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UFAAP President Nicole
Gauthier addresses the questions that many of you have been
asking:
Do
au
pairs in France need a residence permit?
Do
au
pairs in France need a work
permit?
The answer used to be
YES and most of you are aware of the rigidity of French
administration. Thanks to the determination of UFAAP, our accurate
analysis of the national and European legislations and case laws,
hundred of hours of hard work and researches on the Internet, the
answer is now NO!
In fact, when it comes
to citizens of the former 15 EU Member States, the EEA and
Switzerland, France has now aligned itself along the more liberal
line of countries such as the United Kingdom, so that citizens from
these geographic regions are no longer required to apply for
residence permits. "Loi Sarkozy" of 26 November 2003 introduced
major updates to the regulations concerning immigration and the
residence of foreigners in France.
Most importantly, this
law updated an "ordonnance" of 02 November 1945—the legal base for
immigration and residence for foreigners in France. It was prompted
by a number of EU directives on the subject and in particular by the
latest government report on immigration policy, which revealed that
the 58-year-old immigration law was proving an inadequate tool for
controlling immigration in France, despite several updates in the
eighties and nineties.
Increased mobility in
the EU had also increased the workload of the "préfectures", which
were dealing with an ever-growing number of applications for
residence permits ("cartes de séjour") for EU and EEA nationals, for
whom the residence permit was a simple confirmation of their
EU-based right to live in France. The government decided that this
was a waste of resources that were needed for more important tasks.
The new law states that
citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland who wish to live in
France are not required to apply for residence permits; though if
they wish to apply they will still be issued.
However, in the
case of new countries joining the EU, citizens of such new Member
countries must still apply for residence permits if they want to
exercise any economical activity in France and if the treaty of
accession mentions a transitional period limiting the rights of
their citizens to work in other Member
States.
Out of the ten
countries that joined the EU on 01 May 2004, the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia
are subject to a transitional period of 2 years, extendable up to 5
years. Citizens of these countries earning money from economical
activities in France and only in this case, must apply for a
residence permit during the transitional period as if they were a
non-EU/EEA national.
Even if the
au
pairs had been "forgotten" in the ministerial
instructions given for the EU enlargement, those coming from the
above-mentioned countries do not have to apply for a residence
permit, because they are not workers.
But in fact it works
for au
pairs from any country because au pairs simply do
not belong to any category of residence permit under French
legislation.
The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs admitted recently in a letter to UFAAP, dated 09 September
2005, that for young people who require a visa, an "au pair" visa will
be issued soon (no longer a "student" visa because au pairs are not
students by law).´
The highest
administrative court of justice—"Conseil d'Etat"—has announced this
twice, both in January and June 2003. The ministries had to formally
admit this, but it took time and numerous letters sent by our
association to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Ministry
of Internal Affairs, who are both in charge of the immigration
regulations.
As far as work
permits—Autorisation Provisoire de Travail—are concerned,
au
pairs of any nationality (not only EU or EEA
nationals) do not have to apply for a work permit. UFAAP has proved
that ministerial instructions have been illegal since 22 November
1976 and obtained a formal acknowledgement of this on 01 August
2005, confirmed by letter by the Minister of Labour to our
Association on 26 August 2005.
Thanks to the EU
enlargement, we have finally proved on most points that the European
agreement on au pair placement and
other international conventions, ratified under the umbrella of the
European Union, override administrative interpretations (the famous
"circulaires") for any nationality as far as work permit and
residence permit were concerned, and so they had to admit the
illegality of the student visa.
For the nationalities
who are visa exempted the only legal obligation is to have the
au pair
agreement (accord de placement) stamped by the
D.D.T.E.F.P.
For the nationalities that will need a visa, the
au pair
visa should be issued for a 12-month stay with
residence permit exemption.
To submit the
au
pairs to a residence permit French legislation must
be updated by a new law which will give the opportunity for the
au
pairs to stay 24 months in
France.
This can be only done
by the Parliament.
Nicole
Gauthier | 
