British citizen looking to reside in Morocco - Embassy useless, help!

The Embassy lady was absolutely correct. You get a 3 month visa at your point of entry and if you want to become a resident, you go to the cops who will tell you what you need. It is perfectly possible.

You will need a "contrat", either a "contrat de bail" or a "contrat de travail" and a convertible Moroccan bank account which you can open in your first few days once you have the contrat de bail. Bring pounds in cash to deposit in it. Once it is set up, arrange via internet banking for your UK bank to send regular funds to it, which is a requirement of the residency.You will need proof that you do not have a criminal record in the UK, something that is hard to do as individuals are not permitted to be issued with their police antecedents in England and Wales. There are various other documents, photos and so on that are needed and most of these need to be notarised and have a "timbre fiscal" added to them.

Please look on the francophone forum for exact requirements. I assume that you speak French well as you are coming to a country where French is widely used.

laduqesa thanks for your informative reply. I don't speak a word of French, It doesn't bother me I will get by and learn it over there, maybe attending evening classes. Can you expand a bit on what is a 'contrat de bail' and do i need any documents signed from the UK to bring with me ? Why is the police thing a problem ? I don't have any criminal record so can I not just get a CRB ?

Thanks for your help.

A "contrat de bail" is a rental agreement that usually lasts for a year to three years. You would need one lasting a minimum of a year to get residence. Do not rent without one in any case, this is illegal and you would be in trouble if, for instance, there were to be a burglary which you had to declare to the cops. Many landlords try to get you to rent without the contrat as they escape income tax that way. The contrat de bail needs to be signed and notarised in the admin offices of the town you choose and entered in the ledger to be legal.

As for the criminal records check, I understood that only organisations (child care charities, certain sensitive organisations, local councils and so on) were permitted to be issued with a print-out of a criminal record (or lack of one). If you have contrary information that individuals can simply request their own print-out, please share it.

Thanks for your reply,

I understand the contract now. I have no idea about who can obtain the police check, if this is true then how did you or others go about this ?
Is it mandatory or passable for a 'fee' ?

Thanks again.

Mandatory, it is a piece of paper that has to be in the file, thus cannot be circumvented by a contribution to the "Widows of Dead Officers Fund" . I was fortunate enough to get residency when the lack of a criminal record in Morocco was the requirement. Now they insist on seeing a lack of criminal record in the home country too.

Please update me if you learn of any way to get around this. I have English friends here going in and out of the country every three months which, strictly speaking, is illegal as non-residents are officially only allowed in Morocco for 6 months of the year.

If the limit is 6 month's a year then do the guards not notice this when they issue the visa or scan the passport ?

It's very strange that they are requesting a document which no one can obtain. I must look for a way around this.

They notice it, certainly, but they are tolerant. They ask if you are "normally" resident and if you are thinking of becoming "officially" resident. If you say, yes, but the procedure is hard, especially for an English person, they just say, yes, you're right and stamp your passport, according to my friends.

However, they DO NOT allow this if leaving and entering from/to Ceuta or Mellilla, as one of my acquaintances found out to her cost. She had to take a long boat trip to Spain and, frightened that she would not be let in at Tangiers either, bought an expensive one-way trip by plane back to Morocco.

CRB checks (or equivalent can be done on line for UK gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check/overview
click on Scottish Disclosure.

In Ireland you apply via the Garda for a Police certificate in person and bring it with you.

Laduqesa have I understood you correctly that a non resident can only officially stay in Morocco for six months out of a year?  I have many friends who stay all year albeit go out of the country every three or six months for visa purposes.

Dave while your tourist visa is for three months, when here an application to the Bureau d'Etranger can extend it to six months.  Here in Agadir it is possible to do two back to back six month extensions (ie leaving just once a year) hence my surprise at Laduqesa's info.

Don't worry about having to learn French, while its useful its by no means essential and the Government are moving towards adopting English as the second language anyway.

I see my link above is under review. Google the UK gov. website living in Morocco lots of useful info.

Christina, thanks for the information regarding police checks, I got a UK and Irish passport so I guess I can just do either check rather than both ? Where do most people fly out to when it gets to six months ? Somewhere close by and cheap ? Can you return straight away or do you have to wait so many days ?

Yes. It might be preferable to use your UK passport here if you are going to get a Carte Sejour (Residents card) as the first year you get one year, then renew for 3 years, then 5 years. Irish nationals have to renew every year regsrdless how long they reside here.

Most of my friends use the chance to visit home at six months. You can drive or train into Cueta which is a Spanish enclave in northern Morocco and stay overnight. But theres always a cheap flight somewhere in Europe on Easyjet or Ryanair.

I don't know about the bigger cities but here in Agadir the Irish Consul resides in Portugal whereas the UK one lives locally.  Its worth visiting and registering.  The local Consul here recommends a Doctor familiar with the Certification to support Carte Sejour application.

Its worth mentioning that if your plans to move here are someway in the future, you will need to update this information just before you come.  I have been here 9 years and everytime I have applied for my Carte S the requirements have changed from the time before.

Not sure if its been mentioned but currently for application you need to bring your Birth Certificate with you (or get an official copy if you've lost it!) and your CRB check.  Open bank account as soon as you get here and arrange to transfer regular amounts in from overseas as the Bank gives you an Attestation to support your application.  Photos, work contract or proof of income (ie Pension/Shares/Rental income details), Medical Cert, copies of passport.  House papers or rental contract for home in Morocco.  I think thats all at the mo.

After the first year you have to travel to Rabat to get the equivalent of CRB check.

Hope it helps.

I recently applied for residency. I submitted CRB from UK.  When all the documents are collected you pay 100 MAD (6quid)  and will be issued with a receipt while they carry out the process,  this receipt is your proof of application in case process overlaps the three month visa issued on arrival.  When you enter Morocco you must leave by 90th day or you become an illegal,  if you are in the process of applying for residency your receipt is what makes you legal.  Whun you get your residency you are issued with a residency card,  this is usually has to be renewed yearly,  dont know what the process is at that point as I only got mine in early October.

I may be out of touch but even just a few years ago you could go to a local police station, complete the necessary request form and pay a fee of 'I think £15' and you eventually get a copy of your records, but also again as far as I know it would not show 'Spent Convictions'

snip: information copied from 'West Midlands Police' website.

How to obtain information
To request their own information people should make a subject access request under the Data Protection Act.
When requesting information please include the following details:

    Your name and address
    The information or documents you would like to access
    The way you would like the information to be sent to you (e.g. hard copy, via e-mail)

We aim to provide the information within 20 working days.

So basically first of all have a word at your local police station.

It's all done online. Two options, Subject Access Request, with ACRO being responsible for it:

.acro.police.uk/subject_access.aspx

Or a Basic Disclosure:

disclosurescotland.co.uk/basicdisclosureonline/

You pay online, and they post it to your address after verifying your identity. The latter is enough. The first one is un-necessary. It lists everything the police have about you. All arrests, even if no further action was taken.

Hi

Not sure if any one mentioned it but you need £3000 in the bank, a Moroccan bank that is

Would that be £3,000 at the time of applying for a RP or a minimum of £3,000 at all times?

What if most of it was removed after getting your RP, would there be any consequence's?

I'm pretty sure it is just at time of applying

I did think that, but just though highlighting the question may help anyone else who may be interested.