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Sprogster

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Everything posted by Sprogster

  1. If I recall correctly from another forum where the owner of the 'no going back' fishing lake business is a member, the house, lake and business was put up for sale last year and the family are returning to the UK.    
  2. As a non EU citizen, to obtain a work/residence permit in France you have to be sponsored by a prospective French employer who has to demonstrate they have been unable to find an alternative French or EU national qualified for the job. In fact as I am sure you are aware, an SA citizen needs a visa just to visit France on holiday and even that process is bureacratic. I would suggest that you obtain advice from a French immigration lawyer.
  3. Hastobe, I think you have identified one of the main problems of a second home in France in that it can tie you down and limit your travel horizons and because of that, is one of the principle reasons people end up selling. I would imagine that your situation is all too familiar with a lot of second home owners who are struggling with reluctant teenage children, or as the years go by an increasing desire to go somewhere different as boredom grows with the same destination and routine. A possible solution is to move to another area of France when boredom sets in, to try and reinvigorate ones enthusiasm with a new project.  
  4. Ali-C the delay is almost certainly with the French correspondent banks, who have a notorious reputation in the international finance industry as being inefficient black holes. A & L like all British Banks hold their customers foreign currency deposits with correspondent banks in the jurisdiction of the currency and they would have instructed them to make a  SWIFT electronic transfer on their behalf.  Ask A & L who their correspondent bank is in France who are making the SWIFT payment. This will be a French bank such as Soc Gen, BNP or Credit Lyonais almost certainly in Paris. You can then give this information to your French bank, as it might help them trace the payment. Electronic transfers of money to France that originate externally are notoriously slow, because they are centrally monitored and cleared by the French authorities to whom the French Banks report and this causes delays.
  5. Bret, One option that is a half way house is have you considered getting a finance industry job in Jersey or Guernsey? Like the UK was thirty years ago in terms of quality of life, with a strong French influence as Normandy is just twelve miles from Jersey. Contrary to belief, getting a housing permit in the Islands is not difficult and in Jersey is a lot easier than it once was, if you are a professional such as yourself and obtain an offer of employment appropriate for your qualifications. There are a significant number of major commercial law firms in the Island who between them employ thousands of people and due to rapid growth in areas such as expert funds are struggling to find new lawyers, most of whom are recruited in the UK.
  6. Apologies, I meant to say 'omitted' not 'admitted'. Its been a long day!! 
  7. Brett, You admitted retirees from your heading, as the majority of Brits heading to France to live permanently fall under the economically inactive category, according to official statistics. Otherwise your summarry is astute, as one would expect from a solicitor!     
  8. '3' are only allowing roaming at UK call charge rates in those few specified countries where they operate networks. In France my suggestion is to buy an 'Orange' pre-pay sim card, which you can easily top up over the internet to keep it active. Although you will have a French mobile number, when in France you can divert your incoming UK mobile calls to your UK mobile phone message service, where you have a recorded message asking the caller to phone your French mobile number. If you get regular incoming calls to your UK mobile whilst in France this will save you a fortune, as you pay for the roaming charges on incoming calls whilst outside the UK. 
  9. We have a Whirlpool condenser tumble dryer in our house in France and a vent through the wall one back at home. From our experience the condenser tumble dryer is not as nearly effective and on many occasions has driven my wife and I around the bend, in trying to get washed towels dry on the day of our departure from France, when the weather is not good enough to hang them on the outside washing line!! 
  10. I believe this is a European Union wide measure, as the only way biometric details can be checked that they belong to the applicant, is if you turn up in person. Apparently, a lot of passport fraud occurs where criminal gangs obtain passports for illegal immigrants by paying a legitimate EU National who does not have a passport to apply for one in their name, but submit the photo/biometricdetails of the illegal immigrant who is paying the gang for a fraudulent passport. On BBC TV recently a reporter was able to obtain in a few weeks passports for her, from every country in the EU with the exception of two. France included!!
  11. Well it has only taken me nearly two and a half years, but I have finally made a 100 posts!! Mucho respect to the huge number of helpful posts from the likes of Teamed Up and Will. The rest of us are not worthy!!
  12. I am not sure you can make valid comparisons, because there is such huge variation between different areas of the UK and France. For example, someone returning to visit rural Cornwall would presumably have a totally different perspective to someone returning to a big city such asManchester?  
  13. I would have thought that in some if not many cases the situation has been forced by necessity, whereby a couple have moved to France but one of them has had to return to the UK for work, because they cannot make an adequate living in France. Part of the reason probably being lack of language fluency?  
  14. My single biggest complaint when in France are Boulangeries, where the the same employees that handle unwrapped foodstuff with their bare hands then take your money. In most western countries health and safety regulations forbid employees who handle money to touch unwrapped foodstuff with their bare hands that will be eaten uncooked. Why?  Because money is one of the best ways to transmit infections and if you examined notes and coins under a microscope you would faint at what you found, including  faeces content!! (Also funnily enough cocaine residue from time to time!) Fortunately, the French authorities have cracked down and now metal prongs should be used where pastries and sticky type buns are being served, as these can act as bacterial cultures! My advice is be streetwise about demanding acceptable hygiene standards from food handlers, especially where food will be eaten uncooked. As infections such as E.Coli and Salmonella are becoming more prevalent and increasingly resistant to treatment.
  15. I find Eurostar and the TGV generally very expensive. I am flying from Paris Orly to Nice next week on Easyjet, as the cost was a third of taking the TGV from Paris to Avignon!!
  16. It is indeed very difficult to emigrate to the USA for a Brit. However, if you buy a business in the USA it is relatively easy to obtain a business investor non emigrant visa that enables you to move to the USA to manage your business and permits your spouse to work freely. For example, a lot of Brits are buying businesses in Florida such as pool cleaning companies, restaurants and launderettes and as long as they employ two Americans you can live there. The problem is that you can only remain in the USA for as long as you own and run your business, as if it closes or you sell it you have to leave the country. Also a significant number of Brits get transferred by their employers to work in their firms American offices. Again the visa issued only allows you to stay in the USA whilst working for the employer that brought you over. By comparison Australia, Canada and New Zealand have recently relaxed their immigration controls and are actively encouraging Brits under 45 to emigrate there. Something to do about concerns as to their falling birth rates and aging populations. If you are over 45 like me most countries don't want you, as they perceive your best working and breeding days are behind you and you are more likely to become a liability of the State such as through an increasing need for health care!!  
  17. According to official figures, for what they are worth, you have more chance of beeing burgled in France than the UK, but more chance of your car being stolen in the UK than France!  
  18. Not a pleasant experience and I believe it is the sense of violation that follows, that has a greater impact than the loss of possessions. Burglary also seems to be an increasing worry in France, if the experience of the 24 homeowners on the rural domain we have a house in is typical, as we get on average two or three burglaries amongst our neighbours every winter. So far we have been lucky and having installed an alarm, bars on the shutters and security lights hope to remain that way. Also the domain is looking to install webcam CCTV to cover the common areas to act as a further deterent. According to the French police a lot of the culprits are from poor countries like Romania and the concern is that this will get worse when they join the EU in January and are able to travel more freely.   
  19. As a parent of twins who have left school this year having completed their 'A' levels, looking back it would not have been feasible to move our children between GSCE and A levels to another country with a different education system and language, without taking an enormous risk to them succesfully completing their education.  If your son was not planning going on to some form of further education, then the chances of him finding work in France would be slim as youth unemployment is very high. Alternatively, if he wishes to continue in education, if I recall correctly from a previous similar thread on this forum, there is no guarantee you would be able to get him into a suitable French school as he is beyond the age of compulsory state education and therefore the French schools would not be compelled to offer him a place. Presumably, if your son is staying on for further education he will be going back to school in England shortly and by the time you have planned any move he will be well into the school year, so you would only be delaying by 18months or less if you waited for him to complete in June 2008?
  20. Ryanair's response today has been to increase their charges for checked in luggage! Potential light at the end of the tunnel in that the UK Minister of Transport has just announced that he is now reviewing the current hand luggage restrictions and a further relaxation is likely within days.  Appears the reduced size implementation was the decision of an underling!? Expect a continuing ban on travelling with liquids, but size restrictions will be probably increased back to the internationally agreed standard. If not Heathrow risks losing lucrative American transit passengers to Charles de Gaulle and Schipol, as it looks unlikely that Europe will follow the UK's lead in reducing the size of permissable hand luggage. Interestingly the USA whilst banning liquids did not reduce the hand luggage size limit nor will it. Therefore, can you imagine American travellers transiting Heathrow to European destinations having their hand luggage taken from them, when alternatively they can transit through Charles de Gaulle without comparable restrictions. Paris Airports must have been rubbing their hands with glee!
  21. There is a broader aspect to this in the UK governments current efforts to bring into line other European governments in making the current handbage restrictions a permanent measure across Europe. This poses a significant threat to the bottom line of low cost carriers such as Ryanair who operate on a 25 minute turnaround. If flying becomes too much trouble over the longer term through such measures as the current inability of female passengers to even take a lipstick on board, longer waits, more delays and cancellations passenger numbers will fall and the cost of flying will increase substantively. 
  22. In regards to Debra's posting about her being blessed with a new pregnancy over the age of forty, she should be aware that she is very fortunate. As for the majority of women over the age of forty, falling fertility means that getting pregnant without IVF treatment is statistically unlikely, with a much higher risk of miscarriage or health problems for the baby and mother if you do. The original posting raises some very valid points, not particualrily in connection with France, but the risk to health of retiring too early without alternative challenges, in that it can seriously reduce your life expectancy. As it has been shown through medical research that positive stress as experienced through work commitments has as much a physical as mental health benefit.
  23. If you see lots of aircraft vapour trails in the sky, you are probably near an 'Airway'. This is the aviation terminology for what are effectively roads in the sky. Vapour trails are not always visible in a clear sky, as they are dependent on atmospheric conditions. These 'Airways' follow over land at intermittent intervals ground 'VOR' navigation beacons, from which aircraft measure their track and distance, if also equiped with a 'DME' beacon. Often a 'VOR' beacon will mark where two airways intersect, effectively a crossroads in the sky. If in your country walks you see what looks like a wedding cake type metal construction about 20 metres wide in a field, it is probably a 'VOR' beacon. Aircraft fly in both directions in airways toward each other and are seperated vertically by 1000ft. They use the semi- circular rule, whereby aircraft flying in a 180 degree radius in one direction fly at odd altitudes and aircraft flying in the other direction use even altitudes.  That is why sometimes you will see at cruising altitude an aircraft pass right underneath or above your plane going in the opposite direction. Can be a bit unnerving! All this is ultimately controlled by regional air traffic control centres using radar, which track aircraft on radar having allocated them specific identification numbers, which the aircraft then broadcast or 'SQWALK' from a transponder which gives also gives an altitude read out to the air traffic controller. This is probably more information than you want, so I won't go on to tell you what happens over oceans!
  24. The mortgage option only works if you are French non resident and therefore your non French assets fall outside the scope of French inheritance taxes and forced heirship rules.. Then the insurance policy is written outside France and structured in such way that the lender only can benefit under certain default scenerios. Also some Banks will lend without life insurance when there is other security held by them outside France, such as cash deposits. A French Bank recently launched an equity release mortgage product in France, which is unheard of in that country. This is being targeted specifically at non French resident second home owners, so they can increase the mortgage in line with house price inflation. This type of planning tends to be more popular at the upper end of the property market, as an added attraction is to keep the net asset value of the French second home below wealth tax levels. For those considering moving to France permanently, consider taking professional advice on establishing a Trust to shelter your non French assets before you go. A recent surprisingly positive French tax court ruling recognised a Trust set up by an individual BEFORE they moved to France, and ruled that income and gains arising in the trust are only taxable in France when or if those income or gains are distributed to the by now French resident beneficiary. The use of Trusts to avoid forced heirship rules is becoming increasingly popular.But they generally only work for French residents in regards to non French assets, placed into a Trust whilst they were French non resident.
  25. I believe in the UK the market has been de-regulated, so supermarkets can compete with pharmacies by selling and discounting over the counter medicine. Not so in France where the pharmacies have a monopoly and are able to keep prices very high as a result. Also the range of over the counter medicine at pharmacies are far more limited in France. There was a proposal mooted in France last year to remove the monopoly of the pharmacies, but I do not know what progress that is making. Meanwhile stock up on your Beecham Powders when visting the UK!!  
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