Moving to France?

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Are you planning to emigrate to France? Are you planning to live in France temporarily? Are you already living in France but are having problems with procedures, public administration, practical things or other aspects connected with living as an expatriate in a foreign country? Are you planning to send personnel to France? Do you already have personnel posted in France but no one to help them cope with a country and language they don't know?
If you can answer "yes" to any one of these questions, then you have found the relocation company you need to help you avoid the pitfalls and problems you may otherwise encounter. The fact is that relocating to a foreign country is a very difficult and stressful event. Not only do you have to cope with an ordinary removal, you also have to understand a different lifestyle, a different language and a different administration. As if this was not enough, you also have to find a place to live in a hurry and without paying over the odds. Finally, your employer may want you to start working as soon as possible. Getting all this to work at the same time is almost inhuman. We've noticed that civil servants prefer explaining things to a relocation company rather than to a private individual

In these e-times, we should not forget to mention the importance of being wired up with telephone, fax and Internet as soon as possible. You may not even be able to work without it.

Once you're unpacked, it's not over yet. You may have brought a car that you must register in France. You need to register for public or private health care. You need to get your home and car insured. You need a bank. You may need to change your driving licence. You can continue the list.

Even as time goes along, you may run into problems such as consumer disputes or difficulties with the administration. If you don't speak French very well, solving such problems may seem insurmountable.

The language barrier often causes considerable problems for expatriates emigrating to France. You may be able to get along with broken French or a Frenchman's broken English, but it is our experience that the French feel much more confident dealing with a French-speaking professional advisor based in France. We've also noticed that civil servants prefer explaining things to a company like ours rather than to a private individual. That means that you are more likely to obtain what you want.

Relocating to France - or any other country - is an expensive experience. This is why it may be tempting for many immigrants to try to save money where it is possible. Using the DIY method for the immigration and the relocation is an automatic reaction, because that's what you would do to fix things at home to save professional fees. 

Jo Parfitt: Expat Entrepreneur Expat Entrepreneur profiles 23 expats who have started new and exciting careers abroad. One of them is Finn Skovgaard. Jo Parfitt is an experienced journalist and author who has written a large number of articles for the Weekly Telegraph amongst many others.

This assumption will in many cases be wrong. When doing it all yourself, you are likely to end up paying over the odds for goods, services and rent, because you don't know what's reasonable, and you have no time to do a market research for each product or service you need. You don't know when you might be able to negotiate cost successfully and when it's not worth the trouble. If your time is worth anything as an executive, entrepreneur, business owner, skilled professional, contractor etc., then every hour you spend trying to figure it all out by yourself is costing you money.

The stress induced by the insecurity and the frustration over the obstacles you will encounter is likely to have an impact on your professional performance.

We can help you not only with the language, but with a wide array of tasks. We want you to enjoy the outstanding experience it is to live in France. We want you to be successful in your new job. We want you to be able to take time with your family as soon as possible to discover France, its traditions, its people, its monuments, and its splendid nature. We don't want you to be bugged down in discussions with the administration. We don't want you to be ripped off by some landlord who takes advantage of foreigners.

To begin with, you can find a lot of useful information here: 

• Living and Working in France - our page with various practical information about immigrating to and living in France.
• Our international removal checklist in Word format. NB: If you want to download the file, and the browser displays the file instead of asking you where to save it, then use the right mouse button when you click on the link. 
• The European Commission's fact sheets. 

The information above can get you a long way, but it can't teach you French in two days or give you 48 hours a day.

Note: The Internet is full of information about moving to France. You have only yourself to determine if the source is reliable or not. Many administrative procedures in France have been - or will be - simplified as a part of the government's overall policy to improve performance of the administration, and as a part of implementing the internal European market. It can take several months - or even years - before the sites informing about France are updated. Consulting a specialist helps you avoid mistakes.

We are based near Avignon in Provence, Southern France, so we can give on-site assistance to the many expats in most of: The region Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur (PACA): Alpes de Haute Provence (04) Hautes Alpes (05) Alpes Maritimes (06) Bouches du Rhône (13) Var (83) Vaucluse (84) The region Languedoc Roussillon: Gard (30) Hérault (34) Lozère (48) the region Rhône Alpes: Ardèche (07) Drôme (26) Isère (38) Loire (42) Rhône (69)

We cooperate with colleagues who can provide on-site service in Paris, Lille, Toulouse and other cities if required.

Virtually all paperwork for administrative help can be done at distance through e-mail, scanner, fax and mail, no matter where you are in France. In the few cases where you do need to go somewhere in person to complete a procedure, we give you all the necessary and completed documents in advance, we tell you where and when to go, which service to ask for, and we give you texts in French that you can show so the personnel know exactly what you want. We also stand by on telephone, so you can get instant help through a mobile phone call if difficulties should arise, and we can speak directly to the person in charge of your file. In cases where we cannot help you on site, we may be able to get a local business to help you. We don't operate fixed office hours. That means that we cannot guarantee to be available on the phone Monday to Friday between 9 AM and 5 PM. On the other hand, we answer the phone 7 days a week, until 8 PM, if we hear it ring. If you need us to do something on a Sunday afternoon, we do it on a Sunday afternoon if at all possible, and the rate is the same as if it were on a Monday. The following list of services shows examples of what we can do for your relocation to France. It is not exhaustive, and we adapt the services to your needs, as there is no such thing as a standard client to us.	In issue 222 of October 2004, the French magazine Défis for business creators had the following to say about Skovgaard Europe. Click to view large image.
	Reproduced with permission.

Clicking on any item will take you to our page with detailed services descriptions and prices.

   Checking a Tenancy Agreement
   Car Import and Registration
   Re-registering a car already on French plates
   Selling a car in France
   Home Insurance
   Car Insurance
   Health care and Medical Insurance
   Income Tax
   Child Benefits
   Telephone & Internet
   Consumer disputes
   General Help

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