How I Received My Visa to France

I’ve been in love with France ever since my first journey to Bordeaux in 2010. Pals I had met again in Thailand confirmed me across the space and launched me to French tradition. It was my first time in France and I cherished the meals, the wine, and the folks.

However that love grew to become an obsession when, after Bordeaux, I stepped out of the Paris metro and onto the Champs Élysées. The lights, the vitality, the mystique! There was magic within the air. I felt like I had recognized the town my complete life and I used to be merely returning dwelling.

Since then, Paris has had a agency grip on my coronary heart. Through the years, I spent numerous visits exploring France and Paris particularly. I’ve run excursions within the metropolis and I spent a couple of months residing there in 2019.

Final August, after one more sojourn, I assumed to myself, “What if I moved again?”

I used to be rising a bit bored with the NYC courting scene, the rising value of residing, and felt like creatively, I used to be in a rut. With AI coming for creators like me and the trade altering, I used to be somewhat misplaced on what, profession smart, would come subsequent.

Briefly, I wanted a change.

And Paris appeared like the very best place to go.

It’s cheaper than NYC, I had pals there already, I’ve all the time wished to study French, it could make a fantastic base for exploring Europe, and I may begin writing my subsequent e book there. There’s nothing like a change in surroundings to get the creativity flowing!

However the query remained: how do you progress to France?

In spite of everything, they don’t have a digital nomad visa, and also you’re restricted to 3 months should you go to in your common Schengen vacationer visa.

Effectively, it seems that it’s not really that onerous. (And whereas I can solely converse for Individuals, I believe the standards are related for Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, and different “developed” nations.)

If you wish to transfer to France, you may have 4 primary choices:

Pupil visa
Lengthy-term customer visa
Entrepreneur
Expertise visa

The scholar visa is fairly simple. It’s worthwhile to enroll in a full-time college program and present you may have sufficient funds to assist your self (round 600 Euros per 30 days). A good friend is presently there on this visa, as she is doing a nine-month intensive French program to change into fluent. You continue to have to use for the visa, however should you’re enrolled in an accredited college, you’ll possible get permitted. One other profit to this visa is which you can work part-time on it!

However this visa is contingent on being in class, so should you go away or stop, it’s voided. Nevertheless, if you find yourself completed, you possibly can change this to a “job seekers” visa, which may give you as much as one other six months in France (or extra relying on how lengthy your program was).

I thought of making use of for the entrepreneur visa, however the software course of is fairly complicated and may take months to be permitted. It’s important to arrange your corporation in France — and that’s a whole lot of paperwork. It’s important to present that your corporation makes cash, has shoppers (at the very least one among them being French), and may assist you full time (you must make at the very least the French minimal wage). They are going to scrutinize your property and financials loads and also you’ll must register your corporation in France and pay French taxes.

Moreover, France provides a expertise visa. When you’re an skilled in your discipline (with verifiable accreditations and accolades), this could possibly be visa to use for, particularly should you plan to remain in France for a very long time and need to bodily work there. However, once more, you’ll must have some supply of revenue and plan to do bodily enterprise within the France. When you’re not an educational however somebody within the arts, you must present how you will add to the “tradition of France” ultimately.

Whereas I’d meet the necessities for each these visas, the method for both would have been time consuming, and, since I’m undecided France goes to be my without end dwelling, I made a decision to not undergo that course of.

So I went with the long-term customer visa, formally referred to as VLS-TS visiteur. This permits me to remain as much as 12 months in France and is renewable within the nation. It does include a whole lot of restrictions, nevertheless: I can’t bodily work right here and I’m not allowed into the French social welfare system.

It’s additionally the visa a whole lot of Individuals (and most retirees) are coming in on. If in case you have passive revenue or retirement financial savings and simply need to reside in France, this can be a good possibility for you. It permits you to arrange a checking account and it may be renewed just about indefinitely.

The paperwork for this visa (which I’ll get into in a bit) primarily comes down as to if or not you possibly can assist your self. French authorities need to ensure you received’t be a burden on the system.

My greatest query centered round whether or not or not I may “work” on this visa. Quite a bit creators and digital nomads are making use of for — and getting — this visa.

However bear in mind: you aren’t allowed to work on this visa so how are you going to work should you can’t work?

So let me take a second to speak about “work” from a authorized standpoint.

As I discussed, there’s no digital nomad visa that permits you to work in France. And the French tax workplace stated final July that distant work is taken into account taxable — however there are not any official legal guidelines that. That’s simply their opinion and there’s been no progress in codifying that opinion. In reality, my visa doesn’t even include a tax quantity, so it’s unattainable for me to be taxed. I couldn’t pay taxes even when I wished to.

The visa workplace asks the way you’ll assist your self if you find yourself in France and one of many sources of revenue they settle for is “revenue from work.” I used to be very open that my technique of assist could be the revenue from this weblog and my books.

The system there actually hasn’t caught as much as distant work. It nonetheless defines “work” as one thing you do bodily that would take away a job from a French individual.

So may I run strolling excursions in Paris? Nope. May you’re employed at a café? Nope.

However does scripting this weblog submit rely as work? In spite of everything, nobody is paying for it. It’s a free useful resource. Does going to a café to work on the subsequent nice American novel rely? What about my weekly e-newsletter that has affiliate hyperlinks (that generate revenue) in it? Is writing that thought of work?

The grey space is appreciable, so the very best factor to do is to speak to a lawyer. I like to recommend Daniel Tostado (sure, that’s his actual title), one of many greatest American-French immigration legal professionals in Paris. He has an enormous regulation agency and often meets with authorities officers to make clear the principles on this. He gave me some stable recommendation.

For this long-term customer visa, the applying course of is fairly simple. You go to the French authorities web site, fill out your software, take the applying quantity to the TLScontact web site, and make an appointment. (France outsources the appointment course of to this firm, which then sends all the things to the French consulate for approval.)

The primary stuff you’ll need to reveal are that you’ve lodging for 90 days in your software and sufficient revenue to assist your self. They simply need to ensure you aren’t going to be a burden on the system. I went overboard. Right here’s what I dropped at my appointment:

The appliance (you must convey a printout)
A affirmation of the appointment
Further passport images
Proof of lodging (this may be Airbnbs, accommodations, or somebody’s dwelling — if it’s the latter, ensure that they’re the proprietor!)
A letter testifying I received’t work
A monetary abstract letter explaining why I’m transferring there and my supply of revenue
Medical insurance that meets French authorized necessities (I used Mondassur.)
Three months of financial institution statements displaying common deposits
A second checking account, my tax returns, and my W-2

I didn’t want the second checking account, tax returns, or W-2 (they weren’t required) however the lady on the appointment stated the extra proof you had the higher and it wouldn’t harm. And one other good friend who acquired this visa didn’t convey past what was requested within the software kind. However I wished to take no possibilities!

On the appointment, the workers double-checks your paperwork, takes your biometric information, collects the charges, after which sends your passport to the embassy for processing. Formally, it takes as much as 15 days to course of your visa, however everybody I do know appears to get it again inside every week.

The worst half was not figuring out in case you are permitted till your passport is returned. Whilst you can monitor the progress of your software, you don’t know the decision till your passport is again in your palms. Whereas I used to be ready (and anxiously spiraling), I seemed on Reddit and located that almost all denials had been for lack of revenue or points with their lodging, which appear to be the 2 most vital issues to have excellent in your software.

When you get your visa again, you possibly can enter France any time after the beginning date. After you enter, you may have 90 days to register your visa with the state (they offer you somewhat QR code with directions). This lets you “formally” be on this long-term visa. (It’s a extra paperwork type of factor.)

As soon as that’s completed, there’s nothing else to do and you may keep in France (and Europe) till your visa expires!

So, should you’re contemplating transferring to France, these are your choices. However, as all the time, I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t authorized advance. In regard to work and different points or questions, it’s vital that you simply search authorized counsel and get their skilled opinion!

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