Hi everyone. I just discovered this website and think its fantastic. I have spent months trying to get some answers regarding visa situation. So I am a british citzen and work in uk on a zero hour contract. My husband is a PR in France and as lived here for over 12 years. Since 2022, after covid he lost his job in France and took a period of chommage after paying over 11 year of Tax in France. He is now in a sabatiical and lives in Paris. We are self- suffient and live on my salary . I moved to France after our marriage in 2022 and took a 1 year ling stay vistor between 2022-2023. Now I am mostly working in Uk and come back to France on 1 a month basis.
My husband applied for family reunification process to get me to France in 2022 and we only heard back about it Nov 2024. Now as he is not working and does not have a salary slip I think there is a problem with his paperwork. However, we have capital and wanted to know if there is a savings threshold that can be used ? Like in Uk for spouse visa, if you have savings of 40k you automatically can apply regardless of if u have a steady income or not. Do we have something liek that in France? My husband would like to settle in France longterm and i am not against it providing I can find work once i get the right to work
He is British and has a TUE 50 carte de séjour (WARP card)? And you are married? And did your relationship start before 2020 (and can you prove it? )
If so you can apply as the partner of a WARP resident. Within 3 months of arriving in France and via the préfecture which will be slow and gruesome.
Here:
Or he is French or another nationality?
But to answer your original question if your salary is over €2k a month there shouldn’t be an issue. In its old fashioned way France considers the household income not the individuals. Saving are taken into account, but nothing written down to say how much, but they don’t like savings especially if outside France as these can be spent in an instant. And if your partner has been here 10 years he is a permanent resident so is not subject to income conditions.
What did you hear back in November?
Hi , thanks for your message. He is an indian citizen, he has PR in France and our relationship started in Jan 2020- ( we can show evidence for this).
Yes my salary is over £2K.
Oh-will the french govt consider and take into account my salary as I earn and pay taxes only in UK. whilst is our household money, I pay for rent and utilities in France but pay all my taxes in Uk as my income is there.
In Nov, a admin from govt came to see our housing conditions and we passed. She said the govt will await to hear about the salary and then the paperwork will progress.
If you are resident in France, you must pay your taxes in France, regardless of where your income comes from, (with a few exceptions for government/armed forces pensions and the like)
Oh how funny! I read that he was in public relations, rather than a permanent resident.
Since he is applying for family reunification then it will be family income that should count. And of course once you get the visa and become resident you will pay your taxes here, unless you can sort out being a frontalier.
There’s nothing you can do about it anyway as the application is grinding its way through the system.
She is ‘t at the moment
Thank you both for your reply- really helpful.
Yes currently I am still officially British citizen as I spend most of my time working there.
If it’s the household income that would be taken into account and we can get the paperwork processed , then I would be happy to declare my taxes .
I hadn’t heard of the frontalier concept before so thanks for letting me know , this is very useful.
So from my understanding as my income would suffice for family reunification, we can contact OFII now.
yes you are a frontaliere and you commute monthly. As Angela mentions -
However how this works is you declare the UK income in France which is added to your worldwide income and with the double tax treaty you get a credit equal to the France tax credited. Or it is otherwise exempted for France tax. Your salary actually gets a 10% reduction up to a limit - about 110K I think.
So your UK income appears on your France household income. (but you won’t pay tax on it). You will pay tax on any France taxable income - e.g. UK interest.
As you are married maybe you should have been declaring this since you started the UK work but I’m sure there will be flexibility around your exact situation.
Note as a frontalier the UK will be your France healthcare insurer and you are entitled to a ‘S1’ certificate which means you pay reduced social security charges on income which would get taxed in France such as interest.
There’s about a million threads re. the ‘S1’ and (somewhat less) re. being a ‘frontaliere’ on the forum for you to read and which point to other online resources, FAQ’s and organisations.
Hope that helps - and welcome!
All a bit chicken and egg situation. My guess is that you need to get family reunification visa first, and then apply to for a worker’s S1 from the UK.
The important aspect is a regular commute.
You mention contacting OFII, but yiu don’t yet have a visa, or do you?
Nit sure its ok to recommend if you require more information. I thought you said OH French so has he tahen on French citizenship as this could make a difference. ?
Maybe check out on Facebook at two groups. Legal France immigration Answers
( guy who runs the group well qualified and provides relevant links from government)
Or Applying for a French CDS Visa. Again the group has guides stating the regulations etc for different applications. Ie as Spouse of a French or EU citizen, family reunification.
Hi all, apologies for the late reply, just been travelling for work.
All are great points and tbh I had no idea regarding the frontalier concept so thank you.
Hi Jane- we started the family reunification process in July 2022 when he had a job and it took 1.5 years for OFII to acknowledge our paperwork and say everything looks good- we will come see your house. By the time OFII had got back a year and half later, my husband had lost his job and so the salary threshold became an issue. the last we heard from them was when a lady from OFII came and saw our house and said everything looks good, we will let you know.
Hi Tranmere1 ,My husband is not French , he had Indian passport with permanent residence here in France