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!
