Not sure that’s a consideration for us. It looks like a very dodgy and unsustainable plan to me but each to each. In your shoes, if you really want to live here, I think I’d either put off moving until retirement OR get a job in France. I wish I could give you some more directly useful advice but as legislation about CdS doesn’t affect me I rather shamefully don’t know anything about it.
Thanks!! 
Yes lived with people that did France to Switzerland and one of my previous jobs was in Basel.
Still suffering from PTSD from a £10 coffee there.
Haven’t touched caffeine since!
You could work in Basel, live eg in Colmar or Mulhouse and be a frontalier, if you’re allowed to.
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not sure we’re going to get to retirement is the problem … … was talking to George1 about this.
Yes - one of our options - to wait till 67 … … but we hate it in the UK (solely weather).
Job in France - yes thinking of a work visa / dual citizenship … … but haven’t started to work out what we’ll have to do in France to compensate for loss of S1 - the S1 is a big deal. Also - it’s so much nicer to be able to choose to work for 6 months and then to not bother for 6 months - rather than being compelled into having to work, once starting - in order to claw back the losses incurrred by sacrificing S1.
Oooo just been to Colmar, yes it’s close!
Ahhh so it’s OK to frontalier into Switzerland and not lose S1 but not frontalier into Spain - because it’s in Europe?
No, no, no. Alsace isn’t big enough for both of us.
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Oooo I’m one for Alsatians We’ve had 4 German Shepherds since we’ve been in Cambridge.
Budge up ‘Ocky’
I’ve obviously not been paying enough attention.
If you do all you can to work in France then it becomes your competent state for healthcare so the S1 becomes irrelevant. You’ll also get a small FR pension if you start now.
You’d hate it here. Fasting and permaculture are against the law.
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Ahhh Too late!
No idea, I’m just a boring French person so as I said I don’t know about S1 etc.
Googled what is an S1, since I didn’t know. The Confederation is mentioned.
You’ll need to apply for a certificate of entitlement known as an S1 form. S1 forms show that your state healthcare is paid for by the UK if you live in an EU country or Switzerland . If you’re applying for an S1 form in Switzerland, you’ll need to satisfy additional nationality criteria to be eligible.
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So if you work in France for eg 1 year in total between 57 - 67 (just jobs here and there if they’re available) will you in effect get the two paired S1 privileges of most of healthcare covered (bar the mutuelle bit) and so most of your Social charges (CSG/CRDS) eliminated on retirement proper?
Are you looking for a way to live in France but dodge paying social charges?
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Hey! We worked that up earlier in this thread I think - Private Health Insurance and all social charges eliminated but it’s a bit hefty … … so can drop it with S1 at 67 and shift onto some flavour of mutuelle.
Desperate to get out of this country … … but it’d be nice to know that there’s some way of topping up our income if it’s required … … but not if S1 is jeopardised. It’s worth too much money.
Then if you can, get a French job and then you will be en règle, and you can choose your top-up mutuelle. And now I’ll shut up because actually I find all this super confusing.
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Confusing it is!
Can you believe that a benefit gained from 40 years working (in effect health care for life) might be lost after a weekend of unboxing gherkins down aisle 2?
That is a gherkin too far (coincidentally also the name of the new James Bond movie)
Not possible. Once you get to the point where you might be eligible for a French pension, even if €5 a year that’s it. Social security coordination between States is a big deal.
And you also have to consider the direction that France is going in, which is to make it more difficult for immigrants. Likely to be big changes in next 10 years.
You really are making a huge Everest like spectacle out of something that is not hugely unusual. There are a lot of people who live off grid in France. And you have the massive advantage of a French wife so can live here without the full immigration hurdles that many face. And no you can’t work but I know of many nurses for example who can’t work here, so do shifts in UK care homes for a month at a time.
Sort out your pension as best you can. Presumably you will have some income from interest on whatever your house sale realises. And then stop agonising over details that will change before you get to them! And recognise that the difference between doing A or B is often minuscule.
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Hi - can you explain that? I think you’re suggesting that even as a French resident we can work in the UK without it triggering invalidation of S1 but only for a maximum of 1 month at a time?
btw How do you know all of this? Very impressive!