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Moving to France


frankgarton28
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Hi, this is  my first post so hopefully someone can help.

I am lookinh to move to France with my wife, 2 daughters son in law and grandson to open a B&B and do some cycling stuff.

Everywhere I have looked I cannot find out what the legalities are regarding moving to France to live and start a business as in do I need a visa etc?

Can anyone help?

Thanks

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[quote user="frankgarton28"]Thanks for your reply. We are coming from the UK so we can just move. Would we need a new driving licence? can we bring our cars from the uk?
[/quote]

You do not need a new driving licence, you can continue to use your UK one (or change it for a French one when you get here). You can bring your UK cars, but you will need to have them tested and insured here, as well as re-registered.

If you google "register a car in France" you will find articles on how to do it.

Some people change their UK licences for French ones as the UK photo licence expires after 10 years.

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Before you go any further, start by making a list of what you want to do.  You sound like you just want to pack your bags and move, just like that, well that  is the impression you are giving. For for all you have the right to move to France, it is conditional too.

So make a list of what you need to do. 'We' on here' cannot move for you and do not know your circumstances, so with your list, look at UK web sites about leaving the country, ie

the DVL about taking your car out of the country, exporting it and on french sites about importing a car to France.

Health care in France, your eligibility etc etc.

Child benefits too,

even vaccinations that are needed for the children to get into school.

Then look on the www.service-public.fr web site and look things up on there too. Look on the amabassade de France web site in the UK. Look on the British consulate Paris, web site. Between these three sites and the DVL, you'll find out most of the things you need to know really.

All this information is  more than easily available on the web, at your finger tips.

And if you don't speak french, learn it.

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What Idun said!

 Until your business is legitimised (registered with the authorites and the appropriate body taking your social security contributions etc) then you must be sure your family is covered for healthcare somhow - see our website (link below) for more.  It's a bit out of date but the basic rules still aply.

See this bit of the website Idun mentions, in particular which outlines your obligations for residence.

This is a massive subject.  You could do worse than to trawl this forum for responses to similar questions which are put on here almost every day!

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Be very careful in what you do. This year has been bad in many many regions of France for holidaymakers and thinking a B&B will support a family is a big mistake. You have to proove to the french authorities you can support you and your family unless you have a bottomless pit of money and the system here drains savings like water in the desert. Unemployment is higher in France than the UK so you may do best opening in the centre of large town rather than the sticks where no one goes or wants to visit unless there is something to do and see there. Trawl this and other forums for all the info you can because end of the day it may mean that by selling up and just upping sticks on a whim you can never return to the standard of living you had previously in the UK. You should also consider the children and whether they are too old to get enough french education in before they choose a career at 14/15 or whether they would prefer to stay put.

As Idun says your thread gives the impression of thinking the grass is greener here, well you may have a shock when reality hits and there is no one to bale you financially unless you have paid well into the system first. If you have a transferrable skill that may be a better bet and B&B asa sideline.
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Thanks for all the comments.

I can assure you that this is not on a whim and that I dont believe the grass is greener in France, my duaghters are 21 and 23 her husband is 29 and their son is 10 months old. They all have GCSE french so picking up the language again shouldnt be a massive issue but the feedback I am getting is excellent and I have done a lot of research already but you dont always get the full picture until you come on forums to speak to ppl who actually live the life that we want.

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Frank thanks for your comments. When those of us who live here for many years reply to such postings we are often ostracised for being negative but we only pass on our experiences so that people are prepared to what can be one hell of a shock.
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[quote user="frankgarton28"]Thanks for all the comments.

I can assure you that this is not on a whim and that I dont believe the grass is greener in France, my duaghters are 21 and 23 her husband is 29 and their son is 10 months old. They all have GCSE french so picking up the language again shouldnt be a massive issue but the feedback I am getting is excellent and I have done a lot of research already but you dont always get the full picture until you come on forums to speak to ppl who actually live the life that we want.
[/quote]

 

The life you want, so you do think that the grass is greener then. It is different and not greener, and it could be harder than the UK.

You are planning on making enough to keep 5 adults and a child from a b&b and something with bikes, you would have to have something exceptional and special to make enough for everyone to have a proper income and remember that everyone will need a proper income to live in France. Also the places where people want to be on holiday and pay more to visit are often regions that are more expensive when you are starting up and needing to buy your property. OR are you very rich, I don't really want to know.

 

I lived a life in France for a lot of years and my life was completely removed in many ways from most of the posters on here.

GSCE french. When I lived in a city in France and even after we moved I knew quite a lot of the students that came from England to study french, so what were they, in their second year in Uni studying french, with A levels and quite a lot of them did not speak very good french at all, frankly it was poor. They may have been able to read and write, but speaking was not easy.

In such a big group such as yours, there should be one or two that pick it up rather better than the others and far more quickly, and they will be carrying the rest of you.

Well if you have a huge budget, go for it. Pick your region carefully and make sure that what you want to do isn't already available. You'll have to register your business. Get signed up for health care. Stop family allowance in the UK and they'll get none in France for one child. Find a mutualist. And then you'll have to run your businesses and sort out your cotisations and taxes and good luck to you.

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Hi FrankG28,

Just a word of caution about the Chambres D'Hotes making enough to "keep" you all.

We opened our B&B this year and luckily have had many more bookings than originally thought for our first year but can only anticipate it making an income for about 6-7 months at the maximum.

There are only two of us to consider "feed, cloth, pay utilities, pay annual taxes, etc, etc"

We may have to return to the uk for a couple of months to do some agency work in order to tide us over the winter and then see if next year brings anywhere near a viable income to maintain us over here.

Having said that our 8 months over here so far have been great and wouldn't have missed opening this year for the world.

Everyone has been so supportive and helpful..............especially our Marie.

so we'll wish you all the best and very good luck.

Hope it all goes well for you.

Kind Regards Mel.
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Just thought I'd add my twopenniworth.

GSCE French may get you by, shopping etc. but none of the French courses I attended taught about Frenchlife - taxes, how to open a Bank account, dealing with utilities etc. I remember when we first bought our house - while trying to sort out the Taxe d'habitation at the tax office, by an irate office manager, that I was in France so I should speak French - I told him that I was trying my hardest but in my French classes they didn't teach ' old French'. So something to bear in mind.
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[quote user="frankgarton28"]we dont want to come and do nothing and be lazy. We want to work hard for 9 months of the year doing hospitality with a B&B, camping and cycling tours of France and live in a different country.

[/quote]

I think you've got the ratio about right, though that nine months might mean a 7/7 working week. A great deal depends on how your business does and that in turn depends upon the quality of your planning & execution.

Personally, we found that the grass was and is greener here [:)]

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And another potential prob.

Who will provide the capital ? And what will happen when one/some of the adults decide "this is too much like hard work, I want to go back"?

Remember the old adage "never work with children, animals or members of your family".

John

 

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Plus you are going to need a seriously big property as four bedrooms will already be taken and french houses, unless you go large and expensive can be lacking in bedrooms.

All stuff to think about plus the exchange rate for buying here whereby you can lose a shedload of money.
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True.

There's a manoir for sale in central Brittany at an asking price of about a million. That was bought by a Brit family in a very similar situation. One couple baled out after a few months and the others had to buy them out. They never really got enough business to be viable and the credit crunch, plus their reliance on the UK market, wiped them out.

There's plenty of room for all the owners plus several gites, a restaurant and some B&B rooms. It's been on the market for at least a year, together with a few hectares of field and forest.

 

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Albert was that the place advertised in central Brittany near Rostrenan when they did that re-locating programme with that Johnny from A Place in the Sun Home and Away and the couple looked at four businesses in Brittany including the restaurant at Lac Guerledan, a fishing lake near Dinan, Kayak/boat hire and then a large manoire with gƮtes etc?
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[quote user="idun"]remember that everyone will need a proper income to live in France.[/quote]On top of what Cooperlola said this is a crucial point. If you were just a couple looking to run a small business then you could register it as AE (Auto Entrepreneur) where you pay your dues as a fixed percentage of your turnover although I'm not sure that B&B qualifies for it.

Unfortunately you cannot employ others under the AE scheme, to do that you would have to create a different more formal type of business which will be  expensive, complicated, and will also expose you to all manner of obligations as an employer.

Outside of that each couple or lone adult would need to be self sufficient in their own right to be considered legally resident here. If they did work for you on the 'on the black' that is not only an offence for both parties but also means that they would not be able to eventually qualify for health care as they normally would after 5 years legal residence. In reality they too would probably have to set themselves up as AE which in itself I believe creates potential problems if working for the same client all the time.

Although there are many here running B&B's etc. I think your situation with it's numbers of people and diversity of activity is probably unique. I'm sure it could work but TBH unless you have serious financial resources I fear the cards are stacked against you and it could all end in tears and acrimony.

Bonne chance anyway.

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[quote user="Val_2"]Albert was that the place advertised in central Brittany near Rostrenan when they did that re-locating programme with that Johnny from A Place in the Sun Home and Away and the couple looked at four businesses in Brittany including the restaurant at Lac Guerledan, a fishing lake near Dinan, Kayak/boat hire and then a large manoire with gƮtes etc?[/quote]

Sorry. Never seen the prog. The manoir is one I know personally near Rohan.

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Hi AnOther,

Just to let you know you can use AE for Chambres D'Hotes.......we do it and it's ideal for this, but take all the points about the diversity of the OP plans and the number of adults it would need to support as AE only registers one person as far as i'm aware.

Regards Mel.
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