The complete guide to moving from the UK to France

What should you sort out before moving to France?

Before moving to France, settle three things in this order: whether this is a full residency move or a second-home arrangement, a verifiable French address, and your UK-side notifications. Only then fix the move date. Households that do this groundwork well ahead of the move tend to have easy moves; households that fix a date first and chase the paperwork afterwards usually do not.

First, decide whether your move is a permanent residency move (you'll be living in France full-time, applying for a long-stay visa and then a residence card, registering for French healthcare, declaring French taxes) or a non-resident move (you keep UK residency, the French property is a second home, and you stay within the post-Brexit 90-in-180-day visa-free allowance). The two regimes have very different paperwork, very different tax consequences and a very different day-to-day. Make this decision before anything else; everything that follows depends on it.

Second, secure the French address you are moving to. Whether that is a rental contract or a notarised purchase, you need a verifiable French address before you can validate your visa, register a vehicle, sign up for utilities, or claim customs relief on your belongings. We see moves where the lorry is booked before the French address is actually secured — that is the move that goes wrong, because the transfer-of-residence claim needs proof of where you are settling.

Third, sort out the UK side. Notify HMRC that you are leaving (the P85 form), your UK pension provider, your bank, your utility providers, your council and your child's school. Some of these can wait until after the move; HMRC and the council are easier done before. Set up post-forwarding from your UK address to a UK service or to your French address.

• Decide: full residency move or non-resident second-home move
• Secure the French address (rental contract or notarised purchase)
• Notify HMRC (P85), your UK pension provider, your bank, your council
• Arrange post-forwarding (UK forwarding service or direct to France)
• Fix the move date against the property availability date, with room to spare — never before the property is settled

What paperwork do you need to move from the UK to France?

The paperwork splits into two streams. Customs covers your belongings: a dated, signed, valued inventory, the French transfer-of-residence declaration (Cerfa 10070) and proof that you are moving your main home. Residency covers the people: the right long-stay visa, then a residence card, backed by proof of address, means and healthcare cover. We run the customs stream; the residency stream is yours.

On the customs side, what keeps a household move free of import duty and VAT is the French transfer-of-residence relief (franchise pour changement de résidence), claimed with French customs — the douane — not with HMRC. To qualify, your normal residence must have been outside the EU for at least 12 months, the goods must have been owned and used by you for at least six months before the move, and you must not sell, lend, hire out or pledge them within 12 months of their entry into France. The claim goes in on Cerfa 10070 with the itemised inventory and evidence of the change of residence.

On the UK side, our customs agent lodges the export declaration for the consignment. A private household does not normally need its own EORI number for this: HMRC guidance says individuals moving goods for personal use do not have to register, and the agent can declare in your name and address.

On the residency side, the key documents are: the long-stay visa (VLS-TS) applied for in the UK before you travel, then validated online through the ANEF portal after arrival; the residence card that follows it, also applied for online; a justificatif de domicile (rental contract or property deed, plus a utility bill once you are in); proof of healthcare cover; proof of means; and, for a first multi-year card from 2026, evidence of French at A2 level.

Some sub-categories carry extra paperwork. A vehicle needs its V5C, the customs certificate 846A and French registration within one month of settling. A pet needs an Animal Health Certificate issued by an official vet no more than 10 days before it enters the EU. Alcohol and tobacco are excluded from the relief altogether, and high-value art or antiques should be individually valued on the inventory.

• Itemised, valued, dated and signed inventory (we build it with you)
• Cerfa 10070 transfer-of-residence declaration (filed through our customs agent)
• Evidence of your previous UK residence and your new French one
• UK export declaration (lodged by our customs agent — no personal EORI normally needed)
• Long-stay visa, validated online on ANEF after arrival
• Residence card application (you handle, with our support on timing)
• Justificatif de domicile (proof of address)
• French bank account (essential in practice)
• Vehicle paperwork (V5C, 846A, French registration, contrôle technique)
• Pet AHC (Animal Health Certificate)

Which route do removals from the UK to France take?

Most moves from London, the Midlands and the South East cross on Eurotunnel from Folkestone or on a Dover ferry. Western destinations are often better served by Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth to Caen, Cherbourg or Saint-Malo, or from Plymouth to Roscoff. Moves from the North of England and Scotland come down the M6 or M1 to the same Channel crossings. We choose the crossing at quote stage.

Customs filings have an order, and each one gates the next. The inventory is agreed before loading; our agent lodges the UK export declaration as the consignment leaves; the transfer-of-residence claim is made to the douane on entry into France. We close the paperwork stack before the lorry is loaded, because a filing that lands late is the one thing on this route that can hold goods at the border.

Move-day timing is shaped by destination access. Central Paris arrondissements need parking-bay permits booked through the relevant mairie well ahead. Gated developments on the Côte d'Azur need advance notice for service vehicles. Provençal stone-house lanes may need a courtesy call to the mairie. We build all of this into the schedule.

The move runs in four stages — UK pickup, the Channel crossing, the France ground leg, then unloading at the destination. Partial loads travel on consolidated routing, which runs to a set schedule and therefore offers narrower pickup-and-delivery windows than a dedicated load. Storage on either side is the usual answer when the property dates do not line up with the route schedule. Your written quote sets out the transit window for the routing we are actually using.

How much does it cost to move from the UK to France?

There is no honest single figure. The cost of a UK-to-France move depends on the volume of goods, access at both ends, how far into France the lorry travels, the crossing used, packing, storage and how flexible your dates are. After a survey we give one written figure covering door-to-door transport, customs and insurance, so the price on paper is the price you pay.

Beyond the move itself, plan for: the residence-permit tax stamp paid online when you validate your visa and apply for your card; French notaire fees and registration taxes on a property purchase (a substantial share of the price on an existing property, lower on a new build); contrôle technique and registration if you import a vehicle; private health insurance until you qualify for public cover; a rental deposit if you are leasing; and the practical cost of running two households in parallel during the move period.

Hidden costs we see catch people: professional advice on two tax returns in the year of the move; pet relocation (vet visits, the AHC, transport); a school-equipment refresh for children joining French schools; and French lessons in the months after arrival, which we strongly recommend for anyone below conversational level. The cost-of-moving guide covers each driver in more depth.

How is buying property in France different from the UK?

Buying in France runs through a notaire, a public-office lawyer who completes the sale and collects the taxes, rather than through competing conveyancers. You sign a preliminary contract (the compromis de vente) and pay a deposit, a statutory cooling-off period follows, then searches and conditions are worked through before the final deed (the acte authentique) is signed at the notaire's office.

Properties are marketed through immobiliers (estate agents) and also by notaires directly. Once the compromis is signed, the buyer is far more committed than a UK buyer before exchange, so surveys and finance should be in hand beforehand.

Leases work differently too. Unfurnished leases run substantially longer than a UK assured shorthold tenancy and furnished leases are shorter; tenants have strong legal protection; and city rental markets — Paris especially — are competitive and often expect guarantor documentation.

Regional pricing varies dramatically. Paris and the Côte d'Azur sit at the top end, rivalling central London for prime property. Provence and inland Aquitaine remain accessible relative to UK comparisons. The Dordogne, inland Brittany and the Auvergne are where UK budgets stretch farthest. Normandy is moderate. The Alps depend heavily on ski-resort proximity.

For most UK households making a permanent move, the right path is to rent in the destination region first — long enough to see it through a winter — then buy with local knowledge rather than remotely on holiday-visit research. Most UK households go straight to purchase; renting first is what prevents the expensive mistake.

What does French residency involve beyond the carte de séjour?

The residence card is the central document, but residency also means joining French healthcare, becoming a French taxpayer and, for families, enrolling children at school. Healthcare under PUMa opens once you meet its stable-residence condition; tax residence follows the tests in the French tax code; and the mairie handles primary-school enrolment and many local formalities. Plan each one deliberately rather than waiting for it.

Healthcare catches a lot of UK movers off guard. If you are not working in France, PUMa only opens after a qualifying period of stable residence. Until then you need full private health insurance — a mutuelle is top-up cover and does not fill this gap on its own. UK state pensioners can instead use the S1 form, which transfers their NHS entitlement to French public healthcare.

Tax residence turns on article 4 B of the French tax code: you are French tax resident if your home or main place of stay is in France, if you work there other than incidentally, or if the centre of your economic interests is there — any one is enough. You then declare worldwide income in France. The UK–France double tax treaty prevents double taxation, but you will usually file in both countries in the year of the move. Speak to an adviser who knows both systems before your first French return.

What should you do in your first weeks in France?

Treat the first weeks in France as a sequence of administrative steps rather than a holiday. Confirm utilities and meter readings, validate your long-stay visa online on the ANEF portal, open a French bank account, enrol children through the mairie, start your healthcare registration, and sort out phone and broadband. Doing them in roughly that order avoids most of the circular "you need X to get Y" problems.

The order we recommend: (1) confirm utilities are active at the property and meter readings are recorded; (2) validate your VLS-TS online — this is an internet procedure on the ANEF portal with an online tax payment, not a prefecture or OFII appointment; (3) open a French bank account, which you need for almost everything else; (4) visit the mairie for school enrolment and local formalities; (5) register for healthcare as soon as you are eligible; (6) set up a French phone contract and broadband, which can have long lead times in rural areas.

Practical realities to plan for: French administration is often appointment-based and paper-driven, so build in slack and book early. High summer — August above all — runs at half speed; if you can avoid arriving then, do.

Settle the practical logistics that shape daily life: different cooker hook-ups in some regions, different bin-collection and recycling systems, local market days, the nearest pharmacy (French pharmacies do far more than UK ones — first-line advice as well as prescriptions), and the local boulangerie. These are not formal tasks, but they decide whether the move feels like settling in or surviving.

What goes wrong most often on UK-to-France moves?

The same patterns repeat on this corridor. Households book the move before the French address is locked; miss the pet health certificate window and have to push the move back; assume their UK driving licence never needs exchanging; or underestimate the gap before French public healthcare opens. Each one is avoidable with planning, and each one costs time or money when it is left late.

On licences specifically: UK licences issued before 2021 are generally recognised in France until they expire or another trigger applies, but licences issued from 2021 onwards must be exchanged for a French one within a set window after you settle. Check your issue date against GOV.UK and service-public.fr guidance early.

On the property side: households buy before living in the destination region long enough to know it — discovering after purchase that the village they loved on holiday has no winter school bus, that the pretty Provençal stone house needs substantial roof work, or that the Brittany cottage takes the brunt of winter storms. Renting first prevents most of these.

On the move-day side: households underestimate access at the French end. The Provençal stone house at the end of an unsealed lane. The Paris building with no service lift. The Côte d'Azur gated development with strict advance-notice rules. Survey-stage planning catches all of these — none should be a surprise on move day.

On the residency side: households treat the 90-in-180-day visa-free allowance as a way to try France first and sort residency later. It is not. Staying beyond 90 days in any 180 without a long-stay visa is an overstay, and the long-stay visa is applied for from the UK before you travel. Apply for the right visa class before you go.

How should you plan the run-up to the move?

Plan the run-up in three phases. Early on, settle your residency route and French address and read the guides that apply to you. Once the address is secure, book a survey so we can write a firm quote, apply for the long-stay visa and start any pet health timeline. In the final run-up, confirm the date, the customs inventory and access details at both ends.

Early on: read the regional guide for your destination, the customs declarations guide, the carte de séjour guide and the cost-of-moving guide. Confirm your French address path (rental search or purchase progress). You do not normally need to register for an EORI number for a household move.

Once the address is secure: book a survey with us so we can put a written quote together. Apply for the long-stay visa. Tell HMRC you are leaving (P85). Speak to your vet about the AHC timing if you are moving pets.

In the final run-up: confirm the move date, sign off the customs inventory with us, confirm the destination access details and finalise utilities switching at both ends.

For deeper detail on any topic here, the dedicated guides cover each subject at length. Each is written for the same UK-to-France household audience and avoids the generic removals filler that dominates much online content on the subject.