Any Americans tutoring, teaching, training online or in-person?

Employed & Self Employed Auto/Micro-Entrepreneurs
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Hello Everyone,

Thank you all for your insights on this forum. I have learned a lot reading through past posts and comments, and the weekly email reminder for this site is one of very few I haven’t sent to the spam folder.

Are there any American citizens out there, single or married to other Americans/non-EU, who teach and/or tutor on the side? If so, I was hoping you could provide some insights about my particular situation. And no, I am not fleeing the country because of the election. I’m bummed about it, but it has been a long time since I set foot on American soil.

I am an American citizen, mid-fifties, and have been teaching at law schools abroad for about fifteen years. Currently based in the Middle East, probably going to move on at the end of my current contract. My partner/common law wife (together ten years, not legally married, also American citizen) is a preschool/elementary school teacher licensed in the US teaching abroad for about as long.

We are entering a liminal space between career and retirement, where neither of us is ready to retire completely but we also do not want to keep working full time. When we move on from our jobs in the Middle East we want to move somewhere with potential to stay long-term and put down roots. So basically we need to move somewhere we still have the option to work before we retire fully. But wherever we move, that’s where we are going to try to stay permanently thereafter.

France has always been one of our favorite countries to visit, but we hadn’t considered it for retirement until our last trip this past summer. We just always assumed it was out of reach. After learning more about the US-France tax treaty, it could be a viable option. Both of us are studying French and are at A2-ish level. We plan to keep at it. Both of us are culturally sensitive, embrace diversity, and would want to assimilate as much as practicable.

I teach practical legal skills, not country-specific law. I am still licensed in the US and do some consulting on the side. I also have a YouTube channel/podcast targeting ESL lawyers who want to work on contract drafting, negotiation, legal English, etc. A small passion project, but I do have learners from all over the world using my resources. I do not monetize anything right now but I would like to explore it as a potential revenue source when I get more free time. Maybe a subscription service, masterclass, Discord, maybe offering virtual and in-person one-to-one, small group, institutional consulting/workshops. Freelancing, coaching, consulting, tutoring, whatever you would call it. I wouldn’t expect to generate much revenue from it. Rent and cheese would be great, maybe barter for some tomatoes and eggs.

We would likely settle in a town with a law school (really liked Montpellier and surrounding), where I could tutor students in person and/or work part time as an adjunct/vacataire. Ideally, she would like to continue to work part time in a school as a substitute, assistant, tutor, etc. Preschool to primary (maternelle level-ish). She is mostly interested in doing in-person, but open to online domestic or international tutoring. So in sum, we are interested in learning about implications for international online income as well as France-earned income.

Here and elsewhere, I have seen discussion of many situations adjacent to mine/ours. But I have not seen anything that lines up enough for me to fully wrap my head around our options. I see lots of Americans who are retiring completely, some who get jobs in France but aren’t American, some Americans with spouses who are EU citizens, some who take the micro-entrepreneur route but in a field other than education/tutoring, etc.

Currently thinking about one or both of us studying French on a semester basis and coming in as student(s) at an eligible institution. Or maybe going for an English-language LLM or PhD. Or maybe setting up a micro-enterprise for one or both of us. If we come in as students and get whatever the year-long student visa is called, we can work part time/half time. Not sure whether we could start our own micro-enterprises under a student visa or not. Or I might be able to get a profession liberale visa, but that’s a different can of worms because I want the option to earn money, not the burden to earn at least a certain amount of money.

At this point, neither of us is considering retraining fully to be qualified to teach at our respective school levels. The barrier to entry seems really high for that. If we went back to school it would be for something awesome but with no commercial potential like philosophy, history, comp lit, etc.

The last question I had was related to the intersection between retirement and permanent residency. If we came in under the retirement path and didn’t work until we got permanent residency, could we do a micro-enterprise then? I feel like the answer to that would be no, but…

Thank you in advance for your advice. Sorry for the long post and apologies for any errors. I don’t know how to add accents yet on my keyboard, haha. Anyways, I tried wanted to give as much relevant context as I could think of. If anyone out there has similar experiences and can provide advice, please comment or reach out to me via direct message.

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Just to pick up on one point which is easy to answer. No, you cannot set up a micro entreprise on a student visa. Students are restricted to a fixed number of hours of salaried work.
As a rhird country national you would need a visa that specifically states that you are an independent worker / profession libérale.

All aspects of labour are tightly regulated in France and safeguards are in place, for instance your right to work will be checked before the computer will allow you register a business or be put on payroll

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At present, yes. But you are probably counting on being classed as permanent residents after 5 years, and I believe that Barnier’s government is looking to tighten the conditions for obtaining “permanent residency” so that it is no longer quasi automatic after 5 years.

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If you do manage to get to France - marry! Inheritance tax is brutal and at the moment common-law partners do not benefit as spouses do. We had lived together for over 20 years in the UK and when we started planning our move to France that is what everyone said - marry to avoid the tax!
So we did. :slight_smile:

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@Sandcastle: That was fast! Thanks for the advice. I guess it makes sense that students are not allowed to start their own side gigs. I will take a more serious look at profession libérale then. I’ll also keep an eye on upcoming immigration legislation. Things could be much different by the time we make our move. You are awesome!

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Hi @SuePJ! I appreciate your insight on this. This is really helpful because we were thinking about doing a PACS. Neither of us are opposed to marriage, just kind of been there done that before we met each other. Makes sense if the legal benefits of marriage are greater than those of a civil union. You are also awesome!

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Hi there

France is not a business-friendly country. If you’re thinking of being semi-retired, ie perhaps drawing a pension while doing a bit of work on the side, you’ll find the system is very inflexible.
Have you considered Ireland?

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Further education won’t be free. After age 25 it becomes chargeable to the student. My son paid €4000 for his Masters degree course at the uni down here to validate his CAPES and that was back in 2016.

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Hello @Helonochka! Yeah, I am beginning to see that more clearly. I really want to keep teaching, but I am not sure if that is going to be an option. I guess I should also look into the implications of volunteering in France. I know in some countries that is prohibited as well.

The other thing is that I am working on a book that will earn money whether I like it or not. Not much, but still… I guess I need to look into the implications of passive income from intellectual property and whether promoting its sale would also be a violation.

It is not about needing a job for me. It’s about wanting to keep doing something that incidentally may earn some money. I don’t want to work for someone else, I don’t want to have to earn a minimum amount. I want to do my thing, if I earn money I want to pay my share to my host country, and if I don’t earn money I want to be free to relax and take life easy. Not looking to start a second career. That might not be a thing that could happen in France.

Still looking for answers about whether my other half could find any sort of pathway to teaching English at the primary school level though.

I am curious about what made you recommend Ireland. Any advice? I loved it there as a tourist. First place I traveled after I went abroad. Circumnavigated the entire island. I hadn’t considered it for the same reasons as France. It just appeared to be out of reach. From what I remember, it’s pretty expensive to enter on a retirement visa, hard to find housing, and medical care is an issue. But I’ll take a look at it again.

Thanks for commenting. You are awesome!

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Howdy @Shiba! Thanks for your contribution as well. That’s OK with me. I have been looking at various programs and the costs seem reasonable compared to the cost of education in the US. I would be happy to pay my share. I haven’t found a perfect fit yet though, and it seems like it wouldn’t help our situation that much.

We’d love to find a language program where we could make it our job to study French if that accrued some sort of benefit towards permanent residency. Like if there was some sort of degree related to the course of study that would matter to the government.

Or we would both love to study something with no commercial potential. But from what I’ve seen in my “research,” you need to get a job or start a company to parlay a student visa into residency.

Anyone with further insights? I might be missing a creative way to thread this needle, but it seems like it might all be a non-starter. We might just have to work until we are done working before/if we end up in France. I think she’d be fine with that, me not so much. I don’t want to stop being a teacher.

We will be keeping up on the language though. Really enjoying it.

(Edited to add: You are also awesome!)

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Hi George

I mentioned Ireland because I’m Irish (as well as British) and I know it would be very easy there - from the point of view of the tax authorities- to do what you’re envisaging. As long as you declare any earnings, you’re pretty much free to do what you like. Same in the UK, in my experience. Plenty of flexibility.

Also, there’d be no language barrier of course. I think sometimes people underestimate how huge this is. Being able to function is one thing. Being able to cope when things go seriously wrong and you’re trying not to panic, or being able to have deep meaningful (political or other) discussions with people instead of just making polite chitchat about the weather is a different thing altogether.

This was brought home to me last night. I’m back in Belfast briefly, visiting my old mum. Her email address was compromised over the weekend and I discovered all her emails were being diverted to the hacker. I called BT last night and spent almost an hour on the phone with a lovely guy in Liverpool who talked me through what we needed to do. He had the patience of a saint. He was calm and kind and utterly competent and made the whole process as painless as possible. If I’d been doing this in French with Orange, I’d be bald as a coot this morning.

People say hello to you in the street here. They notice in the supermarket if you’re behind them at the till and have only a few items. They stand aside on narrow footpaths to let you go past. I find the general public is just more pleasant than in France. At least in the French city where I live.

On the negative side, the weather can be awful although the south east corner is OK. Wexford is a nice town. Give Dublin a wide berth. Belfast is great these days and has very affordable housing, although obviously we’re talking about the UK now.

Healthcare on both sides of the border is atrocious. For now. Am hoping the only way is up!

I have no idea about entry requirements for US citizens, unfortunately.

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I’m sure I’ve mentioned before about visiting Dublin and having an argument with a lady in the post office queue. A good five minutes of “after you”, “no, after you”, “no no, after you”. Genuinely

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I believe the language requirement for permanent residency is B1?

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Ha ha! We usually end up fighting to pay the bill in restaurants too. Any excuse for a good punch up.

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France is looking at cutting 4000 jobs in the Education Nationale, mainly in primary schools, in fairly short order because of demographics.
Someone qualified abroad could probably register with the Rectorat and do cover, but I don’t know how that works in primary schools especially if you don’t really speak French. But, to simplify drastically, there are 4 levels of school, maternelle, primaire, collège, lycée and they all function slightly differently. Language assistants are usually recruited from abroad via the CIEP, eg mine this year is from India.
If your French is only about A2 it might be complicated working for the EN at primary level, if at all. It would paradoxically be easier to find a job working with much older schoolchildren. What does your partner’s teaching diploma entail (equivalent of how many years of university?) in France we need to have at least 5 years ie a master’s degree plus succeed in a civil service +subject specific competition to get a proper job.

Edited to add that if you have the right to stay and live in France, then by all means get in touch with your local Rectorat and have a chat - but don’t expect to come to France as a teacher with foreign, particularly non-EU qualifications, and get a proper job easily.

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Simple, do what I did and refuse all blandishments to promote it. As a consequence, only around 20 copies were ever printed, and I am told by some on here that it is out of print now, so it must be worth millions by this time. All first editions. :joy:

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I believe Ireland has a specific tax etc regime for writers.

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@Sandcastle: I believe that is true. I think that is a reasonable expectation.

By “benefit” I mean leading to some type of degree, license, etc. that would make the student visa time count towards permanent residency. I found several French language programs that provide courses on a semester basis, but nothing yet that goes towards a piece of paper. Not much coming out of universities either, which I would prefer to a language center.

I might be wrong, but from what I am reading there are some actual or proposed limits on the number of times a student (and I think maybe some other) types of visas can be renewed to get to the five years. I also think I remember reading that the student visa years don’t count at all unless they result in a piece of paper at a certain level.

That said, I am basing most of my conclusions at this point on forum comments in various corners of the internet, haha. Maybe someone here knows more about it.

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Hello @Vero! This is a great comment. Thanks for the advice. She has a master of ed in early childhood education (4 years bachelors, 2 years masters) and a K-12 gifted and talented licensure.

CIEP is new to me. Interesting. I’ll check it out. She told me earlier that she saw a post on Schrole or TES or something for a job in France. I’ll ask her to check on the specific requirements when we meet up again this evening.

The bottom line is neither of us have any connection to France and no right to be there or do anything there other than be tourists. I can see why people tend to go for the Carte de Sejour and don’t work. All roads seem to lead back to there, haha.

Thanks for the help!

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@David_Spardo: Playing the long game. Smart man. That’s some 4D chess. Make to sure to sign them too!