Me too. The local “impots” are probably incorrect, but will go again with my S1 and see what happens.
What are you asking them to do?? what are you trying to do??
To get myself on the system so that I know if they are going to be the ones dealing with my taxes or the uk.
Also I can’t register my car using “impots” as it won’t go through… probably because I am classisfied as non-resident.
Those who need to change a car and cant use ANTS because they are “too new” … can use an agent/local garage to do the necessary… this has been discussed elsewhere on the forum… costs around 35€ to go that route, plus the cost of the Carte Grise itself of course…
But I am a DIY fanatic Hate it when I cant do it myself…Lol 
Your S1 has nothing at all to do with taxes and getting on the system. Your S1 allows you to access the French health care so you need to take it down to the CPAM nearest you (with the rest of the papers required which I believe include birth certificate - GBP from the UK for a plurilingual one). You can find more info on this page: English pages
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Hi, original poster here. Many thanks for all your replies and congrats also to @CaptainEndeavour, glad you did ‘just make it in time’, mate! Also impressed with the sub-thread piccies – how nice if we could prove address with an upload of a piccy of our very nice house with the requisite RAL numbered coloured shutters 
I did check out lease types, and no offence taken @anon51582117, I knew about the 12 month furnished and 36 month unfurnished legal lease forms. As these were proving difficult to obtain, I wondered about the possibility of alternatives e.g. those promoted by Morning Croissant’s medium term rental mainly characterized by a lease, under civil law, time-bound; the fact that the property does not constitute the tenant’s main residence.
I’ve now secured a lease for 12 months duration as a secondary residence (furnished property), (Lease subject the Civil Code of France, articles 1714 to 1762). Lessor break clause after 9 months (6 months + 3 month notice).
Also my opinion aligns with Geoffrey’s to look for ‘a clear purpose for being in France, you have commitments and you were settled from the day you arrived. You will not be refused a cds simply because you are staying at an airbnb’.
So hopefully now OK! (applying for S1 frontier worker).
Also thanks to @toryroo for posts including that hotels are acceptable and so why not Air B&B?
She also posted that with less clear cases perhaps wait for the publication of the decree, I can report THE DECREE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED!
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000042538704
found it on RIFT news- they’re initial comments are here –
Article 12 of the decree has (google translation) A decree from the minister responsible for immigration sets out the list of supporting documents that these foreign nationals must produce.
Now I’ve hunted for the list online and can’t find it. I found a letter from the Director of Immigration to the prefects:
alas it does not have the list, though refers to it:
Les conditions de délivrance des titres de séjour aux ressortissants britanniques et aux autres ressortissants de pays tiers membres de leur famille séjournant en France depuis moins de 5 ans au moment de leur demande seules les pièces justificatives prévues par l’arrêté ministériel fixant la liste des pièces à fournir et demandées dans le cadre du téléservice seront requises.
Anybody able to shed light on the l’arrêté ministériel?
Finally, I also just the other day finally received a reply from the contact us e-mail on the CDS website.
I’d sent in google French (on 4th November):
We wish to move to France permanently and exercise our free movement treaty right at the beginning of December. We would like guidance on the nature of the accommodation we might need to secure particularly with regards to the residency document section of the Carte de Sejour (withdrawal agreement) website.
It is important to ensure we can demonstrate correctly the required evidence of our intention to stay.
We are seeking a 12 month furnished or unfurnished lease. However we are encountering some difficulty obtaining a standard lease, as some agencies require a France tax statement.
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Therefore for a rent receipt will payment receipts or contracts for shorter term (e.g. 3-6 month) leases or receipts for monthly lettings advertised on sites such as ‘longtermrentalsinfrance’ or ‘morning croissant’ be allowed as a rent receipt and proof of residence?
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We have also seen many ‘air B&B’ rentals, some of these properties are also available to rent for four to six months, even up to a year. Do receipts for air B&B bookings qualify as ‘rent receipt’ or proof of residence? Similarly for gite accomodaton?
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Would it be acceptable to rent a short term property for a month or two at the beginning of December and remaining in France from then, obtain a 12 month furnished or unfurnished lease in 2021. Would an ‘attestation d’Honeur’ of our intention, made at the Marie assist?
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What would be the residence requirement for people purchasing a property in February or March arriving in December 2020?
The site for a one year residence permit for those with visas:
states a hotel is allowed for residence permit:
Certificate from your hotelier; and
Last month’s invoice.
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Would hotel accommodation duly certified be allowed for the withdrawal agreement carte de sejour?
-
The frequently asked questions document has a question –
How can I prove the date of my first settling in France? And answer
For example, you can submit:
- Your tax certificate.
Would a France tax certificate for the year 2020, to be provided following our first tax declarations in April or May 2021 satisfy proof of residence under ‘any other document’
I hope you might be able to give some further guidance as to type of residence requirements, many thanks.
And received (on 19th November):
Bonjour,
Pour obtenir un titre de séjour sur le fondement des dispositions de l’accord de retrait du Royaume-uni de l’Union européenne, vous devez impérativement résider de façon permanente en France avant le 31 décembre 2020.
Pour ce faire, vous devez justifier de votre résidence sur le territoire français. Les locations courtes durées (types AirBnB, Morning Croissant, etc.) ne sont pas assimilées à une résidence permanente.
Les chambres d’hôtel sont possibles uniquement lorsque vous vous rendez en France pour des vacances, sous couvert d’un visa. En effet, la demande de visa n’est pas assimilée à la demande de titre de séjour.
Vous devez a minima avoir soit un bail de location d’une résidence soit une preuve d’achat d’une résidence en France soit une attestation d’hébergement chez quelqu’un dans l’hypothèse ou vous seriez hébérgé en attendant de finaliser vos démarches immobilières. Quelque soit le document fourni en fonction de votre situation celui ci doit être daté avant le 31 décembre 2020.
Quoi qu’il en soit, s’il apparaît lors de l’instruction de votre dossier que des pièces sont manquantes ou erronées, la préfecture prendra attache avec vous.
Pour rappel, vous aurez l’obligation de détenir un titre de séjour en France à compter du 1er octobre 2021.
Dans l’immédiat, il est inutile de se déplacer en préfecture.
Cordialement,
So, hotels only applicable for visa applications (?), don’t use morning croissant or Air B&B, and have a rental lease for a residence (is OK) – no qualification of what type of rental lease.
I offer up the reply I received – and wonder if this is a case of the right hand / left hand talking etc…
And sorry if these posts are very long, only mean with best wishes to report my researches.
Also – now perhaps our (tail end charlies?) focus moves to proving healthcare for legal residence? (My S1 requested, not arrived, just advised 9 week processing time – not captain endeavours experience but he’s pensions dept., and I’m national insurance.
Note article 14 of the decree:
British nationals who have resided in France for less than five years have the full residence permit referred to in Article 12 and have access to them and the members of their family, mentioned in 3 ° and 4 ° of Article 3. , sufficient resources so as not to become a burden on the social assistance system as well as health insurance meeting the conditions of the second, third and fourth paragraphs of article R. 121-4 of the entry code
All new arrivals need to make sure health insurance in place before 31 December to satisfy legal residence? And European health card won’t cut it? (RIFT revising their previous opinion on this)
New thread?
I think she is wrong! Even on the government flow chart it speaks of ‘accommodation with a third party’ which is hardly a 3 year lease! As you are arriving soooo late you may not be able to secure permanent accommodation before the end of the year and need to stay in a Air B and B / hotel / gite etc. I’m checking to see if I can find out more but the answer we were given from the authorities was that this was fine, so as you say possibly a left hand / right hand issue. At the end of the day if at the time you apply all your other ducks are in a row and you can prove the date you arrived ‘to settle’ was previous to 31/12 then there shouldn’t be an issue.
Had an email today from the S1 crew - mine now in the post. So, slight slippage from the original ETA by 30 Nov but I expect they are having to go gang-busters to get all us grizzled ravers’ S1s out.
I wonder how they are coping with the ‘social distancing’ in their offices? I made a mistake with a transfer of £100 and it ended up in someone else’s a/c in Revolut. Revolut told Lloyds they know where this money is but the person is ‘not coming forward’ [Crim offence]
Lloyds started another process but said it would take 'many months] because that office has been closed down. Impossible to ‘social distance’. “Someone will go in every few weeks to collect the post”
'ees a cap’n, not a mate 
Hey Tory,
Hope you’re very well - thanks so much for all the advice you @larkswood12 have posted, it’s been the most useful info we’ve found after a month of trawling the internet and trying to get answers from everywhere else. Apologies in advance for the longwinded post below…
I just wondered if you’d heard an update on whether less permanent accommodation was ok? Dave’s latest post and your reply has got me a bit worried!
My girlfriend and I are in a similar situation to a few people (I think), in that we arrived in France earlier this year but haven’t secured a longterm rental yet. So far we’ve stayed with family for a few months, friends for a few months and Airbnbs for the rest.
Just to explain why we’ve moved so seemingly slow - initially we hadn’t decided we were going to stay in France beyond 2020 (we’d come for a few months in Spring - extended by lockdown 1), then we weren’t sure where in France we’d settle, then finally we’ve come up against lockdown 2, and a bit of a dearth of good furnished accommodation currently availble in Marseille.
So we have 2 x attestation d’hébergements (plus ID and their bills) from our friends and family plus some long term Airbnb invoices, but still think it might best to get a long term contract ASAP as we’re unsure if what we have is sufficient. It’s hard to find out 100% for sure so a littttle stressful.
So long story short - we’d rather not rush into a long term contract somewhere less than ideal in the next few weeks if the attestations (and Airbnb receipts) would suffice. Any thoughts / feelings / advice on this would be appreciated very much!
Sorry again for the epic post, have a lovely evening.
All the best
Alex
Hi Alex, glad you found our info useful, and apologies for any alarm, none intended -just an attempt to pin down what the law says / is! I’ll defer to Tory, though I suspect as you are obviously in France and have an attestation for 2020 you are OK residence wise. Still cling to @anon51582117 comment ‘proving intention is everything’.
In a thread about how the CdS website has launched someone posted that the e-mail inviting you to go to the prefecture for ID includes an instruction to bring your current address doc if it has changed.
So, you have your 2020 proof, and when you have your longer term rental or longer term air B&B take it along to get the CdS sent to your current address. Hopefully simples! Sorry live with a corrie watcher.
Also don’t forget - make sure you have the required healthcover - required for legal residence (I’m sure you have). I think that is trending now as the next duck in a row.
I didn’t check out Marseille - is it good to stay in?
So as I say, not to pre-empt Tory. BTW Tory, I just checked the Journal officiel de la République française (JORF) (again) and still no sign of the arrete on the documents required. And PS been meaning to ask how you know the responder to my e-mail query on the CdS website was female - was it the sign-off ‘Cordialement’? Can’t figure that out…
Hi Dave, haha no real alarm, and of course you were just passing on useful info.
Thanks again for your further reply - again really useful 
Yup working through the healthcover now - another minefield!
Definitely recommend Marseille if you’re in the area, especially in the slightly warmer months.
Thanks again for your advice, have a great weekend!
It is here
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000042576710
but it does not add anything new.
Hey Cap’n, was wondering has your S1 arrived? We’ve arrived in Perpignan Friday and before leaving HMRC / NI told me on the phone it had been processed Tuesday 1st and it was being sent to the French address. Now the 10th and no sign of it…
I think the mots justes here are “Dont’ panic, Jonsey!”
I did start to twitch a bit when it got to Day 12/13 of ‘it will arrive in 15 days’. On Day 15 I got a billy doo from Newcastle telling me that it had been posted and would arrive ‘in 10 days’.
It arrived about 3 days later.
Looks to me like ‘processed’ and ‘posted’ can be days apart, that they are flat to the boards with people like us, Tail End Charlies … But have faith. it’ll be with you soon.
I was as pleased as a very pleased person at the RV to present it at my local CPAM at St Lo. An appointment at 11:30 meant being seen at 11:30, not a start time of a long wait, as per Spain. I had prepared a dossier with every conceivable piece of ‘docamenti’, with 2 copies of everything *****. I had three flavours of birth certs, franked by Somerset House.
When the woman said “Well. There we are! I think we have everything”, I volunteered yet more! The annual pension statement from DWP. Later I realised the S1 confirmed me as a State Pensioner but she took that one as well - “Now we have more than enough…!”
I think I should have asked her to date-stamp my copy of the S1, as a record of having been there and done that.
- The first thing I did, after I got my feet under the table in my official digs, was to buy a scan/copy/print machine. You can’t get this stuff - S1/car/bank et al - done without one.
I can cautiously recommend the HP LaserJet MFP 28W. [the W = wireless, which I find invaluable] It’s very compact, can be parked in a corner out of the way yet go into action by a command from your laptop, wherever that might be.
I say ‘cautiously recommend’ because, like the HP inkjet equivalent I’ve got in my office in Spain, it can be annoyingly flakey about maintaining the wifi connection to your laptop. I got to a point where I could do all and everything via the phone app but nothing via the laptop.
The usual remedy - uninstall everything and reinstall. Somehow, what’s running the show now, installed via WiFi, is different from what was installed from the disc supplied. But it works again.
A laser is about 40€-50€ more than an inkjet but my experience with both in terms of replacement ink is chalk 'n cheese/day 'n night in favour of laser. You make up the difference chop-chop.
CPAM in St Lo accepted a standard UK copy, certified and stamped. No multi-lang required by St Lo.
Maybe because it was issued in 1956! The other two were older! One, 7 days younger than me. 
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It is beyond reasonable contention that “screwing” anything out of anyone is at very least derogatory.
In the case here, where our host country seems to be hacking down every impediment and making lighter every requirement for Brits to obtain residency, vitriolic fits well.
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Christopher,
In this particular regard France is doing the minimum possible.
We are still waiting for our CdS which we applied for back in mid-2019.
They have acknowledge that our dossiers (chemise rouge prioritaire) are complete and proposed a date for our interview. They then cancelled the interview at short notice because the deal/no-deal situation change. BUT promised that we would not have to apply again as our priority applications would go to the top of the list of applicants.
The prefecture hardly responds to emails, except for formulaic messages referring to French government press releases.
Under the circumstances and the effect it has on us referring to the impact as us being screwed is a very mild rebuke.
Not everybody’s experience but it IS our experience. Dealing with French bureaucracy is usually easy, if a bit long-winded, but dealing with it about CdS over the past 2 years has been excruciating with no evidence of an end to the process.
No vitriol, just a simple statement of fact based on our experience on this particular topic.
Grahame Pigney
P Help save paper - please don’t print this email unless you really need to.
P Sauvegardons la planète. Avez-vous vraiment besoin d’imprimer cet e-mail?
Simple question Grahame, why don’t you apply on-line like everyone else?
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