Moving to France: Step 1 – Discovery

I have had “Move to Europe and live abroad for a few years” on my bucket list for probably a decade or more. My goal was improved quality of life and immersing ourselves in a different culture.

I started with data. (Have you met me?) I identified the areas that were important to me, and then started searching different cities and countries and recording the answers. Credit where credit is due: the original version of my spreadsheet was made by Eden and Bill, who just moved into their apartment in northern Spain last month. Click here for spreadsheet.

Requirements

I started researching cities in Europe. After encouragement from my son, who had an unusual interest in Argentina, I also took a look at locations in Central and South America, and even a couple of locations in Southeast Asia. That said, we rapidly eliminated those locations as being just too far from our family back home, and in many cases carried a significant safety risk.

I looked at sites like Numbeo for economic data, Weather Spark for climate data, and Expatica and International Living for visa and health care overviews. I also found some interesting resources for assessing heath care quality and commitment to peace, linked on the spreadsheet. Please note that the data on the spreadsheet was for early 2024 and may not be accurate now.

First Cut List

Before doing the research, my top locations were:

1. Ireland
2. Germany
3. Spain
4. Croatia
5. Italy
6. Portugal
7. Greece
8. France

As I explored the data, several of these options dropped off the list. To be fair, we also looked at other countries: Albania, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Estonia, and Finland, but none were very good fits with our requirements for multiple reasons.

Ireland doesn’t provide access to public health care nor the possibility of permanent residency to those on retirement visas, and their private health insurance has a five year pre existing condition exclusion. It’s also the most expensive country on this list, with cost of living approaching that here in the US in many areas

Germany doesn’t provide access to public health care to those on retirement visas, and their private health insurance is mostly unavailable to those with pre-existing conditions.

Croatia doesn’t have public health care at all, and their language is among the more difficult to learn.

Italy requires three times the minimum income of the other southern Europe options, and it must be passive income from pension or rent, not investment income.

Greece was too far east and too hot for our preference.

Final List

And so our restacked list became:

1. France
2. Spain
3. Portugal

Honestly, France landed at the top of the list because it had many regions with a cooler, more temperate climate than its more southerly neighbors. Further research also showed that the French VLS-TS renewable long stay visa  was one of the easier and more straightforward visas to quality for.  Also, northern France is closer to where the SCA (our re-enactment group with built-in community) has official activities, in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany,  and more.

To apply, we basically need to demonstrate that each applicant has the equivalent of annual French minimum wage (about $20,000) in savings, pension, rental, or other passive income, a year of pre-purchased private medical insurance, and a French address. We have to continue to prove the income and address to renew in subsequent years.

Spain is mostly hotter than we’d prefer, although we have friends that have landed in the cool northern Green Spain region, and its visa application bureaucracy is a good bit more challenging, requiring translated and apostilled (embossed seal) official documents, as well as a few additional documents (like a background check).

Portugal is also hotter than we’d prefer, and is distant enough from the rest of Europe that we were hesitant to pursue that option. On the positive side, its visa bureaucracy is also reputed to be more straightforward and simple than most.

And so, after some in-person exploration to confirm our preference, and in spite of our very rudimentary language skills, we decided on France. We are working on our visa application and documentation now!

Next time, I’ll cover how we narrowed our choices down within France!