When you go to France with the intent of staying, you are following in the footsteps of many who have gone before you. Since the early 19th century, France has been a country that has taken in and been shaped by immigrants, so much so that an ambitious project, the National Centre for Immigration History (Chapter 20) in Paris now commemorates and documents the impact of new residents on the country and its culture.

Like a tourist, you may visit France and stay there for up to three months, provided you have a visa or are a citizen of an EEA (EU and EFTA) country or one of the 33 other countries for which a visa is not required. Thereafter, your permission to stay depends on your nationality. If you are a citizen of an EEA country or Switzerland, you may stay and work with no further formalities, but if you are a citizen of another country, you will need a residence permit to live in the country and a work permit to take employment. There are varieties of residence and work permits that depend on the reason for your stay and on your nationality. Likewise, for a visit of up to three months, you may bring and use personal belongings, including a car. But for longer stays, you will be required to import belongings and in some cases pay duty, particularly on a car. The complete details of any of these matters would fill this book, so only brief summaries are given here along with addresses, telecommunications numbers and Internet websites where you can find further information.

ANAEM – National Agency for the Reception of Foreigners and Migration [Agence Nationale de L’Accueil des Étrangers et des Migrations (ANAEM)]

In April 2005, the Office of International Migration [Office des migrations internationals (OMI)] and the Social Service Assistance for Emigrants [Service social d’aide aux émigrants (SSAE)] merged to the ANAEM to ease the integration of new residents into the society and to coordinate administrative, health and social services for:

• foreigners staying three months or less
• asylum seekers
• foreigners who are citizens of countries outside the EU/EEA
• Medical examination of applicants for a Residence permit
• foreigners returning to their countries of origin
• French citizens employed abroad.

Extensive services are offered, including the CAI programmes of orientation and language teaching.

Simply put, for its services within France, the ANAEM exists to provide opportunities to persons who do not enjoy the free access to work and living prevailing within the EU/EEA. Consequently, its services are not offered to EU/EEA or Swiss citizens and their immediate families. However, as this book goes to press, the ten new countries that became members of the EU in May 2004 – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – have yet to be fully integrated into the EU social security programmes, so ANAEM still offers its services to their citizens.

For further details, contact the nearest local office of ANAEM or the head office at 44 rue Bargue, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, Tel: 01 53695370, www.anaem.social.fr , in French and in English, with an interactive locator map of the offices in France and abroad.

Asylum [Asile]

In accordance with the UN Refugee Convention of 1951, asylum may be granted to persons having a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. If you are a refugee newly arrived at the border and wish to apply for asylum, tell the immigration officials at your point of arrival. After checking and making a record of your papers, the officials most likely will put you in contact with the Association for Assistance at Borders for Foreigners [Association Nationale d’Assistance aux Frontières pour les Étrangers (ANAFÉ)], 21 ter rue Voltaire, 75001 Paris, Tel: 01 43672752, www.anafe.org,contact@anafe.org or a cooperating organisation that will arrange further aid, including temporary lodging.

Next, you must apply for asylum at one of the Prefectures (Chapter 21). If you have a visa, you should apply at the Prefecture before it expires. The Prefecture will require several documents with your application, principally four passport-type photos, the details of your name, date of birth, marital status, etc., and the details of how you entered France and the itinerary of your travels from your home country. When your application has been approved, you will be issued a provisional stay authorisation [Autorisation Provisoire de Séjour (APS)] and be given an asylum application form [formulaire de demande d’asile] that you must fill in and within 21 days submit to the Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons [Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et Apatrides (OFPRA)], 201, rue Carnot, 94136 Fontenay-sous-Bois Cedex, www.ofpra.gouv.fr.

Once you have an APS, you may apply for accommodation at one of the 217 asylum seeker reception centres [Centres d’Accueil pour Demandeurs d’Asile (CADA)] or one of the 27 provisional accommodation centres [Centres Provisoires d’Hébergement (CPH)] across the country that together have places for nearly 16,000 asylum seekers (19,500 by the end of 2007). If the national asylum seeker reception centre system has no place for you and cannot offer temporary accommodation elsewhere, you most likely must find other accommodation. Depending on where you are in the country, there are many varieties of temporary accommodation, including centres for the homeless [centres pour sans-abri]. For accommodation in an emergency, call 115 from any telephone box, and you will be housed in an emergency centre for the night.

The Refugee Forum [Forum de réfugiés] is the best single source of information for asylum seekers; head office BP 1054, 69612 Villeurbanne, Tel: 04 78037445, www.forumrefugies.org, direction@forumrefugies.org. It does not provide advice to individual asylum seekers, but it offers many publications including two booklets that may be downloaded free from its website and which contain all the information an asylum seeker may need: The Asylum Seeker’s Welcome Book (2004 edition, 32 pages, available in 6 language editions: French, English, Albanian, Arabic, Russian and Serbo-Croatian) and the Guide for Asylum Seekers (2005 edition, 32 pages, available in 3 language editions: French, English and Russian). Another organisation, GISTI (Chapter 33), is a clearing house for all information relevant to immigration.

AVF

AVF is the abbreviation for Accueil des Villes Françaises, a non-profit national network of associations dedicated to assisting relocating professionals and their families to adapt to France. The first AVF associations were created in 1963, in response to decentralisation. Today across the country, there are 350 AVF associations that together each year help some 300,000 people adapt to new living and working environments. The typical AVF association has 10 to 100 volunteer members, depending on the size of the town or city. Upon being contacted, an AVF association acts as a welcome service, providing information, assisting with contacts and helping newcomers meet local people. Typically, an AVF association cooperates with the town council, other associations and public as well as private organisations. For further information, contact UNAVF, 3 rue de Paradis, 75010 Paris, Tel: 01 47704585, www.avf.asso.fr selectable in French, English, German, Spanish or Italian and with an interactive association locator map.

CAI – Reception and Integration Contract [Contrat d’Accueil et d’lntégration (CAI)]

If you are a foreign national or a refugee intending to apply for a Residence permit to live and work permanently in France, you may be eligible for CAI, the Reception and Integration Contract offered by ANAEM at its orientation sessions for newlyarrived immigrants. CAI is not offered to citizens of EEA (EU & EFTA) countries or to people applying for a temporary residence permit valid for less than one year.

At an orientation session, which lasts half a day, you will be introduced to the essentials of life and work in the country, be shown a film, “Living in France” [Vivre en France] and be given a language placement test. You then will be offered the Reception and Integration Contract, which is optional and free. It includes a day of civics classes, in your native language, as well as language classes, depending on your fluency in French. If the language placement test showed that you already are sufficiently fluent in French, you will be given a “Ministerial Language Skills Certificate” [Attestation ministérielle de compétence linguistique (AMCL)]. If you are insufficiently fluent in French, you will be assigned to a language course, of 200 to 500 hours duration, divided into weekly modules of six to 30 hours. Your progress in the course will be monitored every three months, and when you have attained sufficient fluency, you will be awarded the AMCL.

In addition to permanent workers, CAI is offered to spouses and adult children eligible for family reunification, immediate families of French citizens, refugees and their immediate families and some holders of temporary visas designated “private and family life” [vie privée et familiale]. For further details, contact ANAEM, 44 Rue Bargue, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, Tel: 01 53695370, www.anaem.social.fr, in French and in English, with a locator map of the offices in France and abroad.

Customs duties [Droits de douane]

Within a year of moving to France, you may import your personal effects and household goods free of duty and value added tax (VAT) [taxe à valeur ajoutée (TVA)] provided you have resided abroad continuously for six months or more and can prove that all the items imported have been used and will continue to be used by yourself and your family. Your household effects must be accompanied by a signed and dated detailed inventory list, with estimated values [inventaire détaillé, estimatif, daté et signé] that is submitted to the Customs Service [Douane], if you wish by the removal company working on your behalf. If you bring in personal effects and household goods from a third country outside the EU/EEA where you have lived for 12 months or more, you must submit a declaration on CEREA form No. 10070*01, Déclaration d’entrée en France en Franchise de biens personnels en provenance de pays tiers à la C.E., that can be downloaded from the Forms online (Chapter 31) website at www.service-public.fr/formulaires/.

New articles and consumer goods (household effects, spirits, wine, beer and tobacco) may be subject to VAT and import duty. If you are a citizen of an EU/EEA country and can provide receipts proving that VAT has been paid in another EU/EEA country, neither VAT nor duty will be charged. However, VAT will be charged on new items for which you cannot prove that it has been paid in another EU/EEA country. If you are a citizen of a country outside the EU/EEA, duty and VAT may be charged on new goods.

Special regulations apply to car import (Chapter 4) and to pet import (Chapter 35). If you bring in a TV, you must register it and pay a TV licence (Chapter 44). Just as in ordinary international travel, all international airports have red and green channels. You enter through the green channel if the goods you are carrying are bought duty and tax-free, the amount of spirits, wine and tobacco allowed depends on your nationality and your point of departure. If you have more than the specified duty-free quota (Chapter 46), you should enter through the red channel.

For further information on import regulations, duties and the like, contact the nearest Customs (Chapter 43) office as listed online at www.douane.gouv.fr, or, if you live in the UK or the USA, the French Customs service offices at the Embassies:

• Kingsgate House, 5th floor, 115 High Holborn, London WC1V 6JJ, UK, Tel: +44 20 78310142, frenchcustoms@onetel.net.uk
• Bureau B-254,4101 Reservoir Road N.W., Washington D.C. 20007-2169, USA, Tel: +1 202 9446394, washington.douane@missioneco.org.

Employment and Professional Training Directorate [Délégation générale de I’emploi et à la formation professionnelle]

As its name indicates, the Employment and Professional Training Directorate [Délégation générate de I’emploi et à la formation professionnelle] is the principal government agency concerned with the administration of employment and vocational training. Across the country, it has offices in the Regions (DRTEFP) and the Departments (DDTEFP), as well as a head office at 7 square Max Hymans, 75741 Paris Cedex 15, Tel: 01 44383838. The Direction Départementale du Travail de I’Emploi et de la Formation Professionnelle (DDTEFP) are the principal public service points of contact and have services for foreigners. Service de la Main d’Œuvre Etrangère, that deal with work permits. You can find the nearest DDTEFP on the interactive office locator map on the website at www.travail.gouv.fr.

French citizenship [Nationalité française]

Each year, 90,000 to 150,000 foreigners obtain French citizenship in one of three principal ways:

• marriage to a French citizen: acquisition is by decree [acquisition de la nationalité française par décret], and application may be made after one year of marriage.
• naturalisation: acquisition is by declaration [acquisition de la nationalité française par déclaration], and application may be made after five years of residence.
• birth in and residence in France: acquisition is by legal right [acquisition de la nationalité française à raison de la naissance et de la résidence en France], and acquisition is automatic at age 18 for persons born in France, regardless of the nationality of their parents, and resident in France for at least five years between ages 11 and 18.

The procedures involved and documentation required depend on the way of acquisition and are set out in brochures published by the Social Measures, Integration and Equality Section [Espace Action sociale, intégration et Parité] of Ministry of Employment, Social Cohesion and Housing, available in print from its offices and online on its website at www.social.gouv.fr; navigate to the locator map to find the addresses and telecoms numbers of the offices across the country and click on Dossiers thématiques to bring up links to download the online versions.

Applications based on marriage or birth are made at one of the 181 civil courts, either a magistrate’s court [Tribunal d’instance] or a county court [Tribunal de grande instance], that can be found in the Yellow pages or in the online locator map at www.justice.gouv.fr/region/mapjurid.php.

Applications for naturalisation are made at the nearest Préfecture. The naturalisation procedure includes a language test and a 200-question civics examination, for which applicants may prepare by reading the Guide des droits et devoirs du citoyen français (“Guide to the Rights and Duties of a French Citizen”), published April 2005 and available at the Préfectures, listed in the Yellow Pages or in the online locator map at www.interieur.gouv.fr/rubriques/c/c4_les_prefectures/c46_votre_prefecture.

If you are a hardy young man interested in the military, there’s an alternative route to naturalisation: after three years of service in the Foreign Legion (Chapter 11), you may request French citizenship.

France is signatory to the European Convention on Nationality [Convention européenne sur la nationalité], in force since 1 March 2000 and available online from the Council of Europe [Conseil de I’Europe] on its website at www.conventions.coe.int; scroll to and click on no. 166 in the Full list [Liste complète] to download the text or extracts of it; Chapter III, Articles 6-9 concern the acquisition, loss and recovery of nationality. The relevant national rules are increasingly uniform across Europe, but some differ from country to country. For instance, in Europe, France, the UK and most other countries permit multiple nationality, while some countries do not. So, if you wish to retain your home country citizenship, before applying for French citizenship, ask your country’s embassy in Paris if dual citizenship is permitted.

Identity spot checks [Contrôles d’identité]

Police officers, and customs officers within their jurisdiction, are empowered to conduct spot checks of identity by asking to see the identity papers of any person in any public place, including streets, public buildings, transport stations, airports and the like. So you should always carry one or more documents that prove your identity, such as your passport, National Identification Card (Chapter 38), Residence Permit or student card if you are enrolled at a college or university. It’s wise not to carry the originals that may be difficult to replace if lost or stolen, but carry photocopies stamped as certified copies [copies conformes] at the nearest town hall [mairie]. If you don’t produce identity papers upon being checked, you may be taken to a police station to verify your identity [vérification d’identité]. The police can detain you no more than four hours, and you are allowed to make one telephone call. The relevant laws, last updated in 2001, are the code of penal procedure [Code de procédure pénale] articles 78-1 to 78-6 and the customs code [Code des douanes] article 67.

Medical examination [Visite médicate]

All foreigners applying for a Residence permit are required to have a medical examination arranged by ANAEM, either in France or by one of the ANAEM facilities abroad. The examination includes a general clinical examination, a chest X-Ray, diabetes screening by measuring capillary blood glucose level and verification of vaccinations, which must comply with current regulations.

If the examination identifies a health problem, the examinee will be referred to a relevant specialist. Four instances are cause for failing a medical examination:

• illness specified in Part V of the World Health Organisation’s International Health Regulations, which, according to the third annotated edition* are cholera, plague and yellow fever.
• active pulmonary tuberculosis if the person refuses medical treatment.
• addiction to substances or plants classified as narcotics.
• mental illness likely to disrupt law and order or endanger the person’s health.

If the examination is successfully passed, ANAEM issues a medical certificate [certificat médical] that can be used in applying for a Residence permit.

*International Health Regulations (1969), Geneva, WHO, third annotated edition updated 1995, TSBN 92-4-158007-0.

Relocation services [Services de relocalisation]

As elsewhere, relocation services provide assistance in moving to and settling in France. The professional services offered vary from local orientation and contacts to comprehensive packages of familiarisation, training, guiding and housing location services, as suits companies relocating executives. Typically, services are offered by specialist companies, usually with offices in major international business cities. They range in size from global networks to local bureaux. Two networks of agencies, one European and one French, offer online lists of member agencies on their websites:

• European Relocation Association (EuRA) with 250 member agencies operating in 46 countries, including 26 agencies in France; head office: PO Box 189, Diss IP22 1PE, UK, Tel: +44 08700 726727, www.eura-relocation.com, enquiries@ eura-relocation .com.
• Syndicat National des Professionals de la Relocation et de la Mobilité (SNPRM) with member agencies across the country, 3 rue Léon Bonnat, 75016 Paris, www.relocation-france.org.

Removals [Déménagements]

The removal business is competitive, so you can shop around for both prices and services offered. In moving to France, be sure to engage a company that has a liaison agreement with a French removals company. Likewise, in moving from France, engage a company that has a liaison agreement with a company in your destination country. Most international liaison agreements are between removals companies belonging to international removal company associations, of which the two largest are:

• FIDI, the abbreviation for Fédération Internationale des Déménageurs Internationaux, the “International Federation of International Furniture Removers”, 69 Rue Picard B5, 1080 Brussels, Belgium, Tel: +32 2 4265160, www.fidi.com,fidi@fidi.com. The website has an interactive map for locating the more than 500 affiliated removal companies, including 18 in France. FIDI supports a quality standard, FAIM, the abbreviation for FIDI Accredited International Mover, now the de facto standard of the removals trade.
• OMNI, the abbreviation for Overseas Moving Network International, Priory House, 45-51 High Street, Reigate, Surrey RH2 9AE, UK, Tel: +44 1737 222022, www.omnimoving.com, omnihq@omnimoving.com. The website has a locator for finding more than 260 companies in 70 countries, including five in France.

In France, you can find a removals company by looking under Déménagements in the Yellow pages, by visiting the FIDI or OMNI websites mentioned above, or by using the interactive locator map for the more than 800 removals companies in France, at www.csdemenagement.fr, the website of the national movers association, Chambre Syndicate du Déménagement, 73 avenue Jean Lolive, 93108 Montreuil Cedex, Tel: 01 49886140 or 08 00010020 freephone [N° vert].

Most removal companies with international trade now standardise on Containers (Chapter 46), particularly when sea transport is involved. The contents of a typical house will fill a 20-foot container, though the 40-foot size may be needed for the contents of a large house. The removal company will bring the container to your house, most often on a truck fitted with a hydraulic lifter that can place the container alongside the truck bed, on the ground, and lift it back again when it is filled. The standard container is about 2.5 m wide, so the truck will need a width of at least 6 m to drive in and manoeuvre the container.

Residence permit [Permis de séjour]

Depending on your citizenship, you may or may not need a Titre de séjour, also known as a Carte de séjour because it is issued on a card. According to the “Sarkozy Act” [hi Sarkozy] passed 26 November 2003, if you are a citizen of a country belonging to the EEA (EU and EFTA) or of Switzerland, you no longer need a residence permit provided that you have official identification from your home country, such as a passport or a national identity card.

If you are a citizen of a country other than those of the EEA or Switzerland, you will need a residence permit to live in the country. There are two types of residence permit:

• temporary [Carte de séjour temporaire] valid for one year and renewable within the last two months of that year.
• permanent residence [Carte de résident] valid for ten years and automatically renewed, provided you have committed no serious offence.

The initial application procedure is the same for both types of residence permit.

Within three months of arriving in the country, you may apply for a residence permit at the registry office [bureau d’état civil] at the local town hall [Mairie], a police station or the Service des étrangers at the Prefecture (Chapter 21). You apply by obtaining and filling in an application for a residence permit [Demande de titre de séjour, CERFA no. 20 3243], supported by the following documentation - take originals and two photocopies of each:

• identification [piecès d’identité]: your passport [passeport], birth certificate [certificate de naissance], and if applicable, your marriage certificate [extrait d’acte de mariage] and birth certificates of your children.
• proof of residence [justijicatif de domicile]: a recent (last 3 months) EDF/GDF electricity/gas or fixed-line telephone [téléphone fixe] bill if you own your residence, a deed of sale [acte de vente] if you have just bought a residence, or, if renting, a signed lease agreement [bail à loyer] or receipt for rent paid [quittance de loyer].
• proof of financial resources [justificatif de ressources] and health insurance [assurance maladie], depending on whether you work [actif] or do not work [non-actif].

Status	Proof of finances	Proof of health insurance
Working [acrif]
Contractually employed	Contract of employment	Contract of employment
Self-employed	Liberal profession (Chapter 3) registration with a Chamber of tradesmen and artisans (Chapter 3), a Chamber of commerce and industry (Chapter 3) or an agency of URSSAF (Chapter 22)	Proof of registration with health services or health insurance contract
Not working [non-actif]
Independent means	Proof of income	EEA: Health insurance or social security certificate; Others: proof of private health insurance
Retired	Proof of pension received	as above
Student	Certificate of enrolment at an educational institution and bank statement showing monthly income	Certificate of enrolment or proof of private health insurance

Other than your passport, all documents should be in French or accompanied by a translation [avec traduction] made by a registered translator [traducteur agréé]. You may have a translation made by a registered translator in your home country, as may be advisable if its language is not common among registered translators in France. If so, be sure that the translation has an affixed Apostille (Chapter 38) to certify its authenticity. You also may have a translation made by a registered translator selected from a list [La liste des traducteurs agréés] posted in town halls or by any of the authorised Translators (Chapter 28) in the country.

When you have satisfactorily completed your application, you will be issued a temporary permit [récépissé] valid for three months. If your application is approved, you will be notified by post. Take the notice and your récépissé to the office where you applied, and you will be issued the laminated plastic Permis de séjour.

Temporary work permit [Autorisation provisoire de travail]

Citizens of countries outside the EU/EEA who wish to work temporarily but not permanently, such as students, performers or staff on short-term assignment to the French subsidiary of a foreign company, need a temporary work permit [Autorisation provisoire de travail (APT)].

An APT may be issued for a period of up to one year, or up to nine months for students, for whom it is renewable. You may apply for an APT by filling in an application [Demande d’autorisation provisoire de travail] that you submit to the Service de la Main d’Œuvre Etrangère at the nearest DDTEFP office of the Employment and Professional Training Directorate. Upon application at the office, you should show a promise of work [engagement de travail] signed by the employer, a temporary residence permit [carte de séjour temporaire] and, if you are a student, your student’s card [carte d’étudiant].

Visa requirements [Obligation du visa]

Visas are issued by French Consulates abroad. They are of two categories:

• short-stay visa [visa de court séjour] is valid for three months and is intended for visitors.
• long-stay visa [visa de long séjour] is valid for three to six months, or up to nine months in some cases. A long-stay visa may grant temporary permission to reside in France pending the issuing of Residence permit, in which case it includes a statement of that purpose: voire carte de séjour. There are special long-stay visas for students [visa de long séjour mention étudiant].

Visas are not required for citizens of:

• the 25 countries of the European Union (EU)
• the three countries of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) that together with the EU make up the European Economic Area (EEA)
• 33 other countries: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brasil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Romania, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, United States, Uruguay, Vatican and Venezuela. But visas are required for citizens of these countries for stays of more than three months.

Visa requirements may change; for updated information, contact a French Consulate or visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa site at www. diplomatic.gouv.fr/venir/visas with interactive “Do you need a visa?” [Avez-vous besoin d’un visa?] pages in French, English and Spanish.

Work permit [Permis de travail]

As for the Residence permit, if you are a citizen of a country belonging to the EEA (EU and EFTA) or of Switzerland, you need no permit to work in France, but if you are a citizen of a country other than those of the EEA or Switzerland, you will need a permit to work in the country.

The principal rule is that a work permit is granted only if you have a work contract from a French employer who has successfully applied for it. There are seven steps in the application procedure:

• 1.From your country of residence (not France), you negotiate an offer of employment with an employer.
• 2.The employer then applies for a permit on your behalf to the Employment and Professional Training Directorate, which processes the application and, if it’s accepted, sends it to ANAEM.
• 3.ANAEM records the application on its database and forwards it to the Ministry of the Interior, which then returns it to ANAEM.
• 4.ANAEM then sends the approved application to the French Consulate in your country of residence.
• 5.The Consulate notifies you of the success of your application and, if necessary, issues a long-stay visa [visa de long séjour].
• 6.You arrange with ANAEM for a medical examination.
• 7.After passing the medical examination, you take your collected papers to the Prefecture, which will issue the work permit.

There are exceptions to this procedure, principally for executives, students, au pairs and seasonal agricultural workers; contact the Consulate in your country of residence for the most recent details.

Otherwise, for further information, contact the Foreign workers department [Service de la main d’ceuvre étrangère] of the Employment and Professional Training Directorate office in the Département where you will live.