Moving to France from the US and looking for some guidance

Moving to or from France
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ayoo, so excited to be a part of this community! and here i am startin’ off strong with a short story.

i’m planning on moving to france from the us long term when my lease is up (april 2024). i’ve been spending a lot of time looking up locations and logistics and i’ve been feeling really overwhelmed, so figured i’d reach out for some advice. i know this is a lot of information, but bare with me i’m trying to cover all of my bases.

just to give you an idea of my french proficiency: i’ve been learning french for a little over a year through duolingo (a2), but i switched over to rosetta stone about a month ago. i also listen to french music, watch movies, listen to french podcasts, and my phone is set to french lol. i’m very passionate about language/culture in general.

here are the details of what i’m looking for/planning to do:

school:

  • if i take this route i will begin with an intensive french course so that i can attend a french college and to help with integration

  • from there will focus on studies in arts (literature) and linguistics, possibly sociology

  • i realize this is going to be the easiest route for a long term visa but really would prefer a work visa

employment:

i have a few things in mind when it comes to employment

  • planning to get my TEFL certification to teach english

  • bartending and/or serving (this is where all of my experience is)

  • teaching yoga

  • freelance writing, or other freelance jobs (to have access to the self-employed visa)

  • tech (though i don’t have any schooling, this is something that interests me and seems to always be in high demand over there. i came across a program with a start-up that offers a tech visa)

  • open to suggestions

location:

as of right now my top choice is montpellier. it’s close to the ocean without being a gigantic city (i.e. paris) and has a good community of young people and seems like a great option for school. i was initially looking at lyon (but i want to be close to the ocean) and marseille (from what i’ve read public transport and economy isn’t great, among other things).

  • also drawn to biarritz, hyères, nice

  • drawn to the languedoc-roussillon and côte d’azur area (though i am nervous about wildfire season)

  • queer-friendly

  • good public transportation system and walkability to avoid the need for a car

  • good economy

  • relatively safe (whatever that means)

  • somewhat easy to make friends

  • culturally diverse

  • close to the mountains for snow days in winter for my husky

  • trying to avoid anywhere that is regularly above 90 degrees in the summer for the pup’s sake (he’s a mix so his heat tolerance is a bit higher than a purebred)

  • i’m also open to places that aren’t close to the ocean that are very close to a larger body of water (like annecy)

other details:

  • i will be selling the majority of my things and initially plan to rent a furnished house or apt

  • will be bringing my husky with me (not even 40lbs if that makes a difference)

  • i have adhd and understand that i’m extremely limited when it comes to my medication options (i’m prescribed stimulants) and from what i’ve read it can take a very long time to receive sufficient care, so if you have any personal experience with this please lmk

  • 30 years old - loves to be outdoors, but also thoroughly enjoys staying home to read, write, and play the piano

  • i have dietary restrictions (don’t eat red meat or dairy products) though i’ve attributed the majority of my digestive issues to the food quality in the us so plan to play around with this once i move

  • going to leave with 10k in the bank and plan to get a job within the first couple of months if i end up going the student visa route

  • i was planning on visiting in sept but injured my knee in march and was out of work for a month so i don’t know if i’ll be able to swing it

  • i’m the type of person that is a good balance between intuition and planning when it comes to these types of things (moved to oregon from florida when i was 18 without knowing anything about it, just knew i wanted to be here)

questions:

  • how common is it to find work under the table if i end up going the student visa route?

  • i’ve read that a lot of places require degrees for english teaching jobs, but are there options for people that don’t have a degree?

  • do you know of any good schools that offer affordable french courses that last longer than 3 months?

  • what are some good websites for looking into housing?

  • what were the most significant cultural shocks for you?

  • what were the most difficult aspects of your relocation?

  • i’ve spent countless hours looking into all of this, but would greatly appreciate any other resources that you might have!

ok i will leave it at this even though i could come up with so much more. thank you so much for taking the time to read all of this and welcoming me into your community!! :heart:

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Wow @_sunshinelady, welcome, that was one helluva first post, but not in a bad way, not much I can think of to help you from my own experience but a couple of comments

Is that the modern way of self declaration, or am I barking up the wrong tree? Either way I’m sure it is ok.

As regards teaching and qualifications, @vero and @toryroo will be along soon to put you right there, but my impression, having a son with a degree who teaches all over the world but has faced difficulties with qualifications recognised in France, is that it is not easy for a foreigner.

how common is it to find work under the table

I’m sure it is quite common but my advice is to definitely not go there. As an immigrant myself I am fully aware how vulnerable I am with law breaking. Speeding fines apart you could be deported very quickly if you start swindling the state. BTW, it is a phrase directly translated into French, the Notaire paused to ask me the price of the bit of land I was buying, with, ‘et rien sous la table?’, because that affected any tax required.

I’ll leave you to mull that while awaiting more informative replies. :smiley:

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Yes a lot of questions that probably most of us on this forum had to consider when we moved here fairly young and with/without children in tow, I know we did and back then there was no internet so we learned by mistakes and hard work and asking people, it worked very very well and I am still here although circumstances have changed. Whatever you do, never work “on the black”, you will get into trouble and the person paying you also as wages have to show contributions towards social charges like health and pension etc. Teaching in the national education requires a degree, the CAPES and my son had to do his master’s within two years of getting the CAPES to get a good job, many foreigners whose tongue is english teach via private lessons or to groups (my son was asked to teach at the local prison but declined as too much on already but he also taught at the local Uni some evenings as well as day school classes). My daughter had a french driving licence and just simply exchanged it for a Texas one, you may be able to do the same for a french one without taking a new driving test.
I think coming to France will be a lot harder for a US citizen than how we all found it but brexit has curtailed a lot of things for us including freedom of movement and having to obtain a carte de séjour etc. My daughter sent her cat to the US by airfreight using a specialist pet carrier in the UK so your dog should have no problems except for the costs involved and the need for paperwork. Location will be very important and many coastal areas lack employment outside the tourist season which is short is most places so being near a large town would be more advantageous plus rents differ too unless you are buying but beware the current climate for buying has been made more difficult by cutting down on bank loans and lack of affordable places to buy and in some areas, to rent. You will need to proove you have insurance for health matters until you can oficially join the state CPAM system but that would require charges like every employed person has to pay but all this and all your questions will be mostly a personal thing. As for food you would be spoilt here, my daughter is coming “home” in a month, first time in 7 years of US living and just wants to pig out on proper food especially cheese and charcuterie but France produces a great deal of it’s food and is wonderful in most cases although there are the usual fast food outlets (yuk). Above all, keep learning the language because getting work without a fairly good command of the language will be difficult when there are locals who are fluent after the same job. Good luck.

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Before answering any details the first issue is what us your nationality? If American, or other third country nationality, then you need a visa to come here. Which from what you have said a student visa is the most likely - but for that you would have to be enrolled in a school. And you still have to meet financial conditions and have full healthcare insurance.

On a visa working under the table is risky, as if found out you will be asked to leave the country. French labour laws are strong.

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Hello, and welcome!

Lovely that you will bring your dog. Please take note of the entry to France requirements. Some vaccinations require preparation ahead of time. Paperwork is very important in France. Wouldn’t want your dear dog to be held up by bureaucracy.

I live in Provence near to Aix and am familiar with a few of the places to which you consider moving. I would advise that for the summer happiness and survival of your husky, best look away from the south of Languedoc and west of Provence.

This area often 35-40C throughout summer so unless you have air conditioning or a large home with pool and garden, it will not be great for your dog. Up in the mountains it may be a little cooler but forested so hunting and forest fires. Montpellier is a rocking university city but really not great for a biggish dog. You’d definitely need air conditioning. Côte d’Azur micro climate less hot but higher humidity, so not cool in the shade although sea breezes help cool humans. Huskies are no more suited to this than polar bears. Annecy sounds much better for him. And possibly, for you too.

Others here live in cooler areas and can further advise. I wish you good fortune in your endeavours and commend you for your courage.

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I lived in the west of Brittany previously and it was ideal for my Japanese Shiba Inu which is a primitive race from the north of Japan used to colder weather and he never had any problems even when it did get hot. I would never consider having another dog down here near to Spain now, its too hot for me let alone poor fur coated animals.

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Hi,

Toulouse is also an option. Half way between Montpellier and Bordeaux.

It is in the Haute-Garonne department and part of the Occitanie region. Not far from the Pyrenees mountain range.

We have 300 anglophone families in and around our town of Colomiers, whose children study in the College and Lycee International Victor Hugo here (High School) I head up the parents association.

We also have a very active chapter of the France États-Unis Association in Toulouse and Colomiers. You’ll find them on Facebook. Lots of Americans and French people who have lived in the US are members. Amanda, Jessica and the rest of the team can give you some pointers. They also run a “finding a job” workshop every year.

Jean Jaurès Université in Toulouse offers Bachelors in French or English. Pascal Bardet, former president of France États-Unis is the dean/head of the languages faculty/ program.

Weather is not as hot, dry as Montpellier or even Carcassonne an hour south of Toulouse. It’s much greener here with the Garonne river running through the department and town of Toulouse.

In and around Toulouse Métropole there’s lots of space, parks, cycling paths, walking paths for humans and pets! Plenty of vets also! Very pet friendly.

Toulouse is definitely a student / university young people city. Street markets, museums, art, shopping, opera, American Cosmograph (Cinéma) with American/English movies in Version Originale (most movies are dubbed in french here!)

Airbus is the main employer (100,000 plus employees) in Toulouse and English is the main language used in the company. You could look at admin, logistics, HR or other office work at Airbus.

Good luck!

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Hello and welcome - I’ll start with the ‘nasty’ questions.

What are your current academic and or professional qualifications?

Have you learnt French other than by yourself ie do you have any externally tested certification? What level are you in each of the 5 skill areas?

We love ‘proper’ paper qualifications.

If you want a student visa you will get it if you have a confirmed place at a French university to do a particular course: you will be allowed to work a maximum of 964 hours in a year (eg 1st September 2024 to 31st August 2025) and your employer has to declare you at the Préfecture.

It used to be necessary to have validated a year or even two at university in the US in order to get a place at university in the EU but things may have changed.

If you don’t go to your lectures and/or you fail your exams and/or you work illegally your visa will not be renewed and you will be asked to leave France.

If you want to teach in France there are various options but if you don’t have a degree (preferably plus a master’s degree in something relevant) plus a non-bogus TEFL qualification it is complicated.

I don’t think you’re looking for a teaching job for the state but the requirements are higher anyway so I won’t go into it.

If you aren’t currently a bona-fide student even being a language assistant in schools is difficult (you organise it via the CIEP and the process starts in about January).

Where to live: the Mediterranean coast looks nice but if you don’t want places over 32°C (I had to look up what ‘90 degrees’ is, we don’t use Fahrenheit and most of us have no idea what it is) then the whole south coast is out - if you want water you need somewhere like Annecy or the Brittany/Normandy/Flanders coast. (Even Bayonne/Biarritz are hot, though you have access to the Pyrenees.)

Compared to most cities in the US pretty well anywhere in France is fairly safe (we don’t all have guns) and queer-friendly (nobody cares what you do in bed or with whom). You would be better off in a university town though so somewhere like Rennes or Rouen or Lille might be good.

I can’t stress too much how important conformity bureaucracy and hard work are for fitting in, in France, I know many people watch eg Emily in Paris, Amélie Poulain etc and think we’re a bunch of arty spontaneous romantic etc people but really we aren’t, we are a heavily bureaucratic, technocratic, diploma and planning obsessed, categorising sort of society.

If you want a work visa we will expect you to have qualifications we need, we have plenty of French and other EU (qualified) serving and restaurant workers, admin people etc: they don’t do those jobs as a side hustle, they have done a BTS or bac pro to do them, so a foreigner arriving with no qualifications and non-fluent French will not get a look-in.

I’m sorry if I’m not as positive from the off as eg the previous answer - but I am a fairly representative French person.

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Véro, think you summed it up nicely.

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I don’t currently live in France but one question struck me : “Why France?”

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I know, or I think, that this was aimed at the OP, but if not, in my case it was my wife’s idea, and I came to like it later.

We had a very boring weekend break in Ouistreham grace of a BF ‘special’ deal. A gloomy hotel that segregated us from the ‘paying’ guests and nothing interesting to do for me because Fran insisted on dragging me round all the estate agents to gaze in their windows. :slightly_frowning_face: :rofl:

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@David_Spardo hahah yes i wanted to give as much information as i could think of to make it easier for y’all to understand where i’m coming from. a novel, if you will.

queer-friendly is a common term in the states within the lgbtqia+ community in regard to safe places for us to exist in :slight_smile:

As an immigrant myself I am fully aware how vulnerable I am with law breaking.

i guess i didn’t realize that it was truly illegal. working under the table over here is so common that even tho it’s illegal it’s not really enforced or monitored. so thank you for pointing that out!!

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i hadn’t thought of this, thank you for pointing it out!

as of right now i will be renting :smiley:

ahhhh i’m SO excited about that bit

thank you so much for taking the time to read all of this and offering me all of this information, i really appreciate it

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@JaneJones

yes, i’m american. what do you mean by full healthcare coverage? is that something i would set up once i’m settled there, or something i would need from my country?

@Susannah

thank you for this! i feel like i have a pretty good understanding of the process we’ll have to go through for him but thank you thank you for pointing this out

ah okay this makes sense, i’ll look into my other ~cooler~ options

this means so much :face_holding_back_tears: thank you

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Arranging a property rental is surprisingly tricky when you’re arriving from a foreign country. In France it’s not always easy for landlords to evict sitting tenants. To avoid being out of pocket most landlords will have insurance against tenants not paying their rent. However the insurance companies can be demanding in terms of what paperwork they require from the landlord in order to provide the insurance.

In my case, none of the private landlords would consider us as tenants despite me having a regular income 4x our monthly rent. The problem was all my payslips were from the UK, and the insurance companies required French versions. It was a chicken & egg situation because I couldn’t register with URSSAF to obtain payslips without an address but I couldn’t get an address without a payslip.

We eventually found a letting agent who worked with our landlord and was prepared to forego the insurance until my payslips were processed by URSSAF.

What I’m trying to say is that you may face similar hurdles but don’t let it put you off… keep going and you’ll find a workaround eventually.

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As you are finding out, France is not a straightforward country to move to, so I am curious why you have decided on it.

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I replied twice but didn’t hit send as frankly you know your dog better than any of us, but I arrived in France with 3 huskies (I now sadly only have the one who arrived as a 13 week old) and I live probably about in the middle of the country and wouldn’t dream of going further south. My boy is just about doing ok with the temperatures we’re currently having, the 45+ degrees Celsius we had a few years back was a nightmare. While I guess being near the sea may well take the edge off the heat perhaps, I would think very hard as to whether yours could manage the heat and if not perhaps stick to the top half of the country.

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In order to get a visa you will have to show you have full healthcare insurance, not just travel insurance. After yiu have been here 3 months you can start the process to get into french health service, and once in (which take take many months) you can cancel the private health insurance

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I know how much the ridiculous health care costs are in the US from familyhaving treatments and accident and also for their dogs, but you will find it more affordable in France with many reasonable insurance companies to take out cover with plus an american insurer may not be acceptable to the authorities here in view of any claims plus the language problem. You will find vets are usually reasonable too and there are insurance companies like SantéPet with whom you can cover your dog for any unforseen problems. Have you been to France for longer than a holiday, maybe if you can get a dogsitter, take a visit and spend some time in a couple of regions of interest and see what it throws up, too late once you have burned your boats and arrived to find it was all a big mistake.

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Frankly , in my humble opinion, your venture is risky and fraughty with problems. Some have already been raised but I hope to expand them a bit.
Prior health insurance for foreigners staying several months is very expensive. Clearly you are not aware of this. Have you contacted the French Consulate? They will have most entry information.
No all US states have a reciprocal recognition of the driving licences. Even if your State is on the list you can drive on your US licence with full French insurance for a certain period only. It then needs exchanging which can takes months. You must investigate this & how it might effect you.
The South of France is hot in summer and with climate change getting hotter. 35c is not rare and maybe too hot for you and the dog?
France is not really a vegetarian country, but changing very slowly.
I think your intended reserves are too low. We live in expensive times.
Regarding renting. To rent privately might be difficult. Landlords are very cautious & selective and invariably now require a guarantee. Co location might be the better route initially. There are online sites.
Sorry to be rather pessimistic, but we have read stories that many French banks are relectant or refuse to open accounts for Americans due to US information exchange regulations. This may present a big problem.

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