Our readers have questions

Then again, that's why we're doing this

Image borrowed from the wonderful Facebook group of the same name.

A former North Vancouver neighbour Laurie sent me a message on Facebook this morning, with lots of questions. I am not a lawyer, especially a French one, and my experience doesn’t necessarily transfer to anyone else, but I’ll take a crack at answering what I can.

I’ll open by explaining that a lot of what I’ve learned in France comes from one of the twenty-odd Facebook groups for english speakers who have moved here. Although much of the advice is of variable quality, and always needs to be checked with real experts, the folks there provide a valuable set of resources at those times when you’re just overwhelmed. Check them out:

Canadians in France
Strictly Santé France (Healthcare)
Landlords and Tenants in France
Applying for a French Driving Licence
Renovating in France
Strictly Fiscal France (taxes)
Strictly Legal France
Applying for a French CdS (Carte de Séjour) and/or visa
Applying for French Nationality
Registering Vehicles in France
Septic Tanks In France
Heating Advice in France

There are honestly a dozen or more others, but these are the ones that I follow fairly religiously.

The other place that people go to when thinking of emigrating to France is to a “hand holder”, someone with expertise that can assist in preparing the visa and supporting docs, and answering questions at a time when you have far too many of them. WARNING! “Hand-holders” are entirely unregulated and unlicenced, so you need to really work hard to check out anyone that you have in mind. Facebook groups like those above are a good place to do that. Horror stories have happened.

So, on to Laurie’s message to us.

Barry, as you likely know, I've been following the journey that you and Susan are on. My husband and I have a similar dream (and, by a stroke of coincidence, live a few blocks from Princess Park in North Vancouver.) Our current plan is to be in France for about 6 months out of the year. This, however, is largely based on the notion that, as Canadians, we would lose certain rights/income if we moved completely out of the country. I'm thinking strictly of financial implications, apart from needing to take out French medical insurance. That may be an uninformed perspective. Certainly it must be something that you have considered. Could you, briefly, share your thoughts? Or could it even be a blog post? We have flights booked for later in April for a scouting trip, but may reconsider as things in Europe change....

First of all Laurie, it’s worth noting that although people in France are watching Ukraine, and although we’re a lot closer to it than Vancouver, no-one is too worried about it having a personal impact. I think that aside from the election most people are more interested in the latest wave of COVID-19.

I’m nor sure which “rights” you might think you would lose by living here. I’d even go so far as to suggest that the French take rights and liberty much more seriously than Canadians. Income questions are a lot more complex. In the broadest terms if you are residing in France, and earning income, they expect you to report it and pay French taxes. We’re in the middle of transitioning from the Canadian to the French tax systems, and won’t claim to be 100% on top of everything. I’d say that French taxes are easier to prepare than the Canadian, but we’ll see how things look in another year. As always the ex-pat community complains about how high French taxes are, but they never compare what the government provides that Canada or Britain don’t.

I’m not sure if you plan on applying for a visa to live here, or if you’re just kind of rolling in as tourists. There are limits on how long you can live here without a visa, but at six months you would need one. That’s something to check with an expert.

If you’re applying for a visa you’ll need to get one that allows you to earn income, even if that income is from working remotely in Canada. If your body is in France, and you do paid work of any sort, your visa has to allow that. If you have a regular employer they’ll probably be looking at a stack of forms and paperwork as well to fit within the French tax system. If you’re a freelancer it’s simpler, although some occupations - like writer - don’t exist as a “freelance” option in France as it’s assumed you’ll have an employer.

EDIT: It's been pointed out that if you have money in the bank you can use that to demonstrate you have sufficient income to live here. An actual job isn't needed.

France is interesting in many ways, and employment law is one of them. Unlike Canada it’s assumed that all jobs have dignity and require training and knowledge, and that all workers deserve security, five weeks of paid vacation, and other perqs. One of the comments that popped up on Twitter last weeks was:

Consequently when filling out a visa application you need to understand what France expects. That’s where a “handholder” can help.

The minimum amount of income that France expects you to demonstrate for a visa is not large. Housing costs are much, much less than Vancouver. Here’s a house that we’ve been looking at in Normandy. It’s selling for 325 400 € ($ 449,918 CAD).

You can buy a nice, small house for less than 200,000 €.

House buying notes: There is no such thing as the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), so you need to track down and search the listings at lots of different immobiliers. Start with Green Acres, but plan to look further afield. And even though dealing with English speaking agents is easier, we find that French agents offer better service, and better prices.

If you’re looking to rent your choice tends to be AirB&B (expensive but easy; quality can vary), Gîtes (better appointed but generally limited to 3 months) or a “real” rental. The latter is cheaper - maybe 400-1000 € a month outside of Paris, but because France has very, very strict tenant protection rules it can be difficult to rent a place. By “difficult” I can say that in Paris you’re looking at a year’s lease minimum, and either an ironclad employment contract or a large lump sum held securely to guarantee your rent. And that’s if the rental company even answers your email.

(In general, France works much better on phones than email.)

I’ll leave it to you to understand the actual house buying process, but it routinely takes four months to close a deal, possibly longer of you’re in a rural location where local farmers have to be given a chance to buy the property before you do.

The bad news: if rural you will find that the fosse, or septic tank, needs to be replaced. Always.

The good news: France has a wealth of programs in place to to insulate houses, replace furnaces (aka boilers) and add solar. Such as the famous $1 insulation program if you have low income. And municipal water and fibre optic internet are much, much more widely available than in Canada.

Mobile phones: for most of the last three months Susan and I have run all of our Internet off of my cel phone, including lots of streaming media, lots of file transfers, and multi-hour Zoom calls several times week. I’ve not yet hit the 250 gig data limit, and I get unlimited calling to France, Europe AND North America.

That costs me 19.99 € a month.

Honestly after six months we’re starting to feel at home. We’re slowly getting on top of the French bureacracy (mostly) and have a our favorite places to shop. We still struggle with Canadian banking, and in broad terms still are amazed at how much Canadian and American companies simply refuse to acknowledge that any country exists outside of North America.

Money wise I’ll point you back to my Globe and Mail column from last month. If you’re moving house-purchase sized amounts — or even car purchase sized amounts — to France you really, really need to plan. If you have retirement funds, or investments, or other things like that, even more.

Finally some very broad advice: rent a good car and drive North, and South, and East and West. Explore cities and towns. Really explore, because we’ve often returned to a town and found that we had simply missed the good or bad parts of it on a previous trip. Take your time. Slow down. Learn to be amazed and appalled at Google’s horrid GPS pronunciations, and at the absurd routes that they pick. Learn to use French road signs instead, and even a good paper map book.

And be warned: much of France shuts down from noon to 1:30 for lunch, except for the restaurants who shut down at 2 pm until dinner. And outside of major centers Sunday shopping and even evening shopping is not a thing.

On the other hand, McDonalds France is much better than McDonalds Canada, so go figure…

EDIT: You'll likely need to purchase commercial health insurance for France. Once you're officially resident you enter the French system. Good news is that healthcare in France costs a fraction of North American prices. An on-line doctor appointment to renew prescriptions costs me less than 30 euros, and the pills themselves about 1/4 of what Shoppers Drug Mart charged me.

FURTHER EDIT: Facebook friend Patrick Ritter added the following good advice:

Hi Laurie, my name is Patrick, originally from Vancouver, residing in France now 2 years. You are correct that remaining in Canada for 6 months each year will allow you to keep your provincial health insurance (medicare) benefits and stay within the Canadian tax system. If you plan to live in France full time I would recommend speaking to an international tax accountant.