Living & working in France

Hi  ,

I suupose you can work and live in france whithout any problem . Regarding you wife : where are you married ? in UK ? For health , if you are maried you wife and your work with a freznch contratc you  should be recognize by the french health .

Feel free to contact me if you have more question , i need to improve my english :-)

Have a good day

Bonjour Xavier

Je pense je devrais repondre en francais parce ce que j'ai besoin de la pratique!

We were married in Singapore in 2006 and have an internationally recognized marriage certificate from there.

I will be working for a company from the Netherlands (le pays-bas) and they are giving me the freedom to decide where I want to live in Europe. I chose France and prefer somewhere near Toulouse.

I have lived outside Europe for some time and am not sure how easy it is to just move to another EU country. Also need to be sure there will be no problems for my wife. If we went back to the UK she can apply for permanent residence but I'm not sure if she can do that in France.

Regards,    Karl

Hi ,

we say " We were married in Singapore in 2006" . Does UK recognized your are married ? If yes i think , it should be not a problem for your wife ( i think this is important that UK recognize you are marriage certificate )


xavier
If you have skype : contact xavier38450

Have a good day

Hi Xavier

Thanks for your help so far but I think I need to speak with someone at the French consulate here in Qatar.

I am still not sure how easy it is to just arrive in France and expect to live and work there for a non-French company.

Regards,   Karl

Hi Karl,

As a UK citizen you are an EU citizen. Your right to residency in an EU state other than your home state is based on the May 2004 EU Directive on Residency. It was passed into French domestic law in June 2007;

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/ … 152_en.htm

It confers amongst other things;

1. a right to work in any EU state, be that as employee or Self-employed.
2. to your spouse precisely the same rights as yourself, regardless of her nationality.
3. After 5 years of permanent and continuous residency in France you are consider equivalent to a Frenchman and achieve 'Permanent Resident' status.
4. Likewise, after 5 years your wife could apply for French citizenship, she will need to be able to pass the French citizen test, written and able to sing the Marseilles (French national anthem). Then wait at least two years while they 'process' the paperwork.

Tax residency;

5. - if you make your home in France, and you have no other house or home available to you anywhere on the planet, you are deemed 'fiscally' ie. tax resident in France.
6. - if your wife lives in your home in France, wherever you undertake work in the World and however many other houses you possess - you are fiscally resident in France.
6a - if your children go to school in France, wherever you undertake work in the World and however many other houses you possess - you are fiscally resident in France.
5. France treats wives as chattels, you are taxed as a 'family unit', 'foyer' any income she may have or any income your children have falls under your family tax-return.

As to your employer being a Dutch company;

You should investigate the Dutch-French Double-Taxation treaties, there maybe a relief of some kind.

If all your work is undertaken on French soil - you and your employer are liable to pay French social contributions, I don't mean income tax, these are the equivalent of UK National Insurance only staggeringly expensive. They effectively pay for your French pension and the French state administered health insurance scheme the 'CMU'.

Contributions will entitle you to be in the CMU scheme, which manifests itself as a green plastic credit card / smartcard called the 'Carte Vitale'. Your wife as she is chattel will be under your Social Security number and will get her own Carte Vitale with your number on it.

If your work takes you outside France for the majority of your working time, you may be able to argue that French social contributions are not applicable, but good luck.

If you are not in the CMU you will need to have full 100 per cent private medical insurance, this is very hard to find in France, but several insurance companies supply this from the UK. I would suggest you arrive with that in place.

Contrary to myth. French health professionals are mostly self-employed and many hospitals are private, they collect payment using the Carte Vitale or in cash or by credit card !

The Carte Vitale then automatically reimburses you 75% of the fees, to your French bank account, a private 'top-up' or 'Mutuelle' health policy paid for by your company to a French health insurer will cover the remaining 25%. Be aware that many serious illnesses are covered at 100% by the Carte Vitale as are all things related to babies and maternity.

Housing:

Last points. Renting is easy. It's a good way to start. All the rights are with the tenant. 3 year contract, but you can leave with 3 months notice.

If you buy a house in France the estate agent (immobilier) will collect his handsome (10-15%) commission from you NOT the seller. You are much better looking in Notaire windows (5%) or better still doing what the French do and buying a piece of land and having a house built (low stamp duty, low or zero sales commission).

Peace.

Arkan. (11 years in France, wizened, old and grumpy at times).

Hi Arken and thanks for the really valuable input.

In a separate blog I inquired about special needs schooling support in France (my 5 year old son is Autistic). The feedback I got is that France is not well set up for this (which I found surprising) but that did come from several sources so I'm inclined to believe this is the case.

In the UK special needs kids are individually supported with a view to integrating them into regular school over time. Unless you have kids with special needs this will probably be a mystery to you too but if you know anyone in this position I'd appreciate further input. At the moment its a show-stopper for me.

Regards,  Karl

Hi Karl,

I have no direct experience. However, we have friends in the UK with an Autistic son, they live Surrey and found their local district council provided extremely good support, with a personal assistant and a special needs training programme in addition to mainstream support.

The only indirect experience here was my son's 'Maternelle' (infants) school which provided a full-time assistant allocated to an autistic child in his class, this was in the main stream school, however the family moved before my son entered primary school (at age 6).

My suspicion would be that the degree of support depends largely on the local councils or region. Much detailed googling may reveal the best geographical areas. Self-help groups and parent driven organisations would probably be the best source.

Good luck,

Arkan.

Hi Arkan

Thanks for the info. I'll see if the French consulate here in Qatar can shed some more light on the situation.

The UK is another option but I've been out of the country for some time and am not keen to returning. That said, if my son can get the support he needs there I'll reconsider. 

What part of France do you live in and are you happy you made the move there? What do you/don't you like? I'm for a more relaxed way of life and it seems France beats the UK in that respect. Do you agree?

Regards,    Karl

> What part of France do you live in and are you happy you made the move there? What do you/don't you like? I'm for a more relaxed way of life and it seems France beats the UK in that respect. Do you agree?<

Have you got several hours to read a full reply ?

I know this called a blog....actually I was interviewed by a German student doing an MA in social studies her thesis was Ex-pats in France ! She ran out of mini-disc blanks.

I think the most telling sentence I found myself uttering was "if you could cut of Brittany from France sail it across the Channel and anchor it off the UK, that would be ideal, provided you stopped the rest of the UK's population from climbing on board"

Yes, I live in Brittany, the locals Bretons call it Bretagne and the UK is Grande Bretagne, Bretons are the Welsh of France, celts, they speak another language, many feel happy talking to a Grande Bretagne rather than a Parisienne. I'll try and summarise;

The positives (over the south of the UK)

Lower population density
Lower crime
Lower density of cars, better roads
Public services work
Public places are clean
Children do not scream in the Supermarkets
The currency is stable and useful
Schooling to age 15 is basic but effective
The school system has not changed since 1885.
If you are retired or on low income, taxes are low
The health system is No.1 in the World

The Negatives;

If you're self-employed or run a small business you are screwed into the ground by the state
If you think outside the box, you're labelled 'bizarre'.
The civil servants are called  "functionaries" , they function, they cannot be sacked, they always require three applications to do anything, (they are NOT corrupt), but painful and generally inept and ill informed by their own superiors.
The state employs 65% of the 'work' force.
The state runs an annual overspend of 100BnEuros.
There is a residual racism, however the genuine sense of Egalitie supplants this largely.
The French rewrite the rules when they consider a rule unjust, on the fly.
There are two types of Frenchman, those who speak English and those who can't, the former understand French is a minority sport the latter still believe France is a Super-Power and has colonies.


For me, personally I shall never be French, I'm a Londoner, I'll never fully comprehend them. Yes, if you are retired or can survive on your own means France is a relaxed backwater (I exclude Paris which is another country). If you wish to run a business or a start-up, go elsewhere.

A.

Hmmm....sounds a bit like Quebec (Montreal) which is where we were living before moving to Qatar in 2007.

Problem in QC is that there is always the looming threat of another referendum to decide on separation from Canada. Taxes are very high but services sub-standard. Winter temperatures of minus 20-30C is another thing that eventually gets to you. No plans to return there.

UK is just too expensive for my taste and I don't see the value. I visit from time to time but because I've been away since 1992 I feel disconnected from the culture. I'm sure there are great parts of the country to live in but my work would keep me in the South-East and that doesn't appeal at all.

In France at least you get something for the extortionate taxes & social insurance charges. We'd be looking at Toulouse which is probably quite different culturally to Brittany. I visited Lannion a few yeas back and can see the attraction. How about that famous French food and what about the general cost of living compared to the UK?

I imagine it must be nice to be able to get in your car and drive to the rest of mainland Europe without taking a Ferry.

We've been in Qatar for nearly 5 years and I think we are ready to re-join the real-world. The country floats on oil & gas and money is no object, hence their (successful) bid for the 2022 world cup. Not complaining about life here but its never going to be home and I want to kids to feel somewhere is. If we were to stay in the ME we could probably make a go if it in Dubai. Only issue there is if the Israelis decide to have a go at Iran which is just across the straights.

Cheers,   Karl