J'adore la France! My husband and I would love to move to Charente-Maritime in the next couple of years. Can anyone give advice as to what we need to do before we move over - all the paperwork etc seems mind boggling. I have no idea how to get a resident permit or a national insurance number.

Also to be able to secure an appartment to rent, don't you need to show that you're in a job? I've tried looking at job websites, but they all come to nothing. I don't see how I could get a job in France while I'm living in the UK. I speak good French, my husband speaks very little at the moment, but is learning.

Any advice welcome! :)

Laure, I am brand new to the site myself, and seeking similar advice. You may want to take a look at the "welcome" thread, as some kind people from this forum have offered some helpful thoughts to me there.

Best of luck.

Paul

Hi, the best advice I can give is to try and find an apartement to live before you settle here. We didnt when we arrived and almost went all the way back to Australia as no one would rent to us. The reasons being one- that we were forigners and two- we didnt have a "Guaranteur". This is someone will vouch for you financially in case you cannot make your rent. This person has to be living in France and prefferably in the same reigon as where you want to stay. Friends of ours who came to Montpellier to stay for a year had the exact same problem. Your options are either to pay your rent 6months in advance (this can be dangerous as its not legal apparently) or in some cases the local banks can act as "guarntuers"- Barclays Bank France is helpful with this. If you dont have an income when you apply, sometimes if you can show that your bank account has enough money in it to support you while your here it may be ok, but then again it comes down who you deal with.
We found working with "Century 21 France" helpful, we now rent off them, they are not as strict about Guaranteurs and are very helpful with forigners. You can also view www.fniam.fr which has rental listings for all reigons in France. Hope this helps and good luck!!
Cheerios VR

sorry that website was wrong........its:
http://www.fnaim.fr/

Hi, the best advice I can give is to try and find an apartement to live before you settle here. We didnt when we arrived and almost went all the way back to Australia as no one would rent to us. The reasons being one- that we were forigners and two- we didnt have a "Guaranteur". This is someone will vouch for you financially in case you cannot make your rent. This person has to be living in France and prefferably in the same reigon as where you want to stay. Friends of ours who came to Montpellier to stay for a year had the exact same problem. Your options are either to pay your rent 6months in advance (this can be dangerous as its not legal apparently) or in some cases the local banks can act as "guarntuers"- Barclays Bank France is helpful with this. If you dont have an income when you apply, sometimes if you can show that your bank account has enough money in it to support you while your here it may be ok, but then again it comes down who you deal with.
We found working with "Century 21 France" helpful, we now rent off them, they are not as strict about Guaranteurs and are very helpful with forigners. You can also view www.fniam.fr (http://www.fniam.fr) which has rental listings for all reigons in France. Hope this helps and good luck!!
Cheerios VR

VR - do you know if this "guaranteur" idea applies when dealing with one of the rental agencies, like Paris Attitude? They don't indicate anything needed beyond 2 months rental deposit, your first month's rent in advance, and their (10%) agency fee, up front, in order to secure one of their listed apartments. I haven't gone beyond browsing the agency sites, do don't know if once applying, other things will be needed, but curious.

VR - do you know if this "guaranteur" idea applies when dealing with one of the rental agencies, like Paris Attitude? They don't indicate anything needed beyond 2 months rental deposit, your first month's rent in advance, and their (10%) agency fee, up front, in order to secure one of their listed apartments. I haven't gone beyond browsing the agency sites, do don't know if once applying, other things will be needed, but curious.
Im not sure about the Paris situation and the guaranteur obligations there. Thats great if all you need is the 2 months upfront. Paris may be more flexible than here in Montpellier as there would be more forigners looking to rent. On application (or you should be able to request)they should give you a list of all the paperwork needed, most of it is usually ID, bank details and references if you have them. Almost all the time you will need a "R.I.B" which is a French bank account number, this is almost as important sometimes as your passport. You will also need this R.I.B number for connecting phone, electricity ect.

Thank you, VR. Given the importance of the R.I.B., it seems important to have it in hand prior to seeking an apartment - do you happen to know, can one do that from outside France?

Paul, a RIB is a piece of paper that you will get from your French bank, so unless you can somehow set up a bank account before you come, it's something that will have to wait until you get here. And because you're from outside the EU, most banks won't want to let you open an account until you have your carte de séjour. And without a bank account, you can't find an apartment, get a phone installed, utilities hooked-up, etc - and there in lies the catch 22 that comes with being a foreigner in France!! :p

Sam - thanks.

Wait, you mean I have to deal with bureaucracy? Forget it. I only wanted to go to France because I heard the red tape was so low.:D

I know that the school will send me the carte de séjour on acceptance, which takes place over the next month or two. Doing a little more digging, I did see some possibilities for opening up an account from afar, so will look into that. La mère de mon ami travaille pour le consulat, et j'espères qu'elle peut fournir quelques conseils aussi bien.

Thanks again for the help!


Paul

Hey, Sam!
I could really use your help. Or, rather, someone else can. I received an email from an older gentleman who lived in Menton, had to rush back to Calif- his daughter & 2 granddaughters were involved in a car accident & were in critical condition. (Daughter actually died.) He needs advice on whether or not he can return to France. Some bills were left unpaid, etc. I'd like to forward his email to you, if I may. I'm sure you could advise him much better than I could!
I tried to send you a private msg, but was unable to. Please let me know if you can help, he is fairly anxious to get any advice.
This person has had more tragedy than anyone deserves, as you'll see when/if you read his email. I really wish I could help him myself, but I know less than he does about the ins & outs of French red-tape.
Thanks again, Sam. I hope you can help him.
Regards,
Kim

Paul, are you sure you're not confusing the carte de séjour with something else (like maybe your acceptance letter or your carte d'étudiant)? Because the carte de séjour is something you can only obtain IN France, from the préfecture. You get the visa from the French consulate beforehand, but the carte de séjour must be applied for AFTER your arrival here.

In Paris, I've heard that the wait for the first visit can take up to three months, though I think there is now some sort of express lane for students, so maybe you can take advantage of that. When you apply, they will give you a temporary carte, which some places will accept and others won't, and then it will take 1-3 months for them to give you your real card.

Crédit Agricole has a special English speaking section called Britline (www.britline.com/), and they might also be able to help you set up an account from abroad (though any account set up in this fashion will obviously cost a lot more than a normal account set up in France).

PS. Kim, I just sent you an email.

Sorry, Sam, I haven't gotten it as yet, but I'll check again in the am, sometimes emails come thru hours after time sent.
Thanks, Sam!

Sam, I did not get any email from you. Where did you send it?

Please try again.

kimincannes@yahoo.com

Thanks, Sam :)

I'm not sure Kim, I just used the email function on this forum, so I guess it got sent to whatever email you used when you signed up. Or maybe it's just floating out there somewhere in cyberspace!!! Either way, I just sent one to your yahoo account!

Thank you, VR. Given the importance of the R.I.B., it seems important to have it in hand prior to seeking an apartment - do you happen to know, can one do that from outside France?
Yes....it is possible to get an RIB for outside of France. When our friends from Australia were getting ready to move to live here in France, we warned them about the nesseccety of a RIB. They got one through Barclays Bank. They contacted Barclays Bank in the UK and they set it up so they got a UK bank account then transferred it to a French bank account. I know it seems alot of fuss but from my experience if you have a RIB before you get here life is so much easier. Once you have this RIB you can set up so many things to be ready in France so your transition here is simpler..eg: getting an apartment, work, and other living neccessities. They did this all from within Australia. As Barclays Bank have a French Division you can request that you recieve a RIB. It took them about 2 months (bear in mind this is due to posting and recieving of paperwork to and from Australia to the UK).
We are also with Barclays France, our bankers name is M. Pierre Doucerlle from the Montpellier branch in who speaks english. He could be a good person to get some info if you dont have any other contacts in France.
Hope this helps...VR

Got it, Sam. I sent his email to you. Thanks for EVERYTHING!!! :D

Got it, Sam. I sent his email to you. Thanks for EVERYTHING!!! :D

Hello Kim

For your information the email address you currently have in your profile is huggalishouzbaby@yahoo.com if this is no longer active please click on User CP link (http://www.chiefdreamer.com/forum/usercp.php) and update your email address to tokimincannes@yahoo.com that way if members use the email feature in forum it will get to you.

Thanks David, but it IS active. I actually didn't have my own email address when I joined here, but I do now. (That one is my daughter's.) I did check that address, however, and nothing was there from Sam. But thanks for reminding me, as I wasn't sure.

Sorry, I clicked on that link to change address and got "There are no new Subscribed threads..."

Paul, are you sure you're not confusing the carte de séjour with something else (like maybe your acceptance letter or your carte d'étudiant)? Because the carte de séjour is something you can only obtain IN France, from the préfecture. You get the visa from the French consulate beforehand, but the carte de séjour must be applied for AFTER your arrival here.

In Paris, I've heard that the wait for the first visit can take up to three months, though I think there is now some sort of express lane for students, so maybe you can take advantage of that. When you apply, they will give you a temporary carte, which some places will accept and others won't, and then it will take 1-3 months for them to give you your real card.

Crédit Agricole has a special English speaking section called Britline (http://www.britline.com/), and they might also be able to help you set up an account from abroad (though any account set up in this fashion will obviously cost a lot more than a normal account set up in France).

PS. Kim, I just sent you an email.

Sam, I think I simply glossed over the school's visa/documentation page too quickly, and misinterpreted the information there. On acceptance, I go to our local consulate (in my case, Chicago), to obtain the student visa, "required for obtaining the sejour from the French government." As you say. Thank you for clearing this up.

Thanks everyone for the good information, I'm about to go to Barclays to check out bank accounts. Keep me posted if anything else springs to mind that I might need to think of before moving out there.

I've found a good site for job searching, I've put in my details and they email me with any suitable jobs - http://www.anpe.fr/. You can choose by region and department too.

Cheers, Lauren

Also, here is a really good site for finding accomodation. They also send you emails according to your requirements... www.office-propriete.com/ (http://www.office-propriete.com/)