Please don’t take this badly - you will need to have all your adoption documents officially translated and a clear paper trail of how/why you have fostered then adopted then moved attested by social services. We have had lots of dodgy people doing things under the radar so we’re a bit twitchy now, and rightly so.
Have you spent any time in France before? How are you going to earn your living? This will have quite an effect on where you choose to live. You will all find it easier to fit in learn French and be accepted and it will be easier, particularly for your 7 year-old if you live in a village. Many villages are crying out for young families to come and live there, I know ours is.
Edited to add you can consult the local académie (education services) website for info on schools.
Edited again to say I’ve just noticed you (EU person) will be working in the UK 6 months of the year (you’ll be paying taxes in France, right?) and leaving your non-French-speaking 3rd country spouse and 2 children (one of whom is administratively ambiguous from our point of view) in France by themselves: this isn’t a situation Fr administration will necessarily understand or like. Be warned.
Thanks for your information very kind. Yes I’ll be paying UK tax and supporting my family i have a well paid job so have no worries about that. So you’re saying not to move to France as they wouldn’t like our situation?
I was in that situation in the early 90’s and the Bureau des Etrangers got involved because we had to have carte de sèjours mandatorily back then and change our UK driving licences and because OH had to return to the UK to finish up contracts, decorate the house for rental and start moving stuff they became interested in our situation and I had to carry an attestation around to say we had applied for the CDS but until the whole family were together, OH had registered the new business etc we were in limbo for about 9months total. Also the monthly income for a family of four back then had to be proven and not savings in the bank either so monthly transfers of money had to suffice.
Vero makes a good point here. You should be aware that when renting in France landlords often take out insurance. As part of their policy, they’ll often ask tenants to provide their French payslips and tax statement (“avis d’imposition”).
It’s a ball ache when you have just arrived because you dont have then yet, so leads to a chicken and egg scenario. You can get around it by finding landlords who are more understanding, but just thought it’s worth mentioning it now so you’re aware of it.
I’m saying that for us a family is a unit which is resident and taxed together and we would find it odd that the person who gives the right to reside in France to their 3rd country spouse and children (one of whom has a complicated situation) doesn’t themself reside work etc primarily in France.
In other words, and speaking as a French person who is a civil servant, the set-up seems weird.
I’m not even sure it can be done - normally the EU citizen would have to be exercising their treaty right to live and work permanently in an EU country other than that of their birth.
It’s not clear to me that working 6 months and remaining tax resident in the UK is really exercising treaty rights to live in France.
@iclark95 - did your research include speaking to a (preferably French) immigration expert to check all this is doable?
As said, the UK spouse would only have rights in France if the EU spouse lives here.
But if France is the “foyer” where the wife and children live and the kids go to school, they will be deemed resident as a household even if the husband works in the UK For tax he will declare worldwide earnings in France as a resident and the DTA will apply. It is not an uncommon situation and it is not a problem as long as it is done correctly. In effect he will be a cross border worker. But continuing to pay UK tax as if still UK resident would not be correct and would cause major problems I think.
How easy it would be to secure a nice rental in France with a UK sourced salary I would not like to guess.
That is a hope for the future (possibly August 2025) if a suitable property can be found, in a suitable village, with a suitable school and everything else…
and if the Visa/paperwork plus the whole kit and caboodle (including adoption) can be got together in time.
Well obviously. I was using the present tense to explain how the rules work in general, not only in this specific case.
The household would normally be deemed resident once the family ie wife and kids are established here. The family reunion process cannot be set in motion until then, it is not something you do in advance of moving. I believe there is a very informative recent thread on this process. I do not know why some of the comments are so negative. An EU citizen has the right to live in any EU country he chooses and bring his non EU family to live with him. But he will have to be very clear that he himself has moved to France and no longer has a main home in the UK, he simply returns there to work.
Of course the adoption paperwork will have to be watertight with all the i’s and t’s dotted and crossed to stand up to scrutiny by France.
“An EU citizen has the right to live in any EU country he chooses and bring his non EU family to live with him”
For what it’s worth, I agree with Sandcastle’s analysis under the EU agreement. @iclark95 needs to be careful to ensure he doesn’t exceed the 6 months per year requirement dealing with permitted absences outside France. France must be his and the family’s ‘real home’, notwithstanding working visits to the UK. I don’t pretend to know the EU agreement answer to the foster child/adoption situation - at first glance, it’s not obvious the EU agreement covers this. Specialist advice may well be needed to identify a permitted way forward on that point.
Which will be easier if he is tax resident in France.
I hope mine did not appear too negative - but, as you say, it sounds like some care is needed to ensure that @iclark95 is deemed to be exercising treaty rights to live in France which can then be transferred to non-EU spouse and family.
Yes but he said he intended to carry on paying UK taxes which is where I see a problem. Also adopted children are the parents’ responsibility and the state has no say in where they live but fostered children are very much the state’s responsibility and states eg Ireland forbid their being taken out of the country to live: should the foster family emigrate, the agreement ends.
That describes many, many places so doesn’t help much in narrowing things down.
This gives you a fixed point in time view of schools in Normandie, but the criteria may not be ones that you think work for you. And schools can change. The best way is to go to school open days, and visit them, tLk to other parents and so on. But you need to identify your area first.
The other thing we did when selecting where to live was to look at the online notes of local council meetings to see what local issue were and what sorts of events were taking place. . Each tiny place will have a council - we only have 250 people and have a council and mayor and a town hall - so this does give you a window on local life. And recent election results to get a feel for whether neighbours might have similar views to you or not.
Another important point is to check out availability of doctors in places you select. Parts of Normandie are medical desserts and GP practices are not taking new patients, and dentists can be few and far between.
Have you done your research on renting somewhere as foreigners with no French track record? And no French income? It can be very difficult. And August is high season for tourist rentals (which are max three months), so you could end up paying a lot.
Are you going to France early this year to scout out places, as knowing ‘where’ does help the building blocks fall into place. None of us can tell you which village you should choose as we all have favorites for reasons ghat you might hate!
Indeed but I think he will have to change his mind on this. He does not have a free cjoice on thie. If he really wanted to be taxed separately from his wife he would have to apply to the tax office and I think he would soon realize it would be a very bad idea for several reasons.
I entirely agree with you about the fostering situation. If it is possible to adopt the child before the move, that would be a lot better I think.
I think that’s the big issue here. It’s one thing to do what I believe you have done which is as a U.K. citizen to come and live with your EU wife in France. The centre of your life is France. The OP’s position is quite different, he appears to want to take advantage of his EU passport to install his family in France while he keeps his financial base in the U.K. I’m sure that that will need to arranged very carefully taking advantage, perhaps, of the rules and regulations for cross border workers. There is a lot to take into consideration concerning the family’ healthcare and taxation. I think they are wise to ask this forum for advice about places to live and I guess that they’re keen to find an area with other English speakers around to help the wife and children to survive their early days in France. For everything else they need professional help, advice from people who know exactly what is within the law regarding residency, taxation, healthcare and cross border working. My guess is that to work only six months a year and earn a good salary the work carried out is probably ‘offshore’ so it’s possible that the taxation and healthcare details may been even more complicated than it at first appeared.
