Sacramento to Paris!

[Kendrakay]

Hi all. :] I'm new to the forums, so bear with me! This is my first post. Anywho, within the past year or so, I've made the decision to re-locate to Paris from the Sacramento, CA area. The only issue is...I have absolutely NO IDEA where to start. Does anyone have any advice? Or some useful websites?

[Bevdeforges]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Having done much the same thing - only in a roundabout way - the first thing you need to do is to determine how/if you can get a "long stay visa" for France. These are not easy or quick to come by - first step might be to contact the French Consulate in San Francisco (Consulate General of France in San Francisco) and see what they can tell you about visas available for what you want to do in France.

Do see the "sticky" post at the top of the French section here. If you have the language thing covered, you'll still have to do something to support yourself, which means you will have to find a job in France before you apply for a visa. This will take quite a bit of time, depending on what line of work you are in. Unemployment in France is still quite high, particularly for young people, and coming from the US you will need some "special" skill or experience that is not commonly found in the French population.

If you are retired, you'll have to prove that you have sufficient income to support yourself in France (and Paris is an expensive city) and that you have health insurance coverage equal to the French national plan. Retirees are always at the mercy of exchange rates, and many US retirees in France are being squeezed by the weak dollar.

The other website you should study carefully is the Service-Public site SERVICE PUBLIC - Particuliers (the French pages). There is lots of excellent information available here, particularly in the Etrangers en France section. But, each prefecture and département has their own take on the rules, so just because you see it on the website doesn't mean that's how it works in your case. (One of those things you learn to deal with after a few years of living here. )

As I've said to many others, it won't be easy, but it's not impossible. Just remember things happen s-l-o-w-l-y in France.
Cheers,
Bev

[giantpanda]

Originally Posted by Kendrakay

Hi all. :] I'm new to the forums, so bear with me! This is my first post. Anywho, within the past year or so, I've made the decision to re-locate to Paris from the Sacramento, CA area. The only issue is...I have absolutely NO IDEA where to start. Does anyone have any advice? Or some useful websites?

Hi!

Could you indicate :

Are you married?
Is one of you French?

Later will quite change the information you will require.

Yours,

giantpanda

[Kendrakay]

I've got the language barrier covered. :]

But no, I'm not married. is that going to be good for my situation, or complicate things?

[Bevdeforges]

Not being married is, in some ways an advantage. If you were married and both of you were Americans, you could get a visa based on only one having a job offer - but the "trailing spouse" would get a non-working residence card unless they could also line up their own job before applying for the visa. If you were married to a French person, you'd be entitled to a visa, but with working privileges deferred for a year or two. (It keeps changing.)

If you aren't going to be working, you will need a reason to move to France. (And adequate resources, including health insurance.)
Cheers,
Bev

[giantpanda]

Originally Posted by Kendrakay

I've got the language barrier covered. :]

But no, I'm not married. is that going to be good for my situation, or complicate things?

Hi!

See the legal details.

Etrangers en France - Service-public.fr

You are non-communautaires. ( Not from an EU country ).

IThe situation has been toughened up last years.
Some US consulate say you have to start at a French consulae in US unless you come on a tourist visa.

Yours,

pomhorn

[Kendrakay]

Its most likely going to also complicate things if I have pets I need to move as well, huh?

[Bevdeforges]

Actually, the pets will have a far easier time of it than you will. Basically, all they need is a health certificate and their shots up to date. (If it only were so simple for us humans.)

Well, unless you've got something exotic and potentially threatened or threatening... But cats and dogs are generally pretty easy to move over. (There is, BTW, an excellent pet transport service in San Francisco that will give you all the information you'll need, even if you don't use their services.)
Cheers,
Bev