France Forum

PaulduNord
Joined 2007
Posts: 3

17 years ago

Attending School in Paris - Family Coming - Obtaining Work

17 years ago

Hello all,

I am very happy to be a part of the community. I'd be grateful for any thoughts you might have on the questions below.

Next year, my wife and I plan to move to Paris for 9 months to a year. I will be attending school. We have a 6 year old boy.

As part of the funding for this venture, both my wife and I will need to work. I understand I will be able to work 1/2 time, but we are hopeful my wife will be able to secure work as well.

I am fairly fluent, and working to (regain) full French fluency; my wife is similarly working to recoup her facility with the language. We are both experienced in the hotel and restaurant industry - she is the winner of a national wine fellowship, and I am a chef, in the French tradition.

Questions:

1. Is it true what I have heard re: renting, whereby a full year's deposit may be required absent certain employment criteria (i.e., 4x the rent amount in monthly income), or that absent a rent or work history in Paris, a co-signer will likely be required?

2. Do any have thoughts on the possibilities for myself and my wife to obtain work in Paris? I know this question has been asked ad-nauseum, but I am wondering if any have specific thoughts, given our particular background in the food/wine industry?

3. Relatedly, I should add that my wife will shortly have EU citizenship - but from Estonia. My understanding is that post-2004 member state citizens are in many ways on the same footing as all non-EU nationals, with one exception, that since May of 2006, these post-2004 EU citizens at least are not subject to the "only if no French national is available" rule. Is this a correct understanding?

4. We are ideally looking for arrondisements that offer rents topping out, ideally, at about 620-650 Euros; while space is not an issue (we are a cozy little bunch, we three), I wanted to avoid areas that may be considered unsafe for my wife and child. My school itself is located in the Latin Quarter, and we are hopeful to be closer rather than further away from the school. I have heard the 16th, 17th, and parts of the 18th are good to look at. Any thoughts?

5. Education. Our son has no French, though we intend on working with him over the next several months. The private, bilingual elementary school programs that I have seen can be quite costly - do any know if the state schooling programs have provisions in place (at extra cost, if needs be) to handle children without French as a native language, or should we definitely be planning for one of the private, bilingual education programs?

6. Timeline. I understand these things take considerable time - is it reasonable to expect to obtain work, and housing, from the U.S., over the course of the next 6 months, or is this too short a timeline, too unrealistic?

Any and all thoughts, much appreciated.

Paul
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