Moving Back to France After Expat Life in Mauritius: What to Expect

Moving back to France after several years in Mauritius triggers three things at once, usually before anyone has thought to plan for them: French tax residency resumes the day your household or main place of stay shifts back to France, health cover under the French social security system only opens after three months of uninterrupted residence except in specific cases, and no agreement links the French and Mauritian pension systems. All three are worth sorting out before the flight home, not after.

When do you become a French tax resident again?

According to the French tax authority, your tax domicile is in France as soon as any one of the following applies: your household, or failing that your main place of stay, is there; your main salaried or self-employed professional activity is carried out there; or the centre of your economic interests — the source of most of your income — is there. Meeting a single criterion is enough: there is no need to combine a day count with an economic test before the switch takes effect.

In practice, a couple who resettles in France partway through the year becomes French tax resident on the date of return, even if one of them keeps invoicing a Mauritian client for a few more weeks. The marker to remember is not a fixed administrative date, but the day the household actually resettles.

Filing your tax return in the year you move back

The year of return is not filed like an ordinary year. French-source income received before the move back is declared on form 2042-NR, the one used by non-residents. Income received from the date of return onward — including any Mauritian income still being paid during the transition — goes on the standard 2042 return, with form 2047 attached for anything received abroad. The tax office then transfers the file to the office covering the new home address.

A household that has never had a French tax number, because it left for Mauritius before ever having a French tax history, has to file its first return on paper: online filing only becomes available from the following year. How Mauritian income — rent, dividends, pension — is treated during this transition year is covered in our article on the France–Mauritius tax treaty.

Three months without social security cover, with exceptions

Cover for medical costs under the French Assurance Maladie system is not automatic on the day you land. French social security law requires proof of uninterrupted residence in France for more than three months before benefits open. Five situations are exempt from this wait: recognised refugees and asylum seekers, international volunteers returning with no other cover, family members joining a relative already insured in France, people housed in a social care institution, and students or trainees arriving under a cooperation agreement. A household simply moving back at the end of a work contract or a stint of retirement in Mauritius falls into none of these five categories: the three-month wait applies in full.

This is worth arranging before leaving Mauritius: keeping an international health plan or private cover running until the waiting period clears avoids a coverage gap, particularly for a family with children. Choosing health cover while living in Mauritius has a direct bearing on how exposed this transition period turns out to be. Some situations, such as a French work contract starting immediately on arrival, are sometimes handled differently in practice, but no official source consulted lists any exemption beyond the five above: each case is assessed individually by the local Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie.

A pension that ignores the years spent in Mauritius

Mauritius is not covered by any of the bilateral social security agreements France has signed, unlike Madagascar, Morocco or Québec, for example. In practice, contribution periods paid into a Mauritian pension scheme are not combined with French quarters: the pension paid by French funds is calculated solely on the basis of activity carried out in France. Years contributed in Mauritius are not lost or transferred — they simply sit in a separate system, to be claimed independently from the relevant Mauritian scheme.

This is worth checking before the move, not after: anyone who has paid into a Mauritian pension scheme for several years should find out, before signing off their last local payslip, which body to approach to claim those Mauritian rights once back in France.

Bringing furniture back without paying duty twice

Personal belongings brought back from Mauritius, a country outside the EU, qualify for relief from customs duty and VAT under two combined conditions: having lived outside the EU for at least a year, and having owned the goods for more than six months before the move. The declaration is made on French customs form Cerfa n° 10070, together with a detailed, dated and signed inventory in two copies. Goods can be brought in over several shipments, but everything must arrive in France within twelve months of settling there, and none of it can be sold or rented out during the twelve months following its entry into the country. Professional equipment, alcohol and tobacco fall outside this relief.

Registering a car brought back from Mauritius

A vehicle imported from outside the EU needs a customs clearance certificate, form 846A, before it can be registered in France. The file includes the Mauritian registration document, the purchase invoice and, where relevant, customs transit paperwork. Processing times published by French customs range from a few hours for a complete file to several days if something is missing. Mauritian plates remain valid until the French certificate is issued.

Deregistering from the French consulate

Removal from the register of French nationals living abroad is done online, using a service-public.fr account or FranceConnect, and the deregistration certificate is then available in the personal online space. This simple step is often left until after the move, even though it affects certain consular services: it is better handled as soon as the departure date from Mauritius is confirmed than dealt with once already resettled.

Selling, renting out, or keeping your property in Mauritius

Moving back to France does not force any immediate decision on a property held in Mauritius, though the question rarely settles itself once you are back. Three options coexist: selling before departure to keep the transition-year tax return simple, putting the property into long-term rental to keep a Mauritian income stream, or keeping it for occasional use. Current property prices in Mauritius give a starting point for valuing the asset before deciding, and long-term rental in Mauritius remains an option for anyone who wants to keep an income-producing base on the island. How each of these three scenarios is taxed during the transition year is covered in our article on the France–Mauritius tax treaty.

Sources and verifications

• Direction générale des Finances publiques — French tax residency criteria
• Direction générale des Finances publiques — filing in the year of return
• Légifrance — article D160-2 of the French social security code
• CLEISS — list of French bilateral social security agreements
• Service-public.fr — customs relief for repatriating personal belongings
• Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects — customs clearance certificate 846A
• Service-public.fr — deregistration from the register of French nationals abroad