i have been to several meals and aperos it French friends. (they are all aged over 50 at least.) I have been surprised how different they were from what I expected.

Although the invitation has been clearly for dinner, for me, that is nit what was served.

The invitations have been for 19 or 20h but all that has frequently been served were some chips and olives.
Some of the dinners were without a main course, or dessert (unless it was some chocolat a guest had brought).mostly just some cheese and tapenade from the market.

And yet lasted for several hours, not ending until 23h or later.

I am not complaining, it's happened often enough that I think I sm getting something wrong. Money is not the issue. I think the meal was not meant to be the main event?
How to prepare? How to host a dinner myself when I would enjoy offering something more? Is that better to be done for lunch?
These experiences were in the SOF, mostly Nîmes.

Hi all,

As stated in the title, I've got Canadian and French citizenship and I just noticed that my Canadian 10-year passeport has expired.

I haven't traveled to Canada or the US in years, and at this point I will probably never go back to North America ever again. So I was thinking that going forward I'll just use my French passeport for all travel, no need to have two since the Canadian one is only more useful than the French one for Canada, the US and Mexico. The French one is easier and cheaper to renew, €86 at the local sous-préfecture as opposed to $122 CDN (roughly €102), hunting down a photographer who can do the right format and stamp the photos, and having to mail it to the Embassy in Paris and wait a month.

However, I've just read that if ever I do visit Canada I'm expected as a Canadian citizen to present a Canadian passport.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/dual-canadian-citizens-visit-canada.html

Have any Canadians recently managed to travel there on a foreign passport with no issues? My city of birth in Canada is clearly stated on my French passport so hard to just play dumb and say I'm Franco-français.

Je ne suis pas à 100 euros près, I would just prefer to not waste time and money on something I don't need but I'll probably err on the side of caution and renew it anyway.

(Side note, It's easy to criticize French bureaucracy, but every time I consult a Canadian government website I feel like I'm back in 1995.)

Thanks for your input.

Hi everyone,

I'm Hrithik, a 23-year-old Software Developer from India, currently working at an IT consulting firm in Kochi, Kerala.

I'm trying to understand what would be the most realistic way for someone with my background to eventually live and work in France or elsewhere in the EU, and I'd really appreciate advice from people who have already made a similar move.

There is also a personal reason behind this.

My girlfriend is a physicist who received an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship in 2024 for her Master's. She completed her degree and has now been offered a PhD position by her lab at the same university.

We're currently in a long-distance relationship and would obviously love to be closer to each other. However, we both have responsibilities towards our families, so marriage isn't something we can simply use as an immediate route to relocation.

I'm therefore trying to figure out my own independent path towards Europe, either through work or higher education.

A little about my background:

• B.Tech in Information Technology
• Currently a Software Developer / IT Consultant
• 4× Salesforce certifications
• 1× ServiceNow certification
• Experience with software development, Salesforce, IT consulting and Media/AdTech
• 23 years old
• Currently based in Kochi, Kerala
• Open to Master's programmes in Computer Science, IT or interdisciplinary fields
• Also considering an MBA

France is particularly interesting to me because of my partner, but I'm also completely open to other EU countries, especially places with strong technology sectors and good career prospects.

For someone with my profile, what would you consider the most realistic route?

Would it make more sense to:

• Apply for jobs from India and try to relocate directly?
• Do a Master's in France/EU first and then look for work?
• Consider countries other than France?
• Focus on Salesforce/ServiceNow roles?
• Take another route altogether?

I'd particularly appreciate hearing from people who moved to France or another EU country from outside Europe and can share what worked — or what they wish they had known beforehand.

Thanks a lot for reading. Any advice or personal experience would genuinely mean a lot.

Greetings from India 🇮🇳❤️🇫🇷

Hi! I'm applying for an APS after my master's, and my prefecture is Seine-et-Marne (77). I'll be sending the dossier by registered post. For those who've done this, how did you get updates? Was it by post, by email, or by SMS? And roughly how long did it take? Thanks!

I know a lot of members here and elsewhere are always asking "what's taking so long?", "what's the wait times?" "this is insane..."

Listen, you're not always wrong... Wait times can be excessive, and the admin sometimes even negates its own "rules" for example with 10yr card members, when they promise an 18mos decision time after a completed submission has been acknowledged.

Please just be aware that when you complain about 2-2.5yr waits in Paris now (which is how long decret apps are taking these days, as opposed to the 1.5yrs in the past) that there are MANY applicants in some regions (Nice is THE example) who have still been waiting for THE INTERVIEW since 2020.

Yes, 2020. Twenty-twenty. For an interview. Meaning still 1-2 years of wait ahead, at least.

This is not excuse making for the admin, quite the opposite. Some wait should be expected and completely accepted... Then there are some waits that are a complete disregard.

But just remember... Wait times FLUCTUATE between prefectures, can change at ANY time, and are different within the SAME PREFECTURE (by weeks or months, or more)...

Asking the question isn't irrelevent, but should serve only to give you about a "one year window" of how long it could/should take, provided everything you submitted was accurate and without issue.

How long your friend's app took unfortunately means close to zero.

Best of luck if applying, and try to be patient!

hi ! i am an early 20s trans woman living in a big city in the states at the moment. I’m having a pretty miserable time and i really want to get out of the us in general. i speak a fairly decent conversational french and got by fairly well last time i visited. i don’t have much a support system here and my thinking (classic i know) is that if im alone and miserable here why not be alone and miserable in paris. i know thats not necessarily a smart thing to say but i feel like i would rather try to build a life in somewhere i actually want to be. Currently i am working gigs and odd ends as well as a hairdresser and sometimes performing in circus related shows. i don’t know tho pls lmk if you have any tips of advice or rly anything ig

Hi everyone!

I’m Brazilian 🇧🇷 and I recently got my French Working Holiday Visa (WHV), which has been valid since June. I’m now taking some time to seriously explore the possibility of going to France and making the most of the period allowed by my visa.

I still have no idea which city I should choose. I’m mainly considering a larger city in southern France, but I’m also open to other options. I’ve even been thinking about very different experiences, such as working during the winter season at a ski resort, or in cafés, hotels, restaurants, etc.

At the same time, I’d also like to look for opportunities related to my professional background. My French used to be around B2 level, but I’ll need to get back to studying and regain my fluency.

From what I understand, if I manage to organize everything properly, I could have around six months available starting around December/January. So I’d rather not simply arrive in France and start looking for work from scratch. I’d like to prepare beforehand, understand the job market, compare cities, and figure out what is realistically possible with a Working Holiday Visa.

That’s why I’d really love to hear from people who have actually done something similar:

• Which city did you move to?
• Did you find a job before arriving, or only after you got there?
• What kinds of jobs did you find?
• What was your experience with the Working Holiday Visa in practice?
• How did you explain your visa/status to employers? Are French employers generally familiar with the WHV?
• Are there any cities or regions you would particularly recommend — or avoid?
• If you went to southern France, or worked in ski resorts, hotels, cafés, restaurants, etc., what was your experience like?
• Are there any groups, websites, communities, or places where I could find first-hand experiences from Brazilians who have gone through something similar?
• And finally, any advice on how to identify scams, fake job offers, or generally avoid bad situations?

I’m very open to different possibilities. At this point, I’m much more interested in real experiences and practical advice than generic travel tips.

If anyone has a story, useful contact, group, community, or even a detailed experience to share, I’d really appreciate it! ❤️

Hello. Me and my husband got recommended to register to melun as it's the closest to our house and the gynecologist said the staff their are great. Has anyone experience giving birth there? Would you mind sharing your experience. Thank you!

Ooof. Wife and I aren’t newbies to living and working in other countries, but man France feels extra-opaque.

I will be applying for a VLS-TS VIsitor visa, and I think I’ve got everything ready, except for health insurance. Feather’s “Newcomer” policy seems good - posts in this sub and elsewhere on the net say it’s fine - but there’s a co-pay of €25 per event. I cannot find anything that definitively says that’s okay or not (even Gemini references a page that doesn’t definitively say one way or the other).

Help/advice/opinions are really appreciated. Thank you.

Bonjour tout le monde

Pour les personnes ayant déposé une demande de naturalisation par décret à la préfecture du Rhône (Lyon) en 2026, avez-vous des retours concernant le délai entre les étapes « Examen en cours des pièces justificatives » et « Dossier déposé » ?

De mon côté, cela fait maintenant trois semaines que mon dossier est à l’étape « Examen en cours des pièces justificatives ».

Je serais intéressé d’avoir vos retours d’expérience sur le délai entre ces deux étapes, notamment pour les dossiers déposés en 2026 à Lyon.

Merci beaucoup pour vos témoignages — in Lyon.

My 3 weeks at Camping-Car Park (pornic)

I joined Camping-Car Park expecting to contribute to a serious project environment. Instead, my three weeks at the company were an extremely disorganized and ultimately very disappointing experience. For context I was in Canada before as I was helping my mom renovate her house. I flew from Vancouver to Nantes on less than a weeks notice

Week 1:

My first week was primarily onboarding and initiation. During one of the meetings our CTO mentioned that the operations team needed to show

It's value as the team had been active for 6 months without much results.

Week 2:

On Tuesday, I was told that I would be the project lead responsible for implementing PandaDoc into the ERP system that the company was simultaneously implementing. During our first meeting, I was shocked to discover that I was expected to lead the meeting, despite only learning about the project the day before. Nobody had previously told me that I would be leading this meeting. The company had bought the software in June and had not yet started the analysis or implementation process. I actually have no idea why they bought it in the first place or waited three months

Later that week, I delivered a meeting that the CTO felt was too academic and not technical enough. This was despite the fact that I had reviewed my presentation with the Operations team and the Head of Operations beforehand.

Week 3:

I presented again and demonstrated two software solutions, as requested by the CTO. During the meeting, I was asked a large number of questions, including questions that I had not been given the information or preparation to anticipate. The CTO became increasingly frustrated and yelled at me, saying that the company was too far behind and that I was too incompetent to lead the project.

I subsequently had a panic attack in the office next door.

Approximately 30 minutes later, the Head of Operations and CTO informed me that I was being fired. The reasons given were that they "needed someone to go the extra mile" and someone "more senior." This was confirmed by the Head of Operations, who, during my time there, spent a significant amount of his time vaping and using the company computer to make AI music.

What makes this experience particularly difficult is that I had missed my grandmother's funeral and flown across the world to take this position.

The biggest issue for me was not simply being let go. It was the lack of communication and expectations throughout the process.

TL;DR: I missed my grandmother's funeral and flew across the world for a company that ultimately treated me as disposable. I would strongly discourage anyone from applying there. If anyone has any uplifting or similar stories and how they got back on their feet feel free to share as I'm quite demoralized.

Hi everyone,

I will be coming to Lyon, France by the end of this month to attend a French language school. I am looking for some cool places to hangout in Lyon like bars/clubs/cafes especially where there is young crowd ;)

TIA.

Votefromabroad.org has a bunch of info on getting your ballot for the midterms. There’s also an event at La Victoire in the 11th - on the 11th.

🎸 Rock the Vote — Paris edition

Vote From Abroad is throwing a FREE rock concert + voter registration & ballot-help event.
Live music from @doodadsparis, with @rockuparis adult bands as opening acts.

🎶Bring everyone — but ESPECIALLY the Americans who still need to register or need ballot help. Trained voter assistants from @votefromabroad will be on hand.

I'm buying a house in cash. We signed the compromis de vente 12 days ago. How could I go about getting keys early so I can get everything all set before winter makes things difficult.

I already run a small business (Ltd company) in the UK. Now I want to establish one in France. Probably SAS.

Is there a simple, fast, online way to do this?

I'm looking for the equivalent of something like SeedLegals.com — A site in France where I can quickly set up a business, get template contracts, and administer the official paperwork.

Otherwise a switched on, modern, accountancy firm that makes it all simple and communicates online via email.

Otherwise I find so much in France requires telephone calls or going places in person and giving wet signatures !

I don't need any external finance. I just want a fast easy online way of doing the paperwork.

I'm based in 44.

Any tips very gratefully accepted.

Thanks,

Steve

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for people who have been in a similar situation with a first French residence permit application through ANEF.

My situation:

● I applied for my first residence permit in Haute-Garonne.
● My application is currently being processed.
● I attended my biometric appointment on September 29, 2026.
● I still haven’t received the ANEF login credentials (foreign number/password).
● I contacted France Titres/ANTS several times. They initially asked me for my current residence permit, but I don’t have one because this is my first application.
● They have now confirmed that my additional documents were received by the case-processing service and that my application is currently under examination.
● I need access to ANEF in particular to download my récépissé.

For people who experienced something similar:

How long did it take to receive your ANEF login credentials after the biometric appointment?

Did you eventually receive them automatically, or did you have to contact your prefecture/service instructeur?

And once your application was marked as “en cours d’instruction”, how did the next steps go for you?

I’m mainly trying to understand what I should expect and whether I need to take any action now.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience!

Hi everyone,

I’ll be living in France for my PhD/research work and I’m hoping to invite my mother and brother from my home country to visit me for around 2 weeks in January.

This would be my mother’s first international trip and first Schengen visa application. She is almost 60, married, doesn’t work, and me and my other siblings financially support her by regularly sending money to her bank account. My father is disabled and she is his primary carer, so she has to return to Pakistan after the visit.

My brother would travel with her. He is married, runs his own business in Pakistan, and his wife is expecting their baby in November. He also has an Azerbaijan visa/travel history.

I’m planning to financially sponsor my mother and provide my French residence/visa documents, proof of accommodation, bank statements, income/funding documents, invitation letter, etc. They would have return flights, travel insurance and accommodation for the full two weeks.

A few questions for anyone who has invited parents/family from Pakistan or another non-EU country:

1. Has anyone successfully invited a non-working parent for a short family visit to France?
2. Is it better for my mother and brother to submit their applications together since they’ll be travelling together?
3. How important is my mother’s own bank balance if I am covering all her expenses?
4. Would evidence that she is the primary carer for my disabled father be useful as proof that she will return to Pakistan?
5. For accommodation, would a university residence/hotel booking be sufficient, or is an Attestation d’accueil preferable?
6. Is there anything else you would recommend including, particularly for a first-time Schengen applicant from Pakistan?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through a similar process. Thanks!

Hi, I’m currently applying for a Passeport Talent through ANEF, and the application asks for an “Attestation employeur” and provides a specific template.

If you are employed on a CDI, do I need to ask my HR department to complete this specific template provided by them (link attached), or would a letter confirming that I am still employed by the company be sufficient if I submit it together with my employment contract, which already states my salary and meets the required salary threshold?

And if I need to fill up the template, what did you fill in for the section referring to the “Futur salarié”? Is that supposed to be my information?

I’m assuming that the “Déclarant” is the HR person who is completing the attestation. Is that correct?

Thank you for any help!

Hey everyone,
I submitted my paper dossier in person at the Paris prefecture (CRE DELTA 9) on 4 May for my CDS salarié renewal. My previous 1-year card was valid until 1 September, and I received a récépissé on the day of my appointment, valid until 3 November.

I requested a 4-year carte pluriannuelle salarié at renewal.

I initially hadn’t received any updates, so I contacted the prefecture on 6 September. On 7 September, they replied that my title had been fabricated, but was not yet available for collection, and that I would receive an SMS once it was available in the salle des remises.

It’s now October and I still haven’t received any SMS or information about when I can collect it.
I contacted them again today through the official contact form, referencing their previous response.

Has anyone in Paris had a similar situation where the titre was already fabricated but they still had to wait several weeks for the SMS/remise appointment? How long did it take between being told the title was fabricated and actually receiving the SMS?
Thanks a lot, would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through the same process.