digging for info on the Competence et Talent visa

[expatwannabe2010]

Hello, I'm new here! I'm looking into moving to France for a few years, maybe permanently... not sure yet. :-) After an initial email consultation with a lawyer in France, he said I would probably qualify for the Competence et Talent immigration visa (being an actress/model). I'm having trouble finding information or paperwork for this visa. Do I have to go to the Consulate in person for this, or is there info online? I want to make sure this is the visa for me. Otherwise I guess my next option is to enroll in school, but I'd prefer that my residency there not rely on the condition that I be in school. Does anyone here have experience with this particular visa? Look forward to your responses. :-) Thanks!

[Bevdeforges]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Basically this one requires you to propose a "project" that you contend will benefit France. Details here The ?Compétences et Talents? Card - Consulat Général de France à Washington

I suspect your chances are much better if you already speak decent to fluent French, as I believe the project proposal needs to be prepared in French.
Cheers,
Bev

[frogblogger]

The Chicago French Consulate is one English language site that has a reasonably clear explanation of what's involved - see here

The nature of the 'project' is of key importance, and it can't just be a study project, it has to demonstrate a potential to promote France on the world stage in that particular field. Not sure what that means to be honest, the laws and articles themselves don't seem to go into much detail.

I suppose if Julia Roberts or Emanuela De Paula decided to move to France they wouldn't encounter much opposition, and the project might not need to be too complicated