Hi
I cant find an answer to my problem but others must have wondered?
I’m from th UK, retired, bought a french house last year and want to be able to renovate it so travel back and forth as required to make our house good.
Non working Visitor Visa application, enough savings, 12 month insurance taken but put on hold for now.
On the france visa website there is no option to tell them you own your own home, you have 3 options
A person will be accomodating me
A company or organisation will acccomodate me
My hotel or place of accomodation
Obviose one would be the third but as I applied for a 12 month Visa and was only given a 6 month one previosly I wondered if anyone had the same situation.
I also ticked the 6-12 month option rather than the over 12 month box, again does anyone know if this may have resulted in my 6 motnh visa?
Really trying to get a 12 month Visa until I can look at permanently moving to France in the Future
It seems the consulate in the UK has a policy of only issuing 6-month visas so it’s likely that your choices on the application had nothing to do with it. I might be misremembering but I think the policy was only for the first visa.
If you get a longer than 12 month visa, you will be expected by the authorities to become French resident.
However, if you get the 6 month visa, you can add your 90 days Schengen visa waiver to the beginning and end of the 6 months and therefore you will have 12 months.
Thanks JohnH
I am about to apply again as there is less than 3 months left on the last Visa, I was looking for reasons why they only gave me a 6 month one and it sounds like you just gave one. Maybe my next application will be more succesful. What a pain though going through all that again!
Sounds like that could solve all my immediate problems and leave me able to go back and forth fairly freely.
That must be something lots of people do.
Thank you, I want to move there ful time eventually but have comitments in the UK and would like to move over to a renovated house instead of a building site.
This would be perfect, are there any pitfalls with doing it that you can think of?
When filling in your visa application, select 'hotel or place of accomodation and then write this in the address:-
My Second Home (Literally those words)
345 Route de Gresdt
47330 Casigddfggggg
At TLS they will then give you a letter that you sign to confirm you are a second home owner.
There may be french tax implications to use all of the 6 month visa and the 90/180 allowance.
There may also be travel insurance issues as many travel insurance policies require you to live in UK for 180 days of the year.
To get the 12 month visa, you will need to take out health insurance for 12 months; travel insurance is quite different and will not be accepted.
The 12 month visa is regarded as a residence permit and has additional requirements when you are in france. It is thought of as the first step to applying for residency that will begin at the end of that 12 month visa. Beware of tax implications.
UK home insurance policies usually have a “never unoccupied for more than 30 days” requirement.
There is a limit on how far in advance you can apply for a visa if you currently have one - sorry cannot remember but its on the visa website somewhere.
Thanks Graemel for that indepth look at it, extremely helpful!!
If only TLS could be so helpful.
I feel much better informed to make some decisions
Thank Again]
Both good points, I think this could really work for me until I am ready to be more comitted, maybe in around 12 months.
Looking at the Tax implications I dont really think it would have too much negative impact on my circumstances apart from a load more pper work… however, I’m sure someone could soon tell me i’ve got that all wrong
Hello @Corona . “If your center of interests cannot be determined, your primary place of residence is in France (residence in France for more than 183 days in the same year)”
So using all of the 6 month visa takes you to the 183 day limit. Then if you add on any extra days through the 90/180 and you are likely to be regarded as having french tax residency. (Google ‘tax residency france’ for more examples and details.)
Non-earning in france does not imply no earnings of course.
Another point to bear in mind regarding tax, is that of CGT. If you do your own improvements and maintenance of your property, you will not be able to offset any of those costs against the capital gain when you come to sell. On the other hand, if you employ professionals with a Siret number you will be able to offset repairs/improvements against the capital gain. Proof with invoices required of course.
I have read about CGT and the things you mention and its certainly worth bearing in mind. I think you could be very dissapointed had it not been highlighted when you came to sell.
I’ve been building in the UK for many years and from the prices ive been quoted for most jobs then I feel the saving of doing my own work where I can will far out weigh any saving on CGT in the future and hopefully i’ll be in the house for many years to come.
Thanks again for more good info, wish i’d found this site before I bought a house, although nothings put me off being in France just yet!
I agree with @GraemeL that somebody spending more than 6 months in France in a year may well become French tax resident, which would logically imply French tax on worldwide income and gains etc.
However the UK/France tax treaty (or indeed the treaty equivalents in other countries that second home owners come from) will, in the vast majority of cases, usually determine that the “home” country of residence remains “superior”. This is usually due to (variously) the home country location of employer/main family home/settled social, family and work lives/investments/nationality/bulk of income etc etc.
In practice it means that life carries on, with the home country continuing to have taxing rights over worldwide income/gains ie not France (excluding any non interest income & gains from France itself, which will usually be taxable in France and the home country).
There will be paperwork that needs to be filed to prove closer fiscal ties to home country (eg tax treaty claims in tax returns) but at the end of the day, despite being dual resident, it’s back to the status quo ante in practical ‘who gets to tax you’ terms…
Thanks George, a great explanation. That is how I would perceive the position. If the french tax office want to send a form then I guess I will worry about that then.
Still waiting for a devis from a local electrician about 23 years now 