Moving to Lyon - lot's of questions...
Discussion
Hello,
I received the news last week that I will be starting a job in Lyon early next year (roughly March). My wife and I intend to move out there together. I have never done an international move before, so am not sure where to start! If anyone has any advice on the following, it would be gratefully received...
1) Accommodation.
We have owned a house before but are renting at the moment, so we have a reasonable deposit that we could use if we decided to buy. However, having done a bit of research the French equivalent of stamp duty/notaire fees seem very high (unless I've misinterpreted), so this might be best saved until we know whether we'd like to make the move long-term or not.
The idea of renting for a short time to get a feel for the place seems to be tricky as I understand the minimum tenancy term you'll find would be 1 year?
I will be working at St Exupery, so ideally would like to live near a Rhonexpress stop for commuting. Are any of these areas pleasant to live in? Any other area recommendations or local information would be great.
Is it worth using an expat service to help you move? Neither of us speak much beyond the absolute basics of French (we will be learning, but obviously that's going to take some time), so help seems attractive from that point of view, but if language skills are all that's required, then I have a sibling with a French degree who might be useful.
2) Car.
Is bringing a UK car over a mistake? Is there a useful online resource for finding out about tax, registering, MOT equivalents etc?
3) Tax.
I don't have my contract yet, but my salary is likely to be EUR40-50k. I can't quite work out what we will have left to work with after income tax, social security, etc in order to plan for what rent we could afford. Is there a French equivalent of listentotaxman.com that I can use?
4) Medical jobs.
My wife is a GP, but as stated before, does not speak French (yet). Does that qualification open up any relevant jobs locally despite not being able to speak French?
Apologies for the brain dump, and thanks for any help you can provide.
I received the news last week that I will be starting a job in Lyon early next year (roughly March). My wife and I intend to move out there together. I have never done an international move before, so am not sure where to start! If anyone has any advice on the following, it would be gratefully received...
1) Accommodation.
We have owned a house before but are renting at the moment, so we have a reasonable deposit that we could use if we decided to buy. However, having done a bit of research the French equivalent of stamp duty/notaire fees seem very high (unless I've misinterpreted), so this might be best saved until we know whether we'd like to make the move long-term or not.
The idea of renting for a short time to get a feel for the place seems to be tricky as I understand the minimum tenancy term you'll find would be 1 year?
I will be working at St Exupery, so ideally would like to live near a Rhonexpress stop for commuting. Are any of these areas pleasant to live in? Any other area recommendations or local information would be great.
Is it worth using an expat service to help you move? Neither of us speak much beyond the absolute basics of French (we will be learning, but obviously that's going to take some time), so help seems attractive from that point of view, but if language skills are all that's required, then I have a sibling with a French degree who might be useful.
2) Car.
Is bringing a UK car over a mistake? Is there a useful online resource for finding out about tax, registering, MOT equivalents etc?
3) Tax.
I don't have my contract yet, but my salary is likely to be EUR40-50k. I can't quite work out what we will have left to work with after income tax, social security, etc in order to plan for what rent we could afford. Is there a French equivalent of listentotaxman.com that I can use?
4) Medical jobs.
My wife is a GP, but as stated before, does not speak French (yet). Does that qualification open up any relevant jobs locally despite not being able to speak French?
Apologies for the brain dump, and thanks for any help you can provide.
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