Well, it starts with the Single European Act 1986, amended by the Schengen Rules 1985 (UK not in that), Maastricht Treaty 1992, amended by the Amsterdam treaty 1999, amended by the Nice Treaty 2001 which came into effect in 2003. It is a chunky pile of reading. However, this question comes up quite often on SFN and you will see from trawling through previous posts that some people just send in a birth certificate as it comes and OK, other pay 60 odd Euros and it is rejected. There have been changes in regulations here in France this year but they CANNOT change what they have signed up to without a new treaty, end of.
The solution is often, since they ignore you entirely but send out letters that should never have been written, you ignore them and send what you have. That way nobody argues with the other. Bear in mind that it is not just people who are not French but also their own compatriots some officials kick about like a football to show what power they have.
We have met the "jobsworth" you talk about and it appears it became law in April. How does one deal with them and still remain "on their side" so to speak?
I would be interested to know as i would not like to have an "enemy" in an official position!
We moved here 5 years ago and have been very happy. We live in a small village of 84 people and within a year I was voted onto the municipal council although my spoken french was not that good my understanding is good. We have a local doctor we use although we are not registered with him (only used him twice in 5 years). However, since my mother came to live with us recently we have found that the Caisse Maladie did require a translation of her birth certificate (we didn't five years ago). It cost 66Euros! Even then they did not like it that the translators were "Juree" rather than "Assermentee" and would not accept that either. Eventually the Belgian embassy in Paris took pity on my mother (she is Belgian) and have given it the Consulate stamp and signature, we hope this will do the job. I notice that Brian Milne says that this is not necessary according to EU rules but my mother has paid out a lot on money on operations and needs to get this sorted out as soon as possible. The S1 we sent to the nearest Caisse Maladie International Dept.
We bought a new french car within a couple of months after moving here and that was very easy as the garage did all the paperwork and accepted the cheque in payment for the car on the day we drove it away!
As a diabetes educator in Sydney AUS I will be intetested to follow your insulin pump / diabetes story here. I am considering a move to France. I have no idea yet about the health system.
In contrast to Angela, I haven't met any Brits who regret coming to my part of rural France. On the contrary the few Brits who live around here love it. Perhaps its because there are so few !!!! I do agree whole-heartedly with Angela's comment on speaking the language well, if you want to work her; and it also helps with becoming a part of the local community.
Hi we moved December 2010 having sold up completly back in the uk realising our 30 year dream, France isnt perfect but it ticks more boxes for us than the uk, we also live in a small mountain village in the Tarn close to Mazamet seems most of the questions have been answered here, we reregisterd our uk car , before your uk insurance expires search out a resonable insurance beware it is or can be more than the uk when you have that you are usually covered for min of 6 months on your uk plates,letter of conformity from the manufacture or main dealer, change headlights get your French MOT go to your local hotel des impots get the forms forget which one with your bill of sale for the car, not got one make one up i did next stop prefecture fill in the appropriate forms pays your money, amount depending on age, you get your French reg, get your plate send in the uk log book part back to DVLA job done
as for your S1 ask for it before you arrive in France ours were sent to the French address, take it to the CPAM give in the forms they will guide you through it most helpful at least ours were, you will need birth marriage divorce licence the full type not the short version proof of who you are and address wait for your health card to come back, you register with a doctor of your choice some speak english some dont suggest you ask around localy, my mother was a diabetic so suggest that is priority no need to wait for your card
top up seems to be a minefield as already said some pay more for certain things than others there are plenty of english speaking insurance comp about if your french isnt up to the mark as mine isnt its a matter of sorting which one for your individual circumstances there is an english ins agent in the Dordogne who is actually a diabetic perhaps he can advise you will try to find out his number
a lot of faffing about but not really complicated let us know where you will be perhaps someone will be able to give you hands on help,the Connection English paper is a good source of English speaking companies apart from useful information
Hi Lesley-good luck with your new adventure!I retired to France 10 years ago and have never regretted it-but unfortunately cant help with most of your questions. However,I too had a pre-existing health condition and my English GP gave me a six-months prescription as he said it would take a few months to sort out the Health thing-he was right!Got a good Mutuelle that gives me good cover ,but had to do a bit of 'shopping around' for it. Anyway ,enjoy your new life-I have made some lovely friends in France,and I think you will find this site very useful
You can actually keep the UK plates indefinitely. But I would advise doing what Alastair advised. When the time comes to replace it then the car dealer will be less sniffy about it than if it was all still UK. If your UK licence is time limited, go straight for a replacement through the prefecture. If you have a large enough mairie they'll have the forms. Look at the AE group on self-employment, some of us have it easy (yours truly) other have to dance on hot coals for years - no magic formula. Do not get dragged into getting birth certificates and so on translated, EU law says it need not be done despite what some jobsworths insist here.
haven't moved in the last year, we arrived 2003,, so i dont qualify to help there,
GP, just choose one you like, we went to a couple before we choose one, then we got sent a form askin us to specify which one we would like as our primary one. As its a paying and claim system, in teh past you could ahve gone to a hundred different ones!
Cant be of help on insulin of tree cutting, others will I am sure
Cheers
car, make user you have uk insurance when u travel, before this runs out, get a certificate of eu conformity from Toyota France.
Get a control technique,( MOT test)
Take passport, elec bill, uk vech licencing doc receipt for car to local office des impots ( tax). they will give you a form, take this form, plus all the other papers to the prefecture in Tarbes I think for you. pay them 200 euros and they will take the uk form and give you a carte gris. take this to the garage and get new plates made.
take the carte gris to an insurance office, get the car insured, cancel Uk insurance. Sit down, have a drink ( not in car)
Only advice I can offer is don't burn your boats! Keep something, however small, in UK as all kinds of things can happen in life and you may at some point change your minds about living here permanently and then not be able to afford to return back to Britain (or venture elsewhere) life in rural France is very different from rural Britain. I have come across many, many Brits over the past 40+ years who have moved to France permanently and regretted their decision. It is quite tough to find employment here, even when you are totally fluent in the language. Sorry if I sound all doom and gloom, don't mean to be a pessimist, but you need to have your eyes wide, wide open.
I'm French. In France, you choose the doctor you want to register with, it can be where you want. Just go to le cabinet, which is the surgery and tell them you'd like to register. In France, to be reimbursed fully or as much as possible from treatments or medicines, you need a mutuelle. Some are better than others. Make sure you choose the one that will be great for your condition. For example, some reimburse dentistry and glasses better than others etc.
About the Auto entrepreneur status, I don't know as I'm freelance in the UK, not France, but make sure you talk to a few people who have gone that way, because I've heard from French people, it's not always as great as we hear.
I provide translations if you need help with legal or 'normal' translations. I also do phone calls for English people who need to talk to water companies, banks, and tax people (les impôts).
Good luck, it's fantastic to live in a country that you love, even if you'll discover new good things and bad things. C'est la vie!
En français, on dit 'merde' pour dire 'bonne chance',