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UPDATED: The ultimate no-deal Brexit checklist for Britons in France

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
UPDATED: The ultimate no-deal Brexit checklist for Britons in France
Brexit has much wider implications than being stuck in the longer passport control queue Photo: AFP

As we approach the Brexit endgame, leaving the EU without a deal on October 31st is a real possibility. Kalba Meadows from citizens' rights group France Rights has helped us put together this guide on how to prepare.

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If you haven't already done so, it's a good idea to make some personal preparations for a no-deal Brexit scenario to put yourself in the best possible situation should the worst happen. Here are some ideas: 
 
1. Make sure that you're legally resident in France on Brexit day under current rules 
 
To benefit from France's no deal ordonnance, you must be legally resident in France before a no deal Brexit. Simply having a foot on the soil here or owning property isn't enough - you have to meet the conditions and exercising your treaty rights to be legally resident. You should:
  • ​Make sure that you've submitted tax returns in France if you've been here long enough to do so (even if all your income comes from the UK);
     
  • Meet the conditions for legal residence according to which category of resident you fall into (working/self-employed/student/retired or economically inactive for another reason).
     
  • Make sure that you're in the French health system and that you have an attestation of your rights even if you don't yet have a Carte Vitale. Download a new attestation from your health provider's (AMELI, RAM etc) website just in case.
     
  • If you already have a carte de séjour permenant, you can swap that after Brexit for a carte de résidence longue durée. Everyone else will have to make a completely new application for a card post-Brexit, so at this stage there is little benefit to you in applying for a carte de séjour now under current rules. The French government has announced that it is creating a new website so that Brits who are already resident in France can apply online. The site is due to be up and running later in October.

 

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2. Create, and keep up to date, a dossier of all relevant documentation. In particular:
 

  • Collate all your Avis d'Imposition since you arrived in France. You may need them to prove the length of your residence. You can download them and print them out from within your account at impots.gouv.fr. Alternatively request a 'bordereau de situation fiscale' from your tax office for each year of your residence. You can do this online, in your account at impots.gouv.fr. 
     
  • Put together a file of utility bills for at least five years and keep it up to date - make sure you have one document per semester (so two per year). This will prove your continued residence.
     
  • If your name is not on the taxe foncière or taxe d'habitation bills for your household, or on any utility bills, get it added now.
     
  • For women in particular: make sure that the name on bills, bank statements, pension statements, payslips etc matches the name on your passport if possible.
     
  • Put together a file of bank statements, wage slips and/or pension statements for the last five years if you've lived here that long. Longer is even better - 10 years is good. You may need these to prove the stability and sufficiency of your resources.
     
  • As the new carte de séjour system will be online, it would be a good idea to get all paper documents scanned so they are ready to upload to the site.

3. Check your passport

  • You'll need to comply with different rules to enter and travel around the Schengen area. There are two important issues that may affect your right to travel or to live here legally after exit, so it's really important to start thinking about this now.
     
  • Firstly, Schengen Border Code rules mean that existing passports which were renewed early and therefore have over 10 years validity will no longer be valid right up to the expiry date written on the passport, but will be limited to the 10 years immediately after their issue date.  For example, if your passport was renewed (under the old rules) 6 months before its expiry date, it would show a valid period of 10 years and 6 months.  After Brexit day, you will effectively 'lose' the last 6 months validity, as third country nationals' passports must have been issued within the last 10 years. Note: this may affect you even if you don't travel - in order to remain a legal resident in France you need to make sure that the issue date on your passport is later than exactly 10 years before Brexit day
     
  • Secondly, your passport should have at least 6 months' validity on arrival, after discounting the period above.
     
  • There are more details on all of this in the UK government guidance here. It's a good idea to read it now.
     

4. Driving licence

  • There is some good news on driving licences, as the French government announced in April that British people who can prove "normal residence" in France can continue to use their UK licence after a no-deal Brexit. However this only applied to people who have been here for 185 days (six months) on Brexit day. People with less than six months residence will have to apply for a French licence as a Third Country National.

 

READ ALSO Britons in France CAN use UK licences in the event of a no-deal Brexit

 

5. Think about moving money

  • If you have bank accounts, savings or investments in the UK, consider moving them to France now. Sterling may drop (further) in the case of a no deal exit; there may also be temporary problems moving money in and out of the EU. 

6. Try to have a financial backstop

  • If at all possible, try and make sure you have access to enough cash to see you through two or three months, especially if your income comes from the UK and is transferred monthly. 
     
7. Consider your personal pension

  • If you have a personal pension in the UK (this doesn’t apply to state or public service/occupational pensions) and have not yet retired, think about getting advice about how to deal with this and cashing it in if you’re old enough, or moving it. There may be issues with the rights of UK insurers/financial services providers to operate in the EU without having a formal presence there after Brexit and these could cause problems e.g. with insurers making payments to those living outside the UK.  Write to your insurer/private pension company in the UK to ask them what plans they have put in place for post-Brexit scenarios. 
     
8. Consider your health cover

  • If you're still using a UK issued EHIC to cover your health care, you'll also need to take out full private health insurance to cover you until you can join PUMa, as the EHIC scheme will fall away on Brexit day and you won't be covered. As a reminder, having health cover is a condition of legal residence. Also bear in mind that you may not be entitled to use the NHS on trips back to the UK, so you will need to sort out travel insurance or health insurance if you are planning a trip back.
     
  • For people on the S1 system the UK government says it will continue to cover the costs for a minimum of six months. After it's down to a bilateral agreement between Britain and France, but technical discussions on that have not so far begun. So nothing will happen on Brexit day and there is no need to stockpile medication.

 

READ ALSO: The feeling is mutuelle: What you need to know about top-up health cover in France



9. Look at ways you could maximise your income and minimise your expenses

  • This applies particularly if the bulk of your income is in sterling, which may take a serious hit after a no deal exit - sliding even further than it already has.  What's your bottom line? What can you do to turn your income into euro income?
     
  • Create a personal financial contingency plan. Look at ways you can cut your spending temporarily, and at ways you could create additional income. 
     
  • Consider getting any potentially expensive dental or optical work done now, in case you have to reduce the cover on your mutuelle (if you have one). Or wait until 2020 when France will begin moving towards 100 percent reimbursement on dental, optical and hearing costs.

10. If you have a business that relies on attracting people from the UK 

  • Start thinking about changing your client demographic. If there is a no deal Brexit people may not want to travel to the EU next year and you'll need to find new clients if you're to survive financially. Make sure you have a website in French, if you haven't already, and that you begin to advertise NOW to attract French and EU27 customers. 
     
  • Put contingency plans in place now to deal with potential issues with VAT, excise, billing, professional insurance cover, etc.
     
11. Make sure that you're in France on Brexit day

  • This is probably not the best time to make a family visit to the UK! Transport could be chaotic, and there is currently no real clarity on how people who do not have a carte de séjour will travel in and out of France after Brexit (see below).

 

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13. If you have to travel ...

  • As a British resident and non-EU citizen, from Brexit day you will lose access to the EU/EEA passport/immigration queues at airports other border crossings in any country in the Schengen zone. Instead, you will have to queue with other third country nationals to have your passport stamped both on entry and exit. This is done to make sure that visitors don't overstay their 90 days. If you have a carte de séjour you will need to make sure that you carry and present this to prove your status as resident and not visitor. We are urgently trying to clarify - with the European Commission and the Ministry of the Interior - the situation for those who currently don't have cartes de séjour and in the meantime we strongly advise that if you must travel close to Brexit day you make sure you have substantial evidence with you of your French address and status as resident.
     

12. Think about, or rethink about, applying for French citizenship

  • French citizenship won't guarantee all the rights you currently hold as an EU citizen (mutual recognition of professional qualifications, for example) but it will guarantee you the right to reside and to work - and as an EU citizen you'd continue to benefit from full free movement rights.
     

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13. Get your professional qualifications recognised now
 

  • The European Commission has said that, whatever the outcome of the negotiations, Brexit does not affect decisions made pre-Brexit by EU27 countries recognising UK qualifications under the general EU directive on the recognition of professional qualifications (Directive 2005/36/EC).  For details of which qualifications are covered see HERE. So if you have a UK qualification covered by that Directive and you need to be able to use it, apply to get it recognised before Brexit day.
     
14. Marry a French citizen


15. Above all ... don't panic!
  • Although things are chaotic and changing from day to day, we're all obviously still hoping for the best, while preparing for the worst.

 

Kalba Meadows is head of the citizens rights team at France Rights - find more Brexit related info and guidance on their website here.

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[email protected] 2019/10/04 15:53
When you say Carte de Sejour, do you also mean TITRE de Sejour?
[email protected] 2019/03/26 18:13
About French citizenship, think how it may (or may not) affect any will which you may have made under your non-French nationality's rules (ie: under "Brussels IV Convention") so that when you die, your adopted French nationality may be applied preferentially with the strict and rigid rules about testamentary inheritance in France.

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