UK to Canada to France!
Jul 26th 2018, 2:25 pm
#1
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Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 8
UK to Canada to France!
Hello everyone
myself, my wife and two children aged 10 and 13 at the time, moved from the UK, South Wales, to Canada, Vancouver island, 12 years ago. We had considered France at that time but Canada gave us an opportunity so we chose that. It’s been a great place to bring up the children, but it’s become so expensive to live here we don’t know how our kids will ever be able to afford a home, and we have to earn a lot of money just to be able to live here. I’m a builder/contractor and my wife is a realtor/estate agent. There’s loads of work but we’re both 50 and it’s not getting any easier. So for the last year or so we’ve been talking about relocating to France, at the moment the southwest. Having done this once already we know there is so much to find out, and there’s always more, but we thought this would be a good place to start.
At at the moment we are quite rural, a gas station and shop a few minutes away, the nearest town, airport, hospital, is about 10 minutes away and the city about 35 minutes drive. We’d like something similar with a few acres of land and not too far a drive from the coast. We don’t want really cold winters either, I know parts of France gets those. We’re Hoping to take a step back from full time work, but we’ll need an income so a Gite/gites are in our thoughts along with a few other ideas we have. I don’t want to carry on with building work as I’ve done it for 30 years and my old back needs a rest!
We’re considering bringing our car and my motorbike with us, left hand drive and in kms, we’ve read good and bad about this.
Look forward to any help and thanks!
myself, my wife and two children aged 10 and 13 at the time, moved from the UK, South Wales, to Canada, Vancouver island, 12 years ago. We had considered France at that time but Canada gave us an opportunity so we chose that. It’s been a great place to bring up the children, but it’s become so expensive to live here we don’t know how our kids will ever be able to afford a home, and we have to earn a lot of money just to be able to live here. I’m a builder/contractor and my wife is a realtor/estate agent. There’s loads of work but we’re both 50 and it’s not getting any easier. So for the last year or so we’ve been talking about relocating to France, at the moment the southwest. Having done this once already we know there is so much to find out, and there’s always more, but we thought this would be a good place to start.
At at the moment we are quite rural, a gas station and shop a few minutes away, the nearest town, airport, hospital, is about 10 minutes away and the city about 35 minutes drive. We’d like something similar with a few acres of land and not too far a drive from the coast. We don’t want really cold winters either, I know parts of France gets those. We’re Hoping to take a step back from full time work, but we’ll need an income so a Gite/gites are in our thoughts along with a few other ideas we have. I don’t want to carry on with building work as I’ve done it for 30 years and my old back needs a rest!
We’re considering bringing our car and my motorbike with us, left hand drive and in kms, we’ve read good and bad about this.
Look forward to any help and thanks!
Jul 26th 2018, 3:38 pm
#2
Born again atheist
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Europe (to be specified).
Posts: 30,259
Re: UK to Canada to France!
Hello everyone
myself, my wife and two children aged 10 and 13 at the time, moved from the UK, South Wales, to Canada, Vancouver island, 12 years ago. We had considered France at that time but Canada gave us an opportunity so we chose that. It’s been a great place to bring up the children, but it’s become so expensive to live here we don’t know how our kids will ever be able to afford a home, and we have to earn a lot of money just to be able to live here. I’m a builder/contractor and my wife is a realtor/estate agent. There’s loads of work but we’re both 50 and it’s not getting any easier. So for the last year or so we’ve been talking about relocating to France, at the moment the southwest. Having done this once already we know there is so much to find out, and there’s always more, but we thought this would be a good place to start.
At at the moment we are quite rural, a gas station and shop a few minutes away, the nearest town, airport, hospital, is about 10 minutes away and the city about 35 minutes drive. We’d like something similar with a few acres of land and not too far a drive from the coast. We don’t want really cold winters either, I know parts of France gets those. We’re Hoping to take a step back from full time work, but we’ll need an income so a Gite/gites are in our thoughts along with a few other ideas we have. I don’t want to carry on with building work as I’ve done it for 30 years and my old back needs a rest!
We’re considering bringing our car and my motorbike with us, left hand drive and in kms, we’ve read good and bad about this.
Look forward to any help and thanks!
myself, my wife and two children aged 10 and 13 at the time, moved from the UK, South Wales, to Canada, Vancouver island, 12 years ago. We had considered France at that time but Canada gave us an opportunity so we chose that. It’s been a great place to bring up the children, but it’s become so expensive to live here we don’t know how our kids will ever be able to afford a home, and we have to earn a lot of money just to be able to live here. I’m a builder/contractor and my wife is a realtor/estate agent. There’s loads of work but we’re both 50 and it’s not getting any easier. So for the last year or so we’ve been talking about relocating to France, at the moment the southwest. Having done this once already we know there is so much to find out, and there’s always more, but we thought this would be a good place to start.
At at the moment we are quite rural, a gas station and shop a few minutes away, the nearest town, airport, hospital, is about 10 minutes away and the city about 35 minutes drive. We’d like something similar with a few acres of land and not too far a drive from the coast. We don’t want really cold winters either, I know parts of France gets those. We’re Hoping to take a step back from full time work, but we’ll need an income so a Gite/gites are in our thoughts along with a few other ideas we have. I don’t want to carry on with building work as I’ve done it for 30 years and my old back needs a rest!
We’re considering bringing our car and my motorbike with us, left hand drive and in kms, we’ve read good and bad about this.
Look forward to any help and thanks!
Your "kids" are presumably 22 and 25 by now? Are they wanting to come along to France? Do any of you have French language skills?
Your plans are not (they never are) impossible but they sound rather tricky to me. But mostly, welcome to the forum, there are some very helpful members who can give you chapter and verse on almost everything.
*On edit, I should have said for me. The OH can add Tanganika - France- UK on the front end.
Last edited by Novocastrian; Jul 26th 2018 at 3:41 pm.
Jul 26th 2018, 4:30 pm
#3
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Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Hérault (34)
Posts: 8,895
Re: UK to Canada to France!
Your "kids" are presumably 22 and 25 by now? Are they wanting to come along to France? Do any of you have French language skills?
Your plans are not (they never are) impossible but they sound rather tricky to me. But mostly, welcome to the forum, there are some very helpful members who can give you chapter and verse on almost everything.
.
Your plans are not (they never are) impossible but they sound rather tricky to me. But mostly, welcome to the forum, there are some very helpful members who can give you chapter and verse on almost everything.
.
Hope this helps, but you should research all aspects thoroughly, particularly the future of your children....
Jul 27th 2018, 3:04 am
#4
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Joined: Jul 2018
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Re: UK to Canada to France!
We have a lot in common. For us* the trajectory has been UK- California- Toronto- Germany- to Toronto (GTA) again and finally 3 years ago after retirement to UK/France 50:50 ish.
Your "kids" are presumably 22 and 25 by now? Are they wanting to come along to France? Do any of you have French language skills?
Your plans are not (they never are) impossible but they sound rather tricky to me. But mostly, welcome to the forum, there are some very helpful members who can give you chapter and verse on almost everything.
*On edit, I should have said for me. The OH can add Tanganika - France- UK on the front end.
Your "kids" are presumably 22 and 25 by now? Are they wanting to come along to France? Do any of you have French language skills?
Your plans are not (they never are) impossible but they sound rather tricky to me. But mostly, welcome to the forum, there are some very helpful members who can give you chapter and verse on almost everything.
*On edit, I should have said for me. The OH can add Tanganika - France- UK on the front end.
Can I ask what sounds tricky?
Jul 27th 2018, 7:27 am
#5
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Joined: Jan 2012
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Posts: 5,254
Re: UK to Canada to France!
The tricky bit I see is if the kids are coming too. Settling in France = correctly exercising your EU freedom of movement according to your status, so either you have to be a state retiree on a pension, or a worker, or a self-supporting inactive (or the spouse of one of those). Therefore you and the kids will either, if not working, each have to demonstrate unearned income sufficient to class you as self-supporting in your own rights, or you will each need to get a job which would be hard in the current economic climate, or you would each need to set up a sustainable business in your own names. Without meeting the criteria for whatever your status is, you won't be classed as 'legally' resident, therefore you won't be entitled to healthcare in the short term and come Brexit you won't qualify for a carte de séjour. Setting one or two gites would maybe give you and your wife 'worker' status but not the kids, it wouldn't generate enough income for you to 'employ' them. You need a plan that covers all of you.
Jul 27th 2018, 7:33 am
#6
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Re: UK to Canada to France!
You said you'd need an income, that's what sounds tricky! If your two adult children are coming too, they both need employment in order to have (compulsory) healthcare coverage. If you aren't paying into the French Social Security System by being salaried or self-employed, you'd all have to take out private healthcare insurance until you're eligible for the S.S. after several months' residence.
Your situation(s) would be tricky if you don't speak adequate French to find sufficiently paid employment.
That's for starters!
Your situation(s) would be tricky if you don't speak adequate French to find sufficiently paid employment.
That's for starters!
Jul 27th 2018, 9:46 am
#7
Born again atheist
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Europe (to be specified).
Posts: 30,259
Jul 31st 2018, 1:10 am
#8
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Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 8
Re: UK to Canada to France!
You said you'd need an income, that's what sounds tricky! If your two adult children are coming too, they both need employment in order to have (compulsory) healthcare coverage. If you aren't paying into the French Social Security System by being salaried or self-employed, you'd all have to take out private healthcare insurance until you're eligible for the S.S. after several months' residence.
Your situation(s) would be tricky if you don't speak adequate French to find sufficiently paid employment.
That's for starters!
Your situation(s) would be tricky if you don't speak adequate French to find sufficiently paid employment.
That's for starters!
Jul 31st 2018, 6:55 am
#9
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Joined: Jan 2012
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Posts: 5,254
Re: UK to Canada to France!
Our daughter will be going to University in Ireland, Cork or Dublin., and our son will be with us. We will definitely be self-employed as we have been for nearly all of our working lives. Our son already has his own computer-based business and will look into expanding that. We can't afford to retire just yet, unfortunately, so we will look to set up or maybe even buy a business, which will be holiday lets based. We pay a private insurance for health care here in Canada so that won't be a new thing for us, although we haven't looked into the cost of that in France. As we did when we moved to Canada, we will do whatever it takes to make it work. It wasn't easy for us to get into Canada in the first place, but we've worked hard and done pretty well as I think you have to when you move to another country. I think I said in my original post that I know we have a lot of research to do as we did before we moved here.
(You won't need private health care insurance, just top-up once you're paying into the state system via your businesses.)
Jul 31st 2018, 7:35 am
#10
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Joined: Mar 2009
Location: Bouches du Rhone (13)
Posts: 263
Re: UK to Canada to France!
I did something similar UK-Canada-UK-France but moved with a salaried job lined up each time. France wins the prize for most paperwork and inefficiency of administration (both public and private service) but I'm sure you've heard that before! Depending on the region you end up in, it is more than possible to get a job (maybe needs to be seasonal to start with) or set up a business in the form of Auto-entrepreneur or property lets. I know this is not what you intend to do, but on the job front they can be very picky about having exactly the right qualification for the role and even that often only gets you a minimum wage (SMIC) pay grade, so you need to be inventive in some regards. I have also found that there is often a disconnect between what is accessible on the internet and what you can find out at the local bar when you get talking to the locals, so that is well worth keeping in mind. I know a number of expat families who have come over and made a go of it reasonably successfully, though most of them seem to have come with some money and are treating it as a working holiday or winding down into retirement. Why not come over for a year with an open mind while keeping options open in Canada - the kids, especially would have plenty of options to go back if they decide to.
Jul 31st 2018, 7:57 am
#11
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Re: UK to Canada to France!
Actually I think that's good advice. In my experience it takes well more than one year for a new business to settle in and take off, but by the end of the first year you should have some idea of whether or not it's going to work, and indeed whether or not you're still prepared to do what it takes to make it work.
Jul 31st 2018, 8:53 am
#12
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Joined: Mar 2009
Location: Bouches du Rhone (13)
Posts: 263
Re: UK to Canada to France!
Admittedly my early dealings with French bureaucracy was a few years ago so things may have improved for new comers. I remember going around the local Canadian government offices when I first arrived there and had my Social Insurance Number and healthcare registration all done within the day. In France it took several visits to each office, many letters and they still got it wrong to the extent that it took over a year to be sort it out properly. More recently this year setting up a AE business (the simplest there is in France), it was done on line but followed up with several letters per week for a few weeks regarding change of caisse maladie (healthcare agency) which entailed a new health card and re-registration of family doctor, change in pension agency, various queries on information already provided such as place of business and insurance obligations, and I haven't even done a tax declaration yet! In summary, there is some way to go before we can sing the praises of a bureaucracy friendly France.
Jul 31st 2018, 2:31 pm
#13
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Joined: Jul 2018
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Re: UK to Canada to France!
I did something similar UK-Canada-UK-France but moved with a salaried job lined up each time. France wins the prize for most paperwork and inefficiency of administration (both public and private service) but I'm sure you've heard that before! Depending on the region you end up in, it is more than possible to get a job (maybe needs to be seasonal to start with) or set up a business in the form of Auto-entrepreneur or property lets. I know this is not what you intend to do, but on the job front they can be very picky about having exactly the right qualification for the role and even that often only gets you a minimum wage (SMIC) pay grade, so you need to be inventive in some regards. I have also found that there is often a disconnect between what is accessible on the internet and what you can find out at the local bar when you get talking to the locals, so that is well worth keeping in mind. I know a number of expat families who have come over and made a go of it reasonably successfully, though most of them seem to have come with some money and are treating it as a working holiday or winding down into retirement. Why not come over for a year with an open mind while keeping options open in Canada - the kids, especially would have plenty of options to go back if they decide to.
