Relocating to France 🇫🇷
Dec 24th 2017, 6:39 pm
#1
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Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 2
Relocating to France 🇫🇷
Hi guys,
Me and my fiancé currently live in the UAE, we are British nationals and are looking to relocate back to Europe. We want to move to France, I can speak moderate French and my fiancé is semi fluent. Can anyone give any help/tips or has done a similar thing and can give advice? I am an armoured vehicle mechanical technician (7 years experience) and my fiancé is a primary school teacher (5 years experience)
Any help will be much appreciated.
Me and my fiancé currently live in the UAE, we are British nationals and are looking to relocate back to Europe. We want to move to France, I can speak moderate French and my fiancé is semi fluent. Can anyone give any help/tips or has done a similar thing and can give advice? I am an armoured vehicle mechanical technician (7 years experience) and my fiancé is a primary school teacher (5 years experience)
Any help will be much appreciated.
Dec 25th 2017, 4:02 am
#2
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Joined: Dec 2013
Location: Consolacion,Cebu
Posts: 1,931
Re: Relocating to France 🇫🇷
Why France? What is the attraction drawing you towards relocating there?
I think you will struggle.....
Presumably an armoured vehicle technician could retrain as say, an HGV technician? Even so, I don't think either the armed forces or the Gendarmarie would entertain you without fluent French, if at all, as you probably need to be a French citizen for these type of posts. Unemployment in France is quite high at the moment as well.
your fiance will also struggle ,unless she can get a post in an International school where the teaching is in English. She would need French qualifications I assume for a French school plus the curriculum is completely different to UK and again jobs are difficult to get.
not counting health insurance etc plus of course French Bureaucracy!!!
I'd do some online research regarding jobs etc and maybe come back to UK first as it's more likely you will both be able to find work there.
you can then make some exploratory trips to investigate future possibilities.
There are plenty of threads on BE regarding "Moving to France" - use the search function on the beige line above - including some horror stories as well as happy ones!
It's nice to have a dream but it's not always possible to realise it.
I wish you well.
I think you will struggle.....
Presumably an armoured vehicle technician could retrain as say, an HGV technician? Even so, I don't think either the armed forces or the Gendarmarie would entertain you without fluent French, if at all, as you probably need to be a French citizen for these type of posts. Unemployment in France is quite high at the moment as well.
your fiance will also struggle ,unless she can get a post in an International school where the teaching is in English. She would need French qualifications I assume for a French school plus the curriculum is completely different to UK and again jobs are difficult to get.
not counting health insurance etc plus of course French Bureaucracy!!!
I'd do some online research regarding jobs etc and maybe come back to UK first as it's more likely you will both be able to find work there.
you can then make some exploratory trips to investigate future possibilities.
There are plenty of threads on BE regarding "Moving to France" - use the search function on the beige line above - including some horror stories as well as happy ones!
It's nice to have a dream but it's not always possible to realise it.
I wish you well.
Dec 25th 2017, 7:35 am
#3
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Hérault (34)
Posts: 8,888
Re: Relocating to France 🇫🇷
Why France? What is the attraction drawing you towards relocating there?
I think you will struggle.....
Presumably an armoured vehicle technician could retrain as say, an HGV technician? Even so, I don't think either the armed forces or the Gendarmarie would entertain you without fluent French, if at all, as you probably need to be a French citizen for these type of posts. Unemployment in France is quite high at the moment as well.
your fiance will also struggle ,unless she can get a post in an International school where the teaching is in English. She would need French qualifications I assume for a French school plus the curriculum is completely different to UK and again jobs are difficult to get.
not counting health insurance etc plus of course French Bureaucracy!!!
I'd do some online research regarding jobs etc and maybe come back to UK first as it's more likely you will both be able to find work there.
you can then make some exploratory trips to investigate future possibilities.
There are plenty of threads on BE regarding "Moving to France" - use the search function on the beige line above - including some horror stories as well as happy ones!
It's nice to have a dream but it's not always possible to realise it.
I wish you well.
I think you will struggle.....
Presumably an armoured vehicle technician could retrain as say, an HGV technician? Even so, I don't think either the armed forces or the Gendarmarie would entertain you without fluent French, if at all, as you probably need to be a French citizen for these type of posts. Unemployment in France is quite high at the moment as well.
your fiance will also struggle ,unless she can get a post in an International school where the teaching is in English. She would need French qualifications I assume for a French school plus the curriculum is completely different to UK and again jobs are difficult to get.
not counting health insurance etc plus of course French Bureaucracy!!!
I'd do some online research regarding jobs etc and maybe come back to UK first as it's more likely you will both be able to find work there.
you can then make some exploratory trips to investigate future possibilities.
There are plenty of threads on BE regarding "Moving to France" - use the search function on the beige line above - including some horror stories as well as happy ones!
It's nice to have a dream but it's not always possible to realise it.
I wish you well.
I would add that life would be less complicated if you were to marry before you come to France. "Partners" or even fiancés have no legal status here and you're considered as individuals by French Bureaucracy.
There are several threads in the Read-Me: Moving to France FAQs above concerning "Partners", "Renting", "Healthcare coverage" (particularly the most recent posts on PUMA), and others which might be pertinent.
Unemployment is over 9% here, and in all fields. Countless bilingual French candidates are chasing after any jobs going and French companies tend to look after their own. The regulations may have since changed, but you had to be French to work in any of the public services, including teachers in State Schools. And your fiancée would have to qualify in accordance with French norms for teaching in Primary School, esp. a PERFECT knowledge of French grammar. French kids are expert in grammatical analysis at the end of Primaire....
Sorry to be the Cassandra on this Christmas morning, but you have a lot of research to do if you really intend to relocate to France!
Oooops, sorry, the PUMA info isn't in the "Healthcare" thread. Make a forum search, button top right, or google "PUMA". Or, briefly, if you don't find work straight away, you can get into the French S.S. System after 3 months' residency, having taken out private healthcare insurance from the day you arrive...
Last edited by dmu; Dec 25th 2017 at 8:00 am.
Dec 25th 2017, 8:30 am
#4
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2012
Location: Dépt 61
Posts: 5,254
Re: Relocating to France 🇫🇷
Hello. Well the difficulties have been pointed out. The problem is whilst at the moment you as British passport holders are entitled to exercise freedom of movement to live in other EU states, then in order to exercise freedom of moment as workers, you need to have jobs. And jobs ain't easy to find in France.
The best advice I can offer is to look for the jobs first, and then move to where the work is. It's no good deciding where to live and then discovering there are no job opportunities for either of you within a few hundred km.
If you're of working age but not working then you would need sufficient unearned income to be self supporting, and your post doesn't indicate that you could meet this criterion. However if you have, then no worries, go ahead and France is your oyster.
The best advice I can offer is to look for the jobs first, and then move to where the work is. It's no good deciding where to live and then discovering there are no job opportunities for either of you within a few hundred km.
If you're of working age but not working then you would need sufficient unearned income to be self supporting, and your post doesn't indicate that you could meet this criterion. However if you have, then no worries, go ahead and France is your oyster.
Dec 25th 2017, 4:34 pm
#5
Quien no sabe
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,989
Re: Relocating to France 🇫🇷
With the exception of the Legion étrangère the French armed forces and Gendarmerie national are closed to non citizens. These days even the Legion étrangère is a lot fussier than it used to be about applicants and you now need all the normal residence requirements of France to join but it's a good road map into a life in France if you don't have a family.
