Lobandrou

Can anybody point me in the direction where I can find more information about the finances needed to move to France. I seem to keep going round in circles and can't find anything specific about what proof of income is accepted or not accepted ?

Thanks, Rob

EuroTrash

If you do facebook there is a group that specialises in applying for visas and has put together a lot of useful guides https://www.facebook.com/groups/248686685795058
To be honest, if your move is still 5 years or so in the future, there may be changes in the process / requirements between now and then. But as things stand, you should have a secure regular income equivalent as a minimum to current SMIC, the French minimum wage (which obviously increases regularly but you will be able to find this on google), and proof would be for instance the annual letter you get from your pension provider(s) stating how much you will receive per month, or a rental agreement showing how much rent you receive per month, or details of your investments and the interest you receive. Can't think what other sources of unearned income there might be but everything has a papertrail and that is what they want to see.

Lobandrou

Thanks, I'll check the FB page out later (after work). I think our issue will be that we won't be able to claim our pensions for many years yet and our finances will be just money in the bank. I don't think even if we invested it all it would provide the monthly amount needed. 😢

EuroTrash

From what you read, people do successfully apply for visas on the basis of a regular income that doesn't quite meet the threshold but with money in the bank to top it up.
Not sure how things would stand if somebody was planning to live entirely off their savings. I guess they would look at how big the savings pot is, would it be sustainable or not.
Many expats do seem to find their savings vanish faster than they expected, and what the authorities don't want, is for the person to come along with a finite nest egg, see it running low, and get tempted to work on the black.

dmu

.... also, the authorities don't want potential expats to be a burden on the State.

As an anecdote, I had a slow puncture this week and ended up having to buy a new tyre. Of course, the garage said that I should buy a second one for balancing, and the two tyres put me back about 300€. After an internet check, I realized that I was ripped off, even with the manpower costs, but it's this sort of unexpected expenses which would be hurtful to a low monthly budget....
But the OPs have got time before their planned move and no one knows what the rules and regulations will be by then. The UK might even be back in the EU!

Lobandrou

Hi all,

Sorry to keep going over the same thing but we have been watching some videos and researching a bit more on the internet and we are confused over the amount you need to cover the SMIC. So if there is me and my DW do we both need approx. 1500 euros each per month ? Some videos we've watched are saying its 1500 per couple others places are saying its 1500 for the first person the 300 for the partner ?

So confused

EuroTrash

Yes there has been confusion over this. However I think it has been clarified recently because one of the official sites published a statement saying that from now on, the official threshold for a couple will be 2 000€.
SMIC is likely to keep increasing over the next year or so because they try to keep it in line with cost of living, and inflation seems likely to continue for a while yet. In normal times the SMIC is revised once a year but this year there has been at least one extra and I believe quite significant increase.

I'll try and find the website where I saw it, and if I do I'll come back and post it. Anecdotally there is some discretion and for people who own their own homes outright with no rent or mortgage to pay they can be flexible and accept a slightly lower figure..

EuroTrash

I think this is the link I read https://sites.google.com/view/180-da...SFZs4QavCy6n6E
However yet again the source of the information is doubful because why would the French Consulate give this information to France Outsider and yet not publish it anywhere else. I would have more faith in it if I could actually track it down to an official website but I haven't managed to.

Lobandrou

Hi EuroTrash,

thanks for posting. I find it bizarre that its so hard to find an official source that give you the correct and up to date information. Maybe because its changing all time I have been offered some help from a couple of websites to speak to a lawyer, at a cost obviously but we're a few years off yet so don't really want to be spending out money now on something that's almost guaranteed to change on the future.

EuroTrash

I suppose the reason the conditions are kept hazy is because every application is slightly different and the officers do need to be able to exercise their discretion. If there was a list that set out exactly what every applicant must provide and it turned into a tick box exercise, then some people who couldn't tick all the boxes wouldn't apply even though they might have been accepted if they had, and others will carefully construct fictitious scenarios to tick the boxes to try and fool the officials. The point of imposing conditions is not for the fun of making people jump through hoops, it's to stop people from moving to another country with insufficient income, and discovering after they've moved that there are costs they hadn't anticipated and they have got themselves up the creek without a paddle. And that is why IMHO it is a waste of money to engage a lawyer. The system isn't designed for lawyers to get involved. It's not meant to be a confrontational process. It is about the immigration authorities obtaining information from you that will enable them to understand your circumstances, draw up your profile and make an assessment,, based on their training and experience and no doubt assisted by computer algorithms, whether it is the profile of a person who is in a position to make the move successfully or whether it's the profile of a person whose income is not going to be sufficient to meet their needs and who is likely to run into difficulties a few years down the line.
If you get an initial refusal then I suppose you might consider using a lawyer to argue the toss, but frankly, if the visa people consider that you won't have enough to live on then probably you won't have enough to live on, and do you really want to try and batter ahead if it's likely to end in tears. The lawyer isn't going to give you an extra source of income to help you through, once he's pocketed his fee he doesn't care whether your move works out for the best or not.

Moses2013

EuroTrash pointed it out and be it France, Spain or any other EU country, it's always based on the countries minimum wage. This info can be found under Europa.eu. and as an EU national you can live in another EU country if you have health insurance and sufficient income. Since Britain is no longer in the EU this is the lowest guideline to even qualify and every case will be reviewed individually (as it is with Visas). This might help too https://thegoodlifefrance.com/how-mu...ive-in-france/

So as you say, no point starting a process that can change anyway.

Lobandrou

You have some good points there. Thank you

Lobandrou

Thank you for this