{"id":2143138,"date":"2026-10-09T09:55:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T07:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/10\/09\/british-divorce-england-pension-sharing-france-enforcement-exequatur-challenge-brexit\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T09:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T07:55:32","slug":"british-divorce-england-pension-sharing-france-enforcement-exequatur-challenge-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/10\/09\/british-divorce-england-pension-sharing-france-enforcement-exequatur-challenge-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"Divorced in England, Pension in France After Brexit: Enforcing Your English Pension Sharing Order and Challenging a Refusal"},"content":{"rendered":"

You divorced in England, hold an English pension sharing order, and now live in France \u2014 or your former spouse does. The English court has divided a pension. The French pension fund, bank, or tax office shrugs. Since Brexit, the automatic European recognition system no longer carries that English order across the Channel, and France does not divide pensions the way England does. This guide explains, for a British reader, where your English divorce stands in France, what an English pension sharing order can and cannot split, how to make the financial part enforceable in France through exequatur<\/em> (the court procedure that gives a foreign judgment enforceable force in France), how France taxes the pension once it moves, and how to challenge a refusal or a tax bill. French terms appear with a plain-English explanation at first use.<\/p>\n

Take a common case. Sarah and James married in London, worked in London, then Sarah moved to Lyon. The Family Court in London grants the divorce and a pension sharing order giving Sarah 40% of James’s occupational pension. James now lives in Paris and pays into a French supplementary scheme. Sarah asks the French scheme to implement the order. The scheme refuses: it does not know English pension sharing. James stops paying the equalisation ordered alongside. The French tax office then taxes a lump sum Sarah received. Each refusal needs a different remedy, before a different judge, within a different time limit. Confusing the divorce itself \u2014 your civil status as a divorced person \u2014 with the money orders attached to it is the most frequent and most costly mistake. The two follow different recognition rules in France, and only the money part normally needs a French enforcement judgment.<\/p>\n

This article follows that distinction throughout. It cites the French Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Enforcement Procedures and the General Tax Code from L\u00e9gifrance as in force on 9 October 2026, two recent Court of Cassation decisions on Franco-English financial consequences of divorce, current service-public.fr guidance on enforcement of foreign civil judgments, and the English statute that creates pension sharing. Quotations are given word for word from the source returned during this run. Where the source is silent, this article says so and reasons conditionally. For the wider question of which matrimonial property regime owns your French home when you married in England, see which matrimonial regime owns your house when married in England and living in France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I. Divorced in England, Living in France: Is the Divorce Recognised and What Did the Pension Order Divide?<\/h2>\n

A. Is your English divorce automatically recognised in France after Brexit or do you need a French judgment?<\/h3>\n

Start with your status. In French private international law, a foreign judgment on civil status \u2014 that you are divorced \u2014 and a foreign judgment ordering someone to pay money are treated differently. A divorce that is final in England generally produces effects in France on your status without a prior French court order, provided it is regular, whereas any order that you want to enforce by compulsion in France needs to be made enforceable first. That is why the French administration may update your civil status documents on the strength of the English decree, and in the same week a French commissaire de justice<\/em> (enforcement officer, formerly huissier<\/em>) will refuse to seize assets on the strength of that same decree alone for the money part.<\/p>\n

Before Brexit, divorces inside the European Union circulated under the Brussels II bis Regulation, with a certificate from the court of origin. The United Kingdom left that system. England is now, for this purpose, a non-EU State like the United States or Australia. The service-public.fr page on enforcement of a foreign civil judgment in France therefore sends British holders of English judgments to the non-EU track. It states that this procedure allows the French judge to give enforceable force to the foreign decision, that the judge does not alter its content but only checks whether it can apply in France, and that the judge grants enforcement only if three cumulative conditions are met. The page summarises those three conditions as competence of the foreign court, compatibility with French international public policy, and absence of fraud aimed at evading French law. Representation by an avocat<\/em> (French lawyer with rights of audience) is compulsory for that enforcement application, and the foreign judgment must have been formally notified before it can be applied in France. An appeal lies against the enforcement decision.<\/p>\n

For status alone, no enforcement application is normally required. You present a complete, final English order \u2014 the conditional order made final, now called the final order \u2014 with a certified translation by a sworn translator, proof that it is final and no longer subject to ordinary appeal in England, and proof of proper notification. The French civil registrar (officier d’\u00e9tat civil<\/em>) or the central civil status department in Nantes for events recorded abroad updates the margin of the French birth or marriage record where one exists. Where there is no French record to update, you keep the English order plus translation as proof of status for the prefecture, the tax office, the health fund and any future marriage. If a registrar or prefecture doubts the regularity of the decree, it may ask for a court declaration, but that remains the exception for a standard English undefended divorce with both parties duly notified.<\/p>\n

The statute behind enforcement is short and general. Article 509 of the Code of Civil Procedure<\/a> provides, word for word: “Les jugements rendus par les tribunaux \u00e9trangers et les actes re\u00e7us par les officiers \u00e9trangers sont ex\u00e9cutoires sur le territoire de la R\u00e9publique de la mani\u00e8re et dans les cas pr\u00e9vus par la loi.” In plain English: foreign court judgments are enforceable in France only in the manner and cases provided by law. The enforcement track for English money orders after Brexit is that law. Recent Paris enforcement-chamber practice confirms the method: where no bilateral treaty governs recognition between France and the third State concerned, the court applies Article 509 and the judge-made conditions developed since the leading Cornelissen case, then declares the foreign judgment enforceable in France and rules on costs and stays. The Tribunal judiciaire de Paris applied exactly that reasoning in several June 2026 enforcement judgments concerning a third State with no bilateral recognition treaty, citing Article 509 word for word before granting enforcement. The same reasoning applies to an English financial remedy order, because there is likewise no longer an EU instrument carrying it automatically.<\/p>\n

Practical consequences follow. First, keep two files: a status file (final order, translation, notification proof, certificate of no appeal) and an enforcement file (the full financial remedy order, the pension sharing annex, valuation, notification proof, translation). Second, do not ask the enforcement judge to re-argue the divorce. The judge verifies regularity; the judge does not rehear whether the English court was right to grant the divorce. Third, check the date logic. If your English proceedings started while EU instruments still applied transitionally, mention it in the application and exhibit the timeline, but expect the court to treat a 2024\u20132026 English order as a third-State judgment. Fourth, if the other party lives in France, the competent enforcement court is normally the tribunal judiciaire<\/em> (ordinary civil court) where the defendant lives, or where the French assets or the French pension body sits. Filing in the wrong court wastes months. Fifth, limitation and delay matter: once declared enforceable, the order becomes a French enforcement title and ordinary French enforcement and appeal time limits run from formal service by commissaire de justice<\/em>, not from informal email.<\/p>\n

Where readers ask whether an English divorce remains valid in France after Brexit, the short answer is therefore yes for status if the decree is final and regular, and not yet for compulsion on money until a French judge has granted enforcement. The remainder of this article deals only with the money: the pension share, any equalising payment, and the tax that follows.<\/p>\n

B. What exactly did your English pension sharing order split and why does France not have an equivalent?<\/h3>\n

An English pension sharing order is a creature of English statute. On divorce or dissolution, the Family Court may order that a percentage of one party’s pension rights be carved off and credited to the other party, who becomes a pension member in their own right. The power sits in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, in particular section 24B on pension sharing orders, exercisable alongside the court’s broader financial remedy powers. The court approves an agreed split or imposes one after reviewing the whole financial picture, often with evidence from a pensions-on-divorce expert on valuation. The pension sharing annex, Form P1 on gov.uk, is the technical schedule the court sends to the pension administrator. It identifies the transferor scheme, the percentage or amount, and the implementation details. Without that annex correctly completed and served on the scheme within the statutory implementation period, the English scheme will not implement.<\/p>\n

What can be shared in England is broad but not unlimited. Occupational pensions, private personal pensions and Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) are routinely shared. The English basic State Pension cannot be shared by a pension sharing order in the same way; it is dealt with through contracting-out, substitution or a separate State Pension sharing mechanism on divorce, with its own forms and time limits. A share ordered against a pension that has already been fully drawn, assigned elsewhere, or subjected to a prior sharing or attachment order may fail in whole or in part. The order must therefore be read carefully: which scheme, which arrangement number, what percentage, from what valuation date, and whether it is pension sharing (a clean-break split creating independent rights) or pension attachment, now called a pension compensation order in some contexts (an order directing one party’s scheme to pay part of the pension income to the other when it comes into payment, without creating independent membership).<\/p>\n

France has no pension sharing order. French divorce law compensates retirement disparity differently. Article 270 of the Civil Code<\/a> provides, word for word on the first sentence: “Le divorce met fin au devoir de secours entre \u00e9poux.” It continues by allowing one spouse to be ordered to pay the other a payment designed to compensate, as far as possible, the disparity in living standards created by the marriage breakdown, then adds, word for word: “Cette prestation a un caract\u00e8re forfaitaire. Elle prend la forme d’un capital dont le montant est fix\u00e9 par le juge.” In plain English: divorce ends the duty of support, the compensatory payment (prestation compensatoire<\/em>) is a lump-sum concept fixed by the judge, and the judge may refuse it where fairness so requires in light of the statutory criteria or where the divorce is granted on the exclusive fault of the claimant in the particular circumstances of the breakdown.<\/p>\n

Retirement rights enter that French assessment as one factor among others, not as a separate divisible asset. Article 271 of the Civil Code<\/a> directs the judge to fix the payment according to needs and resources at the time of divorce and foreseeable change, taking into account duration of marriage, age and health, qualifications and employment, career sacrifices for children or for the other spouse’s career, estimated or foreseeable capital and income after liquidation of the matrimonial regime, existing and foreseeable rights, and \u2014 quoted word for word \u2014 “leur situation respective en mati\u00e8re de pensions de retraite”. The judge estimates, as far as possible, the reduction in retirement rights the claiming spouse may have suffered because of those family choices. Article 272 of the Civil Code<\/a> then requires, word for word, that “les parties fournissent au juge une d\u00e9claration certifiant sur l’honneur l’exactitude de leurs ressources, revenus, patrimoine et conditions de vie.” The sworn statement of resources is therefore central to any French claim, and its absence or inaccuracy undermines the case.<\/p>\n

The mismatch explains most refusals. A French basic pension body (Assurance retraite<\/em>, MSA<\/em>) or supplementary body (AGIRC-ARRCO) asked to implement an English pension sharing order has no statutory mechanism to create an independent membership from the other spouse’s points or quarters on the strength of an English annex alone. It will refuse, and that refusal is not necessarily unlawful. What the English order can do in France depends on where the pension rights sit at the moment of enforcement. If the rights are still in an English scheme, the English scheme remains the implementation target; France is asked to compel the former spouse to cooperate, to pay an equivalent sum, or to accept enforcement against French assets. If the rights have already been transferred to a French scheme, or the pension is already in payment in France, the English percentage cannot simply be inscribed as French pension points; the French judge on enforcement or in parallel financial proceedings translates the economic value into a French remedy \u2014 a capital sum, instalments secured by guarantees, or allocation of other assets \u2014 rather than ordering a French body to split retirement quarters.<\/p>\n

Two recent Court of Cassation decisions show how French courts handle the overlap between English financial logic and French compensatory logic. In Cass. 1re civ., 10 December 2025, No 23-22.356<\/a>, a divorce pronounced in France between a wife and a husband domiciled in the United Kingdom, the Paris Court of Appeal had rejected the wife’s claim for a prestation compensatoire<\/em> on the ground that liquidation of the matrimonial regime was governed by English law with its own blend of compensation, sharing and needs. The Court of Cassation recalled, word for word: “l’un des \u00e9poux peut \u00eatre tenu de verser \u00e0 l’autre une prestation destin\u00e9e \u00e0 compenser, autant qu’il est possible, la disparit\u00e9 que la rupture du mariage cr\u00e9e dans les conditions de vie respectives.” It held that rights capable of resulting from liquidation of the regime must not be counted when assessing disparity, even where that liquidation is governed by a foreign law with its own equalising mechanisms, and it quashed on that point by reference to Articles 270 and 271 of the Civil Code together with the maintenance instruments. The lesson for British readers is direct: French courts keep the compensatory payment distinct from the property liquidation, and they will not treat an English-style needs-based sharing exercise as a substitute for that analysis.<\/p>\n

In Cass. 1re civ., 25 March 2026, No 23-20.905<\/a>, after a Hungarian divorce with no maintenance claim made there, the former wife later sought a prestation compensatoire<\/em> from the French family judge. The Court recalled, word for word, that “le juge doit se prononcer par une m\u00eame d\u00e9cision sur le divorce et sur la disparit\u00e9 que celui-ci peut cr\u00e9er dans les conditions de vie respectives des \u00e9poux” and that the claim, as an accessory to the divorce petition, is admissible only if made during the divorce proceedings. Those domestic indivisibility rules, the Court held, are not discarded merely because the case has foreign elements. Where the divorce was pronounced abroad, applying that time bar without qualification would undermine the useful effect of the EU maintenance jurisdiction rules then at issue, so the Court refined the outcome on the second branch. The practical warning for a British divorcee is plain: a French compensatory claim made years after an English divorce, outside the English proceedings and outside any timely French claim, faces a serious admissibility obstacle. Raise pension-related compensation inside the divorce that decides the finances; do not assume a free-standing French claim remains open indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Readers sometimes ask whether they should seek a French prestation compensatoire<\/em> instead of enforcing the English share, or both. Double recovery is the risk. A French judge asked for compensation after an English court has already fixed the financial consequences on the same facts will examine what has already been awarded, under what law, and whether disparity persists. The December 2025 ruling above shows the court separating the analyses but not ignoring the foreign liquidation. Full disclosure of the English order, valuation, implementation, and any sums already received is therefore essential. The sworn declaration under Article 272 covers it, and omission damages credibility and may sustain a fraud objection at the enforcement stage.<\/p>\n

II. Making Your English Pension Order Count in France: Enforcement, Tax and Challenges<\/h2>\n

A. How do you get your English pension and money orders enforced in France and what if the other side or a French body refuses?<\/h3>\n

The enforcement route after Brexit is an application for exequatur<\/em> before the tribunal judiciaire<\/em>. The governing texts are general. Article 509, quoted above, opens the door only as the law provides. Article L. 111-3 of the Code of Civil Enforcement Procedures<\/a> lists what counts as an enforcement title in France, including, word for word: “Les actes et les jugements \u00e9trangers ainsi que les sentences arbitrales d\u00e9clar\u00e9s ex\u00e9cutoires par une d\u00e9cision non susceptible d’un recours suspensif d’ex\u00e9cution, sans pr\u00e9judice des dispositions du droit de l’Union europ\u00e9enne applicables”. In plain English: foreign judgments become enforcement titles only once declared enforceable by a decision not subject to a suspensive appeal, without prejudice to applicable EU law \u2014 which, for a post-Brexit English order, means the ordinary third-State track applies.<\/p>\n

The competent court and form depend on what you enforce. For a sum of money or an order to cooperate with pension implementation, you bring an assignation<\/em> (formal writ by enforcement officer summoning the defendant) or a joint petition before the tribunal judiciaire<\/em> of the defendant’s domicile if known in France, otherwise that of your own domicile, of the place of the French assets, or of the French immovable property concerned. The service-public.fr guidance confirms that representation by an avocat<\/em> is compulsory, that the application must be accompanied by an authenticated copy of the foreign decision with sworn translation, and that the decision must have been notified. For divorce-related parental or maintenance certificates that still fall under an EU instrument by transitional timing, a simpler certification track before the president of the court may apply, but a 2024\u20132026 English pension sharing order should be prepared as a full enforcement application. Ask your avocat<\/em> to confirm the track on your dates rather than assuming the lighter one.<\/p>\n

What the judge checks is limited but real. Following Cornelissen and its progeny as applied in the June 2026 Paris enforcement judgments, the court verifies the competence of the English court under French conflicts rules, conformity with French international public policy, and absence of fraud to evade French law. It does not revise the English assessment of needs, sharing or valuation. An English order that is final, reasoned, rendered after both parties were duly notified and had the opportunity to be heard, and that does not order something fundamentally incompatible with French principles \u2014 for example, a penal confiscation disguised as family provision \u2014 normally passes. A pension sharing percentage as such is not contrary to public policy merely because France has no identical institution; French courts regularly enforce foreign institutions without domestic equivalents where the economic result is not shocking. What fails is an order obtained by concealment of French proceedings, by evasion of a clearly applicable French exclusive jurisdiction, or in breach of due process.<\/p>\n

Inside the family, territorial jurisdiction for any parallel French divorce or financial claim follows its own rule. Article 1070 of the Code of Civil Procedure<\/a> begins, word for word: “Le juge aux affaires familiales territorialement comp\u00e9tent est”. It then designates the family court of the family residence, or where the parents live apart the court of the parent with whom minor children habitually live in joint parental authority, otherwise that of the spouse who did not initiate proceedings, with a joint-petition choice and a special option for pure maintenance, child contribution, marriage-charges or compensatory-payment disputes to sue where the creditor spouse or the parent principally bearing the children’s burden lives. Territorial competence is assessed at the date of the claim. This matters where, alongside enforcement, you consider asking the French family judge (juge aux affaires familiales<\/em>) for provisional measures, child-related orders, or a French compensatory element not covered by the English order. File in the right court from the start.<\/p>\n

French divorce procedure itself now includes forms unfamiliar to English litigants. Article 229 of the Civil Code<\/a> lists the four contested divorce grounds plus the consensual private-deed divorce countersigned by lawyers and filed with a notary. An English final order maps most closely to a French judicial divorce for these purposes, not to the French private-deed consensual divorce, which has no judge and therefore follows a different circulation logic. Do not present an English court order as if it were a French private-deed divorce; exhibit it as a foreign judgment and seek enforcement of its financial Limbs.<\/p>\n

Refusals take three typical forms, each with its own challenge. First, the former spouse refuses to sign the English implementation forms or to transfer the equivalent sum. Once you hold an enforcement judgment, a commissaire de justice<\/em> can serve it and proceed to attachment of earnings, bank attachment or seizure of French assets, with interest from due dates. Ask the enforcement court for a periodic penalty (astreinte<\/em>) to compel cooperation where the order requires signatures. Second, an English scheme refuses to implement because the annex is defective, out of time, or directed at an excluded benefit. That dispute belongs in England: apply back to the English court for correction, extension of the implementation period, or variation of the annex, supported by the administrator’s written reasons. A French enforcement judgment cannot rewrite a defective English annex; it can only make the corrected English order effective in France. Third, a French pension body or bank refuses to give effect to the English percentage directly. Reframe the request. Do not ask the French body to create pension membership it has no power to create. Ask the French enforcement judge to order the debtor spouse to pay the capitalised value, to allocate French assets in lieu, or to consent to transfer of an English fund to a French-recognised vehicle where tax and scheme rules allow. Exhibit an actuarial valuation and the scheme’s written refusal. Judges enforce economic equivalence more readily than institutional mimicry.<\/p>\n

Time limits and service discipline decide many cases. The enforcement judgment, once obtained, must be formally served. Appeal against it is available but does not automatically suspend enforcement unless the court so orders; check the wording of the judgment on provisional enforcement. Parallel English implementation periods continue to run while you litigate in France, so protect the English flank by seeking any needed English extension before expiry. Keep every notification receipt, every translation certificate, and the complete English order with all annexes. An incomplete exhibit \u2014 order without annex, annex without valuation date \u2014 is the most common reason a well-founded application stalls.<\/p>\n

B. Once the pension moves, where is it taxed in France and how do you challenge a French tax bill or a refusal?<\/h3>\n

French tax residence determines the starting point. If you live in France and are French tax resident, France taxes your worldwide income subject to the France\u2013United Kingdom double tax treaty, with a credit or exemption mechanism to relieve double taxation where the treaty so provides. Pensions are the classic treaty-sensitive item: the treaty allocates taxing rights between the two States according to the nature of the pension \u2014 past private employment, government service, social security \u2014 and the residence of the recipient. Treaty analysis is therefore prior to any calculation. An English pension sharing credit that remains in an English scheme and is paid from England to a French resident, a transfer of a pension capital to France, and a French compensatory capital paid in lieu of a share can each fall under a different treaty article and a different French reporting line. Do not assume that because England ordered the split, England alone taxes it, or that because France pays no equivalent, France taxes nothing.<\/p>\n

Domestic French charging provisions are broad. Article 79 of the General Tax Code<\/a> provides, word for word: “Les traitements, indemnit\u00e9s, \u00e9moluments, salaires, pensions et rentes viag\u00e8res concourent \u00e0 la formation du revenu global servant de base \u00e0 l’imp\u00f4t sur le revenu.” It adds, word for word: “Il en est de m\u00eame des prestations de retraite servies sous forme de capital.” In plain English: salaries, pensions and life annuities form part of overall income for income tax, and so do retirement benefits paid as capital. Article 158 of the General Tax Code<\/a> then governs how net amounts in each category, whether from French or foreign sources, feed into overall net income and under what allowances or quotients. The well-known 10% deduction on pensions, the special quotient treatment for certain deferred capital payments, and the separate social levies stand or fall on precise categorisation and timing. A pension sharing credit received as a stream of pension income is not taxed like a compensatory capital paid in twelve monthly instalments, which is not taxed like a single capital payment that the recipient elects to spread under the quotient system where eligible. Classification errors produce the over-assessments British residents most often challenge.<\/p>\n

Social levies add a second layer. A French resident pension is normally within the scope of French social contributions on replacement income and, depending on affiliation, the general social contribution and associated levies, unless a treaty, EU coordination, or a posted-status or S1 healthcare position removes the charge. British early retirees, S1 holders, and cross-border workers each face a different combination. The pension sharing context does not create a blanket exemption; it merely changes who receives what and when. Check the levy lines on the assessment separately from the income tax line, because the remedy and the time limit may differ.<\/p>\n

Reporting discipline prevents most disputes. Declare worldwide pension income and any capital retirement benefit in the French return for the year of receipt, identify the English source and the treaty article claimed, claim the treaty credit or exemption in the designated boxes with the English tax certificate attached, and keep the English P60, scheme statements, sharing implementation certificate and transfer valuations for at least the audit period. Where a transfer from an English pension to a French or pan-European vehicle is contemplated to give effect to the sharing economics, take advice before moving money: the transfer itself can trigger English charges \u2014 including the overseas transfer charge in qualifying-recognised-overseas-pension-scheme cases \u2014 and French qualification of the receipt as taxable or not depends on the vehicle, the timing and the treaty. Moving funds first and asking about tax afterwards reverses the correct order.<\/p>\n

When the French assessment arrives and looks wrong, challenge methodically. First, read the assessment line by line: what category, what period, what quotient or allowance applied, what treaty credit allowed or refused, what levies charged. Second, file a formal claim (r\u00e9clamation contentieuse<\/em>) to the tax office that issued the assessment, within the statutory deadline shown on the notice, setting out facts, treaty article, domestic articles, calculation and exhibits, and requesting discharge or reduction with suspension of enforced recovery where available on provision of guarantees. Third, if the administration rejects expressly or by silence after the statutory period, appeal to the administrative court (tribunal administratif<\/em>) within two months of the rejection. Parallel to tax, challenge a pension body’s refusal to pay or to recognise entitlement by formal complaint, then mediation where offered, then the judicial court for private-body disputes, keeping the enforcement judgment distinct from the benefits dispute. A refusal that merely invokes unfamiliarity with the English order without examining the enforcement judgment or the economic equivalence proposed is vulnerable on fuller review; a refusal grounded in a clear statutory inability to create pension rights is better answered by reframing as a capital claim against the former spouse, as explained above.<\/p>\n

Two credibility points close the loop. Disclose the English order to the French tax office and to any French court asked for compensation; the sworn resources declaration already requires it, and non-disclosure supports reassessment with penalties. And do not present an English pension sharing percentage as if it automatically reduced the French taxable base of the transferor or created a French deduction for the transferee. French deductibility follows French articles, not English labels. Where the English order directs one party to pay the other’s tax arising from implementation, enforce that indemnity as part of the financial order rather than asking the tax office to reallocate the charge.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

An English divorce can stand in France after Brexit without a French re-trial of the marriage breakdown, but the pension and money orders attached to it do not enforce themselves. Identify which pension rights the English order actually divided, correct any defective annex in England before time expires, obtain a French enforcement judgment for the financial limbs where compulsion in France may be needed, translate the economics into a remedy a French body can lawfully give where direct pension splitting is unavailable, declare and treaty-position the receipt carefully in France, and challenge refusals and assessments through the matching track \u2014 enforcement court, family court, administrative court or benefits dispute \u2014 with complete exhibits and deadlines diarised. Handled in that order, with the English and French files kept consistent, a pension sharing order made in London can be made to count in Lyon, Paris or Bordeaux. Handled as a single request to the wrong body, it stalls. The distinction between status and money, and between splitting a pension and paying its value, is the thread that holds the whole strategy together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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