16
In France, the law does not specify what counts as a valid ID, which is why official guidelines, like the one cited by @drat, remain deliberately vague (“Elle peut”) and mention things like “witness testimony”. In fact, article 78-2 of the code de procédure pénale provides that
Les officiers de police judiciaire et, sur l'ordre et sous la responsabilité ...
13
It's illegal for a bank to refuse you as a customer, even if you are illegally on french territory for example. If a bank do so, you can call the Banque de France that will enroll you in a random french bank.
Although it's illegal, lots of banks try to trick people, especially poor one, students, strangers, people who get debts, etc.
If you don't want or ...
13
Embassies often have lists of doctors that speak the language of the country in question. I would call them and ask if they have a recommendation. That's how I found doctors in Asia.
The UK Embassy in France lists for example a link to to AngloInfo, which in return has this page here about healthcare in France.
The French US embassy has a list of English ...
13
It's relatively easy, yes, but there are several caveats:
You need to become a resident in France before you apply (and this requirement is assessed more broadly than residence for, say, tax purposes). It's reasonably easy if you have family/marry someone (a registered partnership or PACS is good too), not so much if you want to qualify for a work permit ...
13
Yes, you are French, and the reason is your dad was French the day you were born (at least it seems very likely it was the case).
As you are French, you can request a passport or national ID from your city. You will have to prove you are French by showing a birth certificate and a proof your dad was French at that time.
12
This website by the French government states the following on the subject:
La personne contrôlée doit justifier de son identité.
Elle peut présenter un titre d'identité (carte nationale d'identité, passeport ou permis de conduire), une autre pièce (document d'état civil avec filiation, livret militaire, carte d'électeur ou carte vitale), voire un ...
10
This is indeed a pretty tough question and I know a lot of people to whom it happened.
There are no easy answer and as far as I know, you will need some trick. The solutions I heard of were to have someone (close enough) helping you by giving his/her address (he can write a paper saying you live with him/her) and passing you the mail. I heard of some ...
10
Canada (like most countries) doesn't generally allow "working in Canada" for visitors (tourists). In other words, you're not allowed to work in the local job market, whether temporary or permanent.
Some types of remote work, for a non-Canadian employer, are possible, as you're then not directly competing in the local job market.
If you qualify, there are ...
9
“Dossier” simply means “file” implying all the documents you need to submit or even simply your “case”. It's not something you get and use everywhere but just whatever you need to put together for a given purpose. A little more context would therefore be needed to give more details.
For example, in the sentence “your dossier doesn't need to be nearly as big ...
9
Well, we've done that quite a few times (from Romania to France), and you need to have the full vaccination set done – rabies vaccination (la rage) being really the critical one, as well as have your animal identified.
You may need to make a passport for him, though I guess there's a european legislation regarding animals identification.
I'm pretty sure if ...
9
I had a resolution to this matter a few months ago, so I thought I'd post the answer. The short answer: it is possible to use the original license state as the source of reciprocity.
The long version: When checking with the prefecture I learned that 3 out of 4 employees (literally) did not know the rule regarding licenses transferred to the EU. Those 3 told ...
9
Merely knowing your bank account details is not enough to set up a direct debit, the bank would require your consent (autorisation de prélévement). If you haven't signed such a form, the landlord cannot use the RIB for that (and, incidentally, it's forbidden for landlords to demand that their tenants pay by direct debit, although I can imagine that some do ...
9
That part of the law only became effective later, after the “décret d'application” was published (I think it went into effect on January 1, 1994 as provided in the law itself but certainly not before December 30).
But France never had a pure jus soli. What the 1993 law introduced was the need to explicitly request the French nationality. Under the previous ...
9
It's difficult to tell based on the information you present but my guess is that you will not be able to use your French citizenship, if you have it. The reasons for that are a bit complex but I will try to explain the rules as well as I can.
Serving in the French army is not directly relevant as such. There are provisions to become French par le sang versé ...
8
If the form asks for an address, you should fill in an address. It's possible that your application would be accepted without it, but as a rule, when the bureaucracy asks, it expects an answer. Temporary housing is ok; for example, the Jordan embassy states that
You must fill in the address where you will reside as soon as you enter France for the first ...
8
An “attestation d'emploi” or “attestation de l'employeur” should be enough, if producing your work contract is not practical. Here are a few templates from various real estate agents (PDF) that seem pretty typical. One of these agents seems to insist that clients use their template and nothing else so yours might have one as well.
What they all ask for is ...
8
Since the license is from outside the EU, EU law does not specify exactly what the rules are so there might be differences from one country to the other within the EU. Being an EU citizen does not make much difference either. Worse, for US licenses, agreements are on a state-by-state basis, some licenses can be exchanged, other cannot. Fortunately, Ohio is ...
8
Free French Courses
I am not aware of publicly advertised free French courses in Paris, and a quick google search seems to agree with me. However I can speculate that you could find local cultural/religious groups that might offer such courses. You could for example go to your local church/mosque/synagogue/temple and try asking people there.
I would also ...
8
Ius sanguini in French nationality law (or “droit du sang”) does not quite work in the way implied by some of your questions. Nobody can “get” citizenship by ius sanguini after the fact, you either already are French, or you aren't. If one of your parents is a French citizen at the time of your birth, you are yourself automatically and immediately a French ...
8
First point is that if you work in France, you are supposed to be affiliated to French “social protection” system. That entails paying income-dependent mandatory contributions but also benefits (health insurance, retirement pension, unemployment insurance).
If the US company you're working for does not have any legal entity in France, you are in the case of ...
8
It's difficult to know exactly what happened. It's entirely possible that you met some rude people and that miscommunication made things worse or that your interlocutors felt bad about the situation for some reason and reacted aggressively as a result. You already received some good advice on how to approach similar situations and avoid unpleasant ...
8
The common solution to the general problem of how to send mail to a recipient in a foreign country and pay for them to send it back to you is the International Reply Coupon, which is overseen by the Universal Postal Union (of which France and the United States are both members). From Wikipedia:
An international reply coupon (IRC) is a coupon that can be ...
8
Yes, normally they can tell that the license is exchanged because there is a mention at the back, on the bottom part, (at the very least, for the new, credit-card format licenses) with a code indicating the country that originally issued the license. It looks a bit like this on my exchaned French license (my own picture, I deleted out some details, but I ...
7
I suspect that from the perspective of the French tax office, any form they send you is a convenience, you are still legally responsible for submitting all required information on your own. Since there is no general registration system in France, the best is to contact the tax office directly and give them your new address as soon as you have one:
Afin de ...
7
The dossier is just a bunch of documents. Generally they ask for:
a work contract, or some document proving you have a job
proof of your salary (either 3 last paychecks, or your work contract again)
proof that you paid your taxes, if you lived in france before
a copy of your Carte de Séjour or other ID (passport or EU id)
usually a copy of your RIB (bank ...
7
Your consulate might have a list but that's a long shot as they are not always up to date (I know the US does something like that but I don't know if they would help non-US citizens and then they might refer you to an expensive private clinic like “Hôpital américain”). You could at least check the websites of several consulates, in case they publish it.
I ...
7
In the US, there's an excise tax on foreign insurance policies. The tax rates depend on the kind of insurance, for life insurance it's 1% of the premium.
You can find more information in the IRS publication 510.
I'd personally suggest avoiding this. There are plenty of insurance companies in the US.
Talk to a tax adviser (US-licensed EA/CPA) for more ...
7
Despite the word “lettre”, “lettre prioritaire”, “lettre verte” or “lettre recommandée” are not types of envelopes but service levels (with different prices/stamps)
“Lettre prioritaire” is the regular mail. You can find stamps for “lettre prioritaire France” (red stamps, currently EUR 0.66 for less than 20g), “lettre prioritaire Europe” (EUR 0.83) and “...
7
Here is a translation of the corresponding explanation on the French Wikipedia site:
T1, T2, T3, etc: T is used for Type, and corresponds to a type of apartment with the number of main rooms indicated. By main room, one means living room, dining room, and bedrooms. Kitchens and bathrooms are not included in the number. Therefore, an apartment with a living ...
7
What you describe is not universal, but it is not unheard of either. Remember that France is still a country which makes heavy use of cheques - this is somewhere with some very modern banking features, and some things which feel very archaic...
You've stated that you want to send money abroad, and to a non-Euro country. Given that, you might not actually ...
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