October 2023
Lost in a Lost World
I woke up today, I was crying
Lost in a lost world
’Cause so many people are dying
Lost in a lost world
Some of them are living an illusion
Bounded by the darkness of their minds
In their eyes it’s nation against nation, against nation
With racial pride sad hearts they hide
Thinking only of themselves
They shun the light (Some of them shun the light)
They think they’re right (Some of them think they’re right)
Living in their empty shells (Some live in their empty shells)
Oh, can you see their world is crashing? (So many people)
Crashing down around their feet, angry people in the street
Telling them they’ve had their fill (So many people)
Of politics that wound and kill (So many people)
Grow the seeds of evolution (So many people)
Revolution never won, it’s just another form of gun
To do again what they have done (So many people)
With all our brothers’ youngest sons (So many people)
Everywhere you go you’ll see them searching
Everywhere you turn you’ll feel the pain
Everyone is looking for the answer
Well, look again, come on, my friend
Love will find them in the end
Come on, my friend, we’ve got to bend
On our knees and say a prayer
Oh, can you feel the world is pining? (So many people)
Pining for someone who really cares enough to share his love
With all of us, so we can be an ever loving family (So many people)
Have we forgotten we’re all children? (So many people)
Children from a family tree that’s longer than a centipede
Started long ago when you and I were only love (So many people)
I woke up today, I was crying
Lost in a lost world
’Cause so many people are dying
Lost in a lost world
Lost in a lost world
(So many people, so many people)
(People) Lost in a lost world
(So many people, so many people)
(People) Lost in a lost world
Seventh Sojourn is the eighth album by the Moody Blues, released in 1972. Although the album’s lyrics address political concerns, in the 1990 documentary The Moody Blues: Legend of a Band, bassist John Lodge described “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)” as a response to fans who mistakenly read guru-like wisdom into the Moodies’ lyrics. Lodge said, “The album was very loosely based on the idea of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.”
“Lost in a Lost World” is the first song on this album. I was going down the list of songs I have on my hard disk, looking for a title and a song with a message capturing what is happening today. I read the lyrics one more time and my choice was made. I am still impressed that a rock band can catch so well what I consider to be one of the greatest dangers society faces, both then and now 51 years later.
I have listened to and been a fan of this band for over 45 years, so clearly it is part of the music I discovered during my early teens.
In many Western countries, those that require a minimum of a democratic system, it is clear that part of the country is going nowhere, with people getting lost in their lives in many ways, functioning normally but living in an alternate reality. There have always been people producing false information. I remember how people ridiculed the headlines of the National Enquirer while waiting at the cash register in American supermarkets. What is different today is that a lot more people believe false information and “alternative” knowledge. They share it on social media and even create their own. They end up living in their own world, fed the news they want to hear, trusting people who say what they want to hear. They are truly lost in a lost world.
It is always interesting to listen to people who got out of a cult after many years, saying they lost all those years believing the cult’s teachings. I would like to contrast this with the Asians who own the neighborhood dry cleaner, working sacrificially their entire lives to give their children the best chance possible to have a successful life in the USA. They are all over the country, and they represent the iconic image of achieving the American dream their way. I would question that premise, however: Did they really have a life? Did they reach their full potential as human beings? Are they that different from immigrants who send a huge portion of their income to their country of origin, where they still have a large family, often a spouse and children? The USA cheers the dry cleaners and pities the immigrants, but are they that different? I believe they are the same. They have their traditional moral values, which include sacrifice as well as loyalty and commitment to the family members, first and foremost to their parents and their children.
BEING AN ELDERLY FILIPINA WORKING AS A CLEANING LADY
What are the consequences of working for an employer and not being declared, or being insufficiently declared, for many years? There are numerous reasons for this situation. In the vast majority of cases, the person enters France without an immigration status. Once they arrive, they work without being declared: they are paid under the table and often have atrocious working conditions. After a while, they manage to get jobs with employers that declare them. They need those pay slips to get their stay in France regularized. But usually only a portion of their pay is declared. They often work 50 to 60 hours per week and are paid the legal 35 hours so they have the paperwork for the prefecture.
Once they get their carte de séjour, they often lose some employers and get new ones. This transition time can be challenging for many as it often involves a loss of income. Being legal means not having to be as servile, which some employers dislike. Since the pay slips are absolutely necessary for renewal of the carte de séjour, there is always a minimum that must be declared. But the pay is often low, even though a cleaning lady’s hourly rate is often more than minimum wage, if only just barely. Also, it is rare to have just one employer. The most common situation is working a couple of hours a week for each of several employers, sometimes seven or more. One consequence is spending a lot of time in public transportation.
The main reason for accepting and sometimes asking for a significant portion of the salary to be paid under the table is that a good share of the income is sent to family in the Philippines. Being paid undeclared increases the amount received, as it the undeclared part is not subject to social charges.
I recently received the following statement from an older woman, way past the age of retirement, looking back on her time in France and forward to when she expects to move back to the Philippines after more than three decades in France.
“It is time to face this complicated procedure of asking for French retirement. Regardless of the amount of help I am getting to smooth the procedure, I have lately caught myself reminiscing that I will have spent over half of my life in France by the time I am retired. It all started with a traumatic experience in 1989. I tried to enter the Schengen area without a visa, as it was sometimes possible. I landed in Italy and was arrested and sent back without ever getting out of the airport. It was awful, I was treated as a criminal. My second attempt went much better. Through some of my family members, I got a job with a diplomat living in France, so I received an easy immigration diplomatic visa.
“Once I had settled, I started to miss my children, my husband, and my family. That pain reaches the deepest inner fibers of your body and your soul. This pain never goes away, I just got used to it and learned to live with it. We all do. I feel so fortunate that I had a legal stay in France so through all those years, I managed to visit my home, and my family every year and a few times every other year. I have always felt that I was one of the lucky ones who could do that.
“I never felt that I had a home in France. Out of the 35 years I have lived here, I only had my place for myself for one year. I was the tenant mentioned on the lease and I managed not to need a roommate to pay the rent. Indeed, at first, my employer gave me the use of a maid’s room they owned. It was comfortable, and I was on my own but I did not feel like I could feel settled there. Overall, my employer treated me well. It lasted for 15 years. After that, I managed to get the private life immigration status without too much problem. Then I started to have several employers, more and more French people as time went by, being mostly a cleaning lady and asked on occasion to be the babysitter.
“About ten years ago, I obtained the carte de résident but that did not change my work; I continue to have the same employers. The most I got at one time was 12, and that is too many. But I manage, as for the majority of them I hold the keys and therefore I organize my own schedule as these employers give me some flexibility. Working that much, I have earned enough that, pretty much throughout my entire time in France, I have been able to send more than half of it to the family in the Philippines, and still be able to have a decent life. I stay frugal, and life is good. I could do that because a significant portion of what I earn is in cash while making sure that there was enough mentioned on the pay slips so I never got in trouble with the prefecture.
“Today I feel old. I continue to do the same jobs. I am just slower as I get older and this started quite a while ago. It is all about muscle pain just about everywhere and backaches from up to down. Faced with this condition I am really hoping to stop for good before I turn 70 but I am still not sure that I will be able to do it. I was faced with some very sad news when I looked at how much I would get from the French retirement. I also have no savings worth mentioning. The final decision is to go back to the Philippines when I retire. That amount [of French retirement] will be enough to live comfortably. I will be with my family and I will live in our house.
“Now, all things considered, I am happy with the life I have had in France. I was fortunate to see what the money I was sending did specifically for each of my family members. I was thanked regularly by all of them and they were genuinely very appreciative of my support. I am so fortunate to have a wonderful family. They made it worthwhile for me to work this way all those years. Their ‘thank yous’ were gifts for me and I cherish them every time I receive them. I am also fortunate to know that in the Philippines I will have a home, and I will be able to farm some and continue to be active as much as I can handle. I now have so many projects that I am finally looking forward to going back, eager to start this new life. I thank God to have given me such a good life.”
Here is what happened to her. It is time for her to retire. In such cases the person is often closer to 70 than 60 years old – in this case probably past 70. The amount granted by the French retirement system is low compared to what has been received all those years. Thus she has a painful dilemma. One solution is to continue to work after 70 to add some revenue but most of the time the physical condition does not allow that. Another is trying to live in France on the retirement alone, but her living conditions would be dire and she would no longer be able to send much to the Philippines. The ultimate solution is moving back to the Philippines, where it is possible to live somewhat decently on that amount of retirement money.
One way to look at this is that a person may live 40 years or so in France and never be able to put down enough roots in France, especially financially, so they have to leave the country. This takes us back to a question I asked in a previous column: “Was it worth it?” It fundamentally depends on how one looks at it. For some, being able to support the family for all those years makes it utterly worth it: making a major difference in their education, which means getting good jobs, and in their lodging, which means having a house made of bricks, and so on. Others might see this as 40 years or so of their life wasted. But in this instance, that is clearly not the case, regardless of whether we as Westerners can understand or not.
THE NOVEMBER ISSUE WILL CELEBRATE THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF THIS COLUMN
At the 1993 Thanksgiving dinner at the American Church in Paris, I discussed with Bob Bishop, editor of the Paris Free Voice and an employee of the church at the time, the idea of starting a column in Q/A format using unedited readers’ questions, and we agreed then and there to produce such a column. The most striking way the column has changed over the years is the constant evolution toward using more of my personal experience to illustrate situations or solutions. The answers in the early days were strict citations of the laws or rules involved, with no explanation and no description of how people felt and reacted. The latest columns, by contrast, often address the personal aspect more than the law or rule, which often is easy to cite and explain.
At the 1993 Thanksgiving dinner at the American Church in Paris, I discussed with Bob Bishop, editor of theParis Free Voice and an employee of the church at the time, the idea of starting a column in Q/A format using unedited readers’ questions, and we agreed then and there to produce such a column. The most striking way the column has changed over the years is the constant evolution toward using more of my personal experience to illustrate situations or solutions. The answers in the early days were strict citations of the laws or rules involved, with no explanation and no description of how people felt and reacted. The latest columns, by contrast, often address the personal aspect more than the law or rule, which often is easy to cite and explain.
I am not sure how I will make the next issue as special as it deserves to be. The column is older than my son, a fact that underlines how long I have done it remembering his birth. It also says something about my dedication to my church.
THE MICRO-ENTREPRISE FINANCIAL GUIDELINES
To qualify for the micro-enterprise tax system, your annual sales must not exceed the following ceilings for a full calendar year:
• 188,700 € for sale of goods, objects, supplies, or food (taken away or consumed on the premises) or for provision of accommodation, including classified furnished tourist accommodation but not the rental of furnished residential premises, for which the threshold is 77,700 €.
• 77,700€ for services in the categories of industrial and commercial profits (BIC) or non-commercial profits (BNC).
• In the case of mixed activities (sales and provision of services), total sales must not exceed €188,700, including no more than €77,700 for provision of services.Those amounts are regularly increased, so check them when you need to. Also, keep in mind that the tax office has a lenient policy: Going above once does not mean you have to change; it is only if you exceed the minimum two years in a row. It is then assumed that your business is steady and has gone to the next level.
SQUATTERS IN FRANCE HAVE RIGHTS BEYOND WHAT IS REASONABLE
This topic is badly misunderstood and has become a talking point for the far right. On one hand, the owner has a responsibility to keep the building safe. On the other, occupying a lodging gives the occupier rights to protection of the primary domicile. A new “anti-squat” law and a decision by the Conseil Constitutionnel regarding it are an effort to strike a balance between those two rights and obligations.
The law, passed in July, included a provision exonerating the owner if an accident happened on the property because of severe lack of maintenance. For example, if a squatter fell from a window because a guard railing detached from a wall, the owner could argue that they tried to keep the building in good shape but were prevented by the squatter. The owner thus would not be held liable.
The decision of the Conseil Constitutionnel to strike this provision can be seen as legally sound, but it is impractical in real life as owners are not informed of what needs to be fixed; they will generally have filed a lawsuit to expel the squatter, who has no right to be there and does not pay rent. Since the Conseil Constitutionnel ruled against the provision completely exonerating the owner, the issue is not settled and there is a clear conflict between the court system and the government. I would think a law could be passed with a provision waiving owner liability in certain conditions, to be listed in the provision.
AMERICAN ELECTION YEAR FEELS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS NON-ELECTION YEARS
There was a time when American electoral campaigns lasted a few months. Having elections every two years did not prevent Congress and the president from governing. But today, and I mean right now, it feels like there is no time for them to get any work done between an election result announcement and the start of campaigns for the next election. This is an exaggeration, of course, but I want to take up the question of when the American executive and legislative branches have the time to work on issues that need several years to be addressed, implemented, and bear fruit.
I admire the American system for having established oversight that normally prevents wrongdoing (i.e., bad policies) from happening. France does not have anything comparable. Long terms can be dangerous if you elect the wrong person. Still, when the French president served a seven-year term and had an obedient majority in the parliament, it was possible to develop longer-term policies and carry them out in full, especially if the president was elected for a second term.
The American four-year presidential term is fine when Congress votes outside of the party line. It worked that way for centuries. I rarely hear people talking about this issue in those terms. What seems to be more concerning is the question of how much is accomplished when Congress and the White House belong to the same party, which means a maximum of two years. I know that numerous things need to be fixed in the American political system–and by the way, I could say the same thing about France. Until recently, the president was supposed to be some kind of visionary with a global view of the future of the country. The Cabinet was there to work with Congress to implement this vision as much as possible.
One might think this is still the case with the previous and current presidents. Maybe the latest presidential campaign, which has already begun, will prove me wrong and the American people will have a choice between different visions of the future expressed by the two candidates. It feels like the media are already focusing on polls about the results of next year’s presidential elections even though the candidate registration time has not yet ended.
I wonder when the American government and legislature, as well as those of France, will have the opportunity to do some real work for the people.
COLOSSAL FAILURE OF THE TAX OFFICE REGARDING THE USE OF FRENCH REAL ESTATE
We recently saw a virtual collapse of part of the French tax system, with a new reporting deadline changed by a month to July 31st. The tax office was already handling annual income declarations during its busiest time of the year. No extra staff had been hired. The staff handling the new declaration on the use of French property was ill prepared. Several of my clients were unable to comply with the new reporting requirement, as they did not fit anywhere in the system. Also, for people who were not French fiscal residents and owned property outright in their name or through an SCI, the tax office was taking a week or more to send the ID information needed to create an account. In some cases, I managed to fill out the information for a maid’s room and cellar but found it impossible to record the apartment itself.
The tax office reported that it had fixed the problem. There is a 150€ fine per property for failure to file. It remains to be seen whether they enforce this, given how many people were confused or misguided. No one has been fined yet, as far as I know. Several tax offices have responded that in cases where a declaration was followed by an email complaining that it did not work and giving the needed information, these attempts were fine and they have updated the owners’ file with this information. It is going to be interesting to see what happens when it is time for the 2024 declarations to be done. I find it thought-provoking that officialnotaire documents now mention this obligation.
www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier/questions/quelles-informations-sont-declarer-le-nouveau-service-en-ligne-gerer-mes
www.impots.gouv.fr/formulaire-de-creation-dacces-lespace-particulier-non-residents
A SURVIVAL HOME IN PARIS (SHIP) WEBSITE SHOULD BE AVAILABLE SOMETIME SOON
I started to think about a website for the new studio over a year ago. I first envisioned it along the lines of the Airbnb format, with a page for reservation and another for payment. But it has often happened with this project that it never goes the way we anticipated, and usually for the better. The tenants so far have secured their rental two to four months in advance, so I already have my probable tenant for early 2024. The rent is paid monthly and the initial payment is done when the contract is signed.
Hence there will not be a place to reserve or pay on the website. Also, it was obvious that I did not need to promote its comfort and coziness on the site. I believe that the pictures we chose show it well. Instead, I chose to tell a personal story about how it came to be, the history of the neighborhood and the terms of the rental, with pictures of the place and the appliances in between the chapters. At the end I even added the story of the invention of the hot air balloon in the 18th century, as the first human flight occurred a few doors down in my street. I included a picture of the plaque on the building.
OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS
The office will close for three weeks over the Christmas holidays, starting on Friday, December 15th in the evening and reopening on the morning of Monday, January 8th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed. Of course, Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a couple of other engagements.
Best regards,
QUESTION
CAN THE PREFECTURE ASK FOR DOCUMENTS NOT MENTIONED ON THE LIST?
I hold a self-employed visa I got from the French consulate in DC. I went to a tiny office of the prefecture near Barbès metro stop and that was scary. I thought I had everything regarding my business, the bank statements, the URSSAF quarterly payments, and so on. So I was proud of showing good numbers for the first year, shy of 30,000€. I was told in a very rude way that I was missing a lot of documents. I was asked for my birth certificate with its official translation, and then the civil servant saw that I kept my married name after the divorce, so they wanted the divorce decree translated also. I showed the list given to me when I secured my appointment, as none of this was mentioned. I was rebuked in an insulting way and I got a list mentioning all those documents that have nothing to do with my business. I believe that this is harassment or worse because I only need to prove that my French business allows me to stay in France; those documents have nothing to do with my business. Is it legal to ask for those documents?
ANSWER
I understand your concern and will not comment on your perception of how the civil servant interacted with you. There is often a lot of cultural misunderstanding, almost certainly on both sides.
The basic explanation is that you need to prove who you are before you can ask for any immigration status in France. Proof of who you are in France is called the état civil. Unlike in the USA, it includes much more than a driver’s license. Here is what is required:
• Passport
• French immigration ID
• Translated birth certificate (the form you fill out asks for both parents’ full names, and you need to prove it)
• Translated marriage license (as you use your ex-husband’s last name, French law requires you to prove how you got the right to use that name, which according to French law is not yours)
• Translated divorce decree (again, this concerns the use of the ex-husband’s name; the administration wants to check if you still have that right and are truly divorced)
• Translated birth certificates of your minor children living with you in France
• Proof of address for your primary residence.
Only after that do you provide documents concerning your profession. To sum up what is needed: Identity of the applicant, family situation (whether married and, sometimes, details on children), proof of address, and finally information on the profession.
One rarely experiences this in daily life. The French ID card is usually all you need to show. Only notaire transactions and a few administrative procedures, including that at the prefecture, require the lengthier presentation. I would almost say that this is normal procedure.
What happened to you is a consequence of radical changes in the immigration procedure, with all the agencies involved. Before the COVID pandemic, the OFII asked for all the état civil documents. When it came time for the first appointment at the prefecture, the first step was transferring the OFII file, which was created at the time of the medical appointment using your foreign ID number. All those documents would have been in that file. But now the OFII file has many fewer documents, so you need to submit the documents directly to the prefecture, since this is your first time you have had a meeting with the French immigration authorities. That is why the prefecture asks for all those documents. I believe that the prefecture lists have not been updated following the change of procedure with OFII. Ordinarily, it will only happen once, although if you change your immigration status you may be asked to submit some of them again.
QUESTION
CHANGING EMPLOYERS WHILE HOLDING AN EMPLOYEE-RELATED IMMIGRATION STATUS
I want to switch employers. My current company got me the visa salaire I am holding right now. Do you know if the right to work as an employee, what is called the autorisation de travail, is the same process as when it was first requested? That is, the new employer needs to post the job with the French unemployment agency, Pôle Emploi, for three weeks, pay the OFII tax, etc. Or is the process much quicker and easier since I have already been here on the same visa for years and my current visa will expire in two years?
ANSWER
To fully explain I would need to spell out what was required before the reform of April 2021. But one thing has not changed: the length of stay needed to hold the permanent right to work as an employee in France. Here is a description of what can happen when one changes employers, from the time one receives the initial right to work:
In the first year, such a request will almost certainly be denied, as it would be considered fraud. In the eyes of the authorities, it is way too early to be dissatisfied with the job.
In the second year, the same requirements apply and there is the same chance of the request being denied, since the French administration has a veto right on nearly all requests submitted this way. There have been numerous discussions about métiers en tension and the so-called highly qualified positions. The former are professions where it is so difficult to hire someone that the administration’s veto right does not apply; there is no need to protect French employees from competition since more jobs are on offer than there are people seeking them. The latter category consists of professions where the salary and status are so high up on the labor ladder that French employees do not need protection as they have what it takes to defend themselves.
In the third year, your right to work is fully secured and one can safely change employers, jobs, or even careers.
This is critical information for you. The first year you had a visa in your passport, and registered with OFII shortly after you arrived in France. Before it expired you submitted a request for its renewal. You had the same employer for a second year. Then you almost certainly got a four-year card since your immigration status will expire in two years. I conclude that you received that carte de séjour two years ago. Thus you are in your third year with the same employer. Your right to work as an employee is now fully secured. The only thing you would ordinarily need to address is the documentation needed to renew your immigration status.
But to change jobs, the new employer needs to carry out the procedure asking for your right to work, even though you know you will get it for sure. For one thing, it will be requested when you ask to renew yourcarte de séjour in two years or so.
Below is the list of documents specific to your situation with a new employer. There are two things to prove:
1) the fact that you left the old employer, which requires submission of a statement from the former employer to Pôle Emploi, plus ideally a final receipt of money received (solde de tout compte) and work certificate (attestation de travail).
2) the fact that you have a new employer, which requires you to produce:
a) an attestation de travail from the new employer
b) the labor contract you signed
c) your most recent three pay slips
d) a statement showing that you have the right to work at this job, which as you noted is the autorisation de travail.
If the new job qualifies you for the immigration status called passeport talent carte bleue européenne salarié hautement qualifié, with an annual gross salary of at least 53,836.50€, you will be much better off when going through this procedure. The procedure is a sure shot if you meet the other requirement, which is holding any French or foreign Bachelor’s degree (a diploma held after three years of studies after high school) or having five years of experience in your field. In that case this status does not even require theautorisation de travail. Holding this status changes pretty much everything. It is a striking illustration of what a highly qualified position entails.
DISCLAIMER
Please forward this message to all those who would be interested in its contents. The information contained in this newsletter is intended only as general information. I strongly urge readers to seek professional guidance concerning the legal and tax matters mentioned. This newsletter is intended as a general guide and is not to be taken as professional advice.