So we are British but have been living in NYC for 20 yrs.
This fact is making it virtually impossible to open a bank account here. Any ideas?
Are you US taxpayers?
you need proof of residence (electricity or gas bill) to your address in France - plus it helps if you say you want to pay in 4 or 5 million of course
Yes for 20 yrs.
Got all that, it’s not helping, also they show no interest in the amount of money we have. It’s actually the Americans who are imposing the restrictions. ( money laundering worries)
Hi Gail,
I can help you as we are an authorised banking agent in France.
Contact me
John
I imagine it’s FATCA that’s causing the problems. Very onerous and French banks are terrified of being fined for not meeting their obligations. It’s a big problem for US taxpayers in France and I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe if you try a non French bank that operates internationally such as HSBC or whatever you can find?
EDIT - sorry, crossed with JD’s post.
John, if you have an easy fix for this you must have Americans queuing round the block!
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James, I tried with that bank and they say they are no longer accepting customers from France ( for the time being )
When did they say that? Four have opened accounts today with us.
I tried as soon as I saw your message about it. Tried twice got the same message.
Would you be able to screen shot that message for me please? If you could I can find out why you’re seeing that.
Where do I send the screen shot?
If you click on my avatar you can message it to me please
Sorry James, I’m not good at this, can I just have your email address, that is if you are still interested in seeing the message.
Hi John,
I have a similar issue - bit of a catch 22. Recently arrived in France from Switzerland. Worked for a Swiss bank for 10 years and I thought they were fussy 
I registered as an Profession Liberale and my wife is in the process of registering our BnB as an auto-entrepreneur.
So ideally we need:
current account for living expenses
BnB account for running that - lamaisonaucoin.com
Account for me to run my business - www.robertellisit.com - this is the most urgent as I have pending invoices and nowhere for my clients to pay them
As a newbie I do not have a statement from the Impot which appears to be a requirement from every bank. When I sent my last Swiss tax return in it’s place I got turned down faster that a fast thing.
I do not have an existing French bank account which also seems to be a requirement from many banks.
It’s very frustrating.
Any ideas?
Hi Bob… have you tried Credit Agricole…??
We went armed with
Passports
Bank Statements showing UK bank account
Title (from the Notaire)
can’t think of anything else…
best of luck
Yep. Required the last tax statement - Swiss one not acceptable. I also tried (with ING Direct) sending a cpy of my tax registration in France. Also no good.
Well this is interesting. Got rejected by AXA for the same reason as CA - not able to present a French tax certificate (well duh). However, they told me that I can take their rejection letter to the local branch of the Banque de France along with proof of address and ID and they then nominate a bank that is obliged by law to open an account. Also, they are not allowed to take the pee with extra charges or whatever.
It will be interesting to hear how you get on with Banque de France …