[bparry]

Hello Everyone,

I am a 26 yr old Australian citizen with a degree in civil engineering and arts (majors in Spanish and French) - I've been out working now for 2 years since so I dont have a huge amount of experience yet.

When i was studying i did my end of studies project over in France (Grenoble) and managed to pick up the language fluently but now I want to go back to work (and live) but i dont know how or even if it is possible with the way the system is now. How likely is it that a French company will hire/sponsor me to head over and work for them? I've applied for a few positions online - I'm not sure how interviews would happen apart from over the phone, but would that be enough for companies? If i can't get a job by applying from here, how should i go about it? Also what would a likely starting salary be over there?

My grandfather was Welsh which i believe lets me get at least a UK 5 yr ancestry visa (I dont think that extends to the EU though), so if i applied for that and headed over to the UK would it make it easier to transition across to France? Even if i had to live in UK for 5 years I'd consider it, but i'd much prefer a direct route.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer

 

[bparry]

[Thanks for the response Bev,

Unfortunately I've no way to get an EU visa so I'm stuck trying for a working stay visa. I had read about the immigration laws tightening up but it sounded mostly directed towards non-French people with French university degrees, if that's happening i suppose it doesn't leave much hope for me when i don't even have a French diploma.

I will still keep applying though, it's like you say - I might just send an application to the right place at the right time and get lucky, but if not I've lost nothing by trying. Do you think I should put that I'll be visiting France in the near future and that I'm willing to pay my relocation costs into the Lettre de Motivation? I'm never really sure if in French the LM needs to follow a certain structure - at the moment I've just written how i would apply to somewhere here in Australia - I hope that isn't hurting my applications too much.

Thanks again,
Ben