working remotely (telecommuting) from France

[jena]

Bev - The requirement that you apply to your "local" consulate still exists, but Boston covers quite a few of the smaller NE states. Each consulate site lists its domain.

Our situation may be different from many, and our trials somewhat easier because we only applied for a 2 year visa. We are all just US citizens and do not have jobs with international companies. We are virtually long-term tourists, I suppose, who are renting an apartment and sending their children to school.

The apartment has been the hardest part of the whole process, starting with needing a French bank account to apply and needing a French address to open a French bank account - very Catch 22. And needing someone to guarantee (or your French bank) the rent. Everyone has been very kind to us though. I found it essential to have a French national friend when filling out applications because a lot of the form used acronyms I could not figure out - and they stood for things like "income from the state as a disabled veteran."

I guess my Number 1 recommendation for anyone trying to move to France is to go first and make some close friends.

Cheers and thanks for the advice. Jena

[ZMan]

Hi there,

I'm replying to this thread because I did just this exactly. I'm a web developer for a Seattle website and I telecommute from Paris. I applied for the long stay visa (over 6 months) at the San Francisco consulate. The visa is for visitors. I had to provide a bunch of bank statements and a letter from my employer stating they would keep paying me while I lived in France. Of course I also had to provide the rest of the stuff (insurance, motivation letter, rental lease, etc). I found an apartment on Craigslist (it's a chambre de bonne, but it's nice : >). The consulate guy didn't even ask any questions.

But don't celebrate yet. The visa itself is only valid for three months and ONE entry into the country so that you can apply for the titre de séjour. That's the thing you really need if you want to stay.

So, I went to my initial, unscheduled appointment to get my titre de séjour. The people were confused a bit about my request, but after I re-explained the situation, they seemed to find the "right" type of titre in their reference book (they were discussing with each other for about five minutes!), and they sent me away with a temporary card listing "professionnelle autre que saleriee" and an appointment at the préfecture on l'Ile de la cité about three weeks later.

I waited until then, got there, and they said I needed to reschedule an appointment with my translated insurance, employer documentation, and motivation letter. And also, documentation from the URSSAF. AHHH!! So, here's where I'm at now. I had no idea I had to produce that. I was never told I needed to. So, I'm trying to find out if I really have to. People are telling me that I need to have my American employer give their URSSAF address to the URSSAF and start paying social government taxes and such, which is just out of the picture (maybe I'm screwed).

The main, and funniest problem here is that I don't yet speak enough French to hold a conversation. To top it all off, my temporary card is valid until November 7th, so I'm on a tight deadline to get this all sorted out! I'm hoping that this is all just a misunderstanding, lost in translation. But it might not be, and I might need to book a flight back to Seattle pretty soon here.

Any advice would be awesome : ) I'll keep you updated.

[giantpanda]

Hi!

I am sorry, you did not expect this.

1. You should have registered as " travailleur indépendent ".

2. You are suject to URSSAF and French social contributions.

3. You are subject to doing an income tax return.

Yours,

giantpanda

[Bevdeforges]

Hi ZMan, and welcome to the forum. (Welcome to France, for that matter - I see you're discovering all the "joys" of the administration while you're here.)

One big problem (same one I encountered on my arrival) is that what they tell you at the consulate often bears little or no resemblance to what the préfecture officials consider to be "the law" in the situation. And in a head to head battle, the préfecture always wins.

Yes, to stay on in France as a "professionnelle autre que salariée" you need to be duly registered with the URSSAF (and all the other appropriate agencies) and paying your cotisations. It doesn't matter that you are working for a US company, nor that they are paying you "in the US." You are resident in France and working. (Actually, to be sticky about it, you are in violation of your original visa. As a "tourist" you aren't supposed to be working at all in France, but if they believed your stay was going to be limited to a few months, you're more or less ok to "stay in touch" with your employer as long as you aren't planning on taking up residence.)

Either your employer's French entity (if they have one) will have to sign you up and start making your payments for you, or you are going to have to establish yourself as a "business" or a "professional" and get yourself signed up for the various social insurances. Not speaking much French will definitely make this a "challenge." (And I'm not certain, but I suspect you aren't eligible for the new, simplified "micro-business" incorporation because you're not legally resident here in France in the first place - you're "just a visitor.")

Sorry to have to say it, but I'd book that flight if I were you. They aren't nearly as strict about immigration control as in the US, but they are starting to "make examples" of people and tighten things up a bit unless you have a reasonably powerful secondary reason for remaining in France. (In my case, I was rejected for my carte de séjour after being married to a Frenchman at the local mairie. The reason for the rejection was fairly trivial and it wound up being a matter of waiting them out.)
Cheers,
Bev

[ZMan]

Hi there - thanks for your responses. I've met with a translator / accountant with experience with the system (haha), and she's confirmed what you say here. I also found that I did in fact apply for the titre de séjour for travailleur independent. But nonetheless, it's all very expensive with French taxes and such for such a short stay, so I'm going to forego my titre de séjour, and I'll be buying that ticket (sigh).

I have a question. I've already made plans for two visitors to come to France and stay with me (travel tickets have been purchased) - I would like to travel with either of them to other countries like England, Morocco. The problem is, my 90 day visitor's visa will expire on October 29th, in the middle of the first visitor's trip, and the second visitor will be here in December.

I arrived here on July 29. I applied for my titre de séjour soon thereafter, which I will now let expire on November 11th. So, if I can get my 90 days renewed just once by leaving the Schengen countries at some point, this would get me through my visits and back home.

Is this possible? Is there any way I can stay here until the end of December on my automatic visitor's visa, with relatively low risks of being denied reentry into France during my trips with my visitors? I hold an American passport. When I arrived in Europe, I got a stamp only in Copenhagen, on my way to Paris - otherwise my passport is blank, except for the expired visa. Would it help to have my return ticket on hand before I did any traveling in December? Also, I rent a flat in Paris (don't know which details are important).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I realize I've gotten myself into quite a debacle, and that I'll need to resort to sneaky methods, if even possible. Thanks again!

[Bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by ZMan

I have a question. I've already made plans for two visitors to come to France and stay with me (travel tickets have been purchased) - I would like to travel with either of them to other countries like England, Morocco. The problem is, my 90 day visitor's visa will expire on October 29th, in the middle of the first visitor's trip, and the second visitor will be here in December.

I arrived here on July 29. I applied for my titre de séjour soon thereafter, which I will now let expire on November 11th. So, if I can get my 90 days renewed just once by leaving the Schengen countries at some point, this would get me through my visits and back home.

Is this possible? Is there any way I can stay here until the end of December on my automatic visitor's visa, with relatively low risks of being denied reentry into France during my trips with my visitors? I hold an American passport. When I arrived in Europe, I got a stamp only in Copenhagen, on my way to Paris - otherwise my passport is blank, except for the expired visa. Would it help to have my return ticket on hand before I did any traveling in December? Also, I rent a flat in Paris (don't know which details are important).

Technically speaking, the simple answer is no, you can't do that. However, practically speaking, there is little or no way for them to track just how long you have or haven't been in Schengen territory - other than the Danish stamp in your passport. Chances are, no one will bother you if you're touring around Europe with friends. IIRC at the end of a Schengen visa, you're supposed to spend at least as much time outside the region as you spent inside (i.e. 90 days in your case). But how often are you asked to show your passport?

The flat, however, is another matter. What is the term on that? If you rented it under a standard 3-year lease, you're going to have to give proper notice to get out of the lease. (Chances are you can invoke the clause that says you can break the lease on 30 days' notice if you have to move for "work-related" reasons.) You could run into problems if you continue to occupy the flat past the terms of your tourist visa - unless you want to continue paying the rent simply to have a "pied à terre" ready and waiting for your next stay in Paris.
Cheers,
Bev