srw

[B] Peter ,thanks for this - I shall be locating old tax docs., workshop/liability insurance and I can get a couple of letters from former associated firms attesting to my being time-served steve srw

Hugh , re getting attestations as you have suggested -  would it be sufficient to have letters or statements from two or three people i have worked closely with , rather than quallifications ?   steve

vicar - of course there is the other angle , i.e. that its "what you know about who you know "............... steve

CHRIS ,  THANKS FOR THE INFO , IT ALL HELPS TO BUILD A PICTURE .. MORE QUESTIONS COMING UP .   STEVE

HUGH ,  CHEERS , I FEEL BETTER AGAIN . AS MENTIONED TO VAL-2 THIS ALL HELPS AND I HAVE PULLED MYSELF UP WITH MY OWN BOOTLACES A BIT ... MORE QUESTIONS FOR YOU ALL COMING UP. STEVE

VAL-2   THANKS , ALL COMMENTS AND ADVICE ARE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED EVEN IF A LITTLE DEPRESSING  , I ACCEPT THAT WE MUST BE PERHAPS AWARE OF THE PITFALLS RATHER  THAN THE GOOD STUFF IN THE RUN-UP TO ANY FINAL DECISION AND IT ALL HELPS TO BUILD A PICTURE . STEVE 

Re earning a living in france  , help please .. my wife(56)and myself(59) have been considering moving to France permanently and we are now at the "when " stage rather than "if" . I have just been unexpectedly  made redundant so the matter is now more pressing . Having spent 40 years in roro ferry operations and European road freight I am reasonably familiar with French beaurocracy , however moving to France would probably be an opportunity to return to carpentry in which I was self employed for 11 years between 1985 and 1997 so I  am considered  time-served.  I still have all my professional equipment and would set this up as a priority in order to work on our own property. We will only have our UK state pension coming to us in later years and therefore must make a crust in the intervening period . Although I am confident about studwork ,plasterboard , second fix etc , I envisage doing this type of work on my own property only , I won t be going about calling myself a "building joiner" ,  but once set up I would be able to manufacture free-standing furniture , tables / dressers etc in my own workshop . My question is - by working only from home in this way , not going out "on site" , would this simplify registering myself , and what would I register as ? Would I need to pass some kind of test or have somebody watch we work in order to qualify ? Would I need to register at all ?