So, you’ve decided to move from the United States to Paris, France.
Perhaps like myself you made this decision more or less on a whim with no real planning going into it before the decision was made, or perhaps you took a longer, more reasonable approach to the problem. Either way, you now have a series of things to do before you board that airplane.
Now, I should preface this by saying that I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a travel agency. I did find it useful, however, when I was planning my move to read through the notes of other people who had done roughly the same thing. There are only a handful of them on the internet (here are some) and if you’re seriously considering doing this, read them all in addition to this. Your mileage is certain to vary.What is amazing about this process is that most of it is dictated by government agencies, and yet nearly every step of the process is insanely vague. Therefore, I feel that sharing what we experienced could be hugely helpful to someone else trying to accomplish the same thing. Reading through the consulate docs are one thing, hearing the story of what real people went through is a bit different. Again, this is not a how-to, this is a how-we-did-done.
The Visa Process
Well, first things first, getting a French visa. In order to live in France for longer than the normal 3 months a tourist visa gets you, one has to get a long stay visa of some kind. There are several different types of long stay visas you can get, though most are super specific — being a student or an au pair, or marrying a French person. The one that seemed to fit us best was the “D” visa or long stay “visitor” visa. This is actually a little confusing to everyone involved, because I’m going to be working from home essentially, but not for a French company and not doing business in France.
The “D” visa essentially asks you to prove that you can live in France without ever being in danger of getting a job at a French company. I believe it’s normally for people who sort of want to long-vacation in France or semi-retire there, but working for a strange company that lets you work from anywhere fortunately and also occasionally frustratingly blurs the lines. Countries don’t really know what to do with people like me. However, this is the best option I could find that fit me.
Well, first things first, getting a French visa. In order to live in France for longer than the normal 3 months a tourist visa gets you, one has to get a long stay visa of some kind. There are several different types of long stay visas you can get, though most are super specific — being a student or an au pair, or marrying a French person. The one that seemed to fit us best was the “D” visa or long stay “visitor” visa. This is actually a little confusing to everyone involved, because I’m going to be working from home essentially, but not for a French company and not doing business in France.
The “D” visa essentially asks you to prove that you can live in France without ever being in danger of getting a job at a French company. I believe it’s normally for people who sort of want to long-vacation in France or semi-retire there, but working for a strange company that lets you work from anywhere fortunately and also occasionally frustratingly blurs the lines. Countries don’t really know what to do with people like me. However, this is the best option I could find that fit me.
Now then, there are 14 steps to the visa application process.
by Scott Chacon, Medium | Read more:
Image: uncredited
