How long does it take to obtain a long-stay visa for France? Are there people one can hire in the States who can facilitate this? (We live near New York City) We do speak some French, but probably not enough to tackle the bureaucratic-ese we will probably encounter at the New York French Embassy.
I'm asking this because my husband and I were about to put our house on the market, (No kids) put our things in storage, and move to Paris for six-months to a year. We figured there would be a fair amount of paper to obtain a long-stay visa for over three months. We are both writers in our early 60s and don't plan to get "real" jobs in France. We do have IRA accounts to draw on, as well as the money from our house.
We should have done more homework to find out how long it takes to get a long-term visa, or even if we can get one. We're now hesitating about putting the house up for sale. We could conceivably sell it, need to get out in three months, and not have those long-stay visas. Any advice on how to proceed and what the pitfalls are? I know we have to show income, health insurance, place to stay, etc. but it's Catch 22. We can't get a departure date, place to stay, or overseas health insurance until we sell the house and have a date, etc. etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated. We'd throw money at the problem--pay a fee to have someone to take us by the hand the way people do to get a fast passport--but we're writers not hedge fund managers. Merci.
I'm asking this because my husband and I were about to put our house on the market, (No kids) put our things in storage, and move to Paris for six-months to a year. We figured there would be a fair amount of paper to obtain a long-stay visa for over three months. We are both writers in our early 60s and don't plan to get "real" jobs in France. We do have IRA accounts to draw on, as well as the money from our house.
We should have done more homework to find out how long it takes to get a long-term visa, or even if we can get one. We're now hesitating about putting the house up for sale. We could conceivably sell it, need to get out in three months, and not have those long-stay visas. Any advice on how to proceed and what the pitfalls are? I know we have to show income, health insurance, place to stay, etc. but it's Catch 22. We can't get a departure date, place to stay, or overseas health insurance until we sell the house and have a date, etc. etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated. We'd throw money at the problem--pay a fee to have someone to take us by the hand the way people do to get a fast passport--but we're writers not hedge fund managers. Merci.
