Retiring in French Guiana: Pension, Taxation, Access to Care, Cost of Living and Life on the Spot

French Guiana is an overseas department and region of the Republic, governed by article 73 of the Constitution, and an outermost region of the European Union (IEDOM). A French retiree needs no retiree visa and has no means test to prove to a residence authority: they settle as in any other region of France. A spouse of foreign nationality, on the other hand, comes under the formalities for foreign nationals, presented by the prefecture of the French Guiana region on its website.

Three steps are to be anticipated: opening health insurance rights, tax residence and yellow fever vaccination, compulsory for any resident or tourist aged 1 or over, more than ten days before arrival (ARS French Guiana). The territory is young: about 12% of the population is 60 or over against about 28% in France; Insee projects a sharp rise in the share of seniors (IEDOM). The ARS anticipates an ageing that will weigh on the health system, with the number of seniors expected to rise sharply.

The CGSS of French Guiana indicates that the basic pension is managed by the Assurance retraite, and therefore by the CGSS. Its website offers to prepare your retirement, request a retirement information interview, file your application online, organise your departure with a retirement calendar and request early retirement for long careers; for an estimate, it refers to the Assurance retraite. The pages read do not specify the filing deadline before the departure date or the list of documents to provide: ask the CGSS before setting the date.

The public service publishes the retirement age by year of birth: 62 for the 1958 to 1960 generations, 62 years and 3 months for September to December 1961, 62 years and 6 months for 1962, 62 years and 9 months from January 1963 to March 1965, 63 for April to December 1965, 63 years and 3 months for 1966, 63 years and 6 months for 1967, 63 years and 9 months for 1968 and 64 from 1 January 1969. The insurance period required for the full rate ranges from 167 to 172 quarters depending on the generation. Whatever the length, the full rate is automatic at 67; before that, leaving without the required number of quarters leads to a reduction of 0.625% per missing quarter, capped at 20 quarters.

A supplementary pension is added to the basic pension for employees, with its own rules. A retiree who contributed to other schemes contacts them to report their change of address. Retirees' income weighs less in French Guiana than nationally: the share of pensions in declared income is three times lower there, which is due to the age structure of the population (IEDOM).

The solidarity allowance for older people (ASPA) requires being at least 65, or 62 in case of unfitness for work or permanent disability of at least 50%, having drawn all one's basic and supplementary pensions, French and foreign, as well as those of one's spouse, partner or civil-partnership partner, meeting a household income ceiling and living in France for more than 6 months (180 days) in the calendar year of payment. A foreign national must have held a residence permit for more than 10 years. The CGSS specifies that the ASPA is an advance of money: after death, the fund recovers the sums paid only from the part of the estate that exceeds €100,000, within a certain limit. The ceilings and amounts, in principle revalued each 1 January, do not appear on the page read.

The survivor's pension is 54% of the pension of the deceased spouse or ex-spouse, not counting increases; it is paid for life and may be reduced according to income. The widowhood allowance is paid for 2 years to people under 55, subject to income conditions and to not having remarried, not cohabiting and not having a civil partnership; residence in an overseas department, including French Guiana, is accepted (CGSS of French Guiana).

A retiree who transfers their domicile to French Guiana remains under French tax law, and not that of a foreign country: there is no tax treaty to apply. Tax from the scale due by taxpayers domiciled in French Guiana, after capping of the family quotient effects and before the décote and tax reductions, is subject to a 40% allowance, capped at €4,050; the rate is set according to the address on 31 December of the year of income (impots.gouv.fr, income tax brochure). If you change domicile during the year, the new address is declared to the tax authority.

VAT is provisionally not applicable in French Guiana (article 294 of the General Tax Code, according to the IEDOM), but the octroi de mer, an indirect consumption tax, applies to imports of goods and certain local deliveries. The IEDOM also specifies an exemption from property tax on built properties for main residences whose rental value does not exceed 40% of the average rental value of dwellings in the commune, a threshold that the municipal council can raise to 50%. For a personal situation, the tax office remains the point of contact.

The retiree is covered on the basis of stable and lawful residence in France, with proof of 6 months of residence over the last 12 months in the event of a check (ameli); form Cerfa S1106 is sent to the fund of the place of residence. There is no form S1 or social security agreement to use, as this territory is French. Beneficiaries of the solidarity allowance for older people or the Old-Age Solidarity Fund are reimbursed at 80% for medical, dental and paramedical fees, optical care and appliances, and at 100% for transport (Assurance Maladie, the French national health insurance). Details of the rates and situations are in the guide healthcare reimbursement in French Guiana.

The healthcare offering is less dense than on the mainland: about 24 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants against about 34 in France, and a level of equipment in long-term care beds and follow-up and rehabilitation care beds lower than in the French Antilles (DREES, via the IEDOM). For care not available locally, a scheduled medical evacuation to the mainland or the French Antilles is possible with prior approval, with a 45% ticket modérateur unless exempt (CGSS of French Guiana). The guide health system in French Guiana describes the French Guiana CHU, the decentralised prevention and care centres and the health risks (dengue, chikungunya, malaria, yellow fever).

The Caisse des Français de l'Étranger is for French people who live and work abroad (retiree plan, with a contribution that depends on age and the plan chosen according to its website): it does not concern a retiree settled in French Guiana, but only a departure outside France, to Suriname or Brazil for example (see the CFE guide and the page retiree insurance abroad).

According to the Insee price comparison survey, the general price level is 13.7% higher than on the mainland: +39.4% for food, +35.5% for communications, +16.5% for health, +5.5% for housing, water and energy, +5.8% for transport and +4.5% for restaurants and hotels; alcoholic beverages and tobacco (-2.1%) are slightly cheaper (IEDOM). Inflation varies from one year to the next (IEDOM). As pensions are paid in euros, purchasing power depends mainly on food and housing.

Housing is the pressure point: Insee counts about 100,000 homes, of which a little over half of main residences occupied by tenants and about 40% by owners, and the IEDOM notes a shortage accentuated by population growth, with several thousand homes a year to be built or renovated. The sources read publish no average rent by commune. No official ranking of the towns favoured by retirees was read; the coast concentrates the population (43.8% of inhabitants live on the island of Cayenne and 90.9% along the Apatou-Saint-Georges road) and, with it, services, hospitals and airports.

The climate is humid equatorial, with average relative humidity of 80% to 90%, a rainy season from December to July and a dry season from August to November (IEDOM). Retirees do well to choose a home suited to the heat, close to a referring doctor and a hospital site, and to protect themselves from mosquitoes. For settling-in formalities and prices, see the guide living in French Guiana.