Moving to southwest France with French partner — remote work and

Moving to or from France
1

Hi everyone,

I’m British and planning to move to southwest France (Les Landes / Soustons area) to live with my French girlfriend of 3 years. I’m currently trying to work out the most realistic route to making the move work professionally and financially but I am finding it difficult and deflating trying to find real job opportunities.

My main concern isn’t really the visa side because my partner is French and we’re already looking into PACS etc.

The biggest challenges for me are:

  • finding stable remote work that allows living in France
  • improving my French (currently around A1/A1.2 level — my girlfriend speaks very good English so j’ai un peu la flemme de pratiquer parfois :sweat_smile:)
  • hearing realistic experiences from others who made a similar move, especially with a similar career background
  • understanding how UK/international remote jobs work when based in France

I’m currently working as a Construction Project Specialist for a large UK/international retail company and have been with the business for 13 years. My role supports the delivery of new store builds, refurbishments and remodel projects across the retail estate.

Unfortunately, my current company will not allow me to relocate and work fully remotely from another country.

My work involves:

  • construction project coordination and delivery support
  • project cost management and financial control
  • contractor and supplier coordination
  • working closely with external quantity surveyors and project managers
  • overseeing purchase orders, budget tracking and invoice approvals through Oracle
  • supporting multiple stakeholders across live construction projects simultaneously

I also manage smaller signage and trading works projects from planning stages through to delivery.

Alongside my construction role, I completed a 7-month online RICS Construction Project Management course, and I’m currently completing a Level 4 Data Analyst apprenticeship with Decoded (through a my company via a government grant) focused on SQL, Python, Power BI, data visualisation, reporting and business data analysis.

Ideally, my short-term plan would be to continue working 100% remotely in areas connected to my current experience, such as:

  • construction project support
  • project coordination
  • project controls / cost management
  • PMO-style roles
  • reporting or business support roles

Long term, I’m also interested in transitioning further into data analytics and eventually AI-related work as I continue developing my technical skills through my apprenticeship and self-learning.

At the moment, I see my construction/project background as the most realistic route to relocating to France initially, while continuing to build experience in data and tech over time.

Has anyone here:

  • moved to France for a French partner?
  • worked remotely from France for a UK/international employer?
  • relocated to a smaller coastal area rather than a major city?
  • managed the move without fluent French initially?

Would really appreciate honest feedback or advice from people who have actually done it.

Thanks!

2

I can’t offer much help but just wanted to wish you good luck with your move.

I’ve never heard of a Construction Project Manager working fully remotely from the construction project (“every day’s a school day”).

If you are planning to work for a French construction company, I would think you would need a good command of the necessary technical/legal French, have qualifications that are recognised in France and be fully conversant with French construction regulations/law. I’ve read about people with UK qualifications that are not readily recognised in France so you may need to check this out. But you probably know all that anyway.

Someone on here with more experience of this situation will hopefully be in a position to offer you better advice.

Best of luck :crossed_fingers:

1 Like
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You’ve already had a lot of good advice on Reddit but the really important one is that France doesn’t recognise digital nomads doing remote work. Any employer would need to employ you under a French employment contract, paying French social security charges, which are significant. You could go the self-employed contractor route but the French would expect to see more than one customer otherwise they’d be suspicious that it’s disguised employment.

5 Likes
4

Hello, different but similarish situation.

In 2014 moved to France with my Scottish wife, soon after I started commuting for 1 or 2 nights a week back to the UK and 12 years later I am still doing it. I split my time between France and London for my working week and find the split between the location fantastic, the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. COVID has helped to change the attitudes of most employers and being an Irish passport holder really helps. If you are good at what you do have a conversation with your employer, for example in my business I couldn’t care less where you live providing you are in the office two days a week and/or available to meet Clients.

JohnH is correct however France has woken up and both my accountant (and notaire friend) say that the law will not be applied unless you are taking the pish, teletravail is much better understood. My accountant does my French tax return and I do a self assessment in the UK declaring everything I need to in both, I am not UK tax resident however do pay UK taxes and NI through PAYE with things like bank interest/dividends only declared in France.

My two employers over that time have been UK companies with no footprint in France.
We live in the middle of nowhere in the SW.
Moved to France with only basic French and are by no means fluent now but get by, we have never had an issue doing things in France, all about the way you interact with people and your attitude.

5

Yes, until my employer banned such activities worldwide, correctly fearing it was risking creating taxable presences (“permanent establishments” or PEs in technical speak) in any country where its employees were working remotely for any length of time. My employer was part of the worldwide network of one of the Big Four global accountancy/tax/audit practices, so they knew their tax and legal obligations and potential exposure. The consequences of creating a PE include liability for employer social security, corporation tax, payrolling obligations, corporate filing obligations etc etc. Their decision was one of the reasons I stopped work, retired and moved to France.

6

My OH works for a multinational. He was transferred fromthe UK to the French payroll to work remotely.

7

  • I moved to France with a French partner. Does that count?

  • I worked remotely from France for a UK employer, although only for a couple of years and now work for a French company. Can share more about my experiences, if needed.

  • We currently live in a coastal town of approx 25k inhabitants, but previously lived somewhere in the Médoc with only about 5k (which was way too small!)

  • This is my 3rd relocation to France… My first and second times I hardly spoke any French. This time, it was rusty after having not used it for many years but it’s not like I was starting from scratch. Honestly, learning the language makes life so much easier in so many ways.

8

If you need to “get this done” now then become a frontalier who lives in France and works in UK on existing contract. If your employer has you working in France then one way or another they’ll be liable for employers’ French social securiy etc. You can also get an S1 from HMRC year by year while you are doing this.

Important though that your work is not performed in France - of course you’ll have to have some contact though on days when you’re not physically in UK.

You could then look at switching to micro entrepreneur or another French work structure that could employ you abd you become a contracted supplier of work to your current employer - important you have more than one client or source of money though

Admin is huge though - you need to get set up with URSAFF and other stuff if you do work in France even for a UK employer - and already the basic level of getting set up in French administration just to live here will do your head in.

Is your employer by any chance owned by a German or other EU company? Would it be easier to try for an international transfer within your current company to EU first?