FORUM

After 27 years in Belgium, we are moving permanently to our place in Sorede, and would like people who have made the move recently to list the most important bureaucratic things to do, how to get a Carte Vitale, how to change the tax rating of our house from a "residence sécondaire" to a "residence principale", what tracasseries to avoid and how to avoid them, etc. All contributions gratefully read.

As you don't say what nationality you are it is a bit difficult to advise for carte vitale. If you are a uk pensioner then you need the s1, plus birth certificates, marriage certificate ( translated if not in french) . When you take the paperwork in always take a copy of everything and get them to stamp recieved and the date, cpam are very clever at losing everything.
once you get the paper part of the carte vitale don't forgeet to register with a doctor.
For the changing of the habitation principale, this you can do when you do your déclaration d'impots , it will ask you where you are living on 1st january and then you will be chrged the taxe d'habitation accordingly. for this year if you are not already living there permanently you will still be taxed as residence secondaire, it will be next year that the tax d'habitation will change.
hope this hellps

Thanks, Tia, that's very useful. As and when you think of anything else, please p.m. me. I'm British, by the way.

I suggest you check out the English newspaper for France with various booklets on various subjects including Tax, Health, and buying a house.
i.e. www.ConnexionFrance.com. Tjhe booklets are under 10.00 euros.

Bonjour,

Just to let you know that I moved to France 2 years ago without speaking a word in French. So I've learnt French in a language school that works with Cactus Language and most importantly, my teacher helped me with the administrative documents I had to complete.