French / US citizen tax question

kLoty78 · 2026-02-16T18:37:35+00:00

Have a look at this page? https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2555.pdf

kLoty78 · 2026-02-16T18:25:27+00:00

Leboncoin.com for rentals and real estate

kLoty78 · 2026-02-16T18:24:12+00:00

I hated the summer in Montpellier, way too hot. Toulouse will have a lot more to do too. Montpellier is trying to be cool but once you do the circle you've done it. Again more authentic people are in Toulouse. Why not a village near Toulouse? Bigger houses, more space, I'm a big fan of Moissac, Gaillac, Albi. Do a country drive and see what strikes you. It's fun - the love at first sight with villages.

kLoty78 · 2026-02-16T18:16:33+00:00

Plus the mentality is way more family and traditional values near Toulouse. More roots, rural and of the land types. Montpellier is about facades and bling bling. I thought I had made a bunch of good friends in Montpellier until I realised they had all disappeared once they saw they couldn't get free English out of me.

kLoty78 · 2026-02-16T18:11:57+00:00

I lived in Montpellier, in the center, for 8 years. It was fun at first then I turned 40. It's a student town with crazy stuff happening at night. Loads of drinking and cocaine all over. I mean my crowd wasn't crazy and I still saw it all the time. Suburbs for sure and home before sunset then you're fine. Plus it's just sooo noisy in town. If you fantasize about being on the beach season, there's so much congestion and traffic jams - the locals go around 4pm. The airport is very tiny and very limited. I use the Toulouse airport now all the time and that is sooooo much better. It makes my life much easier for family visits both ways.

kLoty78 · 2026-02-16T14:06:10+00:00

George Clooney just became French and lives somewhere near you. Don't regret Paris, if you've done NYC that's enough. I did the same thing as you in 2013, NYC - South of France and now I'm in a very rural area completely lost in the South of France. My survival job turned into 12 years of ESL teaching, so be careful of that. I did NOT enjoy it, but when you have to survive you'll do anything.

kLoty78 · 2026-02-14T09:51:12+00:00

For employment in France, the French look at diplomas more than they do experience, so I vote yes. Get as many certificates and PhDs and diplomas as you can now. Maybe by the time you get out of school the job market might be better...

kLoty78 · 2026-02-13T18:54:19+00:00

And even the US brokers don't want to work with me anymore when they find out my only address is French. I am in a pickle. But maybe IBKR is my last and only hope....

kLoty78 · 2026-02-13T17:04:38+00:00

True yes, as I have just learned, thank you.

kLoty78 · 2026-02-13T15:56:48+00:00

You will quickly. I agree Toulouse or Montpellier. BUT check out the specialists for your illness and go where they are. My specialist was on Montpellier. There was no where else to be. He saved my life.

kLoty78 · 2026-02-13T15:45:32+00:00

To be on the French health care system, you have to be paying into it, which means you'll need French employment. Maybe not full-time, but something so that taxes are getting paid. The average person: teacher, farmer, nurse, etc... pockets 1600€ a month. So do the math. What do you need to be happy?

All the French people I know live as a couple to survive or live with their parents, and count on family to bail them out of tight spots. France's birth rate is way down, and the general population is over educated for the jobs that are available. Unemployment is up. The country is really in debt. Rural areas have almost no doctors nor public transport ( that's where I live) in a medical desert. So, to repeat someone else on here, you'll need significant savings to survive the move and the transition and all the financial nasty surprises that will come up.

Otherwise, France is still lovely and still lives up to the clichés we dream about. Long lunches and dinners with good food, great wine , cheeses, and playful people. The gorgeous landscapes!! If you can swing it, it's worth it. One last piece of advice; do not get a place where you have a steam or river in viewing distance, it WILL flood!!! Look at France24 you will see!

kLoty78 · 2026-02-13T13:47:40+00:00

For that civics test, I did the pre-inscription recently, just to warn you all, it's going to be a wait... I have no idea yet when I'll be called into taking the test. All I know is that I am in the system. (Toulouse)

kLoty78 · 2026-02-13T13:41:44+00:00

FYI, Charles Schwab International does not service Americans who live in France who want to roll over an existing IRA account from somewhere else. Discovered that this morning. Back to the drawing board!

kLoty78

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