Hi all - this is my first post so pls forgive if I put it in the wrong place ;o) Hubby and I are moving to France next month from Canada and are lost in the usual maze of detail involved. One big question is whether or not to take the family car? Cheaper to ship it [it appears] than to rent one, with the added plus that we can stuff it full of household goods as well as loading furniture into the container it rides in. Big problem however - how to get the household bits i.e. the furniture, from the docks at Le Havre to Bordeaux region? We *would* like to just rent a trailer and hitch it to the back but I cannot for the life of me find any for rent on Google France. Does anyone have a suggestion or shall I just burn it all? Cheers - JR

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I suppose if the choice is between shipping a car or renting one when you get here, I'd go for the shipping, too. But depending on how long you're planning on staying, shipping might wind up being much more hassle than it's worth. Be sure you have a car (brand and model) that you can get serviced in France. Even "international" models (say, a Toyota Corolla) may not actually be the same between countries.

It's possible to rent trucks, or depending on how much "stuff" you have, you might be able to rent a "remorque", though in a quick search of the rental site, I'm not sure if what they have is what you have in mind. (Go through all the pages of remorques because it's a general term for just about anything you can hook onto the back of a car or truck.) The big rental company in France is called Kiloutou and they are online at Kiloutou.fr > Location

Just a little caveat - you realize that your container (with or without car) will probably arrive several weeks after you do? The ocean crossings usually take 2 to 6 weeks, depending on where you're coming from. And, you have to have a customs agent to clear your goods through customs - or do it yourself, which is not as easy as it sounds. You'll need an itemized list of everything you're importing into the country, along with current value and purchase date, your visas or cartes de séjour, etc. etc. (Welcome to France - you'll get used to it after a while. ) There are also fees to be paid on the shipment at the Customs office - mostly for processing the paperwork.

Talk to the shipper to ask about customs clearance on arrival. I'd seriously consider using a mover (or a shipper who can handle clearance procedures for you) even if it costs a bit more. But think long and hard about shipping the car. You can get a used car here quite reasonably.
Cheers,
Bev

We're staying in France for at least ten months - perhaps more - and I was aware that there would be customs clearances to worry about [at least for the car] at the other end although I was hoping it wasn't such a big deal.... Our car is a Suburu Forester so I don't know if servicing will be a problem but it certainly seems that long-term lease rates are out to lunch [about $3000.00 for three months! oucha]. Shipping the car costs about $2300.00 so you can see why we're considering it even if it doesn't arrive until much later;o)

Don't need visas thankfully since I'm still a British citizen and Hubby is a Canadian - phew.

Thanks for the info - much obliged! JR

I have a question. Does the spouse of an EU citizen get the right to stay in an EU country as a trailling spouse automatically? Because if that isn't so, as a non-EU citizen, he can come in for three months without a visa, but under Schengen rules, as I have been forcefully told by others on this forum, he can only stay in the Schengen countries for 90 days out of 180.

Are you planning on working while you are are there? Both of you? And if he can stay as a trailling spouse, and you both need to work, will he be able to work as a trailing spouse?

Or does he have to qualify independently?

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According to the French embassy my husband can enter France with me and can live and work without a visa for any length of time. However, we are 'semi-retired' and will be living on my income for a time [I have a small online business] so the problem should not arise - at least at first. If we later wish to move on to the UK however he does need a working visa - which evidently is pretty easy to get as long as you pay the fee - approx. $1100.00 at our end.

Just a small caveat - I've heard that spouses of EU nationals don't need a visa to live in France "for the long term" but have seen that in practice, it may not always work out that way. (I followed the advice I got at the French consulate before coming to France to marry a Frenchman and found out they had it ALL wrong!)

As long as he's not planning on working, you're probably ok. The problem arises because the embassies and consulates report to a different ministry than the immigration people do. You may want to inquire once you're in France about the possibility of getting him a carte de séjour. Our prefecture will not issue a carte de séjour to any EU national, but I think there is a procedure in place for issuing one to the spouse of an EU national. The main advantage of a carte de séjour is that it can be used as i.d. Without it, you wind up carrying your passport around if you may need i.d. It also makes life a bit simpler as it states whether or not you have the right to work. (My British friend was miffed when she found out they wouldn't replace her carte de séjour a year or so ago. It does come in handy at times when you're from an EU country without a national i.d. card.)
Cheers,
Bev

It's all pretty confusing isn't it. The consulate tells you one thing - then you find out that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing ;o) My main niggling worry is that we bought a one way ticket for the three of us [me, hubby and 21 yr old son] and very much hope we won't be turned back at the airport! ha. Should we have bought a return?

I do have another question if anyone would be so kind - what about health insurance? As an EU citizen I assume I will be covered [I have various health probs including diabetes] but am not sure if I should purchase private insurance until we get settled - any thoughts at all anyone? Suggestions much appreciated - cheers - jacky

Ooh boy, you're in a very "non-typical" situation and you may have some difficulty here.

As far as the return ticket is concerned, I wouldn't worry about it. Immigration control at Roissy (CDG airport in Paris) is minimal. Coming in from Canada, he'll just have to fill out the little card, which doesn't ask how long he is planning to stay. Technically, it would be best if your husband got his passport stamped on arrival to indicate his arrival date - but it's up to him if he wants to ask about it if they don't automatically stamp it for him.

There is a process now whereby he can go to the local gendarmerie and "declare" himself to be settling in France for the long term. They will then stamp his passport so no one can say - as they did with me - that he "sneaked in" without declaring his intention to stay. If he needs or wants to get a carte de séjour, he'll need that stamp in his passport. (Ask at the local mairie if he can or should get a carte de séjour and how to do so. They'll send you to the prefecture, but the fact that you asked may come in handy if anyone challenges you later on.)

Now, as to health insurance. You may not be entitled to any as a UK citizen simply because you haven't been paying into the UK system. Normally, if you were moving from the UK, you'd get a form from the health service there, confirming your eligibility under EU rules. You should check with the Canadian health care service to see if there is any sort of reciprocity (probably only short term) with France.

If there is no agreement with Canada, you will need expat insurance before you go. (You could use travel insurance for the first few weeks, but most travel insurance includes medical evacuation back to your home country. If you don't fancy being flown back to Canada in an emergency, you need to have the expat insurance.) Check with the various UK insurance companies - at least to start. They seem to have the widest variety of policies and benefits available and are used to dealing with the various countries in Europe. There are also some expat clubs that offer group insurance to their members, though you may need to be established in France before you'll find the expat groups.
Cheers,
Bev