So you want to work in France? It is possible, but it is also very very difficult. By far the easiest and most common way to work abroad as a US citizen is to start working in the US with an international company, have some special skillset/qualifications, and after working your way up, get transferred to a foreign branch.
And surprisingly, yes, it is actually possible to work in France without speaking French.
As detailed in the Why Are We In Paris? entry, I was able to receive the opportunity of a lifetime with a 6 month work exchange to Paris. Since I work for an American company who does all its business in English, and wouldn't be talking with French customers, my complete lack of French didn't hold me back in this case. That's not to say it's not a hindrance, as all social discussion in the hallway and at lunch is in French and it makes day-to-day things (banking, haircuts, calling a plumber) much more difficult, but our office work was all done in English.
The Process:
Note: This is applicable to a US citizen living in the US and then moving to France to work. Your experience may vary based on individual circumstances, country, and visa.
The French work visa process is one of the most convoluted and difficult to figure out based on my research. And essentially just double the amount of time you *think* it'll take to get all the paperwork processed. My company has a dedicated team of lawyers to handle all the immigration paperwork, and even with them it dragged on far longer than I could have imagined.
Here is the basic steps to working up to 5 years in France on an Employeer Sponser Visa:
- Apply for and obtain a work permit from the French Immigration Office (OFII)
- Obtain a visa de long sejour (gives permission to enter and work in France)
- Arrive in France
- Get carte de sejour (residency card which lets you work longer than 3 months)
- If stay for 5+ years, would get a carte de resident (valid for 10 years)
The first step is to get a hold of every piece of official documentation you can. Birth certificate, marriage certificates, college diplomas, passports, etc etc. I was applying for a Employeer Sponser Visa (OFII). Part of the requirements were writing a short letter on why no French citizen, nor European Union citizen, could do my job. This is fairly easy to prove (and is true) when you're specialized enough. The US has the same sort of regulations for our technical immigrants.
My wife would be going on a spouse visa, tied to my work visa. After we got our carte de sejour (after a few months in France) she would be able to work herself. Until then, she can't work though.
The immigration lawyers really really helped. They were able to plow through all the ridiculous amount of forms and just told me where to sign, what to submit, and where to be. I honestly can't imagine going through this bureaucratic headache by myself, much less considering I don't speak any French. This is also why I can't say I'm intimately familiar with the process since I didn't have to deal with any of the details.They did have to get certified French translations of all our documents to submit to the OFII as well, and work with the HR department in the French office to file the actual application. They were an international firm with French offices so they knew the bureaucracy.
After the work application is sent off and officially submitted to the OFII, it'll take about 4 weeks to be processed. Once the work permit is approved by the OFII in France, they'll send a notice to the French consulate nearest you, which then forwards it to your house.
Consulate Appointment:
After you have to make an appointment with the French consulate nearest you to get the visa de long sejour stamped in your passport. As I lived in Austin, this meant I had to make an appointment in Houston. This wasn't that far away, but depending on where you live, it could be a long trip to make this in-person appointment. You make the appointment online, and can make it before the final work permit approval goes through as long as you make it out far enough (at least 4 weeks from when the work permit application is submitted). I read it was best to get the first appointment and show up early, since often they'll book multiple people for the same time slot.
The appointment is actually pretty straight forward. You show up, give them copies of everything (I had it all paper-clipped together) including the work permit document that the OFII had sent, and your passport. They'll also want to see the originals of everything, but you get to keep those. You also have to pay a 99€ fee (per visa) during the appointment, but they take credit cards.
We were the first ones there, and it took all of about 10 minutes before we were finished. Then they say that it'll take up to two weeks to get your passport back, which will come with a full-page visa inside it.
Fortunately the consulate said if we just showed up the next day we could get our passports back, and thus it was only a one day turn-around. Not sure how common that is, but it was the quickest part of our French visa process! They were very nice too.
The work visa that is put in your passport is good for 3 months from the start date, which should be timed to when you actually arrive in the EU. Due to the flakiness of the date of when all this paperwork would be done, we didn't book tickets (nor announce it to most of our friends) until I actually got the work visa in my passport and booked the flights.We got our visa in mid-September, and booked our housing/flights to arrive at the beginning of October.
Arrival in France:
This is actually very anti-climatic since the border agent just glanced at the first page with our info on it, stamped a generic EU entry stamp randomly in the middle pages, and let us on our way.
We did have to send a scan of the entry stamp to the immigration lawyers though.
Getting the carte de sejour:
This part was actually the longest. Part of it was that because we didn't book a place to live until AFTER we got the visa de long sejour. Thus all the paperwork was submitted to the district nearest my work office because it was used as the assumed address. But as we actually lived inside Paris proper, which is very far away from the office, it should have been processed in a different district. So we had to have our file transferred to a different OFII office. The lawyers did all this for us, so again, that part was really really nice.
The end result is that if you don't have the carte de sejour (residency card) by the time the visa expires (3 months after the date you give them) technically you can't leave France. Or well you could leave France, you just can't get back in, and if you were ever checked by an immigration official somewhere else in the EU, you could be deported since you're technically an illegal immigrant if you're not in France. The odds of this happening are very low since no one checks intra-EU travel, but it's not impossible.
During this time we also had to sign some cardboard form thing which is what would be used for the signature on our residency cards. The lawyers were very explicit that you cannot mark outside the boxes designated, and the cardboard form was very difficult to get so don't mess it up. I also had to stick 200€ (I think) worth of stamps on this form, which is the visa fee. I mailed it back to the immigration lawyers who sent it off to the OFII.
Finally after literally months of waiting, we got the date for our appointment in France to get our carte de sejour. It was 4 months after arriving, meaning for a month we couldn't technically leave France, but at least it finally happened.
Carte de sejour visit (Medical):
As part of the process of getting the residency card, you have to have a medical examination. The Paris OFII office is in the 11th. We showed up for our morning appointment, but they actually wouldn't let us in the building early so we had to wait outside for about 10 minutes. Once inside they directed us up to a crowded waiting room, and waited for our names to be called. After about 20 minutes I was called in, and they took height, weight, did a simple eye chart, and did a quick pin prick sugar test. Then you get a chest X-Ray to look for TB. Then it's back to the waiting room. After about another 20 minutes my name was called again, and a doctor goes through a basic rundown of your medical history (they all speak English), get blood pressure taken, and then you're done. Then you pick up the medical certificate from the desk, and walk 20 feet down the hall to another receptionist to pick up your residency card. Total time from arriving to leaving was about 2 hours.
I was fine with my very limited knowledge of French (the doctors all spoke English, but the receptionists did not really though), but having Kara able to speak French was helpful.
Taxes:
Finally something that often comes up is the question of taxes. However since I was working there for less than 6 months, and stayed on US payroll the entire time, there's some sort of tax treaty between the US and France where it's taxed as though you never left the country. So I didn't have to do anything different for my taxes. That's why it was a 6 month rotation and not longer.
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