what are actually legal requirements for living in france

[Coz and Igor]

Hi this is our first time on the site so please bear with us.  We have been looking into the possibility of moving to the Limousin for some time and have put our house on the market.  We are both 50 years old (young in thought and appearance) and Igor can take retirement from his job as soon as the house is sold.  The problem we have is that all the books and articles we have read regarding  what  we need to do i.e Carte de Sejour , registering the car etc has got us wondering if all the hassle is worth it.  We have friends living in the Herault who have been there for twenty years and dont recall all these forms and paperwork.  Can anybody out there simplify what is necessary and legally required and what is just theory.  We will both be classed as retired but obviously not of state pension age.  The other problem is re: healthcare.  My husband has Colitis and is steroid dependant.  Would we have to pay for all his medicines or would these be available through the French system free of charge?

[samdebretagne]

It might help if you let us know where you are from...

[Sunday Driver]

Welcome to the forum.

Assuming you are UK citizens and not Cossacks......[;-)]

Moving to France from the UK is quite straightforward (we've all managed to do it....) and if you do the proper research, then it is not much hassle.  If you search the forum under the various sub headings, you will find all the information you need.

To summarise some of your points:

Carte de sejour.  This is no longer required for EU citizens.  You buy or rent a property and once you actually turn up to occupy it, you become legally resident here under French civil law. 

When you arrive, you will also become tax resident here, so you'll start paying French income tax. There is a simple process for notifying the Inland Revenue of your move, so you can receive your future pension payments tax free and get a refund of all your UK tax paid since your arrrival here.  French tax returns are fairly painless and you should find the tax burden lighter here than in the UK.

Heathcare:  You'll have to register for healthcare and contribute towards your state health insurance.  You'll also need to purchase a supplementary policy from a 'mutuelle' insurer to cover the shortfall in state cover.  With these two in place, your treatments and medications should (with some exceptions, such as dental treatment and spectacles) be paid for in full.  If you've been paying full UK NI contributions for the last three years, then the DWP will help get you started here by issuing you with a form which exempts you from those state contributions for up to two years.  After that, you pay according to your means.

Car:  Importing and registering a normal UK specification car is straightforward and you can find a clear and concise FAQ under the relevent forum section.  'Unofficial 'grey' Japanese imports are a little more problematic.

Those are the basic obligatory legal areas, but there are many more aspects of life that you need to understand, eg, property purchase, planning permissions, inheritance, sorting out your drainage system, getting the cat neutered....

The forum is your friend - use the search facility, then if you've any more questions, then come back with them.

 

 

[Catalpa]

deleted - pc crash = double post

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Coz and Igor"]... has got us wondering if all the hassle

is worth it. 

[/quote]

Did you mean that or have you worded your thought a bit casually? There is enormous hassle moving to another country - perhaps (I don't know) particularly bureaucratic France. The level of hassle you'll encounter is also related to how well you speak French. To minimise hassle, one or other of you really needs good language skills.

[cooperlola]

Why not try renting over here for a year or so?  See how you like it?  That way you don't burn any bridges.  It may be the perfect life for you but then again... often it isn't.  You'll read a few tails of woe on here but some positive stuff too.  I moved here at 50 and love it but others do not.

[Val_2]

No one has mentioned the fact that you will need sufficient income to survive here and pay your bills on time which arrive every two months for electricity and phone and others six monthly or once per year and credit is not given without proof of employment or income. Unless you have been in the french system for some time and paid in, you won't be able to get ,if anything at all, benefits or unemployment without actively signing on and going for interviews etc and this is where many young retirees without a proper pension get into trouble and cannot support themselves. You will have to pay for health cover here as stated and will be required to make a tax return the following year. France was more difficult years back when we came here and had to have a compulsory CdeS which was only granted then if you had work or sufficient income monthly as well as health cover,now any EU citizen can move here but regulations seem to be local and not always as per the EU directives. I strong ly suggest  you rent for a minimum of 6 months in your chosen area especially during the winter months as you will never recover the same money for selling up and trying to return to the UK in a lot of stagnant property price areas now.

[jon]

Val...I agree that once you sell in England it is not easy to go back and buy again.

However everything rests on individual situations.Is it easy to go off and rent in France whilst your home in England lies dormant.Can you afford not to sell and move on to down size....attaching some form of part-time income whilst in France.Yes, I know fully that it is not easy to find work in France.....however what are the options.

When choosing an area there are a million questions and a place for everyone and everyone in their place.Not easy but it has to be done.

[LisaJ]

I would say:

Learn as much French as you can (if you do not speak it already); Michel Thomas courses are good for covering the basics and giving confidence. Read some good basic guides to the practicalities and to the French way of life. Make sure that you do the essential things you need to do before leaving the UK (e.g contacting Newcastle re health cover.) Do not try to deal with everything at once; for example we moved in late December and did not have to submit a tax form for 18 months, when we needed to do it I followed the excellent, clear and careful advice of Sunday Driver, by going through his past postings. Long term medical conditions are not a problem, but make sure you rehearse the vocabulary before you visit the doctor. When you arrive introduce yourself at the Mairie, remember to greet and shake hands with neighbours and try to attend village celebrations and events. If you have had busy working lives then you may find it takes time to adjust to life deep in the French countryside; having enough money to ease the transition does help.

If any of this sounds obvious and/or patronising then please accept that this is not my intention. We love living here, but realistic expectations and lots of preparation are essential.

Good luck if you decide to move.

regards

Lisa

 

 

[Coz and Igor]

Thanks to Sunday Driver and everyone else who has responded so quickly.  No - we aren't Cossacks - Igor was born in Chiswick and is half Scots half Ukrainian.  I am 100% Yorkshire.  We will be receiving a pension together with other income when we come to live in France - so that side of things is ok.  I may have worded my message incorrectly.  I didnt mean it was a casual idea and not worth the hassle.  I just meant that the more articles we read about what paperwork is required for everything, the more stressed we get.  I can speak some French and understand and read it ok.  I intend to work at it in the coming months to improve. 

Thanks once again - no doubt we will have more questions!!![:D]

[La Vette]

Although the books and articles are useful they are very often out of date before they have even been printed.  Forums such as these are of more use but the books will help you to know what it is you need to know.  It all seems very complicated because, in the UK, you are born into the system, you get various documents at different times of your life and you dont have to deal with everything at once.  Imagine if you were and new immigrant in the UK you would have to register for this that and the other, sort out tax, medical cards, etc etc and it would seem overwhelming.  Same here.

Write yourself a list of everything you think you might need to know and start asking questions.  Try to search the forum for an answer first (look at the stickies at the beginning of each subject page) as these questions have all been asked before.  Take your time to work through things, you dont have to do everything as soon as you arrive but there are things you must do either before you leave England (tax and health) and some things you need to do pretty quickly when you move here.  If you are going to ask questions on a forum try to be specific and not ask a whole load of things at once.  Good luck, it is worth the effort.

[Pierre ZFP]

Are there hassles? Well yes but no more or less than living in most places, it's just that all the systems have their own little differences.  I have to say that without exception (that I can remember) everyone I have had to deal with for the everyday things in life have been pleasent and helpful - why wouldn't they? after all, they want your money for taxes, utilities etc.  You have the 2 main things sorted,  the area you want to live in and a reliable income.  The rest is just administration.  I assume you will be buying through an agent,  they should be able to help with transferring water/electric/phone etc.  Other things like local taxes will turn up in your postbox in due course, info on registering your car can be found in the excellent guide in this forum.  The rest is an adventure and you'll probably make mistakes like we all do but hey, it's well worth it.

and don't forget that this forum is all about giving and exchanging information too.

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Coz and Igor"] I may have worded my message incorrectly.  I didnt mean it was a casual idea and not worth the hassle.  I just meant that the more articles we read about what paperwork is required for everything, the more stressed we get. 

[/quote]

As others have said, you do it all bit by bit. It can be time-consuming and a bit confusing (and I'd interpreted your "hassle" as bother, fuss, inconvenience) but none of it is difficult, just different.

There was a discussion here some time ago in which people discussed their reasons for moving back to the UK. I'm not trying to be negative [:D] but you may find some of the comments interesting because they may bring up some aspects of life in France that you won't have considered. I think most peoples' biggest challenge is getting the location - the country / small town or access to big city mix - right for your long-term needs. But what's life without a challenge or two? Dull, that's what. [;-)]

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/907407/ShowPost.aspx