Non lucrative Visa Spain (or France) for marina “residence”?

billskip

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Don’t follow the mainland implication? When in the Schengen Zone, crossing inland or island boarders should make no difference but I appreciate, provided you remain in Schengen it could be difficult to check where you are and how long you have been there.
If you travel by plane or ferry you have to present your NIE / passport ID this goes into the computer...so whilst you can travel around mainland by car without check and unlikely to fall at the fence, those that are on the islands need to present ID to buy the ticket...more likely to fall at the fence.
 

Goodroaming

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The requirement is to have an address in France before you begin all this - but that certainly can be a boat address - in a marina or moored on a canal site but clearly it needs to be a place to which mail can be delivered - have a look at this site - H2O | Mooring prices could be a starting place - and they sell boats as well... Probably the most important company in the french canals business
Thanks for that link and helpful info. Ive been going through your videos on the canals. Finally a clear information source! Appreciate all the practical tips. We dont want to buy the boat until we have a visa but we would be willing to sign a 6 mo moorage agreement prior to show our commitment. The plan would be to settle in for a winter somewhere to learn and fitout our boat. Down the road- after a few seasons on the canals, do a bit of coastal boating in Netherlands/Med, and grow from there. Living in France would work well for us. We are looking at dutch steel cruisers. I’ve sailed my lifetime so I have respect for safety, planning, and not rushing the process. I so appreciate your pragmatic helpful tips!
 
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Paddy Fields

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I have been been resident in France for around 18 months - Getting a carte de Sejour (French residency) was fairly straightforward - You must have a French address but a marina or mooring will do.... There are some excellent Facebook groups with almost professional guides on how to do this..

The other stuff that goes with it is more challenging - You need a french bank account. Not easy anywhere to open an account these money laundering days...

Could you post up a link to those Facebook (ugh!!) groups you mention please?

Bank account - France must have something like Monzo that is easy to sign up to? Or is the problem you have to be a resident to be able to sign up, but to be a resident you need a bank account - that would be a kafkeresque!
 

Sea Devil

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The two following links are to the facebook groups that do Carte de Sejour - it is worth reading their information files before posting questions as the files are pretty authoritive - it's 18 months since I did mine so not sure which one is relevant

Facebook Groups

Carte de Sejour Matters in France

There are then groups for health, driving license and tax... Mainly the info and help is pretty good and they are closed groups - which means you have to give reasons for joining.... I think without their help on the driving licence I would be in deep doo daa.

I bank with Credit Agricole and I think they have a on line section specifically for UK people - I was buying a property and went into the local branch - CA is far from perfect but head and shoulders above BNP who were a nightmare - Just persevere with the bank problem - It took me 3 months to get a UK bank account when RBS International wanted to charge me 30 a month... Opening bank accounts anywhere is challenging but you must open a French one - the French are pretty computerised and if you must pay for something it works easily via a French account but not other systems - I use TOR fx to move money from UK to France - excellent company - free and user friendly and very fast
 

Sea Devil

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There seems to be a lot of talk about an address,the address is the beginning and possibly the easiest to obtain, for example my address can be used by anyone provided I trot along to the office with them and sign a document....this is only an address.. getting the required papers to remain in the country is the difficult bit.
Well I am not sure it is that easy - for example with most French Goverment issues - carte de sejour, driving license, health insurance, tax the online form requires a utility bill in your name not more than 30 days old.... Not entirely sure how a boat in a marina would get round this but probably the marina contract or similar - the system works online - you select your gas/electricity supplier from a dropdown list - and that contacts the supplier who verifies your contract with them... Or my supplier sends me a verification paper by email by return... to open a French bank account I think you need an address (can be rented property) and without the back up of a utility bill......
 

billskip

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Well I am not sure it is that easy - for example with most French Goverment issues - carte de sejour, driving license, health insurance, tax the online form requires a utility bill in your name not more than 30 days old.... Not entirely sure how a boat in a marina would get round this but probably the marina contract or similar - the system works online - you select your gas/electricity supplier from a dropdown list - and that contacts the supplier who verifies your contract with them... Or my supplier sends me a verification paper by email by return... to open a French bank account I think you need an address (can be rented property) and without the back up of a utility bill......
Yes, I understand what you say,and agree,as you are aware different rules for different countries also different requirements for pensioners, but here in Spain you can register an address quite easily, to fulfill all other requirements is another story.
 

Sea Devil

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Yes, I understand what you say,and agree,as you are aware different rules for different countries also different requirements for pensioners, but here in Spain you can register an address quite easily, to fulfill all other requirements is another story.
Well until 18 months ago I was a resident of Spain - pre Brexit - and even then the address and Padron which is the certificate that states you live in a certain town also needed proof of address in the form of utility bill... Then the endless visits to the Police National after waiting weeks for an appointment were mind-blowing and on each visit a proof of address was needed.. You live in Spain so know all that - sorry - should have read your post properly! :)
 

billskip

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Well until 18 months ago I was a resident of Spain - pre Brexit - and even then the address and Padron which is the certificate that states you live in a certain town also needed proof of address in the form of utility bill... Then the endless visits to the Police National after waiting weeks for an appointment were mind-blowing and on each visit a proof of address was needed.. You live in Spain so know all that - sorry - should have read your post properly! :)
Well I think things have changed a little, but possibly not, because as you well know different areas may have different rules.
I am on Tenerife, and have been for 1 year,the first thing I had to do was to get an address registered, all I needed was a contract with a receipt for deposit and rent,or a friend with a rental contract/owner to say I lived there. After that the bank only wanted me to pay a couple of euros a month for an extranjeros account until I got my NIE.
The reason I am aware of a lot of the necessity is because I did the whole process myself and asked many questions at every stage to understand what I was doing,asking what if? why? if I didn't understand the reasons or answer I contined till I did, truthfully I was a PITA to them, but I cannot express how really helpful they are to someone who doesn't speak Spanish.
 

Sea Devil

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Well I think things have changed a little, but possibly not, because as you well know different areas may have different rules.
I am on Tenerife, and have been for 1 year,the first thing I had to do was to get an address registered, all I needed was a contract with a receipt for deposit and rent,or a friend with a rental contract/owner to say I lived there. After that the bank only wanted me to pay a couple of euros a month for an extranjeros account until I got my NIE.
The reason I am aware of a lot of the necessity is because I did the whole process myself and asked many questions at every stage to understand what I was doing,asking what if? why? if I didn't understand the reasons or answer I contined till I did, truthfully I was a PITA to them, but I cannot express how really helpful they are to someone who doesn't speak Spanish.
I think the Canary Islands are easier than mainland Spain because there are so many Brits resident. I did it all originally from Ronda/Malaga Province, but forgot to check into the tax system as I earned no money in Spain - Now, 12 years later, every so often they take money from my Spanish account based on an estimate of what I should have paid!!! I have been very careful to check in 100% correctly with the french impôts
 

billskip

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I think the Canary Islands are easier than mainland Spain because there are so many Brits resident. I did it all originally from Ronda/Malaga Province, but forgot to check into the tax system as I earned no money in Spain - Now, 12 years later, every so often they take money from my Spanish account based on an estimate of what I should have paid!!! I have been very careful to check in 100% correctly with the french impôts
Are you sure it's the tax? I do know that the social security take money from accounts with absolutely no reference, the money just vanished poof it was gone, over €1600 the last hit, also money paid into one of those card machines to pay for a service/goods/shopping can just disappear and no evidence in the bank account, the social security take it if there is an outstanding amount...one certainly needs to know the system.
 

Sea Devil

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Are you sure it's the tax? I do know that the social security take money from accounts with absolutely no reference, the money just vanished poof it was gone, over €1600 the last hit, also money paid into one of those card machines to pay for a service/goods/shopping can just disappear and no evidence in the bank account, the social security take it if there is an outstanding amount...one certainly needs to know the system.
Pretty sure it was tax as it was from my Ronda days before I moved to Marbella - I got into the tax system when we rented the Marbella apartment for summer rentals - and that started a paper trail I think - 2 hits both about 650 euro and the problem is it would cost more to get it investigated and challenged....
 

Sea Devil

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Could you post up a link to those Facebook (ugh!!) groups you mention please?

Bank account - France must have something like Monzo that is easy to sign up to? Or is the problem you have to be a resident to be able to sign up, but to be a resident you need a bank account - that would be a kafkeresque!
Could you post up a link to those Facebook (ugh!!) groups you mention please?

Bank account - France must have something like Monzo that is easy to sign up to? Or is the problem you have to be a resident to be able to sign up, but to be a resident you need a bank account - that would be a kafkeresque!
Credit Agricole Britline is a good start for getting a french bank account
 

Clancy Moped

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I have just had a look at the CAB website and it looks as if you can open an account from the UK.
They were okay. We moved to Societe Generale after a while, as it was a time when it was useful to have a relationship with a local branch; plus cheques were still very common and it was a pain to have to post them to pay them in each time.
 

Goodroaming

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If any of you had to liveaboard in winter in a France, what would be your top preferences? The amenities, safety, lack of nighttime disturbances (rolly/noise) is important to us. A liveaboard community would be nice but not critical. We dont have to liveaboard so choice 2 would be a nice town on the canal where we can outfit our boat.
 

Poignard

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If any of you had to liveaboard in winter in a France, what would be your top preferences? The amenities, safety, lack of nighttime disturbances (rolly/noise) is important to us. A liveaboard community would be nice but not critical. We dont have to liveaboard so choice 2 would be a nice town on the canal where we can outfit our boat.
Vannes.
 
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