PACS & Carte De Séjour

Signing a Pacs could help you getting a 'carte de séjour' in order to stay in France, if:

1. You have proof of a year of marital life (living together). Be aware that bills are your proof (electricity, rental lease, car payments, insurance, check stubs, etc). These documents must have the name of both partners (except for check stubs) . The documents you are going to use must be french documents (bills/factures), but you can always use your bills from the U.S or any other country where you've lived in with your partner. The documents do not need to be translated, unless requested by the prefecture.


2. You have signed for PACS overseas. You must know that you can get PACSed where you live.

• if you are a resident of the U.S, you must get PACSed there (States that can recognize PACS are Vermont Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire because they have a civil union law, however Maine, Distric of Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California* have the domestic partnership act and you do have possibilities).
  
• if you are not American, the countries that recognize the PACS are Andorra, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Uruguay. You must remember that PACS is the french name for this Act, but in your country this might have another name, some people called it civil union and/or domestic partnership [(*) see note below].
  

You can provide your PACS papers (civil union and/or domestic partnership documents) from your country to support your file (but I also suggest you to get PACSed here in France), but then again this is just a partial proof since the french government is looking for french proof, something they can verify (like french PACS). The prefect (préfet or sous-préfect) will have to evaluate your file and he will need to verify all the sources provided and he won't be making phonecalls overseas just for YOU.
Another important point is that a year of marital life plus PACS does not give you 100% right to a 'carte de séjour', but it can be considered. Remember the prefect is going to evaluate your file and it all depends on how strong your file is. If you are able to proof that you can adapt yourself and live in France with no problems you might be a winner.




(*)The countries mentioned above are countries I've found during my research, but this does not mean that your country does not accept the PACS or civil unions or even domestic partnerships. If you did not find your country above I would recommend you to do your own research and/or contact me, I can help you with the research. Remember the purpose of PACS, civil unions and domestic partnerships is to allow same sex people (and sometimes opposite sex) to live like married couples.



*IMPORTANT : I know for a fact that California does accept PACS because we asked the French Consul.