Business Visa for Gite
 

My partner and I are looking into moving to France permanently and would really appreciate if we could get in touch with people that can give a bit of advise or share their story.
We are looking for a house with a gite to rent it out. So we would need a professional/non-professional business visa. Does anyone has any idea how hard it is to get this visa? We find it quite hard to get information about the requirements for this visa and if we should find a property first or apply for the visa first.
Anyone has been through this process or know someone that we could be in touch with?
Thank you!
Michele

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

There is this thread https://britishexpats.com/forum/fran...r-visa-938620/ although JackRussell was not in quite the same situation.

If the gite going to be your only or main source of income you will need to register it as a business, and in order to register a business you need to have authorisation to be economically active in France, which means obtaining a business visa.
It is a bit chicken and egg because to get the visa you need to submit a strong business plan demonstrating that you will make a good healthy profit, and a detailed business plan for a gite business with projected outgoings and income projections based on the results of your market research, will obviously be property- and location-specific, so how do you write a business plan with nothing to base it on. But equally, you are taking a big gamble investing in a property with no guarantee that you will get the visa..
Do you have other sources of income? I am no expert but it seems a bit unlikely that you would get a business visa on the basis of planning to run one gite, because I don't see how one gite can possibly produce enough income for a couple to live on year round. Minimum wage in France works out at around 1,300€ net per month, for two people that is over 2 500 per month, which is 30 000€ a year net. And minimum wage is not assumed to be enough to live on without state support.
If the gite will be beer money and you can afford to move to France as self supporting inactifs, you could think about moving initially on a visitor visa (which doesn't allow you to work or run a business) and then apply to change your status at a later stage. Then if they agree you can set up the gite, if they don't, you carry on enjoying the leisured lifestyle.

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Agree totally with ET .....No way will you make enough money to live on from a gite-you would need an up and running complex to even be in with a chance and of course if a small piece of RNA mutates in that coronavirus then you have no income
If you have any other form of income such as a pension or rental income from the UK then I would follow ETs wise advice

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Hi, I can't advise on the visa question, but will add that France isn't a partner-friendly country and you'll be considered by all Administrations as two separate individuals. This is particularly important if you buy a property jointly. If you aren't legally bound, the surviving partner has no right to inherit and, if he/she is named in a Will, they would have to pay 60% of the value of their inheritance, within 6 months of the death of the partner, or waive the inheritance. Take a look in the "Partner Status" thread in the Read-Me: moving to France FAQs above, and consider getting married, to avoid this French quirk!;)

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Thank you for all your answers so far.
Replying to EuroTrash and Listen Very Carefully very messages, we don't need the income of the gite to survive. As we are selling our house in the UK, we will have healthy savings enough to retire. The gite would be beneficial for some "pocket money".
For us the main issue is understanding about the visa really. We would look for a property first if we were sure we could get a business visa afterwards. But no idea how hard it would be to get this visa.

dmu, thanks for letting me know, I will definitely read more about it !

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Not in France but you can use the visa wizard https://france-visas.gouv.fr/en_US/w...soin-d-un-visa

Only a word of warning and if you are already finding it hard to understand, imagine how hard day to day life in France will be with all the rules and regulations.
You might be better off downsizing and just enjoy France as a 2nd home, or as visitors. Why bother with a gite if it's only pocket money and then it's often the opposite "another expense"

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Hi Moses,
Hard doesn't really scare us, we are only in the beginning of this journey of understanding how things work over there. And that's why we are looking for some friendly advice and information before we finalise the sale of our house in the UK and go all formal with solicitors.
We want to make France our permanent home as we really love it there. Good things don't come easy, so as long we know we can meet the minimum requirements for the visa, we will try it.

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Yes of course and we ended up buying (only 2nd home) across the border from France and also love it there (worth nothing). You still have to be realistic and are already talking about finalising the sale of your property in the UK. First you would need to apply for the visitor visa https://france-visas.gouv.fr/en_US/w...-private-visit. I see the same with good friends who ended up buying in France and they are now stuck with a large property nobody else will buy. It's the same in Spain and the real estate market is very different to UK.

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

A visitor visa is far far far far easier to get than a business visa.
The bottom line is that most countries are quite protectionist of their economies and they don't want lots of immigrants muscling in and taking income and work opportunities away from, in this case, French and EU / EEA citizens. So they are very selective and they will choose the applicants who are going to make a positive contribution to the economy. That might be because they have skills or operate a business in a sector that the country is keen to expand, such as hi tec, or because their business is going to provide employment for the locals and pay a lot in taxes for instance if you're a UK manufacturer that wants to expand or relocate into France and you will recruit a workforce. There isn't exactly any shortage of gites in France and they don't tend to provide a lot of employment or contribute massively to the economy, which is why I don't think you can count on getting a visa to set up a gite. Which of course is not to say you won't, just that it is by no means automatic.

Self supporting inactifs and pensioners on the other hand tend to contribute to the economy by consuming and spending their money, and they don't take anything out.

You have probably thought about this already but if you're applying for a visitor visa it may be a good plan to invest the money from the sale of the UK house so that it provides a regular income. It seems that generally they prefer visa applicants to have a regular sustainable income such as pensions, rental income or interest from 'safe' investments, rather than just a pot of money in a bank account that will be nibbled away at month by month and when it's gone it's gone.

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Another way of looking at it: the UK is crying out for lorry drivers but its immigration policy at present is such that even if a French couple wanted to move to the UK and set up a little haulage business, they probably wouldn't get a visa because the UK doesn't want Europeans getting involved in its domestic economy, because Brexit.
France is nowhere near that level of protectionist, it is a lot easier to get a visa to move to France than to the UK, but it is the same principle.

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Just to point out that France is not over keen on pots of money in lieu of an income-it tends to disappear especially if you buy a doer upper I have read somewhere that France may accept a sum equivalent to 12 months minimum wage but I have not seen this on any official websites and I suspect that as you will need to re apply yearly for a CDS they will want to see this sum remaining every year Perhaps invest in property in the UK and rent it out? Then you have a solid income and perhaps look at a gite when you are settled here and recovered from the shock of the new....

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Having run a gite business for over 25 yrs in France you, to my knowledge, do not have need to have a business visa.
If you start a gite business you will need to do the following
1 Obtain a SIRET number from the fisc
2 Register with the Marie
3 Declare on your tax returns as "meubles de tourisme non-proffesionelle" This is valid up to €28000 turnover per annum
You will get an "abatement" of 50% against your earnings for payment of social charges etc, if you want a greater "abatement" of 71% you will need to be classified by an organisation who will give you a star rating. This costs less than €100 and is valid for 5 years.
Not difficult but you wont make a fortune, but for pocket money it should work fine.

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

I suspect this may be the elephant in the room here, because in order to get a SIRET number (they are issued by INSEE) you normally need to have the right to work in France. If you came on a visitor visa, you specifically do not have the right to work, in fact you have signed a declaration to say you will not work.
Earlier this year, many Brits who were waiting for their carte de séjour to be issued were finding it impossible to obtain a SIRET number because as non EU citizens they were being asked for their carte de séjour to prove they had the right to register a business and worki in France. Under the withdrawal agreement they did have the right to work, but getting this recognised was not easy.

Are you saying that post Brexit it is definitely possible for a non EU citizen to obtain a SIRET number for certain types of activity without having the right to work in France, If so that is very interesting, could you provide a link?

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Yes, I had forgotten about the "B" word as I was definitely a European when I came to France in 1992. Brexit just keeps on giving, doesn't it :sarcasm:

Re: Business Visa for Gite
 

Giving people headaches, do you mean? Yep, certainly does :eek: