Work Visa.
 

Hello!

I recently came back from three weeks in France where I had the chance to discover the culture, and meet incredible people! For my next travel, I want it to be much longer (like 2 or 3 months).

I've been invited to visit Spain with a friend from France in September, and then go back to his town that I visited once to then stay at his place, and if I could, find a job in the village. I am 19 years old and only have a high school diploma.

Here are my questions for you:

1. Have you ever worked abroad? If so, do you encourage others to do it?
2. Any informations you can share with me about work visas? (I'm canadian, wanting to work in France)
3. Any tips how to convince my parents?

Thank you for your time, and have a nice day!

Jeremy. :)

1. Yes and yes.

2. See: https://ca.ambafrance.org/France-Can...lity-Agreement

3. You are an adult.

https://ca.ambafrance.org/France-Can...lity-Agreement

If you intend to work then the information you need is found on that link.

If you do not work, you can stay for up to 90 days without a visa, as a tourist.

Did't you have to convince your parents about the last trip? You have practice already and that trip should have given you confidence.

Sassafrass, I did have to convince them, but they cried and didn't sleep the whole time I was gone :o

Nobody can live without sleep and constantly cry for three weeks in a row. They were certainly exaggerating.

Parents have to learn that a "child" of 19 is an adult and thus should and will soon leave the nest for good.

And why were they crying (assuming they were)?

Re: your parents, answer specific concerns with specifics of your own, and if you don't know yet, tell them you'll get back to them with the answer, and then do it.

Beyond that, their emotional health is not your responsibility. Do not let them control you with their emotions.

(I speak from experience with parents like that.)

I think jeje977 is a good son who cares about his mother's feelings. I think she is more the anxious type than the father and part of it is just thinking he should be trying to figure out his life and work at home rather than running around the world after dropping out of college with no plans.

If you aren't taking money from them, then I think this is actually a good idea as you can only do this kind of thing when you are young and unencumbered. And since you aren't in school any more and have no particular career job, it sounds like, you aren't risking anything in that regard.

Why not try to convince your parents by saying you are going to be working and it will help you decide your metier in life better, and some of the other things I said above (about how this is the time to do it). In fact, working in different places and jobs does help you figure out more what you want to do in life. talk about it as a sort of comparison to a military boot camp, where you are on your own and have to learn independence and how to manage on your own and in difficult situations.

So talk about it as a learning experience, and it may even look good on the CV for prospective employers. Maybe not, depends what you did.

Let's not go there again, rehashing the family dynamic . . . the OP got nearly 125 responses on the thread where he was afraid of upsetting his parents

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...my-parents.cfm

Re your new question. The work-holiday visa is for stays of 4 to 12 months. If you only want to be there form 2 or 3 months, you'd need to double check if a stay of less than 4 months is allowed.

Let's not go there again, telling people what they can and can't post, eh, janisj? I was unaware that there was another thread, and don't see how that's relevant.

I was addressing Christina's psychoanalysis of the situation.

Nothing else . . .

You asked if anyone has done what you want to do and if we would encourage it.

I never did it myself, but way, way back, when there were fewer restrictions, at age 19 or 20, my DD spent six months roaming around Europe supporting herself with odd jobs. Can't remember all the places she went, but I know Ireland, England, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria.

Remember, there were no cell phones, no wifi, no laptops or iPads. I got about 4 or 5 calls and a half dozen letters. She had many tales to tell when she got home.

Yes! I wholeheartedly encourage it and think every young person should do it if they can!

You have already proven yourself. Go for it! Stay as long as you can and as long as you need to.

It isn't that unusual for young Europeans to take a year off before going to university or whatever after school. They are normally younger than you when they do it too, 17 or 18. They don't stick to Europe but go all over the world.

If you qualify for the work visa and can stay for the four (or more) months needed go for it.
If you don't qualify for the visa you can still go for up to 90 days, but won't be able to work, which means earning the money between now and then to support yourself while you are there.

If you intend to apply for a work visa, you must have a signed work contract to present to your Consulate. Or, you must be able to do work that no other French person can do.
If you don't have either of those documents, you can prepare to starve, because no one will pay you anything close to a living wage.
Housing doesn't come cheap, either...

fuzzbucket -as a Canadian he can get a working holiday visa, provided he wants to stay more than 4 months.

This blog page should help: http://www.thenewtravelblog.com/fran...-holiday-visa/

Yes, but what kind of work will he/she find available?
A server in a restaurant or cafe makes a barely decent wage.
A salesperson might make the SMIC (minimum wage).
Where will he/she live for 4 months that will be affordable and available to a foreigner?
Certainly not in central Paris...

Fuzzbucket he says he can stay with a friend, and hopefully find work there.
He has time to work now and build up some cash reserves before he goes.

There is a great deal more to France than Paris, even if this either heresy or obscure to Parisians. The OP said he would stay in his friend's "home town".

Well, good luck on that...

Young people do this all the time in London and live in flat shares. Are shared accommodation not available in France? I don't see the big issue, young people can all over the world on these types of visas and manage to survive. What makes France different for young Canadians?

I obviously meant the part about "getting work"...
As I said, be prepared to starve - even if you are depending upon the kindness of strangers.

Unless you become homeless and have no money left, you will survive and do just fine. If the worst came to pass, I am sure your parents would help you get home. Meantime, you can feast without expensive restaurants. A loaf of French bread, a hunk of cheese and a bag of fruit and you eat well for day.

Don't be silly, no one is going to starve. There must be others doing this and they will be with their friend and their family for support. This is a perfectly normal thing for a young person to do. Where do local young people work? If they have a work visa they can work in the same places! Do 19 year olds not move away to university and get jobs and not starve??

Obviously, fuzzbucket does not mean "starve" literally since being (for example) a "starving artist" is Paris has been a badge of pride for at least two centuries. The warning is simply that it probably will not be easy.

Young traveling people these days probably come in two major categories: the relatively affluent ones from good families who sort of see the major cities of Europe as lovely playgrounds, versus the ones who have grown up in a hard world and know that it will be hard everywhere but that some places are more interesting than others.

Faced with trying to make a living, the second group is rarely disappointed while the first group generally runs home quickly.

is = in

I was tutoring a 20 year old Australian in French last year. He was taking a gap year before pursuing further medical studies.

His family had arranged for him to live with a host family in their "chambre de bonne" - which measured 9 sq metres, had a toilet on the landing but no bathing facilities, a hot plate but no fridge. He practically froze to death during the winter because there was no radiator. The family was supposed to interact with him, but his French wasn't good and they lost interest in him.

He existed on nothing but pasta, because he liked to meet other young people and drink beer. This is not bashing Aussies, by the way.

He tried desperately to find a girlfriend but he found that the cultural divide was too confusing - plus, he was often too hungover to concentrate on studying French.

He finally ran out of money and took off for the South of France to try and pick grapes...in the Summertime.

He called to tell me that he had to contact his family for money to come home, because he had to cash in his return ticket.

Well someone should alert the people running the visa programme and tell them how impossible it is! They shouldnt be promoting a programme for young people to travel to France where people will freeze and starve to death! How irresponsible!

Just because one 20 y.o. is more interested in beer and girls than putting some effort into finding a better place to stay and learning French doesn't mean that all 20 y.o.s are that way.

It's interesting how unadventurous and fearful the world has become. I arrived in Paris at age 20 with the intention of settling permanently -- not just for 4 months. It was a make-it-or-break-it situation. I had a grand total of US$500 to my name.

In the first week, I moved into a residential hotel in the worst part of the 20th arrondissement for 180 francs a month (that's about 27.50 euros). 6th floor walkup, Turkish toilet on the landing, no running water in the room, just an enamel basin and pitcher (faucet on the landing). No heat. It was a very cold April. I got a job within 3 days by walking into places and asking. The salary was 1200 francs a month (183 euros), but that was really not all that bad because minimum wage in those days was 800 francs.

I survived on baguettes and cans of tuna mostly. I often went to bed hungry, and often I went to bed by 8pm because it was so cold in my room. I kept all of my clothes on.

After two months, I was flush with new cash due to my salary and I moved into a <i>chambre de bonne</i> on avenue Foch in the 16th of all places. 280 francs a month (43 euros a month). There was still a Turkish toilet down a long corridor of other <i>chambres</i>, but the building was heated. I bought a butane bottle with a burner on top and ate quite a bit of pasta, still plenty of baguettes, sometimes even some fresh fruit and vegetables. I opened an account at the savings bank.

I spent 6 months in that room, and then I rented my first studio apartment for 660 francs a month (100 euros a month!). The money I had been putting in the savings bank was very handy, because I had to pay 3 months rent in advance and also agency fees equivalent to another month of rent. The studio had everything -- a bathroom with toilet and bathtub, an equipped kitchenette, heat, a room in which I held parties and dinners with friends. I spent two happy years there. My parents visited several times and we all slept in the same room.

The year was 1973. Are the young people of 2017 too weak or pessimistic to try to live their dreams?

The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data' fuzzbucket. Kerouac's response is a good example of how your one story can be offset by another story.

Young people go off on a Gap Year with a WHV and thousands make it work every year. Yes, others go off and do not make it work. But that depends on the individual, not on the basic idea of what a WHV is about. The WHV simply provides the legal opportunity, it is then up to the individual to make the most of that opportunity.

Kerouac, our timing is quite close. I went off in 1970 with $600 CAD in my pocket (literally) and one full year later, I returned home. A brief synopsis of that year can be found here:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...planned-travel

If I had listened to opinions such as the one here by fuzzbucket, I would never have left home. I too wonder what has changed with young people.

kerouac, no, the young people are fine. What are you on about? It's not the OP who fears starving and freezing, it's one poster who keeps naysaying on absurdly exaggerated grounds.

<It's interesting how unadventurous and fearful the world has become. >
Not the world. Just fuzz.

I object to my truthful report about one person's attempt to try to live in Paris for one year.

This person was from a privileged background and thought everything would be easy, since reportedly everyone is friendly in Australia.
But it certainly wasn't easy for him.

Due to the OP's reports about hand-wringing, weeping parents, it might be wise to consider just how much the French cultural divide will affect him/her.
Not all Parisians will be willing to help you out of a jam, and repeated requests will often go unanswered, because people have other things to do.
You'd be wise to make yourself as self-sufficient as possible before moving to France.

No one is denying the truth of your report. They are pointing out that it is just one data point. if this particular person had had a good experience you would be telling us what a good idea this is. You might go read the gap year forum on thorntree for a corrective.

Also, why do you keep bringing up Paris? The OP has not told us where he plans to stay.

Because the person I tutored was living in Paris.
Anyone else might have a similar experience, though, if not sufficiently prepared.

They might, but the Australian example was someone from a "privileged" background who seems a bit of a dunce, also. And foreigners shouldn't be expecting that French girls are going to fall all over them, why should they.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained as the old saying goes. For heaven's sake, if the OP hates it and things aren't working out, he can go home, it's not the end of the world.

You know that old saying, it's better to regret things you've done, than things you haven't done.

Interestingly, I just read an article about a guy who picked grapes in France during the grape harvest (end of August apparently, into September). I didn't know that was so easy to do, get a gig doing that. It was hard work, but apparently you can still do that if you don't mind no pay and hard work.

here's the article
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/t...-vendange.html

But I kind of liked the original "how to convince my parents" thread because the OP really did end up going to France.

And most of us have been a bit off track assuming the idea of trying to find a job in Paris when the OP made it very clear in the opening post that he would be staying with a friend in the friend's village. This means that just about anything is possible with a WHV visa, depending on the village, from helping out on weekends at a café to pumping gas at a service station.

And since September was mentioned, if it is a wine region, it is quite easy to find grape picking work for a month or so -- Pôle Emploi even makes a point of recruiting foreigners for that on their website.