You are British, you live in France with your partner, and marriage feels like too much, too soon, or simply not what you want. Since Brexit, many British couples in France have turned to a very French solution: the PACS. The PACS, or pacte civil de solidarité (civil solidarity pact), is a registered partnership created by French law. It organises your life together, protects the weaker earner if you separate, lets you file tax jointly, and gives your relationship an official existence in the eyes of every French administration, from the tax office to the hospital. It is cheaper than a marriage, faster to sign, and far easier to dissolve. But since 1 January 2021, British citizens are third-country nationals in France. That changes the papers you must produce, the questions the registrar will ask, and above all what the PACS does for your right to stay. A PACS is not a residence permit, it does not open the same inheritance rights as a marriage, and a file refused at the town hall desk can cost you months. This guide explains, step by step, which papers British partners must prepare, where and how the PACS is registered, what it changes for your property, money and tax, and exactly how to challenge a refusal or an unfair bill.

I. How do British partners sign a PACS in France after Brexit?

A. Who can sign a PACS and which papers must British partners prepare?

French law defines the PACS in one short sentence. Article 515-1 of the Civil Code states: “Un pacte civil de solidarité est un contrat conclu par deux personnes physiques majeures, de sexe différent ou de même sexe, pour organiser leur vie commune.” In plain English: a PACS is a contract between two adults, whether of different sexes or the same sex, to organise their life together. Three points matter immediately for British readers. First, you must both be adults. Second, it is open to same-sex and different-sex couples alike. Third, it is a contract, not a status like marriage: what you write in your agreement, called the convention, shapes most of its effects.

Not everyone may sign. Article 515-2 of the Civil Code declares the PACS void in three cases: between a parent and child or close relatives (ascendants and descendants in the direct line, in-laws in the direct line, and relatives up to the third degree), between two people where at least one is already married, and between two people where at least one is already bound by a PACS. If you divorced in England and the decree is final, you are free to sign. If you are still married, even separated, you cannot. If you signed a civil partnership in the United Kingdom and never dissolved it, sort that out first, because the French registrar will treat it as an existing bond.

The two partners must also share a common residence in France, or at least declare the commune where they fix it. A British couple with a second home in the Dordogne who both still live in Kent cannot walk into the local town hall and sign: the PACS is registered where your shared life is, not where your holiday house stands. Conversely, a British citizen living with a French partner in Lyon, or two British partners renting together in Paris, meets the residence condition even though both, or one, hold British passports. Since Brexit, your nationality does not bar you from signing; it only changes the supporting papers.

The file itself is fixed by law and by the official service-public.fr guidance on concluding a PACS. Each partner produces a valid identity document, a full birth certificate, and sworn statements, called attestations sur l’honneur, confirming that you are not related in a prohibited way, that you are not married or already bound by a PACS, and that you share a common residence. For a British partner, the birth certificate is the piece that causes most refusals. A foreign birth certificate must generally be recent, normally less than six months old, accompanied by a sworn French translation, and where required legalised or apostilled so the French registrar can trust it. Order a fresh GRO certificate early, have it translated by a sworn translator, called a traducteur assermenté, and keep the apostille chain complete. A short-form birth certificate showing only your name and date of birth is regularly rejected: registrars want the full certificate showing your parents, because they must check the family prohibitions.

On the British side, the former certificate of no impediment procedure has been replaced for France by a self-declaration route. The British government publishes a dedicated self-declaration form for marriage or civil partnership, known as PACS, in France, available on gov.uk. Complete it carefully and consistently with your French statements: any difference in names, marital status or address between the British form and the French file invites questions. If either partner was previously married or in a civil partnership, add the final divorce decree or dissolution order with its sworn translation. If a previous PACS was dissolved, bring proof of that dissolution too.

The heart of the file is the convention, the written agreement you both sign. The standard model published by the administration is enough for most couples, and you may adapt it. State clearly whether you keep separate property, which is the default, or choose joint ownership of what you buy together. Name who pays what if you wish, and keep a copy of everything. Couples who want tailor-made clauses, for example about a business, a house bought before the PACS, or unequal contributions, can have the agreement drawn up by a notary, called a notaire. That costs money but buys proof later, as the case law below shows. For couples already thinking about marriage as well, note that our two guides to getting married in France as a British citizen and to the papers, banns and refusal challenges for a British wedding cover the marriage route in detail; this article sticks to the PACS, which follows different rules.

One warning that surprises many British couples: signing a PACS does not, by itself, give the British partner any right to live in France. Before Brexit, an EU citizen partner derived residence from European free movement. Today the British partner is a third-country national whose stay is governed by the immigration code, called the CESEDA. The registrar at the town hall checks your union, not your visa. The préfet, the state representative in your département who decides on residence permits at the préfecture, examines your private and family life separately. A PACS helps prove a stable shared life, and judges regularly weigh it, but it never replaces the residence application. Budget for both procedures in parallel: the PACS file at the town hall, and the carte de séjour (residence permit) file at the préfecture.

B. Where is the PACS registered and what happens if the desk says no?

Registration is the act that makes your PACS exist against third parties. Article 515-3 of the Civil Code provides that the partners make a joint declaration before the officier de l’état civil, the civil registrar, of the commune where they fix their common residence. If a serious impediment prevents fixing it there, the registrar of the commune where one partner lives may act, and in grave cases the registrar travels to the home. The text continues: on pain of inadmissibility, the partners produce the agreement concluded between them to the registrar, who endorses it before returning it. The registrar then records the declaration and arranges publicity. Where the agreement is drawn up by a notary, the notary collects the joint declaration, registers the PACS and arranges the same publicity. Any later amendment follows the same path back to the office or notary holding the original. Where at least one partner is French and the couple live abroad, French diplomatic and consular officers handle registration instead.

For a British couple living in France, this means two practical doors. The normal door is the town hall, called the mairie, of your shared home: you book an appointment, both attend with the complete file, the registrar checks every paper, endorses your agreement, records the declaration, and the PACS takes effect between you on registration. The second door is the notary: you sign the agreement as a notarial deed, the notary registers it and handles publicity, which suits couples with property or business assets who want stronger drafting. Both doors lead to the same legal institution. Neither door belongs to the immigration system: do not expect the registrar to advise on your visa, and do not expect the préfecture to register your union.

Publicity matters more than most couples realise. Registration is followed by formalities that make the PACS visible to administrations, banks and future buyers: for French nationals a mention travels to birth records, and for everyone the record sits with the office that registered it. Keep your registration receipt, called the récépissé, with your passports. Banks, insurers and the tax office will ask for it, and if you later dissolve the PACS or marry, the office that holds the record is where dissolution is recorded too.

Refusals at the desk fall into three families, and each has its remedy. The commonest is incompleteness: expired or short-form birth certificate, missing translation, inconsistent addresses, unsigned statements. The registrar must declare an incomplete file inadmissible, so treat this as a delay, not a defeat: ask for the missing-items list in writing, complete it, and rebook. The second is doubt about validity: suspected prohibited relationship, existing marriage, or a file suggesting the union is a sham arranged for residence. The registrar cannot annul a union lightly, but can refuse to register while doubts stand and can alert the public prosecutor, called the procureur de la République, in serious cases. Answer in writing, with documents, and never with pressure or false papers: a fraud finding poisons both the PACS and any later residence or nationality file. The third is a competence refusal: wrong commune, no common residence shown, or a demand the office has no power to grant, such as asking the registrar for a residence permit. Refile in the right place.

If the registrar maintains a refusal you consider unlawful, the judge is the tribunal judiciaire, the civil court, which hears disputes over civil status and registration. Before going to court, send a short registered letter restating the legal basis, listing each enclosed document, and asking for a written reasoned decision: administrations must give reasons, and a silent or vague no is harder to defend than a reasoned one. Keep copies of everything, note names, dates and counter numbers, and photograph nothing you are forbidden to photograph; a calm paper trail beats a loud scene. Time limits for court action run fast in French procedure, so take advice as soon as a written refusal arrives rather than after a second failed appointment.

II. What does a PACS change for British couples, and how do you challenge a refusal or an unfair bill?

A. Property, money and tax: what the PACS does for your wallet and where it stops

The PACS creates three money duties between you. Article 515-4 of the Civil Code provides that partners commit to a shared life and to mutual material and personal support, and that unless they agree otherwise this material support is proportionate to each partner’s means. The same article makes both partners jointly liable towards third parties for debts contracted by either for everyday needs, except for manifestly excessive spending and, without both consents, for hire-purchase or borrowing. In daily terms: the rent, the electricity, the weekly shop and the children’s shoes bind you both, even if only one of you signed the bill, while a luxury car bought alone on credit does not automatically bind the other.

The leading court decision on what this means when couples separate should be read by every British partner who pays more. On 27 January 2021 the First Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation, the highest French civil court, gave judgment no. 19-26.140. A couple had bought their main home in joint ownership in 2003, taken two mortgages, signed a PACS weeks later, and separated years after. The higher earner, a doctor whose income ran four to five times his partner’s, had repaid the whole of both loans from his account, then claimed a debt against his former partner for her share when the joint property was divided. The Court of Cassation rejected the claim. It recalled the statute word for word: “les partenaires liés par un pacte civil de solidarité s’engagent à une vie commune, ainsi qu’à une aide matérielle et une assistance réciproques. Si les partenaires n’en disposent autrement, l’aide matérielle est proportionnelle à leurs facultés respectives.” It then held that the trial judges could treat the loan repayments made by the higher earner as performance of that mutual material support, given the unequal means, and could therefore conclude that he was entitled to no debt on that account. The lesson is blunt and practical. If you earn much more and you pay the mortgage alone for years without a written agreement saying these payments are a loan to be repaid, a French judge may treat them as your share of the common burden, not as a credit. British partners should therefore write down, in the convention or a dated side letter kept with it, any payment meant as a loan, and keep every bank transfer marked accordingly. Symmetrically, the lower earner should keep proof of every contribution in kind and in cash, because non-financial contributions and small regular payments count when the judge reconstructs each partner’s means.

For ownership itself, the default surprises British buyers used to English joint tenancy. Article 515-5 of the Civil Code keeps separation of property as the rule: “chacun des partenaires conserve l’administration, la jouissance et la libre disposition de ses biens personnels”, meaning each partner keeps management, use and free disposal of personal assets, and each remains alone liable for personal debts from before or during the PACS, apart from everyday-needs debts. Each partner may prove exclusive ownership of an asset by any means, against the other partner or third parties. And the safety net runs the other way round: “Les biens sur lesquels aucun des partenaires ne peut justifier d’une propriété exclusive sont réputés leur appartenir indivisément, à chacun pour moitié”, meaning assets neither partner can prove to be exclusively theirs are deemed to belong to both jointly, half each. Concretely, the flat one of you owned before the PACS stays yours, the salary on your account stays yours, and the debts you brought with you stay yours. But the sofa, the car or the renovation paid from a joint account with no receipt trail will be treated as half each on separation. British couples buying a French home together after signing a PACS should therefore decide the ownership shares in the purchase deed itself, keep invoices in the payer’s name for big items, and avoid muddying a solely owned property with untraceable joint spending unless that is what you intend.

Tax is where the PACS pays for itself, and the rule is simple. Article 6 of the General Tax Code states: “Les partenaires liés par un pacte civil de solidarité défini à l’article 515-1 du code civil font l’objet, pour les revenus visés au premier alinéa, d’une imposition commune. L’imposition est établie à leurs deux noms.” PACS partners are taxed jointly on the relevant income, in both names, exactly like a married couple. In practice you file one joint return, pool income and charges, and share the family quotient parts. For couples with very unequal incomes this usually cuts the bill, because the higher income is spread across two shares. For two similar high incomes it changes little. From the year the PACS is signed you file together, and the tax office will link your two numéros fiscaux (tax numbers) once you declare the union, so tell the tax office promptly and check the first joint assessment line by line.

Gifts between partners follow the married-couple scale. Article 777 of the General Tax Code sets “Tableau II Tarif des droits applicables entre époux et entre partenaires liés par un pacte civil de solidarité”, with bands running from 5 percent on the first slice to 45 percent at the top. A large gift between partners is therefore taxed on the same gentler scale as a gift between spouses, a world away from the 60 percent stranger rate. But note the boundary: the PACS does not make you spouses for everything. Unlike a surviving spouse, a surviving PACS partner does not inherit automatically under intestacy. If you want your partner to receive the house, the savings or the business, you need a will, called a testament, drawn to survive French forced-heirship rules where children are concerned, and you need life-insurance and bank beneficiary clauses reviewed. Our estate guides for British owners explain the will mechanics in depth; the point here is short: sign the PACS for life together, sign a will for death, and never assume one does the other’s job.

Social protection follows the same logic of proof. A PACS certificate helps a British partner join the French health system as a dependant where the rules allow, claim family benefits where conditions are met, and be recognised by hospitals, insurers and pension bodies as the other half of a household. Each body applies its own conditions and waiting periods, so apply early, produce the registration receipt plus proof of shared address, and appeal in writing if a counter tells you a PACS counts for nothing: it counts, but only within each scheme’s own rules.

B. Residence, ending the PACS and challenging an adverse decision

The residence question deserves its own cold-eyed section, because it is where British couples lose the most time. Restate the principle: the PACS proves a union, the préfet grants or refuses the stay. A British partner who needs a carte de séjour (residence permit) marked vie privée et familiale (private and family life) must satisfy the immigration code, whose key provision for partners outside the standard family boxes is Article L.423-23 of the CESEDA. It grants a one-year temporary card to the foreigner whose personal and family ties in France are such that refusing residence would disproportionately harm the right to respect for private and family life: “le refus d’autoriser son séjour porterait à son droit au respect de sa vie privée et familiale une atteinte disproportionnée au regard des motifs du refus”. The ties are weighed for intensity, age and stability, the foreigner’s living conditions, integration into French society including knowledge of the values of the Republic, and the nature of remaining family links in the home country. A recent PACS between partners who met three months ago, share no bills and speak no French will weigh little. A PACS backed by a year or more of shared lease, joint tax return, shared bills, photographs of ordinary life and French learned to a real standard weighs heavily. Build that file from day one: joint lease or utility bills in both names, joint tax assessment, shared bank statements, medical and school papers showing the same address, and language certificates.

Judges reason exactly this way. The Administrative Court of Appeal of Nantes, in its judgment 18NT03438 of 4 October 2019, examined a foreigner refused a permit who had, the court noted, “par un acte du 24 mai 2016, le couple s’est uni par un pacte civil de solidarité (PACS)”, and who had lived with his partner again since that date while following his children’s schooling and health. The court weighed the PACS alongside resumed cohabitation, children and supporting documents rather than as a magic stamp. That is the template for a British file too: the PACS opens the paragraph, the proof of real shared life wins it. Apply at the préfecture before your current permission expires, keep every receipt, called a récépissé, which protects your stay and work rights while the file is examined, and never let a gap open between two permissions if you can avoid it.

Ending a PACS is deliberately simple, which is both its charm and its danger. Article 515-7 of the Civil Code dissolves the PACS on the death of a partner or on the marriage of either partner, automatically on that date, with the registrar or notary recording the dissolution once informed. It also dissolves it by joint declaration or by one partner’s unilateral decision: the partners acting together hand their joint statement to the office or notary holding the record, while a partner acting alone serves notice on the other and sends a copy to that office or notary, which records the dissolution and arranges publicity. Between the partners dissolution takes effect on registration; against third parties it takes effect once publicity is complete. Then comes the money: “Les partenaires procèdent eux-mêmes à la liquidation des droits et obligations résultant pour eux du pacte civil de solidarité. A défaut d’accord, le juge statue sur les conséquences patrimoniales de la rupture”, meaning the partners settle the financial consequences themselves, and failing agreement the judge decides them. A unilateral break-up served by bailiff on a Friday is therefore legally possible with no grounds needed, but the financially weaker partner can still ask the family judge, called the juge aux affaires familiales, to settle the property consequences, and can claim damages for a brutal or faulty rupture on top.

British-specific traps cluster around dissolution. First, the British partner’s residence file must be updated: a dissolved PACS weakens any pending or future vie privée et familiale claim built on the union, so take advice before serving notice if a permit depends on it. Second, joint purchases need unwinding: instruct the notary early, agree who keeps the home and on what payment, called a soulte, and do not stop paying the mortgage unilaterally to force a sale, because the bank pursues both borrowers regardless of your private quarrel. Third, tell the tax office, the health fund and every insurer the year things change, or joint assessments and wrongly paid benefits will follow you. Fourth, if you marry each other, the PACS dissolves automatically, so make sure the marriage, not the old PACS, is the record every administration now holds.

When any administration says no, challenge in the right order and in writing. Against a registration refusal at the town hall, seek a reasoned written decision, complete or correct the file, and take the dispute to the tribunal judiciaire if the refusal stands. Against a residence refusal or non-renewal by the préfet, file a gracious appeal to the préfet and a hierarchical appeal to the minister quickly, then a judicial appeal to the tribunal administratif (administrative court) within the two-month limit stamped on the decision, asking the judge to suspend removal measures where they exist. Against a tax assessment you consider wrong after joint filing, file a formal claim, called a réclamation, with the tax office, then appeal to the administrative court if rejected. In every lane, the same three habits win cases: act within the printed deadline, enclose proof rather than adjectives, and keep the originals of the PACS agreement, the registration receipt, the joint tax notices and the shared-address bills together in one folder. French judges decide on papers, and a British file in perfect order is the quietest form of persuasion.

Conclusion

For British couples settling in France after Brexit, the PACS is the middle path between informal cohabitation and marriage: a real contract with real duties of support, a separation-of-property default softened by joint liability for everyday debts, joint income tax, gentler gift-tax bands, and a recognised union that strengthens, without replacing, a residence application. Sign it with the full file the registrar expects, draft the agreement as if a judge will one day read it, because one may, and build the shared-life proof from the first month. And if the town hall, the préfecture or the tax office says no, do not walk away and do not shout: get the refusal in writing, fix what is fixable, and challenge the rest before the right judge within the deadline. Done properly, a PACS gives a British couple in France exactly what most of them ask for: an official life together, at modest cost, with papers that hold.

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A telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm, in English, to review your PACS file, your residence position or your reply to a refusal. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page. Our Paris office advises British clients across Paris and the Île-de-France, and remotely wherever in France you live.