New
regulations concerning the Right of Entry and Residence for
EU Citizens intending to move to France.
There
have been some important changes to the French immigration
regulations that will effect all those intending to relocate
to France in the future. The purpose of this note is to
provide a brief overview of the situation as published on
the
Service-Public website.
The
government is introducing a new obligatory registration
system for EU citizens which is due to come into force soon.
Under the new regulations, you will be obliged to register
with your mairie within three months of arrival and obtain a
residence certificate.
In order to
obtain the certificate, you must comply with the code de
l'entrée et du sejour des étrangers et du droit d'asile
(articles L121-1, L 121-2 and L122-1 to L122-3) which sets
out the following conditions:
- You must
be in possession of an current valid passport
- You must
not be considered to be a threat to public order,
- You must
provide evidence that you have sufficient resources so as
not to become a burden on the French social security
system and have made adequate provision for healthcare and
maternity insurance.
In terms of
the latter condition, the criteria for registration may be
fulfilled as follows:
You are
currently employed or have an offer of employment in France
You will be
making obligatory contributions towards social
security/pension/healthcare in the same way as any other
French employee. You must produce evidence of employment in
order to obtain your residence certificate.
You are not
employed, but intending to start your own business in France
Provided you
have registered the business within the three months and
arranged the obligatory social security/pension/heathcare
provisions applicable to your trade or profession, then you
may obtain your residence certificate.
You are
retired or you have not obtained employment or established a
business in France
As a ‘non-actif’,
you must provide evidence of resources (such as pension
and/or investment income) at least to the level of RMI
(currently 440,86€ per month for a single person without
child), or if you are over 65, then at least to the level of
the old person’s allowance (currently 621,27€ per month
maximum for a single person).
The
additional entry requirement for heathcare insurance will be
satisfied if you hold a current valid E-form entitling you
to affilliate to the state heathcare insurance system,
otherwise you will have to purchase a private health
insurance policy offering an approved level of cover. If you
hold a temporary E106, then once it expires, your
affiliation will also expire and you will have to obtain
private insurance cover. Holders of the E121 automatically
receive entitlement to state healthcare insurance cover for
life, so they are not affected by this.
The new
registration requirement will only apply to persons entering
France once the decree setting out the modalities of the
process has been published. After that, the right of stay
will be dependent upon fulfilling these criteria and
obtaining the necessary residence certificate.
The above
procedure applies to EU citizens only. Non EU citizens are
subject to other arrrangements.
