What to do with the administration when you leave France?
When you’re an expatriate or a traveler, you need to find a solution for administrative management. Many questions arise about addresses and mail.
What do I do if I no longer have an address in France? How do I receive the mail that will remain? What if I want to make an online purchase for delivery in France?
Keeping an address in France is practical, even essential, for a number of reasons.
Expatriates: Registering with the non-resident tax office
If you move to a European country or outside Europe, you are no longer considered a French resident.
You will then register with the non-resident tax department. Your income tax file will then be transferred from the tax center in your current city to the single, centralized French center for expatriates (SIPNR – 10 rue du Centre – TSA 10010 – 93465 Noisy-le-Grand Cedex). As a result, all French administrations will be aware of this information: social security, family allowance fund, pension fund, etc.
If you have a fixed address abroad with a reliable local post office, you can communicate the address of your residence abroad to all your correspondents. Be careful, however, as some may tell you that they cannot send mail outside France.
It’s also a good idea to set up automatic international forwarding of all your mail. La Poste takes care of this, with subscriptions from 1 to 12 months.
Expatriate in a country where the post doesn’t work well
If you’re an expatriate living in a country where the Post Office operates in a haphazard fashion, you know how complicated it can be to receive letters, or even parcels. In Africa, for example, but also in many Asian countries, postal delivery is chaotic.
Start of expatriation with no permanent address
At the start of your expatriation, you may choose temporary accommodation for a few months. This may be a decision on your part, as you want to give yourself time to get to know your new locality better, so that you can make an informed decision on longer-term accommodation. It may also be a situation dictated by the lack of vacancies matching your criteria.
Long-distance travellers
Long-haul travelers leave their homes and mailboxes behind. In their quest for freedom and discovery, administrative matters are their last priority. However, French organizations and administrations don’t write you off for good. So you’ll have to find an explanation and tell them where to contact you.
The solution for keeping an address in France
So, whether you’re an expatriate or a traveler, chances are that at some point in your journey, you’ll need to have a place in France where you can receive letters or parcels.
For convenience’s sake, many people will want to call on their family or a close friend in France to receive their mail – whenever they can. It’s free, but it can quickly become a burden for everyone… This can have a financial impact on the person who is virtually hosting you: it can increase their taxes and remove any benefits they may be entitled to. It’s also embarrassing because the information is confidential. The best solution is to subscribe to a P.O. box service from a company specialized in Internet mail.
How can I receive my important documents remotely?
If you need to continue receiving your mail, parcels and important documents, wherever you are and whenever you want, Courrier du Voyageur has the solution, offering you a real and virtual P.O. box service.
This service allows you to receive all your items in one place, and to be informed in real time. A virtual P.O. box allows you to check on the receipt of your documents and items by viewing them scanned or photographed in your customer area!
All you need is an internet connection to access the digital platform.
The scan function is very practical when you’re abroad!
Of course, you can also opt for worldwide forwarding by choosing from a list of carriers. What’s more, the web interface allows you to request other practical operations such as printing and sending documents (from pdf files), cashing cheques and paying invoices.
Packages are given priority treatment and received daily. A consolidated parcel service with repackaging allows you to make your purchases on the web, use the address to have your orders delivered and then request consolidated forwarding to the country of your choice.
Thanks to all these services, you can manage your parcels and mail remotely, extremely easily and, above all, from anywhere in the world. You can also download a certificate of direct debit online.
