‘legal’ residency: is france your home?
Becoming a permanent resident of France – also known as “tax” or “fiscal” residency – refers to the point at which France becomes your “home” and this is significant for a wide range of rights, such as claiming certain French benefits – and paying French tax.
It is what makes the difference from being merely a temporary visitor, which includes people spending part of the year in France, for example using a holiday home.
Often it is clear-cut that a decision has been taken to become resident in France and to make the country a person’s main home - and practically-speaking, at that point you have become a resident. On the other hand, there is no single definition of when you acquire French residency and, in the case of EU nationals, no rigid formality to be carried out or permission to be gained.
If you have been in France for more than six months then by default you are probably a “resident”, but you could equally become one if, for example, you spent five months in France in a given year, three in Italy and four in the UK. Our chapter on taxation deals with this in more detail. If you are tax resident in France you may be taxed on certain income elsewhere, subject to tax treaties.
Proving residency to official French bodies may require you to give proof such as a recent utilities bill and/or a rental or house purchase contract, however you do not need any permission to live there.
Legally, Europeans are divided into those working in France (employed or self-employed), called actifs, and state retirees and early-retirees called inactifs.
To stay legally for more than three months as an actif, you need a valid EU passport or national ID card and to be working. The right to stay may in certain circumstances be retained where you are temporarily incapacitated or in a period of unintended unemployment. If you are an EU citizen, you do not need a carte de séjour (residence permit) but may apply for one from the prefecture (local representative of the state) if you wish. After five years EU citizens acquire the right to permanent residency, whether working or not, and may optionally apply for a carte de séjour citoyen UE/EEE/Suisse - séjour permanent proving this.
Inactifs have the same rights after five years but until then they are meant to have “sufficient resources” to not be a burden on French social security. What is deemed “sufficient” may vary depending on their personal situation, but will not be more than the rates for income support (eg. e787 a month for a couple without children or e525 for a single person).
Current French rules also state that inactifs must have private healthcare arrangements however our chapter on healthcare has more on this.
