I want to live in France! how am I gonna fully start my life over if I go to live there?

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Francoise

Everybody is crazy at France. They all want to live and work here. But to be frank with you, France is not the paradise you dream of. For a start , as you are from Canada, you need visa or working permit to enter France, then if you are ,either fluent in the language, or have a high professional education which they need, you may be lucky to find a job ( that depends on your luck cuz unemployment rate is so high in France ).Most people are living on claiming the state benefit especially those who married a French national to get the right to stay here. The food is fancy but fattish and very high in calories as the sauce in French cuisine favours using chantilly ( whipped cream ) and butter. Then you want to buy a house and a car. A mortgage is impossible for someone who hasn't got the permanent residency. Even if you arrive here in France and get married with a French national, you will then only get a carte de sÃ©jour ( card for staying ), after a few years, you may get a carte de rÃ©sident ( card for resident) if you qualify. But you will never get French nationality. People married French nationals here for 50 years and still only hold a carte de rÃ©sident. You need to work many many years to show the bank you are eligible to get a mortgage and it's not a big risk to lend money to you. About a car, it is easier, you only need to be a working person to buy a car and pay monthly in instalment. Still, car insurance is skyrocket if you don't have no claim bonus from you previous car insurance company either in France or from an European country. Since Nicholas Sarkozy 's in power, his government wanted to get rid of all the illegal immigrants in France, thus road blocks set up by the police and Gendemarie everywhere, you get stopped frequently everywhere you drive to be checked by them which is a real hassle to local people.
On the whole, to be honest with you, it's great to be a tourist or have a short holiday in France, but it's miserable to live here. Loads of paper works and documents requested everytime you want to apply for something, tax is charged on many unreasonable things ( France is call the tax capital of the world, everything is taxed). The other day I went to the TrÃ©sor public ( the Treasury ) to pay a bill, I heard someone asked the staff there that he wanted to give some money to his grandson to buy a house, how much tax he has to pay ? and the staff there tried to calculate it for him. It sounds shocking to you, isn't it? But no, we are used to this in France.Besides, crime rate is always high in France, especially since Romania joined the EEC, we have many Romanian gangs here, in French newspapers they called them 'pushchair gang ' cus these Romanian people carrying a pushchair all day long to search every bins in the street, picking up people's cast off to sell in the market, at the same time picking up personal informations from credit card, bills or other document containing personal details for illegal purposes. In fact these people are not the real Romanian who won't come to live in France, but the Gypsies who lived in Romania with their nationalities. Earlier this year , there are gangs attacking women who walked along the pavements. They drove by with a van and grabbed the women then locked them up and made them prostitutes.
It's only good to be like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise who all live in CÃ´te d'Azur and live with lots of security bodyguard with them.
Sorry to disappoint you but you can only learn the truth from somone who lives in France.

The Shadow

It's possible, but it may take longer and be more complicated than you think.

The first thing that you need to do is obtain legal residency. They won't allow you to simply show up, stay as long as you like, and get a job.

Contact the French Embassy in your country or the nearest consulate. They can tell you the process, what it costs, how long it takes, etc. If you can't become a legal resident, then none of your other planning will matter.

angelguy_paris

If you speak enough French and are willing to work long hours you can probably find a job in restaurant, bars or else...but as it was said before you will need to get valid paper first and work permit, so you will have to contact the French embassy near you.

manthebraces

You WON'T get any job there without a work visa and you can only get that if you can find an employer who is willing to HIRE YOU IN THE U.S. or Canada and swear they can not find someone with your unique skills in France.

In order to get just a RESIDENT ALIEN visa, you would have to provide PROOF of an INDEPENDENT INCOME of about $2500 PER MONTH... so you can prove you won't NEED TO WORK THERE in order to survive.

If you try to move there and rent an apartment without going through the legal formalities... you WILL be found out and you can expect a visit from the guys in the black leather trench coats who will 'invite' you to go with them the the Palais du Justice to explain just WHY you are living in THEIR country illegally... and the questions they WILL ask you can have some VERY embarrassing answers for YOU.

Valentin C

well u can see what you can do the best at and go to france to look for the job you are good at ....Ohh and you gotta learn french

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