Residency for UK residents before brexit day

Hi, my wife and I have been hoping to move to France for some time and stayed in France for a number of months prior to coming back to the UK for family reasons (which is the reason we have not been able to move over there permanently). Other than family reasons we have no other issue keeping us in the UK and decided a short while ago that we would move if we could if Brexit hit a delay of some time. As of now there will be a delay of at least 3 months giving a minimum of 3 and a half months to make the move (we can move to France with a couple of days notice). What I cannot seem to find is what and whose permission I require to remain in France (from what I can see it appears to be the Mayor) and if I have sufficient time between now and, say, 30th June to get this permission and be able to remain in France permanently after Brexit.

Any assistance would be most helpful.

Many thanks in hopeful anticipation.

Kelfish

Pre-brexit you don’t needs anyone’s permission to exercise freedom of movement. It is a right.

However in order to qualify for legal residency in France as a European exercising your rights, you need to have lived here in a regular and stable manner for 3 months, and have sufficient resources so that you are not a burden on the state. And you will have to achieve that whilst still a european…

So you would need to be able to prove that you moved to France on or before the 30th March. Normally people do an attestation sur l’honneur backed up by bills and receipts.

Of course you can still move to france post-brexit, but you would have to go through the third country immigration process which is a bit more arduous - but not impossible! Lot’s of people manage it.

(All of the above is based on my experience, I am not a legal expert…)

There is lots of information on the Remain in France Together website and if the so-called Meaningful Vote/Deal gets through (although I personally hope that Article 50 is revoked and/or that there’s a People’s Vote) then you should have until the end of next year to register. This is my understanding and I’m in a similar situation.

Yes that’s a good clear website with lots of helpful info. I particularly like the fact that it encourages people to think hard about whether they can meet the criteria to be legally resident before they make the move.