Moffers

Yes Crabtree, you are correct, although I thought the only proposal going forward is regarding second home owners. I think the new general 5 year visa mooted for all non-EU members was rejected.

Thank you so much for the clarification Crabtree. I see that a motion has been put forward in France for second home owners to get a longer stay visa, e.g. 5 years , but it hasn't been passed into law yet and would only be for second home owners, which is a bit of a bummer for us, as we wish to live there permanently and not just go for extended holidays.

Many thanks for your comments, but I didn't think you could apply for more that 12 months at a time.

Thank you Dave 😉 There seems to be a lot of conflicting information surrounding French visas and residence permits, who can apply for what and when.

Thanks so much for your thoughts. We were planning to rent in France for about a year to 18 months, after selling our property in the UK and finding another in France as cash buyers. We've contacted a variety of French property magazines, checked official visa websites and even contacted the British Consulate in France, but we still haven't been able to get a straight answer from anyone.

Thanks so much for your thoughts. Unfortunately, we can't afford to keep a property here as well as one in France and that is why we are reasearching things as thoroughly as we can beforehand, because it will be all or nothing for us. It would be so much easier if we could keep a property here to come back to if things didn't work out.

Thank you so much all who have given me the information I needed, although it's not the answer I was hoping for. Moving to France is something we decided upon over 20 years ago, following our first holiday there, but circumstances have prevented us from doing so until now. We were hoping that we could get a 4-5 year resident permit after the first year or two, but it would appear that we would have to wait 5 years to get that extra security, renewing annually until then. Looks like we may have to retire in the UK after all. 😞

Hi All I have just signed up on this site and wondered if anyone could help me with a query regarding residents permits. My husband and I are UK residents who wish to retire in France. We will both officially be UK state pensioners when we apply. I understand that there are lots of different visas and residents permits available and I think we would initially need a VLS-T (Visiteur.) My question is that when the VLS-T nears expiration, what options for residents permits are available to us? As we will initially be renting a property in France and selling our property in the UK to become cash buyers, are we eligible to apply for a Carte de Sejour pluriannuelle, or Carte de Resident de 10 ans once the VLS-T is due to expire, or would we have to keep renewing on an annual basis for 3-5 years before qualifying for a longer residents permit? Having to renew annually for years on end, with no guarantee of acceptance sounds a little risky to us. We've tried various official bodies for an answer, but just keep getting the runaround. Any enlightenment you are able to give would be much appreciated.