[bsoncini]

Hello,

I am married to a French girl and I recently arrived in Paris with a Vie Privee et Famille long stay visa. I sent all my stuff to OFII and they mailed me back with all my information for medical visit and visite d'acceuil. And obviously, the meating will be three months after I arrived.

So anyway, I've started looking for jobs and have found a few companies interested in hiring me. My question is, my visa says "autorise travail". Do I need to wait until the meeting with OFII to work or can I start to work before then? At first I figured no, but the sheet OFII sent me says "si vous travaillez actuellement, muissez vous de tout document justifiant de cette activité (contrat de travail, feuilles de paye de moins de trois mois)"

Thanks in advance for any response. This forum has been a huge help for me over the past year with moving here.

 

[Bevdeforges]

Technically, I believe you are able to work with just the visa. However, practically speaking, your OFII obligations take a certain priority, particularly the obligation to complete the various "classes" that are part of your contrat d'acceuil et d'integration. If your French is adequate to get out of the lessons, you should be ok. But if you get "sentenced" to 200 or 400 hours of French classes, it's going to be difficult to hold down a job and fulfill that obligation.

Most employers prefer to wait until you have the titre de séjour or a carte de séjour that indicates your right to work. But all that phrase in French means is that, if you are already working as of the date of your OFII appointment, bring with you your work contract, pay slips and any other documents showing your employment status. (If you're already employed, you may get out of the meeting with the Pole Emploi designed to evaluate your employment potential.)
cheers,
Bev