# Relocation Mentorship



## prlatenser

My wife and I are planning on moving to France as soon as we can gather ourselves. I am a Vietnam era veteran but not a military retiree. We have some of our physical items figured out. We hope to find some mentor-ship to explain health insurance. We have a couple homes picked out that we hope to buy prior to relocation and wonder if there are services for home inspection (Probably Bordeaux) we can turn to. Are long term retirement Visas available? We are becoming overwhelmed trying to cover all of this at once. An email mentor or penpal volunteer would be great if anyone is so inclined.


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## Bevdeforges

Frankly, "mentor-ship" is kind of the raison d'être of this forum. But it sounds like you really are starting from the very beginning on your plans to move.

First thing you want to do is to read up on the visa requirements for moving to France. France-visas.gouv.fr | The official website for visa application to France to get you started.

You will require private health cover as part of the visa application process - usually for the first year you are in France. As retirees, you'll be going for a "visitor" visa (there's no "retirement visa" as such, but the one year, renewable visitor visa is where you start). After you have 3 months of residence in France, you can apply to CPAM to join the French health insurance system, though the process can take "a few" months to complete. The main thing to know about the French health care coverage system is that the state system only reimburses partially for many/most costs. You will need a mutuelle (sort of a top-up coverage) to reimburse what the state doesn't. But you can find out lots of information about the interim private coverage and health insurance in general from an association called AARO - based in Paris and made up of Americans living overseas, especially in France. AARO - Association of Americans Resident Overseas

How have you found your potential homes to buy? It may be worthwhile to consider renting for your first year (or two) in France, just to kind of stress test your decision on where to set up. It can take living for a while in an area to understand the advantages and disadvantages of a particular town or neighborhood, and depending on where you're located, buying and selling a home is not quite as quick and easy as in the US - especially if you will need a mortgage to make the purchase.


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## prlatenser

I Thank you for your response... its the expense of initial insurance that scares us... and I have the visa documents... so just navigating those to make sure I fill them out correctly. I will look into your suggestions and report back...LOL


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## ARPC

Coming from the US, I can assure you you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the cost of the initial insurance policy, and the non-reimbursed portion of your healthcare if you do not find a suitable mutuelle immediately . I’ve had huge healthcare interventions since moving here, things that would have ruined me in the US, and it’s fine. France doesn’t use healthcare as a form of physical and financial violence and against people like some other countries ;-/.


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## Bevdeforges

The other factor about the initial health insurance required is that it is a one-time up front cost. Once you're in the French system, your costs for health insurance come way, way down (not that they were ever as high as US style "co-pays" and "deductibles" or the basic cost of health cover). 

Also, it pays to take care in filling out the visa application and documents, but it's not a matter of your being "rejected" once and for all. You can always re-apply for a visa, or for a different type of visa without being penalized for whatever you submitted before. (Unless of course if you lied or committed some sort of fraud in the application process - but you would never do that, I'm sure.)


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