moving to Paris- excited but nervous

Have you thought of being an au-pair?
You'd have quite a few advantages: staying with a French family, i.e. speaking French (and improving) on a daily basis, not having to look for a job, having your own room...

Hello,

     I have never been anywhere really, but I have always dreamed of going to France! In fact my friend and I are planning a trip to go over there within the next year. I have been thinking that I may want to get adventerous and stay longer than just a few weeks. I too am working on a degree in Psychology but am only as far as my A.A. I know that I am not any help to you, but maybe we can help each other figure things out. Thanks!

Do i need to get a visa? A long stay visa is anything over 3 months.  To work in France, or in Europe for that matter, you need a visa + work permit, which a company must give you. A quick and cheap way of obtaining a long stay visa would be to become an au-pair or to enroll in a French course.  the former provides you with a place to stay and financial renumeration, both of which you must prove  before the government will grant you a visa. The latter guarantees you a visa, however it does not guarantee you a work permit, nor proof of financial support. 

Additionally, under those visas, you can only obtain work part-time (under 17 hours/week), so your income is capped.

Its not impossible to upgrade an au-pair/student visa to a visa with full-time work permit, however it is NOT easy.

(moderated)

Where do i look to find apartments?You must have proof of residence before you are granted a visa, and a hostel provides you with this, however living there can become costly.  I found an apartment on craigslist, however landlords aren't going to take you seriously until you are living here and able to meet you.

In short, come in on some sort of visa, student or au-pair, and have at least 6 months of money to survive while you make the transition.  and buy a open round trip ticket just so you have an out in case things don't turn out as planned.

hope that helps.

Thank you to all of you who replied. I leave this week and have a couple of interviews with english companies in Paris. I am going over there with no visa- but hope to find out shortly after my arrival how that will work. In order to obtain a work visa i need a job, but in order to find a job you need a visa... I luckily found a place that knows i dont have a work visa, but is willing to work with my on getting my papers. Not sure if i will have to return to the US to actually pick up my work visa, or if i can get it from France if im already working for a legit company.

I will keep you all updated on my experience and let you know how it works out for those of you who will be planning similar adventures.

Oh I just spent 2 months in Paris - the best place to get an apartment is lodgis.com - they specialize in short term and long term rentals and are pretty fair / honest people it seems.

As for your visa - I guess you have it sorted out already. I am also planning to move to Paris and will post another topic shortly.

Good luck to you, and please tell us about your experience when you get there.
I'm hoping to move to Paris next year so I need all the help I can get.
Enjoy your experience!
Syl

Project Paris 2010

My wife and I will be relocating to Paris at the end of September and would like to make friends and if anyone is willing to give us advice it would be greatly appreciated. Otto & Sofi

I just moved here too from Los Angeles and need a job as well I would say try the American Church they have many babysitting jobs and they provide housing at times.  I also want to start a group for people like us that would like to get together and help each other out as we slowly learn living in Paris.  It gets loneley when you know no one... you can contact me at kristinak777@yahoo.com...
Good Luck
Kristina

This is a great idea of having a meeting place to learn from our mistakes... Please provide additional information i.e., meeting place, times and things to bring...
KIT
Otto

Get a copy of FUSAC when you arrive. It's full of two things - teaching jobs, because there are never enough English teachers to go round, and appartments for rent. Most language schools will give you a job without a visa because they know that it will be just a formality when you have a CDI contract.

Hi!

I'm sorry that I can't help you with the information about work. Anyway, I hope that I can help you with the accommodation.

I came to live Paris, with my boyfriend, only a month ago and I know how hard can be to find a place to stay in Paris.

In the beginning we tried to rent directly from the owner  but we soon realized that it would take ages to be able to rent an apartment this way. They ask for a lot of paperwork, and there is always so many people searching for apartments that the owners arrange visits for a large number of people and after that they choose who is going to rent the apartment. So, it can be a while until you get to rent an apartment. So we tried an agency...
paris-apartment-rent.com/

Their apartments are very good, they have a lot of choice, and the staff is really nice and helpful. It was very easy to rent from them. In a couple of days everything was done and we were living in our sweet apartment. For us it was a very good experience.

mindbook.fr could be interesting for you.

Have fun in Paris...

For flats etc try:

appartager.com/

It's sort of like Gumtree.com, with most of the ads being for a room in a shared house. This usually means you don't have to deal with a complicated letting agency process and can pay rent directly to a live in landlord or whatever. Really helped my friend who moved to Lyon.

Note - website is only in French.

Hi I plan to move to Paris too next year. Does anyone have experience getting professional jobs? I am a US lawyer and I am just starting to learn French. 

I also have an American friend who will join me. He would be up for English teaching at first, but ideally would like to work in the wine industry. Would this be hard to get into if his level of French is also very basic?

Anyway look forward to hearing all of your experiences.

Two great sources of information for english speaking ex-pats are Fusac for finding jobs and accommodation, and gogoparis.com to find fun things to do
Hope this helps!