Professionally I would guess the British Embassy must wait till the décret is published. To say anything before it’s officially announced and communicated would be highly risky for them and guessing a lot of previous excellent diplomatic cooperation would then be lost.
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I think during this grey / transitional year they are not going to be too strict, in fact they have little way to police it. Also they have said that with covid they understand that there are issues and trying to help where they can with appointment changes etc. I have 2 or 3 people literally stuck in Australia and getting rejected for the right to leave exemption by border control - nightmare but the prefs are trying to help and clearly know they’ve been away for X time. It does grate a bit the Brits I have telling me they are ‘stuck in the UK due to covid since Xmas’ - errrrr no you aren’t you have NEVER been not allowed to return to France as you are a returning resident even in the strictest lockdowns. I think a lot of people dont’ understand that they are resident already from the date they arrived and intended to stay, they are just waiting for the card to have physical proof of that.
The electronic passport controls are due in the first quarter of 2022 so I’m presuming from then on anyone taking the pee and not really living here / trying for the easy life to come and go to a holiday home may find themselves in bother.
Is the key date the date someone formed the intention to become resident or does it have to be an actual arrival date in France?
arrival date. The decision can be made retrospectively as long as you can prove you were here ie people who weren’t going to become residents and then decided they would as long as they were here in 2020 and can prove it that is OK.
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Tx Tory.