As you can see from my previous post, among other things I managed to get healthcare through CPAM, immatriculate a "van" Land Rover Discovery and a tipper trailer and get all utilities set up etc. and I think I only once translated a document and that I did "unofficially". I almost had to with the immatriculation but all they really need are diagrams and figures relating to the vehicle so we got away with it. I did, however, present our birth and marriage certificates, passports etc. and other documents from DWP, all were photocopied, none translated. Maybe it depends on the officials/department - but why go to the expense and hassle if you can get away without translations.
Hi Trehane,
The start of the great adventure, well it has been for us. We have only been resident in France since 1st August last year and it has been a steep but exciting learning curve, which we are still well and truly on. Anyway, not about us but about you. With regard to giving notice, you may be due some annual leave that you could deduct from your notice period. One thing we set up was a postal redirection with the Royal Mail. Although we did our best to inform everybody of our new address in France, there are invariably a few who fall off the radar due to being occasional correspondents rather than regular correspondents. You can either have your mail forwarded direct to France, more expensive and you will get everything including junk mail, or you can have it sent to a relative in the UK and have them either send it on or open it, scan it and forward it by email. When in France, go to see your Mairie as soon as possible, as we have found them to be extremely helpful with advice and addresses of necessary officials to see, such as CPAM if you are joining the French health system. If you are joining the French health system, you will need an S1 form from the overseas department of the Department of Works and Pensions, Overseas Healthcare Team, Durham House, M0401, Washington, Tyne & Wear, NE38 7SF. Their phone number is: 0191 218 1999 and their email: overseas.healthcare@dwp.gsi.gov.uk. Whenever I have rung them, they have always been really helpful. Also, make sure you have an EHIC for when you first come here, as it can take many months to get onto the French system. You are also likely to need a top up health insurance. There is also a lot more information that you can get by accessing SFN previous discussions but one very important thing we found out was that you will need to have all your documents officially translated by a Traduceur Assermente who has a special stamp, which he puts on both the original document in English and on the French translation. Quite costly unfortunately. Hope all goes well with you. Regards Janet Pfeiffer
One thing that is very important is to look at your finances, as there were schemes that were more tax advantageous if you set up before you become French resident. We did this, it I am not so sure what applies now.
Have a look at financial advisers with a view to assurances vies.
Good luck and congratulations on your next move.
Hi Trehane
We tried to sell our house in UK for two years, then were asked if we would rent in out. We rented it out for two years during which time we lived in France in our own property while building another. We went to France with three months notice, little homework and my basic French. We came back to become UK resident and sell the UK house so that the French tax man had no claim on the money.
There is, however, the internet and hopefully you can get broadband in your French property. I would say this is the most important criteria when living in France and still a lot of rural properties still have either 56kb (next to useless) or use satellite (possible but expensive). While still in the UK and when in France any question you can think of relating to France "Google" it. We are not retired
Important considerations:
Tax - rules change all the time and we may have a double taxation system but this does not mean we have the same taxes on our property! It is a minefield and you should work out the tax implications of where your money is going before you leave UK.
Health - I managed to get my husband and myself onto the French health care system for 1.5 years and had an operation for which I paid a minimal amount because I did not bother with extra cover. For the last three months we took out private health insurance.
Vehicles - If you can buy a French one, if not, you should register (immatriculate) your UK one. This can be a long process but, although lots of people do try to be under the radar, how many of them have had an accident and tried to claim on their insurance? You can get temporary French insurance but they expect you to be trying to immatriculate the vehicle. No UK insurance will (should) last longer than about 6 months.
Being under the radar is all very well but if you do not want to lose a lot of money to the tax man, be afraid of getting ill - it happens to a lot of people quite soon after moving to France, wonder if you are actually covered by your insurances, then research is the answer.
We did the move ourselves in a rented 7.5 ton truck. MUCH cheaper, but a little nerve-wracking, driving around with EVERYTHING in a big "box" behind you! :-)
-
I work as relocation consultant/translator and deal with anything from renovations to administrative assistance
Feel free to get in touch (I have SFNers on my client list who can provide references)
The best advice I can give to anyone is learn the language and don't be afraid to speak in French even if you lack confidence. The French really appreciate the effort and usually love our accents. If you don't have time to take classes one way of picking up the language is to watch French TV (particularly the news where presenters tend to speak slower and have neutral accents) and listen to the radio (France Inter is good one for learners)
For what it is worth I watched Dora The Explorer (Dora l'exploratrice) every breakfast time and one of the first things I learned was 'Le Jurassique étaient plein des moustiques'. Can't say I've had much use for this phrase but at least I understood it
Making an effort to learn and speak the language will not only help you get to grips with the inordinate amount of paperwork (paperasse in French) that both the French and expats have to deal with but it will also ensure that you integrate quickly into the French way of life.Good luck with the house sale and move - I loved my move over to France; a mix of excitement and terror but well worth the effort!
Just do it! There are times in life when youjust have to close your eyes and jump. If it is a complete diaster you do something else! When you are 90 and in your rocking chair do you want to think I wonder what would have happened if..... or that was an adventure!
you only know how it is by doing it. There are enough people here who will keep you on the straight and narrow, dont panic just jump!
hi keep your health care with the uk if you can
I know folk who still have illegal vehicles after 20 years out there
-not a good idea as the French rightly resent this
NEVER use Pickfords they toured France with our belongings and offloaded it several times in France and delivered it 3 weeks late to us - we slept on a blow up mattress and had no cooking utensiles for all that time
they are not "The caring movers"
Hi Trehane
We bought our house in the Gers just over a year ago and I am looking at semi-retirement in 18 months. I have 4 particular pieces of advice: firstly, do everything you can to become part of your local community. Talk to everyone, invite them in for aperitifs, offer to help in every way - even if your French is dreadful. Meet them halfway and the French make fantastic neighbours, full of good local advice, unbelievable help in need, and friendship. Too many expats stick to a primarily English group, and miss out so much on what French life has to offer. Secondly, and linked to the first, do everything you can to stumble along in French. My French is pretty good but terribly rusty, but I have had more laughs with my French neighbours through some of the idiotic mistakes I have made than on any other subject. Thirdly, and you probably already know about this, but if you are thinking of living off principally English savings, use one of the money exchange companies like MoneyCorp to buy your euros. I usually get at least 2 points better than I would from my local bank here or in France and when I transfer large sums to pay builders etc, the differential is greater still. And lastly, my UK bank is HSBC, and they have the facility to open an account in most countries of the world, including France, in English, which you can operate on the Internet in tandem with your UK account. Transferring funds could not be easier, and their English-language service is first class (although you can sometimes wait a while to be connected to an English speaker).
I'm extremely jealous that you are going to get there first! Enjoy!
Simon
Hi, congrats on the house sale. If you have had your place in France a while, I would guess it is furnished, to some degree, so you need to decide what you want to bring with you and what you don’t. From what is being left, do you want to put it into storage or sell it? We ebayed alot of stuff we didn.t want to bring, check out removal companies, if you have enough things over here, you may be able to opt for a part load´ flexible on time deal BUT ask about the companies insurance if you have anything of value.
Living here you.ll need to make sure you have healthcover sorted, from the UK to start but that only lasts 2 years then you will, if not working need private insurance so it.s worth checking these costs options up front. You will need to think about transport over her, we kept and re-registeres our UK car, you will have 3 months post arrival to complete the formality. Our UK insurere only gace us 14 days when we said we were emigrating, of cover on our car, so we had to find local french insurance very quickly, which we did without any issue,
Living costs e find not too dissimilar overall than the UK but the costs are spreadout differently. You will need to be prepared to complete a tax form next year on your income if you are tax resident over here.
Good luck
How about a short term rental house in UK whilst you work your notice and sort things out. That’s what I did. Gave me breathing space and time to look into money transfers etc, exchanging right hand drive car for left hand (use UK based dealer,get much better part ex) and saying goodbye to family and friends. Two months flew by and then was en route over channel
Don’t do anything about residential status etc till you actually present full time as the paperwork is much easier to navigate if you are face to face with whoever dealing with. Same applies to health care, taxes, car registration. You need to be a gentleman of leisure as are very time consuming tasks
Good luck but don’t worry it all seems to work out and with help of groups like this and the local expat communities you will get sorted
Hi Trehane,
Great news, that must be a huge burden off your shoulders!
You may have seen or heard of TorFX mentioned on SFN, we can assist you with any funds that you need to bring across from the UK to France, ensuring that you end up with more € for your £ than your bank can provide. Additionally with it nearly hitting €1.18 today it is a good a time as it has been in a while to transfer money over.
Feel free to email me if you would like to discuss more when the time arrives ian.cragg@torfx.com
As you're going to be taking it slowly, initially, and not working, I would also advise minor things like: preparing your garden for next year(aesthetically or "Goodlifery"),and buying and stocking up, whenever things are on promo, on shelves and in a big deep freeze. It's a total lifestyle change to live in France and you need to get your head around all that. Try to join in anything that's going on locally, to help you fit in and be accepted. It's surprising how many Brits remain isolated and insular. Anyway, whatever; good luck.
Such good news Trehane our buyer has gone very quiet on account he has a house or two to sell. So our excitement has been somewhat premature. So pleased for you just jealous for ourselves. you will be able to give us tips when our turn eventually arrives
Trehane, Well done on the house sale, my first question is what do you intend to do for a living in France? Liz has raised these points too and I would agree about living with the UK as your healthcare provider and centre of finances etc until you decide you are definitely settling in France.
Where do you want to live? Are you going to rent? It's highly recommended to rent before buying, or do you already have a holiday home?
I guess to help more we'd need more info on these initial questions x
Hi Trehane
First of all, congratulations! I hope everything goes smoothly with your house sale.
I am sure many more will be along with advice, but the first thing is - dont panic! It is all quite easily achieved if you break it down into small chunks - job/ house/ stuff/ moving/ status. Devise an "exit strategy". I am a bit further ahead than you and not dependent on the sale going through. Also, I have done this before as six years ago we sold up everything and went round europe in a motorhome for a year. Everything we owned was in the motorhome! (yes, we came back - but thats another story).
You are fortunate you only have to give four weeks notice. I have to work three months notice and as I sit here i can look at the chart on my wall and tell you that it is 66 days til I move to France out of which 41 are working days. Sad I know.
If you already have a house in France then you just need to decide how much of your UK stuff (possessions) you want to take there. Have a good clear out - ebay and freecycle. If you are taking say a transit van load or two down then i have used anyvan.com to get quotes and have found a really reliable carrier that I have used several times. Full removals ie pickfords style is expensive.
A lot of your other decisions will depend on how you intend to live once in france. Do you need to work? are you going to set up a business? We used my Mother's address when we were on the road in the motorhome and it has taken us two years of having the house in france to get it to be our one and only home. Even now we are not completely there with it as we do the healthcare off my UK working. Others may disagree but my view is you can do six months of "maison secondaire" style status, getting your healthcare off EHIC (although we never had any success with this, still trying to get money back from UK),not changing the car reg etc. However, I know plenty of people are living "under the radar" for much longer.
I could go on...........
best of luck
Liz