# AngieGraham



## AngieGraham

Hi 
I am about to put my house on the market and move to France with my partner hopefully to buy a Gite complex in the Dordogne area .
I’m not sure when I should apply for a visa and is it best to rent then look for a Gite complex anyone with any advise on making a to do list would be much appreciated x


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## LesFroggitts

UK nationals I presume?
If yes, then you could use your 90/180 visa exemption period to find your desired property.
But, and here's the big but, to run the Gite complex you will need a visa which allows working, this must be received from outside France in the country of your current residency. It will require such things as a solid business plan clearly detailing that the business will provide sufficient income above the minimums to support the number of persons applying on the visa. You will also require private healthcare cover (PHI) again to a minimum standard acceptable to the visa application requirements.
A tourist visa would not allow you to operate the Gite complex should you find/buy one, only a visa which allows long-term stay culminating in residency and that allows work in the interim.


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## Bevdeforges

You don't mention your level of experience in running a gite, but given all the various rules and regulations in France, you'd be well served to contact the CCI in Dordogne. They can give you loads of information about the available business entities for this type of entreprise (or in some cases, connect you to someone looking to sell off a gite complex in the area. If you go with LF's suggestion of starting out with the 90/180 tourist visa option, that would be an excellent time to make an appointment to talk to the CCI and see what they can tell you about your plans. Or, you could break up your allotted 90 days into several runs to France to do your research, hunt for a property and have a skeleton business plan ready to go by the time you find a property.

As he mentions, you will have to return to the UK to apply for the appropriate visa that would enable you to work/run a business - and that's where the business plan will come in handy. If you have the basic plan worked out, it should be a bit simpler once you've found a location to buy to just "fill in the blanks" in order to apply for the visa(s).

You mention your partner - that's another thing you want to think about. If you are just business partners, then each of you will have to qualify for a visa with the necessary work privileges. If you're married or in a legally recognized form of civil union, you may be able to fly with one work or entrepreneurial visa, while the other partner can get a "vie privée et familiale" which gives them the right to work (whether at the gite or elsewhere), which might be a reasonable fall back if the gite start-up is slow.


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## Crabtree

The days of Brits moving to France and opening a gite complex easily are long gone I am afraid.You are in a classic chicken and egg situation ie you cannot move to France to work unless you get a Visa and you cannot get the Visa unless you can show that your gite complex is totally viable is going to make a reasonable income so you can make a living from it so that you will not be a burden on the French state-it is generally accepted that the French minimum wage is the amount to be looking at ie approx €20000 pa.
Have you researched how much a gite complex actually makes and how much it costs to run(increasing all the time) and of course there are so many gites in France that yours has got to be a stand out premises.Have you researched how much the French state will take off you in taxes health contributions etc and do not forget that you will need PHI for your Visa-may be expensive if you have pre conditions.So as others suggest use your 90 days to do your research and visit the CCI to help you with your business plan. Do nothing precipitative until you have done this.
How is your French? All paperwork will be in French and I suspect that there will be little appetite on behalf of the fonctionnaires to speak English.
Lastly you talk about "partner" I assume this is as in we live together but without a bit of paper partner.If so you will need to apply for separate visa.There will also be inheritance and inheritance tax issues to consider as France does not recognise "partners".
Lastly if you do your research before you move and make decisions the more likely you are to succeed,but please do not jump into it


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## EuroTrash

So I would suggest:
Come to France on the visa waiver, talk to the CCI, identify a gîte complex that ticks your boxes (with previous accounts showing suffient income to meet visa requirements). Make an offer but make the sale conditional upon you obtaining your visa.
Write your business plan, with help from the CCI/a French accountant if this is your first experience of running a business in France, and submit it for approval to the préfecture (I believe that is the process these days). Start gathering all the other paperwork you need for your visa application.
The prefecture will let you know their decision in writing and assuming they approve your business plan, this piece of paper should complete your visa application, and you can submit it and book your appointment.
Assuming your visa is granted, you can then complete the purchase and arrange the move.

Anyone spot any holes in that?


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## AngieGraham

Thank you all for your replies greatly appreciated 
A bit of a reality check I must say . We really would love to do this I don’t have any business experience except working with the public over the years and can use a computer . My partner whom I live with is a builder mostly joinery but can turn his hand to almost anything . Finances were hoping to buy something that needs a freshen up over time around £300000 so no mortgage and have some money to do this and live on until we start to get bookings maybe that isn’t enough ….My sons would help me with a business plan …. Website . So the visa and finding a complex that is up and running . Been looking online around the Eymet area .Any more advice would be greatly appreciated.You burst my bubble a little ….which was needed lol .can you tell me do you all run gites or is it your knowledge of others . We have a good standard of living in Scotland…just be nice to do something I have always fancied doing we are both in our 50s and see this as a better way of life together


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## Crabtree

Look at it from another direction-If your partner is a builder/joiner then is he running his own business in Scotland? and I assume he has something like City and Guilds?(the French love bits of paper) If so can you not look at a building/handyman business.There are loads of Brits in the Dordogne.Also by him having a business as well then you can both make separate visa applications and of course he can have some income coming in whilst you get your gites etc up and running.The point is that since Brexit Brits need to plan their move to Europe and if you plan well there is every chance you will succeed


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## Bevdeforges

Only a few of our regulars here have actually run gites. But several others of us have run small businesses of other sorts here in France, so have some familiarity with both the business regulations and the visa process. It is simply not possible here in France to just set up a business and hope for the best. Any sort of business requires a formal declaration and registration - even the "micro-entreprises" and "auto-entrepreneur" types of business (which have other restrictions on them - most notably that they are single-person businesses and base all tax assessments on gross revenues (i.e. turnover) in order to spare the "entrepreneur" the trouble of keeping full accounting records. What this means is that you don't get any "credit" or deduction for your expenses, which makes it fairly easy to spend much more on your "business" than you take in - and so easier to go broke without realizing it.

Your best source of information is going to be the CCI in the area where you are hoping to set up. They have extensive sections on their websites for "entrepreneurs" and small business start ups or takeovers. But most or all of the information available is usually only in French. Nothing a translation program couldn't handle. Scan the CCI website for Bergerac (covers Eymet) and translate the pages however suits you best: CCI Dordogne : reprise, formalités, création, développement entreprise

Getting a visa as a "pre-retiree" can be something of a struggle, as you will have to prove your financial resources in order to qualify and you will have to have private health insurance coverage, which gets expensive particularly if one or both of you have any "pre-existing conditions." As Crabtree says, your partner may be able to base his visa application on setting up a business here - and for that, the CCI website should prove invaluable (though they may send him to another agency, the maison des artisans, which is sort of a guild for craftspeople). But if he qualifies for a visa to run a business, you won't be able to tag onto his visa unless you are married or have an official civil union and the paperwork to prove it. Nothing insurmountable - but these things take time and planning.


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## ccm47

Most successful gîtes /B&Bs have repeat customers so you need to have something to make customers want to return, a set of buildings with a swimming pool is just not enough. You need tourist attractions nearby, some of which can be 20 miles away but by no means all.

By chance last night we ventured out to a village about 10 miles east of Eymet: Montignac -de- Lauzun. The attraction to us was a bar selling English style beer from a micro-brewery with an outside caterer whose menu changes daily. This bar only opens 4 nights a week.Whilst there were a number of English speakers there, French was by far the dominant language amongst the 150 ish customers (all seated outside), some were local, others not.
The village, which we walked around in 15 minutes with our dog, has a mairie, a salle de fêtes with picnic tables outside, a church and a general shop/post office. There is no main road nearby to draw people in.
It really is in many ways perfect and extremely quiet as we noticed overnight in our camping car. Nobody else even parked up near where we were. It's probably one of the safest villages to live in that you could find. But as a holiday destination it must be awful, there isn't even anything for a child of any age to do outside so for days out driving is essential.
I have no idea if the 2 gîtes in the village are successful but judging by the lack of vehicles outside them each time we passed, I would think it unlikely. It is still August, so they should have guests who must drive there.
You might do better looking closer to St Pardoux Isaac, Intermarché was really busy there this morning when we came home, and Miramont de Guyenne is an acceptable town these days .This has the usual town facilities plus art and circus festivals as well as Moto cross and horse racing. For a week nearby, boredom should not be the prime guest memory.


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