Your first weeks in France: nobody registers you, so you build the chain yourself

Can it be done: settled in France within a few weeks? Yes, but differently from anywhere else. France has no counter that wants to see you on arrival: as an EU citizen you may settle after three months and the residence card is, according to Service-Public, "not compulsory". What it costs is almost nothing — the card is free if you want it anyway, the bank is free if you need the droit au compte, the school is free. The trap is precisely that absence of a counter: because nobody registers you, every counter asks you to prove yourself that you live where you live. Whoever does not start the chain of proofs on day one gets stuck at the third counter. And meanwhile four clocks run that nobody switches on.

Which deadlines run from day one?

Clock	Deadline	Counter
Registering a dog or cat with I-CAD	within 7 days of arrival	your vet
Enrolling children after a move	within 8 days	the mairie of your place of residence
Car onto French plates	within 1 month	ANTS, online, after the quitus fiscal
Droit au compte	the Banque de France designates a bank within 1 working day	Banque de France
Driving licence	no deadline; exchange only on expiry	—
Residence card	no deadline; optional	prefecture, online
First French tax return	in the spring after your year of arrival	the tax office of your place of residence

The shortest clock is the pet's, and it is the clock nobody expects; the longest is healthcare's, and it is not in the table because it is not a deadline but a waiting time. In between sits the car — one month, without a relocation exemption for the malus.

Why does everything start with the energy contract?

Because France registers you nowhere and therefore asks everywhere for a justificatif de domicile. The bank wants a proof of address; the CPAM wants one; the mairie wants one for the school; ANTS wants one for the car. The quickest proof you can make yourself is an energy or internet contract in your own name, and the first bill that follows from it. So put those contracts in your name on day one, even if the landlord offers to let them run on — which documents count and how fresh they must be is explained separately.

With that proof and your passport you open the bank account. If the bank refuses, you ask for the refusal on paper and go to the Banque de France; with a French IBAN everything that asks for an account number can follow.

What do you arrange in the first month?

The CPAM application, first, because it takes the longest. Whoever works can do it straight away; whoever does not work only after three months' residence; whoever comes with an S1 from the CAK hands that in. What happens after that — a provisional number by letter, months of waiting for the definitive one, claiming on paper — is in the article on the CPAM and the number you wait months for. Every week started earlier is a week finished earlier.

In the same month: the car. First the free quitus fiscal at the tax office, then the application at ANTS with your Dutch registration certificate, the COC and your proof of address — and the malus, if the sum from the moving phase pointed to it. And the children: at the mairie, with identity document, proof of address and the vaccination record, after which the mairie designates the school; how the assessment and the UPE2A work is explained separately.

Do nothing with your driving licence, and do nothing with a residence card you do not need. Your Dutch licence stays valid until its expiry date; exchanging comes later. And the citoyen UE card is allowed, is free, but proves nothing you do not already have — only a bank or employer who asks for it makes it worth the trouble.

What only comes next year?

The tax office. France has no tax moment on arrival: in the year after your arrival you file a return for the months you lived in France, and the first time that is on paper, at the tax office of your new place of residence, because whoever files for the first time "has no access to the online return". No invitation comes. Put it in your diary next to the Dutch M return for the same year — how the French system counts per household is explained separately. Need a numéro fiscal earlier, because you are going to earn in France? Then drop by the tax office with identity document and proof of address.

The GP, the mutuelle and the carte Vitale belong to the months after, once the definitive number is there. The roadmap for France puts the chain of this article in your order: address, healthcare, tax office, bank — with the clocks from the table watched.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.4: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to France or go straight to step 4.4 in the open plan.