first told the French tax office that she was married and that her husband lived in the USA, the tax office considered her to be separated, which infuriated her since they are indeed married and are a strong couple. Nevertheless, she confirmed that her husband lived in the USA and had no ties with France except through her. Finally, she said, the tax office essentially gave up and accepted that she was happily married – but still taxed her as a single woman in France.

Some people do not care much how the administration labels them as long as it does not interfere with their life. I have had clients who pretty much stated, “They can decide what they want; it doesn’t bother me.” Others, like this woman, take the misrepresentation personally but do not want to change their situation. They are determined to set the record straight, even if it does not change anything in their life. I find it very interesting to see how different the reactions can be in this situation.

OFFICE TO BE CLOSED JUST BEFORE SUMMER

The office will close for less than two weeks starting on Thursday June 8^th, reopening on Wednesday June 21^st. 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. This time I am leaving France and email will truly be the only way to reach me while I am gone.

Best regards,

QUESTION

PROPER IMMIGRATION PROCEDURE FOR THE SPOUSE OF AN EU

I am an American citizen married to a Spanish citizen. We now live in Paris, where my husband is working. Although European law guarantees the right for me to stay with him and work here, I have experienced quite a lot of trouble with the local prefecture. I explained to the prefecture that Americans married to Europeans do not need visas to enter Europe. I even have letters from the UK and NY French embassies confirming this. It is also stated on the page of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (“Nationals exempt from the short-stay visa requirement under Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 and holders of a residence permit for family members of Union citizens may travel to France without a visa and apply for a residence permit”), and on the page of the French Consulate in NYC (“Family members of a Union national who does not require a short-stay visa do not require an entry and stay visa, whatever the duration of their stay.”)
 
The Nanterre prefecture, however, gave me an appointment for my carte de séjour only for April 12th. This means that I will overrun the 90 days of my visa waiver stay. What should I do? Is it possible for me to go somewhere to extend it, or should I go in and out of the Schengen area (e.g. London)? I am afraid that it is much more difficult for me to go back and forth to the US.

QUESTION

I found this statement on a French administration website about the new rules for spouses of EU citizens. (The link is below.) I am interested to hear your interpretation of this:

“La demande de titre de séjour n’est obligatoire que si vous êtes ressortissant(e) d’un pays tiers à l’UE/EEE/Confédération suisse et que vous souhaitez exercer une activité professionnelle.

Si vous êtes membre de famille d’un(e) citoyen(ne) de l’UE/EEE/Confédération suisse, vous pourrez exercer toute activité professionnelle de votre choix, salariée ou non-salariée, sans avoir à demander de titre de séjour.

Si vous le demandez, vous pouvez recevoir un titre portant la mention « Carte de séjour de membre de la famille d’un citoyen de l’Union ».

http://accueil-etrangers.gouv.fr/demande-de-titre-de-sejour/vous-etes-ressortissant-e-de-l-ue/vous-etes-membre-de-famille-d-un/

QUESTION

IS IT NORMAL TO GET PUMA COVERAGE WITHOUT PAYING?

In your Dec-Jan newsletter you said you would be discussing the potential problem of URSSAF not billing holders of the titre mention visiteur for the premiums for PUMA in 2016 when they renew their titres at the prefecture. I have eagerly awaited your comments, but your Feb and March newsletters did not mention this.

We have been in the French health care system for several years and have been billed quarterly by URSSAF based on the income declared to CPAM. When the change was made from CMU to PUMA, CPAM indicated that our renewal (Sept 2015) was approved but they did not indicate what the premiums would be and they told me it was up to URSSAF to figure it out. URSSAF indicated that their procedures had not been worked out so they could not send a bill despite the fact that we declare our incomes and have an avis d’imposition. Articles have been written on how basically no premiums were charged in 2016 so the prefecture should be well aware that it was impossible to pay the premiums, as URSSAF could not bill. And the prefecture does not like people to not pay for assurance maladie.

Under PUMA you do not have to do any renewal paperwork; you stay enrolled until you tell them you no longer qualify, so we did not have to do any renewal paperwork in Sept 2016. We have had no problems using our cartes vitales and we have not received nor paid anything concerning premiums.

What has been your experience with this, and what problems, and answers, should we anticipate at the prefecture for our renewal?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best regards,

QUESTION

FRENCH SHORT-TERM RENTAL AND PRIMARY RESIDENCE

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

QUESTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best regards,

QUESTION

THE RIGHT OF A MINOR CHILD TO TRAVEL WITHOUT PARENTS

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

QUESTION

A WATER DAMAGE CLAIM AND INSURANCE COMPANY DEMANDS

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

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

First of all, I would like to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous 2016!
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.

The word “pilgrims” can be seen as an ancient way to say “refugees.” Everyone seems to agree that one is very different from the other. Today’s news only talks about refugees and I have not heard anyone talking about pilgrims. The difference is imprinted in our brains. When we hear “pilgrims” we have a hard time not thinking about “the Mayflower” and her sister ships reaching the coasts of what is today the USA.

“I read the dictionary and I can see the difference, yet I am still puzzled by the fact that some centuries ago people seeking refuge on the American continent were called pilgrims but from the mid-19th century on, especially in the 20th century, everybody became refugees, fleeing hunger in Ireland, poverty, religious persecution in Russia, and so on.

When I see Iraqi and Syrian Christians fleeing for their lives because they are Christians, does this make them pilgrims? I am not sure. The bottom line is that the word “pilgrim” has a lot of positive connotations and the word “refugee” a lot of bad ones. In most Western countries today, the population has an adverse reaction to an influx of refugees.

A NEW YEAR FOR EVERYBODY, INCLUDING REFUGEES
The Christmas and New Year’s holidays are the moment when most people reflect on the past year and what they aspire for in the new year that is about to start. At that moment, the world can be divided between those who make New-Year’s resolutions and those who do not. We know what happens to most of those resolutions, whether in the USA, in France, or elsewhere in the world, at least in countries where people have some control over their own lives. It would almost take a philosophical discussion to define the concept of “some control over one’s own life.” I believe we are less in control over our lives than we think. The refugees who arrive in the Western world have virtually no control over their lives, and that lasts for quite a while. The most basic necessities of life – where to sleep and what to eat – are not under their control. Some of them are lucky enough to receive a lot of help from the government of the host country, but way too many arrive and find nothing is ready for them. They must rely on help from NGOs, longer-term refugees, and the neighbors.

This is a very complex political issue and I believe that it can only be properly addressed at the international level. In the meantime, in many European countries, including France, refugees congregate under bridges or in squares, waiting, and I am not sure that they truly know what they are waiting for.

I find it ironic that France passed a law on July 29th 2015 reorganizing refugee-asylum procedures, supposedly shortening their length from an average of two years to about nine months. On November 2nd, ten days after the last provisions related to this law were issued, a new wave of refugees was settling in the Paris region, clogging the system. The nine-month goal now looks totally unrealistic, and processing is likely to take several years again, as I do not see the flow of refugees to the Western world stopping any time soon. One of a few refugees I help just received a letter stating that the French refugee office, OFPRA, is not in a position to schedule the initial meeting within six months as the new law provides. The request was submitted in late June and the letter was sent in late December. It did not say when the meeting might be scheduled. Here, too, the refugee has no control over what is going on, and sometimes has to wait years before the request is reviewed and the decision is definitive.

My experience is that most refugees rebound in one way or another after several months, maybe a year, and start to create a new life where they are. They can secure lodging and food, most of them find work, and they learn which organizations can really help and how.

One can only hope that this year of 2016, which has just started, will bring success, happiness and safety to the vast majority of people.

COMMENT FROM A READER
“Congratulations on the PayPal account. I’m reaching a point where I won’t do business with someone who doesn’t have one. Just using it saves me $40 each time I make a transfer.”

MY RESPONSE
I try to make sure that I keep all possible methods of payment available for a private practice. This comment illustrates quite well the evolution in financial arrangements and the need for the banking industry to come up with new solutions for the general public, whether in France, the USA or elsewhere.

UPDATE ON AIRLINES’ DUTY TO CHECK IMMIGRATION STATUS
In the previous issue (December-January) there was a Q/A on this topic and I asked the reader to let me know the outcome. It went much better than I thought, although I was right to state that it would not be easy to persuade the airline of the validity of the claim.

I find it very interesting that it was the insurance policy attached to the use of the credit card that did the trick. I believe that if that insurance company had not addressed the claim, it would have gone nowhere. This is good to know; the threat of a liability lawsuit makes American business react quickly when the threat is credible and the opponent a major corporation. So let’s continue to use our credit cards, with moderation and according to our means!

THE READER’S UPDATE
On my return to Paris, not being able to find a telephone number on their website, I sent an e-mail to the low cost airline complaining about being forced to buy a return ticket to the US. I received an automatic response saying that they would get back to me in 5 or 6 weeks.

I then telephoned the Bank of America MasterCard dispute department. The person I spoke with told me that they would investigate the charge and not to pay the airline’s charge on my bill until further notice. While I was still on the line, the agent called the airline on another line. She expressed surprise that the telephone number that she had for the airline was for a top-level executive. This person was unavailable to take the call but the agent promised to keep trying. She said that MasterCard would get back to me with their decision by letter, which I eventually received.

In the meantime, after I found out from you that my identity card was indeed still valid, I called back the MasterCard dispute office and added that information to my file. I also sent another e-mail to the airline stating the same information.

After that e-mail or perhaps after hearing from the MasterCard folks, the airline wrote back to me much earlier than the 5 or 6 weeks announced in their original response. They offered me a refund if I would send them my bank information.

I called MasterCard back to tell them that the airline had offered me a refund. They said that the file had already been closed and that the charge had been removed from my account.

WELL-INSULATED HOMES SELL FOR MORE
For a long time, people buying real estate did not pay much attention to how well insulated the house or apartment was. In recent years, however, there has been a rather dramatic change. People buying real estate in France are interested in how much it costs to heat the place; poor insulation makes this a lot more expensive at a time when electricity, heating oil and gas have undergone significant price increases. Another factor is increased awareness that saving energy is good for environmental reasons and should be promoted in all possible ways.

It took some time to register the change; the association DINAMIC, managed by the Conseil supérieur du notariat and the Chambre des notaires de Paris, carefully studied real estate transactions in France during 2014, comparing properties of similar types and checking their ratings regarding insulation.

Since 1996, France has passed laws requiring that buyers have reliable information and do not rely solely on real estate agents, who in those days had a reputation for lying about pretty much every possible topic related to properties. The Carrez law of December 18th 1996 was the first: it was passed to stop real estate agents from systematically lying about the size of houses and apartments. Laws on other topics soon followed. Today, the number of certified, independent testing firms and the scope of the laws put buyers in France on the same footing as those in the USA, where evaluations are done by surveyors, though there are some differences in what is tested.

• Presence of lead in the apartment and building (diagnostic plomb)
  The test concerns water and paint. Even though many existing pipes are made of lead, this kind of pollution is exceedingly rare. Lead paint has been banned for about 40 years, yet it is very common to find one or more layers of such paint on the walls and ceilings of Parisian apartments. The risk of exposure to this pollution is slight unless the paint is so chipped that the old layers are accessible, in which case there is a serious danger of small children eating the paint.
• Presence of asbestos in the apartment and building (diagnostic amiante)
  Asbestos, formerly used as insulation and a fire retardant, is highly toxic when inhaled.
• Presence of termites in the apartment and building (diagnostic termites)
  The presence of termites in French cities is relatively recent and can be explained that until recently the construction of French houses used very little wood.
• Condition of the electrical system in the apartment (installation électrique)
  The electrical system is evaluated to see whether it meets the current safety standards, and its description helps in understanding its flaws, if any.
• Condition of the gas system in the apartment (installation gaz)
  Not all apartments use gas for cooking, heating or hot water. If there is a need, the system is evaluated.
• Potential risks from nature or human activity (risques naturels et technologiques)
  This is mainly about the risk of floods and earthquakes, and dangers related to nearby factories.
• Energy performance of the apartment (performance énergétique)
  This concerns the cost and energy efficiency of heating and (if any) cooling. The test mainly involves checking window and door insulation and the type of heating system installed, mainly gas or electricity in Paris.

With all these tests made mandatory within a short period, it is understandable that the impact of insulation quality on selling price was not easily identified. It was only made mandatory in 2011.Notaires say it has become a strong selling point when the property gets a good rating.

Their research is pegged to the D rating, which is average (the range goes from A, excellent, to G, terrible). The amount of variation in price depends on location, but an F or G rating can reduce the price by between 5% and 18%. For example, in Brittany, a poor rating means an average decrease of 13%.

Apartments are less affected because as part of a building they benefit from the protection of the building itself. The average decrease for poor ratings is between 2% and 14%, depending on where the apartment is. On the other hand, houses with an A or B rating sell for between 5% and 12% more.

The French are rarely thought of as being environmentally aware, but this study shows that when it comes to real estate, energy conservation has become a key selling point in a relatively short time, showing that French people can indeed alter their behavior in response to environmental concerns.

For more on this issue (in French), see: http://www.lemonde.fr/immobilier/article/2015/10/15/immobilier-les-passoires-energetiques-se-vendent-jusqu-a-18-moins-cher_4790482_1306281.html#rv00EcW63k1gwK6z.99

PARISIAN REAL ESTATE PRICES ARE GOING BACK UP
I never read French weekly magazines’ supplements on the real estate market. These publications must be very useful to a lot of people, since they are often the year’s best-seller. I do not consider myself a professional in this field, especially when it comes to prices for a given type of apartments or in a given district. On occasion, however, my clients ask me for an evaluation of the market, and I always make sure to carefully review the Parisian notaire database. Ads only indicate what sellers hope to get, which can be quite unrealistic. When French real estate agents do an evaluation, they ask what it is being used for and if it needs to be low or high, so their estimates are also seriously suspect.

The notaire, among many other responsibilities, is the professional representing the interests of the French state in real estate transactions, and it is he or she who drafts the title for the new buyer. The notaires’database, therefore, is made up of actual transactions. Usually about three to four months elapse between the seller accepting the offer and the closing of the sale, so the information available in the database may not quite reflect the current status of the market. I marginally adjust my findings depending on if it is a bull or a bear market. But the fact that the data comes from actual transactions makes me confident that I am dealing with reliable information.

In the third quarter of 2015 there were 25% more apartment sales than in the same quarter of 2014, or 9,500 more transactions. The annual increase over the last twelve months is 4.2%. The volume of sales is now at the level it was before the 2008 crisis. The average price of a square meter of real estate in Paris is now 8,000 euros, up 0.7 % from the previous quarter. The average rate for a twenty-year loan is 2.6%.

For more on this issue (in French), see: http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/immobilier/article/2015/11/26/immobilier-le-prix-des-logements-anciens-en-hausse-de-0-5-au-3e-trimestre_4817742_1306281.html
Here is the link to the real estate page of the Parisian notaires’ website, for those interested in reading more about it. www.notaires.paris-idf.fr/immobilier

FRENCH INCOME TAX REMINDER
French income tax is generally paid in three installments: on February 15th, May 15th and September 15th. Everyone should have received the applicable tax statement by now. If you have not received it, but you know that you owe French income tax for 2016, you must pay the required amount, which is one-third of the total tax you paid in 2015. Errors made by the French administration never exempt the individual from complying with the law.

My column is now in Expatriates Magazine :  http://paris.expatriatesmagazine.com
It has been a very long time since my column has been printed in an actual paper magazine (it got its start in the Paris Voice in 1994). I am very happy to announce that sections of the column can now be found in Expatriates Magazine, and I would like to thank the editor in chief, Kevin Knight, for accepting my offer. After only a couple of issues, I am getting a bigger readership.

The Q/A below on whether it is now easier to become French was first published in the magazine. I may not mention it every time this happens, but considering the time I spend answering questions on the magazine’s Facebook page, it is likely that I will continue to use questions from there.

Best regards,

QUESTION

ANOTHER READER ON AIRLINES’ DUTY TO CHECK IMMIGRATION STATUS

This is a curious problem that the holder of an expired CNI had. My understanding of the basic law is that if you are a citizen of country X you must enter and leave X with a valid travel document for X, usually the passport of X. So if your itinerary were Paris-NY-Paris you would have to leave Paris on a French passport, enter the US on a US passport, leave the US on a US passport and enter France on a French passport.
The Americans sound like they would make you buy a round-trip ticket leaving NY for Paris if you followed this rule! Unless you present both passports, but even so, for the purposes of not having to buy another ticket they will select the French one, but for the purposes of complying with the law they should select the US one. I have not been to the US for 10 years and then they did not have an exit procedure other than the airline counter — but suppose they introduce an exit police booth (or have already); then your passport won’t match your ticket information unless you have a round-trip ticket!
Maybe the US is a special case, but my wife is French-Egyptian and she passes police booths both entering and leaving both countries. But the Egyptians don’t ask for a return ticket when she returns to France. Either I’ve got the basic law wrong or the Americans are crazy. Or both.

QUESTION

IS IT EASIER TO BECOME FRENCH THAN BEFORE?

My response to your statement about it now being easier to become French: NOT TRUE! Having been married to a Frenchman for over a quarter century, lived here for 12 years, and had three cartes de séjour, a CDI with a French company and a carte de presse, not to mention having given birth to two kids for la patrimoine, I decided to apply for citizenship in June. I sent my ENORMOUS dossier by lettre recommandée, so I know it arrived at the prefecture, but I have never received one single word from the Immigration Service. Not one word.They do not answer the phone nor do they answer email. The wait can be two hours WHEN they are open, and as I work, it is very difficult to go to rue des Ursins for that exercise in futility. So, no, I do not think it is easier. What is easy is to become an American citizen, which my French husband did in a matter of minutes. All online and then a short interview with 6 questions which he answered correctly (at what age can you vote?, who is your Senator?, etc.) and bingo, he is in! No written English test, no obligatory civics classes. And he gets to choose any name he would like to be called as a brand new citizen.The French bureaucracy is WORSE than when I moved here in 1990 and I have seen absolutely no change in making ANYTHING easier.

Maybe you know something I don’t. If so, please, oh please, tell me.

QUESTION

IRENEWING A STILL VALID FRENCH CARTE NATIONALE D’IDENTITÉ

If I may make a comment regarding the renewal of the French CNI, I recently renewed my card at the Uzès mairie. I was able to do this only because my address had changed. If I had wanted to renew it simply because the date shown had expired, I was told, I would have had to write a letter to the prefecture in Nimes with my justification for requesting the renewal. Even though I reminded the clerk in Uzès that a seemingly expired card is not necessarily welcome or accepted everywhere, she stood her ground, provoking an impolite comment from me. I’m a dual US-French national too. ANYTHING easier.

Maybe you know something I don’t. If so, please, oh please, tell me.

Stephen Stills wrote the song “Find the Cost of Freedom ” , which is the last song of the live album 4 way Street by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released on April 7, 1971.

My son Eric as a pre-teen played this album for about a year after hearing it once when I was playing it. More than 40 years after its release, the album still has a significant impact on people, and managed to outlive the hippie movement, of which this band and its individual artists were perceived as spokesmen.

The question of how much people are willing to give up to be free – which in this context means unattached to possessions and outside of a system – is a very interesting one, which was critical at the time and still resonates today. Today, for over a decade, the question has also shifted to how much people are willing to give up to be worry-free, which is another form of feeling free.

I find it very interesting that the pursuit of freedom in terms of being detached from society and the desire to be worry-free, which makes people even more entrenched in society, are by nature very often completely incompatible goals.

I have no intention of pursuing this analysis, as it is not my area of expertise, but I find interesting that in recent months there has been legislation in France (originating at the EU level) that increased the right to choose, i.e., the freedom to decide, about more than one topic. The choice of which laws apply to one’s estate, the freedom to travel in and around Paris in public transport and the freedom to marry are some of the examples I chose as topics for this month’s issue.

At the same time, laws lowering the maximum one can pay in cash, and maintaining the monopoly of notaireson several critical aspects of people’s lives such as buying real estate, signing a prenuptial agreement or handling one’s estate, are ways of limiting people’s freedom and the promise of ever gaining or maintaining a worry-free state.

These are tiny illustrations, coming when both France and the USA are pretty much in a presidential electoral campaign, with an ongoing debate on how much right of surveillance the state should have to protect its people.

It is all about finding the cost of freedom.

MORE DETAILS ON NEW REGULATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL ESTATES
In the September 2015 issue, I mentioned that as of August 17th 2015, the handling of estates would now be governed, by default, by the laws of the country of residence of the testator, including real estate owned in other countries.

Another aspect of this new regulation is just about as striking, from my point of view, as many of my readers have said in the past that this issue is even more important to them. The fact that one chooses, by writing a will, which law should apply to one’s estate – the law of nationality or that of residence – is indeed a major change. I believe it will be an especially radical change for French notaires, who will have to deal with estates located abroad if a French citizen living in the USA makes this choice. One last comment: it is often assumed that Britons and Americans always resent the Napoleonic rule that children cannot be disinherited and come first as legatees, but many of my clients, including Americans, are fine with this, especially when they realize the surviving spouse can easily get a life interest in the entire estate.

I will continue this topic in future issues, as some illustration is needed to show the consequences of those two changes.

THE RIGOROUS JOB DESCRIPTION OF THE NOTAIRE
The position of notaire is an odd French institution, which grants a lot of security in, among other things, real estate transactions. The notaire in France has three roles:

Here are some notable examples of the types of leave of absence granted in France:

Official supervisor. This is linked to the special status of real estate in France. Sales must be handled by a person representing France. The duty of the notaire is to guarantee that the sale is in the best interest of all the parties involved, including the state. The buyer should receive all necessary documents, including a guaranteed title, and acquire a property free of financial liability (libéré de toute hypothèque).

Tax collector. The so-called frais de notaire are for the most part taxes that the notaire collects and pays on behalf of the buyer.

• Private adviser. As a professional, the notaire establishes a personal relationship with his client and can be a normal legal adviser, either paid by a standard fee or according to a fee schedule. This, however, is the least important of the notaire’s roles.

A decision of the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) on February 4th illustrates the extent of the first role: securing the buyer’s rights to a perfect title.

In the case in question, renovations had been done in an apartment, and the notairechecked that all necessary authorizations had been requested and obtained. But a document from the management company or syndic raised questions as to whether the work completely complied with the authorizations. The court decided that the duty of the notaireis to leave no stone unturned, and to guarantee, as much as possible, a perfect title. In this case, the work had affected a common area, damaging it.

More recently, I witnessed another illustration of the extent of this role of the notaire. An American bought a Parisian apartment where the gardienne, a type of concierge for the building, is suing the condominium association over a labor regulation and is seeking a sizable amount of money. The notairecalculated how much it would cost the new owner should the court rule in favor of the gardienne.

The parties agreed at the time of the signing of the initial pre-sale contract (promesse de vente) that the chances of the woman winning the case were very slim. Nevertheless, the notaire’s duty was to inform the buyer of this financial risk before any engagement was made, and obtain the buyer’s approval of this situation that did not affect the decision to buy.

In such situations, I find, French notaires are very reassuring when they do their job at its best. They must dig up whatever information they can regarding any potential liability linked to the property.

http://sosconso.blog.lemonde.fr/2015/05/19/quand-le-notaire-permet-la-vente-dune-terrasse-illegale/ La Cour de cassation, qui statue le 4 février, 2015.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT NOW COSTS THE SAME EVERYWHERE IN THE ILE DE FRANCE REGION
I would like to review a few aspects of the history of public transport in the greater Paris metropolitan area to explain why the change that took effect on September 1st 2015 was so radical in the way it affected pricing and the way the public transport is used.

The transport system introduced the Carte Orange (orange card) in 1975 to simplify usage, mainly of suburban trains. The price of the weekly, monthly or yearly pass depended on how many of the five zones existent at that time were traveled through, (from 1991 to 2007, there were 8 zones.) The Paris Métro system is almost completely within zones 1 and 2, which correspond to how far one can go with a normal metro ticket.

Keep in mind that French employees receive a reimbursement from the employer for half the cost of this pass, since it is considered to be the cost of going to work. Many employers pay the full cost of the pass and deduct half of it on the pay slip.

The card stayed pretty much the same until the Navigo pass was introduced in 2005. The new pass was read electronically instead of requiring a ticket to be inserted in a turnstyle.

The prices of both Navigo passes and individual tickets increased regularly, but the logic of the pricing system was not changed until this year. There has been political debate on the issue for a long time. Conservatives want the amount paid by the user to be as close as possible to the actual cost – within limits, since that also increases employers- costs. The left wants to maintain the system or improve it to help users. The idea of uniform pricing had come up regularly. An initial step was taken in September 2012, when holders of monthly and yearly passes got the right to travel to any zone in the system on weekends and during school vacations.

Many reasons have been put forward for the latest modification. In my opinion, making public transport more attractive is one way to fight car traffic in a very densely populated region (the 12 million people of the Ile de France make up 18.2% of the French population). It is also a popular change, as those who travel the farthest are paying less for their commute.

It is now mostly zone 1 and 2 travelers who pay more. The uniform price is currently 70 euros a month for the annual pass.

In my view the true issue is that the infrastructure is badly aging and the volume of people traveling makes it extremely difficult to carry out major repairs and maintenance. It is only recently that I have seen sections of the metro lines inside Paris closed for weeks for repairs. I am astounded by the frequency of failures in the system -problems with individual metro cars, signaling and so on – compared to what I remember from my youth. While in the bigger picture such incidents are small  one loses time, but there are hardly ever any significant accidents  they can make it very difficult to get to work on time if one uses, for example, the RER. And it is expected that the 2016 budget will be reduced by 485 million euros.

I know that this position is not popular but I would have preferred an increase in the budget so more repairs and renovation could be done. For now, though, I admit that I do enjoy the new set-up.

www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/09/01/ile-de-france-les-gagnants-et-les-perdants-du-passe-navigo-a-tarif-unique_4741939_4355770.html#igzZb0hS01JUw3O4.99

EVEN MORE RESTRICTIONS ON CASH PAYMENTS IN FRANCE
Paying in cash, depositing cash or even cashing a check is between suspicious and illegal in France. This is quite a contrast with the USA, where retail business relies a lot more on cash transactions. In addition, the acquisition of debt is discouraged. It was a political decision in France to push the use of debit cards; France has hardly any credit card companies as defined in the USA. Debit cards in France are issued by banks, and are linked to a bank account. Non-bank lenders such as COFINOGA and CETELEM do issue cards that allow access to a line of credit, but even there the latest regulations limit how much a client can charge on these cards, as well as the amount a client can borrow money when taking out a loan.

Thus it is now a lot more difficult to multiply the use of credit cards and to take out loans. Furthermore, most payments must be made into a bank account: that is the only way to receive one’s salary, subsidies from the Caisse d’Allocations Familiales, health care reimbursements, tax reimbursements and so on. Increasingly, payments out must also be wired directly from a bank account, including notably almost all utilities (electricity, gas, Internet, phone).

The latest development is that since September 1st it has been illegal to pay cash for purchases exceeding 1,000 euros; the previous limit was 3,000 euros. This includes transactions between professionals. For non-residents, notably tourists, the limit went down from 15,000 euros to 10,000 euros. Thus the new regulation promotes paying by check or debit card. Already, half of all transactions in France were with debit cards (49.5%, to be precise). Today the average amount of cash transactions is 24.30 euros, which illustrates how widespread the other means of payments are.

Starting on January 1st 2016, one must show ID to change more than 1,000 euros to a foreign currency. Also from that day, French banks will have to report to Tracfin (the French finance and budget ministries anti-money laundering unit) any account with cash deposits or withdrawals exceeding 10,000 euros. This should trigger an investigation of the client by Tracfin inspectors and most likely after that the tax inspector.

One last thing: foreigners, especially Americans, tend to be surprised at how common paying with a check is in France, including in grocery stores, restaurants and shops, even though the merchants are often lukewarm about accepting them since there is no assurance that they will not bounce. This form of payment is a lot more common in France than in the USA.

www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2015/08/31/paiement-en-liquide-les-regles-changent_4741375_1657007.html#z2Mb1djUsRHrvjLH.99

FAKE MARRIAGE AND BEING MARRIED UNDER FALSE PRETENSES
I have always been interested in the dynamic of couples where the spouses are of different nationalities. Sometimes there is an age difference, often exceeding twenty years  in some cases it is an aging husband, in others the wife is older. One spouse may have significant means and the other be a penniless refugee without any legal immigration status. We could list other examples as well, although I know that such things do not just happen with international couples but can characterize couples who live in the same country or even the same city.

What interests me particularly is the sincerity of the love an undocumented alien has for a national when they get married.

The definition of a fake marriage (in French, a mariage blanc) is that both spouses knowingly get married for the sole purpose of obtaining immigration status for one of them, often with a financial payment to the national spouse. This is criminal in France and the USA.

About five years ago, some far right French politicians wanted to criminalize what they call grey marriage(mariage gris) in which one spouse was getting married for the sole purpose of obtaining immigration status while the other was sincerely in love and absolutely certain that this love was shared by the other. This attempt was short lived, as it appeared virtually impossible to prove criminal intent at the time of the wedding in most instances.

My observation, after working so many years with undocumented aliens, is that for many of them, obtaining legal status appears for years to be an unattainable goal. So when someone is kind and attentive to their situation and shows love and care for them, they are often totally overwhelmed with gratitude and have an outburst of love. From that, it does not take much to turn this into a love affair and then a stable romantic relationship, which in turn leads them to get married.

After a few months or a few years, when the couple has settled down and the immigration issue is fully solved, the foreign spouse may start to see the marriage and the other spouse very differently. Or other issues can come up, such as an age difference, difficulty in having children, and so on. As with all couples, when caught in such a dynamic of disillusion, the relationship may end in divorce.

The question I have always wrestled with is where to draw the line between foreigners who genuinely fall in love, even if influenced by the effects of a long quest for legal status, and those who all along are fooling the other person (and sometimes themselves) into showing love and getting married?

I assume that very few of them plan the entire thing and act as predators catching their prey. The article I give the link to clearly describes that. From my position as an outsider, the ones I have met and helped seemed to have genuine feelings for each other (although keep in mind what I describe above).

French law states that if the foreigner obtains immigration status exclusively through marriage and the couple does not stay together at least three years, this foreigner automatically loses the right to stay in France. As the article notes, this law takes care of at least the most blatant cases.

It leaves unanswered this question: what is the chemistry of love made of? This question has existed since the origin of humankind!

http://leplus.nouvelobs.com/contribution/1398345-j-ai-ete-victime-d-un-mariage-gris-il-voulait-juste-des-papiers-moi-je-l-aime-encore.html

Best regards,

QUESTION

CARTE DE RESIDENT HOLDER MARRIES A NON-FRENCH RESIDENT

I am an American expat in France who has been living and working in Paris for over fourteen years and I hold a carte de résident de long durée. I have also been a fan of your newsletter for many years and read it religiously although I have never had cause to contact you until now. My situation is complex. Last month I married a Czech woman who is a legal resident of Austria. We divide our time between Vienna and Paris and I maintain my legal residence in France. We are also expecting a baby girl later this year. The baby will be born in Austria and for the first year or so she will live there, although we do plan to move back to Paris in 2017. I will maintain my resident status in France as well as my apartment in Paris, which I own. My question is: Who in the French administration am I obliged to inform about my marriage and the birth of my child? Being a long-term resident here I know that there must be someone I have to inform of my changed status, but I have no idea who that would be.

QUESTION

WORKING IN FRANCE AS AN ENGLISH TEACHER

I am an American living in the USA and I would like to teach English at a French university. I currently teach English at the university level for foreign students who study business. I have been told that it is close to impossible to do this, but can you please help me?