Buying a boat, keeping it in France

Fr J Hackett said:
I have a French residency permit and over the last year have travelled to Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, the UK and internally within France all by air. I have used my UK passport when travelling outside of France obviously with no problem and have used my Carte de Sejour without problem when travelling inside of France. I am told I can use it for travelling within the EU but have yet to test it hopefully I won't need to if and when my French nationality is confirmed later this year.
I did temporarily lose my UK passport (inadvertently left in an overhead locker when it fell out of my jacket pocket) when travelling back from the UK. The French officials were about to let me in on the evidence of my CdS, French driving licence and Carte Vitale but a stewardess had found my passport and returned it to me. I posted about it on here at the time.
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French citizenship is the way to go ? .... a French residency permit counts as a Schengen Visa, allowing a 90 day stay in the last 180 in any other schengen country.

Citoyens hors UE : titre de séjour
Si vous êtes citoyen d'un pays hors UE (qui ne fait pas partie des listes précédentes), vous pouvez également voyager sans visa dans tout l'espace Schengen, ainsi qu'en Bulgarie, en Roumanie, en Croatie et à Chypre, si vous possédez un titre de séjour valide émis par un Etat membre de Schengen (par exemple une carte de séjour temporaire ou une carte de résident de 10 ans en France), pour un séjour de courte durée (90 jours maximum).
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Voyager en Europe et dans l'espace Schengen : quand faut-il un visa ?
 
Sea Devil said:
How did your application for French residency go? What was the criteria for the application?
It is my solution if the 90 days issue bites into my time in France but have not yet investigated it too deeply. Would be grateful for your advice.
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I have made several posts about it but in summary:

It took 18 months to get through the bureaucracy to the final interview. The criteria are well laid out, proof of continuous residency, ability to support oneself and language ability (DELF B1 minimum) It is also tested at the final interview of about 30 minutes with questions relating to French culture, your reasons for wanting to take French nationality ( Brexit is not a good answer) your life in France, criminal record check UK and France (I had a Gendarme come to the apartment to do a mini interview) etc. After the interview held at the prefecture ( I had to wait over 8 months for the interview) your file goes to Nantes where it is reviewed by a panel of judges, if OK it then gets past on to Paris and the ministry of the interior for approval, then back to Nantes and you are informed by letter that you have been accepted or not, then there is a ceremony in the prefecture of your home town where you are awarded your Carte d'Identité The whole process is expected to take between 6 and 12 months, 5 month and waiting now.

PM me if you want specifics
 
What is the situation for those UK citizens who have property in France, eg a second home or a cruising yacht (ie one with accommodation) kept their for more than 5 years?
 
Poignard said:
What is the situation for those UK citizens who have property in France, eg a second home or a cruising yacht (ie one with accommodation) kept their for more than 5 years?
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I will speculate based on experience. Neither will qualify you for residency and most certainly not citizenship.
 
Does anybody know any non EU (ie what we will be in 2021) folks who have obtained a French Long Stay Visa. That looks like the only option as far as I can see?

Maybe we will have to apply every year, not exactly brilliant as I believe it needs two visits to their London embassy.
 
As with all the temporary residency solutions, it only actually allows non-EU citizens to stay longer than 90 days in the EU state where the permit was issued - a residency permit in one EU country grants a schengen visa for the rest, but travel to other EU countries is limited to 90 days in 180. Only citizenship grants full EU access with no time limits. I researched this before applying for German citizenship because I want unhindered access to my boat in Croatia and I want to go live aboard in the Med at some point. This 90/180 rule is the reason why there is a market for rich people to buy EU citizenship - otherwise you have to go through processes like Fr J Hackett is doing and jump through all the hoops to gain citizenship in your chosen EU state.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
I have made several posts about it but in summary:

It took 18 months to get through the bureaucracy to the final interview. The criteria are well laid out, proof of continuous residency, ability to support oneself and language ability (DELF B1 minimum) It is also tested at the final interview of about 30 minutes with questions relating to French culture, your reasons for wanting to take French nationality ( Brexit is not a good answer) your life in France, criminal record check UK and France (I had a Gendarme come to the apartment to do a mini interview) etc. After the interview held at the prefecture ( I had to wait over 8 months for the interview) your file goes to Nantes where it is reviewed by a panel of judges, if OK it then gets past on to Paris and the ministry of the interior for approval, then back to Nantes and you are informed by letter that you have been accepted or not, then there is a ceremony in the prefecture of your home town where you are awarded your Carte d'Identité The whole process is expected to take between 6 and 12 months, 5 month and waiting now.

PM me if you want specifics
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Mmm-- Thanks for all that. A lot tougher and long winded than I anticipated and certainly not an easy fix---What will scupper me is continus living in France. I had 5 years in La Rochelle and area but that was a decade ago... Now I,m mostly in Spain.
Than you for taking the time to summarise the process---
 
Sea Devil said:
Mmm-- Thanks for all that. A lot tougher and long winded than I anticipated and certainly not an easy fix---What will scupper me is continus living in France. I had 5 years in La Rochelle and area but that was a decade ago... Now I,m mostly in Spain.
Than you for taking the time to summarise the process---
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If you have a house and utility bills, tax etc even if you haven't been resident in it permanently then you could probably provide enough information that would make it seem that you were resident. Worth a try but the sooner you start the better.
 
Forty_Two said:
Does anybody know any non EU (ie what we will be in 2021) folks who have obtained a French Long Stay Visa. That looks like the only option as far as I can see?

Maybe we will have to apply every year, not exactly brilliant as I believe it needs two visits to their London embassy.
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I was looking at that as well... What is going to happen to the millions who have 2nd homes in France and Spain or boats sitting in those countries waiting for summer? My guess there will be a pragmatic solution when it all shakes down-. For some Spanish departments the millions of ex pats spending all summer and more represents substantial income. Spaon is now a major contributor financially to the EU so I am optimistic they will lead the charge to make the 90 day limit... different
 
Sea Devil said:
I was looking at that as well... What is going to happen to the millions who have 2nd homes in France and Spain or boats sitting in those countries waiting for summer? My guess there will be a pragmatic solution when it all shakes down-. For some Spanish departments the millions of ex pats spending all summer and more represents substantial income. Spaon is now a major contributor financially to the EU so I am optimistic they will lead the charge to make the 90 day limit... different
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France & pragmatic- oxymoron no?

I just hope you are right.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
If you have a house and utility bills, tax etc even if you haven't been resident in it permanently then you could probably provide enough information that would make it seem that you were resident. Worth a try but the sooner you start the better.
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Trouble is I am a permanent Spanish Resident and do not want to jeopardise that-- whilst I can still drive between the two countries I cannot see how the French can possibly know how much of my 90 days I have used up.. I do intend sailing to the CIs and UK this summer so it will be interesting to see how the Douans work and I guess I need to buy a Q flag... Back to my more youthful sailing in the channel!!
 
As a Brit visiting the EU in 2021, Brits will effectively get a multiple entry schengen visa which allows 90 days in 180 in the schengen area. An extension to the schengen visa beyond 90 days is possible, but not very easy ..... process is described here.....

How to Extend a Schengen Visa while being within Schengen Area

This route may end up being the pragmatic solution for property owners, but bear in mind, even US billionaires can't get past the 90 day limit without buying a golden passport - so British property owners can't really expect special treatment - unless Boris gives some valuable immigration concessions in return which would break one of the Brexit red lines.

My reasoning was that Brits will end up being treated the same way as US, Canadian and Australian citizens when visiting the EU - all the processes are in place so the UK will just be re-classified as a non-EU RoW country and follow those rules.

It is possible that individual countries offer residency special deals to Brits with property, but it is currently not on offer to RoW property owners no matter how much money they have or spend - countries may equally decide they get enough revenue from the 90 in 180 rules that it doesn't matter.

From another perspective, imagine Brexiteers reaction if the UK government started offering such a deal to Poles who had gone home but retained property in the UK. This is simply a consequence of ending free movement and I fully expect it to get very political. The UK and EU countries are doing nothing special to support people who live and work as ex-pats so I really don't expect much in the way of concessions for British holiday makers, even if they do own property. I also don't expect any support from UK Brexit supporters either. I have been told multiple times that my Brexit woes were my own fault for buying property in Germany and working there. My working assumption was always that I am on my own and have to sort out my Brexit issues myself.
 
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