My dream has always been to live in France

Question:

Hello Alex, My dream has always been to live in France but work in the UK. My job allows me a lot of flexibility and I can work from home a lot so I don't need to be in my office every week. I was planning my move within the next 2 years and was interested in southern France such as the Dordogne not far from an airport.

However, as our current government has been hell bent on acting like a lunatic by leaving Europe I'm wondering if my dreams will now be shattered?

Could you tell me how difficult is it going to be to move my main residence to France if this current idiotic government decides to leave the EU without a deal?

I feel so strongly about this and staying in the EU that I would even consider becoming a French citizen if I was allowed to.

Most of the money I would need would come from my UK house sale, so I would have around £90,000 available.

Thanks, Yours sincerely, Andrew.

Answer:

Hi Andrew, Brexit is a big question, and quite complex for me to try to answer succinctly: but there are quite a few articles on our blog pages on the website from various sources, especially from our legal contacts, so do have a browse over those, though with the situation changing so much they may be a bit out of date in some respects.

My own view is that 'BREXIT’ may or may not happen, nothing would surprise me anymore. And what has surprised me most is that for us nothing much has changed, British people are still moving to France to live, in fact we've just had our busiest month in 8 years, I think there’s a degree of people moving as quickly as possible whilst they still can.

But whatever happens the process of withdrawing from the EU will not be a speedy one, and the residency of those ex-pats living in France and elsewhere in the EU will no doubt continue to form a part of that negotiation process.

When I moved to France a residency permit known as the ‘Carte De Sejour’ was required; it was a relatively straightforward application process (or at least as straightforward as a French bureaucratic process can be!) Perhaps this would be re-introduced for British residents in the future, or it may be that you would need to apply for residency in the same way that Americans, Australians and other non EU countries do, for now we simply do not know. Of course owning holiday homes abroad will remain as it is today, there is no restrictions for non EU members on owning a house in France.

Clearly there remain many questions to be answered, and fine details to be ironed out. But what is becoming apparent is that this will be a long process, possibly years in the making, and we will of course bring further news as and when it becomes available during the coming months. But in the meantime life continues much as it always has done: the British have always lived, worked and retired to sunnier climes, and that will doubtless continue, even if some administrative aspects of live abroad may change.

You can also download our Free Guide to Brexit PDF here.