How To Get Pacsed In France 2018: Your Step-by-step Guide

Tutorial Transcript

Salut YouTube today is a video for all of my ladies and fellas out there who are interested in getting the PACS in France for those of you not in the know the PACs or the Pacte Civil de Solidarité or the civil solidarity pact is a way to formalize your relationship with your significant other although it's not necessarily a serious as a marriage legally speaking it's still a contractual commitment and it comes with all sorts of benefits and tax breaks and it's also the first step to getting a relationship visa in France if you're not an EU citizen and you're not ready or you don't want to get married I'm going to go through what a PACS is, who can get a PACS, the benefits and the responsibilities of getting a PACS and also the step-by-step process from someone who has been there and done that but before we get started just a token disclaimer I'm not an immigration lawyer this is just from my experience, experience of my friends and all of the research and hours I have spent on sites like www.service-public.fr, so with all that said and done, let's jump into it so what is a PACS? Well from a legal standpoint a PACS is a contract that's drawn up between two individuals and it's stamped and registered by a clerk of the court a lot of people mistakenly think that it's actually exactly the same thing as a civil union which isn't exactly the case because although it came from the same kinds of origin so to give homosexual couples similar rights and benefits as married couples it's not exactly the same thing it's not so official that it is recognized in other countries for example necessarily for example even though I'm PACSed in France, the New Zealand government doesn't recognize us at all and I know for a fact that it's not recognized in the USA so in summary it's kind of a legal status in a contract that states that we live together and that we're in a serious domestic partnership together and it allows us to declare taxes together and all sorts of other kind of grown-up stuff So who can get a PACS? So to get PACSed you just need to be 18 years or older, currently single so not PACSed or married anywhere else, normal, currently living with your partner but there's no minimum amount of time on that so you can be living together for two weeks and get PACSed but you do need to be living together and you can't be related to the person that you're PACSing and I hope as I say that there's not too many broken hearts out there! You can be two French getting PACsed, one foreigner one French, or two foreigners getting PACSed in France as long as one of you has a valid long stay visa or is an EU citizen so what are the benefits of being PACSed? Well I have to get this out of the way first the PACS does not give you the right to live and work in France contrary to popular belief the PACS is one part of a process when it comes to getting a relationship visa it's the relationship visa or the Carte de Séjour Vie Privée et Familiale that allows you to actually live and work in France you actually need to be PACSed or married as a prerequisite for the relationship visa but there's also a whole heap of other things you need to do too you need to prove that you've been living together in stable conditions for more than one year, it's advantageous to have joint bank accounts, to have both of your names on the same healthcare or mutuelle together there's all sorts of different things what the PACs can allow you to do if you don't fulfill all of the requirements to the relationship visa is apply for a long stay or type D visa but this visa does not allow you to work unlike the relationship visa so the relationship visa is a lot more interesting Anyway let me know if you want me to do another video on how to get the relationship visa and the Carte Vie Privée et Familiale because it's a little bit more complicated than just getting the PACs. The other major reason to get PACsed is of course that it makes your relationship more official and it comes with the status that has certain benefits and I won't go into all of the benefits here today but some of them include inheritance tax relief general tax relief and Social Security benefits so just one example is you can cut the cost of your private health care in half because you can have both of your names on a joint mutulle rather than having to pay two separate mutuelles. Another example is that if one of the partners is working and the other partner is not working or has a very low income, the tax bill for the working partner will be a lot lower than it originally would be I know that when my partner was working full time and I was a student because we were PACsed he basically paid zero tax because I had such a low income coming in. You've also got things like housing and next-of-kin rights which are important if you own property together for example if you're working there are also kind of leave benefits so for example when you get PACSed you're entitled to three days off to celebrate your PACS and you have the same kind of rights on the other forms of leave in the case of death of a partner or birth or adoption so it's the same rights as you would as if you were married and if there's someone in the relationship who's currently pregnant the partner has the right to attend all of the medical examinations and checkups throughout the pregnancy for example just as if you were married another big advantage is that it is a lot easier to dissolve or end a PACS compared to ending a marriage so the process is very simple a letter basically needs to be written and it can dissolve the PACS and although if you're French when you get PACSed you actually have a line entered on your birth certificate and it's very official and it's on your birth certificate there you can actually ask to have that erased as well and on the other side with this commitment comes responsibility right with great commitment comes great responsibility so for example you become liable for your partner's debt and contracts and vice versa there are some exceptions like in the case of excessive debt for example there's also things to look out for if you're receiving kind of benefits or allowances as well because when you're PACSed suddenly both of your incomes are counted as the household income and that may affect some sort of social allowances disability allowances I'm not a lawyer but there's just something to keep in mind and another downside is just to keep in mind that it's not the same rights fully as if you were married so when you're married there are some nuances and the law regarding for example custody rights around children so if you have children I think it's really important to take the time to really compare and contrast the two options and decide whether marriage or PACS is really for you. So you're ready and you want to get PACSed so how do you do that? Well the good news for you is that this was the easiest administrative process that I have ever handled in France it's not like a visa where they can say yes or they can say no it's automatic and it's relatively simple so step one you've got to book your appointment you book your appointment at your local Tribunal d'Instance or in your Tribunal d'Instance in your arrondissement if you're in Paris it's literally as easy as Googling where your closest Tribunal d'Instance is and giving them a call to make an appointment FYI it is actually possible to get PACSed in another country as well at your local French Embassy it is possible to go the kind of private way and go through a Notary to get PACSed but I would not recommend this the quotes seem to be anywhere around 350 to 400 euros to get PACsed and getting PACSed at the Tribunal d'Instance is free so only do that if you're absolutely desperate and in a huge rush for whatever reason so personally we took our appointment at the Tribunal d'Instance in the 15th arrondissement of Paris at the time I biked there super quickly from work we got there we got in we've got PACSed all within around one hour 15 I believe we had to wait around 6 weeks for our appointment to get PACSed and this was actually quite tight if I were you I would try and get an appointment around the 8 week, 9/10 week mark because you've got to gather all of your documents there's no point booking it too far in advance though because your documents need to be less than 3 months old step two is to start gathering the famous paperwork and all the documents that you're going to need to get PACSed and for every document that I list here I am going to provide you with the template below so I've done my research and everything that I mention has a link below in the description box so together as a couple you will need a PACS contract already filled out, an Attestation sur l'Honneur, attesting on your honour that there is no family relationships between you and an Attestation that you guys share a common address together so again all of those templates are down in the description box to be on the safe side I would make sure that each partner prints and signs one set of documents each if one or both of the partners is French the French partner will need to provide a copy of their birth certificate which has to be less than three months old this is free and very easy to get and it's available online link below and a form of ID issued by the government so anything a passport or your nationality card for example remember every piece of documentation that you take also take a photocopy as well the foreign partner is going to need their passport in a photocopy they're gonna need a copy of their birth certificate issued within the last six months accompanied by an official translation and an official stamp which is called an Apostille, usually the official translators can put an Apostille on it for you as well and I've got a list below of the official translators which I'll leave in the description box you're also gonna need a proof of an on certificate from France they're proving that you're not already in a PACS in France and you can actually order this online I'll leave the link below or you can turn up to your Tribunal d'Instance in person and potentially give it to you on the spot or get it sent to you in the post within a week or so the next piece of documentation that you're going to need if you are a foreign partner first and living in France for more than one year is the piece of paper saying that you haven't had any run-ins with the law and I'll link the actual procedure as to how to get that piece of paper again down in the description box easiest way to get them is just basically send them an email with your full name date of birth location of birth as well as your address and France so that they can see on a piece of paper to you directly the last important piece of paper is the certificate of coûtume or custom which you can usually get at your Embassy or the diplomatic representation of your country in France and this basically just states that you're not a minor so you're legally competent to make this kind of decision and that you're not already married or in a formal civil partnership in your home country New Zealand Embassy in Paris doesn't actually provide the service for me so I had to contact the service in New Zealand that deals with things like births deaths and marriages and to get the certificate from them it's called a certificate of non impedement in English and they were able to send that to me within around a three-week period of course all of these documents again they need to be officially translated and notarized or stamped with this Apostille so the third and final step is to show up to your appointment and get PACsed so you have to just bring all of the documents that I've already mentioned plus the proof that you are living together so recent copies of your joint electricity and telephone bills for example the appointment itself really only takes about 15 minutes it's super quick you sit there in front of the clerk you go through the documents together you sign the contract in front of him and he does some data entry on his computer and then suddenly you hear this ba-bing when he enters everything and Voilà vous êtes PACSé, you're PACSed! I personally found that super unromantic but I think you can make as big or as small of a deal of it as you like so at this point you receive a receipt of the PACs which is valid for three months while they do things like they register the PACs at the Town Hall of the birthplace of the French partner for example and they get it written on your partner's birth certificate and it's of course also lodged at the Tribunal de Grande Instance for the foreign partner after the three months is up you can call or write to your tribunal to ask for the proof that you're PACsed and so they will send you your very official PACs certificate That is how to get PACSed with your significant other in France I would say overall it was quite an easy and simple process and it was less expensive than getting a visa for example I think I spent around about 200 euros in total by the time I ordered all of my documents and had them translated and had the stamp put on them the actual PACS process itself as I mentioned is free if you like these kinds of videos and you would like me to offer more step-by-step processes on how to get relationship visas student visas work visas this kind of thing I do know quite a lot on the topic so let me know, but until then I'll see you next time guys happy PACSing and à bientôt!