Visa Application in Process

Welcome back to Baby Boomers Move to France. We have our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly over the next couple of months. This is our 21st post of the blog and for sure each week we make a little bit of progress towards our move to France. We are still watching a lot of You Tube videos and still looking at optional locations. For sure it will be southwest France, but within that area there are a lot of options. One thing that we are still sure of, we are definitely sure of our decision to move to France. As you know we are now less than 2 months away from catching our flight to Paris and then driving to our temporary home base in Duras, France.

I want to update you on our long stay visitor French visa progress, and French bank account efforts, Rosie update, Artimis update, and the French car rental and a bunch of other stuff that I’m happy to say we are making progress on.

I hope that you have had a great week and made progress on all of your projects and that your family is all doing well.

The French Long Stay Visitor Visa

We had a great meeting with our advisor at French Connections HCB. I think that we have gathered all of the zillions of required documents and are ready for our meeting in Miami with TLS. We have the meeting scheduled for June 20th. Before then we have a meeting scheduled with French Connections HCB for a pep talk on what will happen at our meeting in Miami and to help us keep calm. It is a new experience and maybe a little daunting, but according to the HCB team it is nothing to worry about. We will board Rosie at Bayside Pet Resort in North Port while we go to our meeting in Miami.

I’m not sure if I have explained the process clearly for you. It goes something like this; we gather the required documents and then take it all, including our passports to a third-party company that is contracted with the French government to pre-screen our documents. This is just to insure we have everything in order. We are fingerprinted and leave our passports, and the lot is sent to the French embassy for approval. Or, if they don’t approve, then we have to find out why and go through the process again, but we are only thinking positive thoughts right now.

It takes about 3 weeks for the approval then our passports are returned to us with the visas attached. We will have them returned via FedEx rather than regular mail. The cost for the visa is about $125.00 per person. Once that is done, we are good to go. Once we land in France we have 30 days to validate our visa which is basically going online and filling out the proper information. We can update you when we actually get it done.

We must renew this visa every year for about 5 years. This is done in France, so we don’t have to return to the states for the renewal. I think after 5 years we can apply for a 10-year visa or dual citizenship. There are language proficiency requirements at this stage. For now, the language requirement is pretty basic. I believe that if you are 75 years old or older the requirements are waived.

The French Bank Account

If you have been following the blog you know that I have been working on obtaining a French bank account remotely for a while. I have been complaining that the paperwork is nuts and a bit confusing. I went back and forth with the good people at French Connections HCB, and I finally got the thing figured out. I’m proud to say that I managed to get it all put together and uploaded for review.

I want a French bank account as soon as possible so that we can go about regular business and manage foreign currency exchange without too much hassle and too much expense.

We will be meeting with a French financial planner next week and I’m hoping he can help guide us around the banking maze and how best to navigate finances in France. I don’t expect it to be too much different than the states.

Rosie and Artimis

At the end of the day, we decided to take Rosie with us to France. It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. It is all good now and next steps are an appointment with a vet and then USDA certification. You might recall that getting an animal overseas is a big deal. That said it is easier to France than say where my son is in the Marshall Islands.

The vet appointment timing is crucial and is yet another stressful task that must be completed by the numbers. Our vet is at Bright Cross Veterinary. They have been very good and I’m sure that they will handle the USDA compliance perfectly. It s just that the USDA must return Rosie’s certification within 10 days of our departure for France. With all of the cuts that we are hearing about I hope this goes smoothly.

We haven’t found a home for Artimis yet. I booked an appointment with Cat Depot for next week.

French Car Rental

This whole car rental issue is important to me because we will save money as compared to renting from big name rental companies. All is looking good now. All rental documents are done and submitted includes insurance and road issue coverage. We have the option to buy the car at the end of the rental agreement. We will make that decision when we get there.

This Past Monday and Tuesday

On Monday night we went to dinner at Anna Maria Oyster Bar in North Port. Tim and Zella met us there and we had a really nice dinner and chat. Sadly, we don’t get together with them often enough. By the end of dinner, it was dark when we drove home, and I turned the car lights on. Bad news, I left the lights on overnight. Early Tuesday Elizabeth went out to the car to drive to work. Her key didn’t work to unlock the car door. What the heck? Well of course the car battery was dead. My bad. Corey came to our rescue with a set of jumper cables and the car started right up. Thanks to John for calling Corey to our rescue. I had called John for help, and he caught Corey as he was driving to his office which is near our rental in North Port. What a community!

Elizabeth’s Working Plan

Elizabeth had hoped to work remotely for Tervis while we live in France. Since this work would be for an American company that doesn’t have any business in France, she can legally do this work in France. Unfortunately, it does not seem that this will be happening.

It is a bit of a disappointment for EB, but things happen for a reason so I’m confident that it will all work out.

As I have mentioned in the past, with the Long Stay Visa we are not allowed to work in France as that would be taking a job from a French person. But, if you are working remote for a company that is NOT doing business in France and you get paid into an American bank account and have a contract, you can work.

Next Week

Next week there is still much to do, but mostly hurry up and wait, it is all about prepping for our visa meeting in Miami.

Elizabeth has a doctor appointment. We will have a conference call with the financial advisor in France and attend a party for our neighbor’s grandson, Logan.

We will join friends for dinner at the Banyon House restaurant in Wellen Park on Tuesday.

I will attend my last French language class.

I hope you can join our blog as there is always something new to report.

If you have a question, or comments or suggestions please jot them down in the comments section below.

As always, I wish you and yours the best, stay safe and make it a great week.