French law firm Taj reports on the favourable immigration measures recently introduced in France for foreign executives 'cadres dirigeants ou superieurs' and their families.

The headlines have focused recently on the new immigration bill backed by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. The intent of that law is to attract more immigrants from developing countries with special skills or talents.

But while lawmakers debate the wisdom of 'selective immigration', the French labour bureaucracy continues to make it easier for French companies to transfer foreign executives and their spouses to work here.

The principal changes are to speed up the processing time for foreign executives' work permits and to extend the amount of time allowed to spouses to join them in France. But note that, in keeping with France's new focus on attracting highly educated and skilled employees, the new rules have been made easier for employees with the status of cadres dirigeants ou supérieurs and scientists but slightly stricter for foreign executives with détaché status.

New conditions
 
The new conditions stipulate that the foreign executive must have at least 6 months seniority within the group, instead of a year, and the criteria concerning the parent company – share capital, three years of existence – no longer apply.
 
The other conditions of the Circular of 26 March 2004, of having an employment contract with a French company and a salary of at least EUR 5,000 gross per month, remain valid.
 
Documents required by French authorities

The French authorities require the French company to provide up-dated legal and social documents once a year.
 
In addition to the usual documents concerning the executive, the authorities ask for the detailed employment contract and not just the specific OMI employment contract - CERFA form.

Time-frame
 
Now, since the 15 March 2006 amendments, the processing time for the work authorisation to be issued should be 2 weeks (in practice, between 2 to 4 weeks) from the date the complete application is filed with the authorities, depending on which regional office is dealing with it.  Prior to this the standard process took between 2 to 3 months.

Residence and work permits should be issued at the time of the mandatory medical examination with the French authorities.
 
Changes for accompanying spouses

The French authorities have introduced two new steps for the spouses of foreign executives, whether they wish to work in France or not.
 
The spouse now has the right to use the above simplified procedure if he or she has an offer of an employment contract with a French company before arrival in France and earns at least EUR 2,000 gross per month.
 
The spouse may arrive in France as 'accompanying family' later, if the application is filed at the same time as the foreign executive's application.

This applies if the spouse arrives in France within a maximum of 10 months, instead of an administrative practice of six months, following the approval of the spouse's application file. This 10-month period starts on the date that the French employment contract of the foreign executive is stamped as valid by the labour authorities.

Changes for families of 'other foreign execs' and scientists

The spouse has 10 months to get to France after their employed partner

Up until now, the practice of the French authorities was 'flexible' concerning the transfer to France of the accompanying family of foreign executives.

However the French Labour ministry's recent Circular (Circular DPM/DMI 2/2006/133) dated 15 March 2006 has toughened up the procedure:

The new procedure only affects the spouse and children (minors) of foreign executives known as 'cadres dirigeants ou supérieurs'.

Other foreign executives, 'détaché' included, must earn at least EUR 4,043 gross per month. Prior to this circular, there was no strict salary level for the 'détaché'.

On the other hand, the procedure is easier in terms of filing the application and arrival in France and the changes for spouse application are the same as noted above.  For instance, the spouse's application must be filed at the same time as the foreign executive's with the labour authorities, instead of the family authorities 'DDASS'.

As with the spouses of cadres, however, the spouse must also arrive in France within a maximum of 10 months – instead of an administrative practice of six months – following the approval of the employee's application file.

Exemptions for scientists

Scientists' families are granted a residence permit 'vie privée et familiale' immediately, which allows the spouse to work in France.

For all other cases, it is mandatory to use the so called procedure 'regroupement familial'.

Copyright Expatica

May 2006

For more information please contact, Anne Vaucher (avaucher@taj.fr), Chairman, Tax Partner, Agnès Monard-Rault (amonardrault@taj.fr), Senior Manager, or Gildas de Berranger, Manager, (gdeberranger@taj.fr ).
 
Taj, is one of the leading French law firms and a member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, specialising in corporate and tax law. Taj is based at 181 avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92524 Neuilly sur Seine Cedex, France.

Subject: Life in France, expatriation to France, trailing spouses in France, executive transfers