Yes that is why a business visa seemed best to me based on experience of business plans and running business RobertNT mentioned.
but good warning to make sure the business type is one where there’s a need in France.
A problem for hairdressers sometimes is that they must hold certain qualifications and UK diplomas are no longer recognised in France. But the business plan should include market research to show that there is a need for the proposed business. If the sector is already saturated locally then unless you can find a niche and offer something a bit different, it will likely be refused.
Exactly, the days when a British national could start up a random business and struggle on are gone. It does sound as though reading the list of trades in demand might be a good place to start. I am going to stress once again that the big issue in the OP is that he had been told that he could come to France as a visitor and set the wheels in motion to become resident and work ‘officially’. That’s just not true, the visas have to be applied for in Britain.
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It is generally a mistake to think that the conditions for one specific request will automatically be the same for another. Thinking that something is correct is not the same as it actually being correct.
Firstly, it would be strange if the conditions for obtaining the visa for a particular status were different from those for obtaining the cds for the selfsame status.
Secondly, I was merely trying to be helpful. Obviously the person concerned will check out what they are told on a forum.
Thirdly, I was about 99% sure otherwise I would not have written it, and now that the link to visa conditions has been provided, it confirms that what I thought is indeed correct.
Perhaps we can stop bickering now?
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Did they not get an “avis favorable” on their business plan before applying? If they didn’t it would have been rejected.
Except there is a possibility of changing status in country once an initial visa expires. But by all accounts it is very slow, and uncertain, so advice always seem to be that is you want to change then return to your home country on expiration of visa A and apply for new visa B.
But he needs an initial visa so that’s irrelevant. His post suggests he thought he could become resident in France then apply for a visa to work. He needs a visa for the first part and that has to be applied for from the U.K.
Yes, in this circumstance. Just clarifying as could be ambiguous for others.
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This thread is why I enjoy this site so much. It’s like 3 or 4 Monty Python sketches all merged together in the most ‘got the popcorn and enjoying the show’ sense I could imagine. Amongst the helpful advice on SF there’s a cast of characters the world’s best authors could only dream of conceiving. If anyone ever comes across the world’s worst sitcom about an expat 
internet forum just know I’ve stolen all your characters and flogged it to Netflix for a few million 
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What’s your solution when somebody says he’s going to make a huge lifestyle change and do something that is impossible to do? Agree with him? Let him find out the hard way? Or show him where to find the information that he needs?
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My motto in life is ‘Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt.’. That’s my solution.
I have actually had an alarming amount of involvement in French, and other European visas and immigration matters recently, advising not practising, connected to another recent thread here. As someone whose business is entertainment law I find myself regularly dealing with the double whammy the creative industries are facing of on one hand brits not being able to work in the EU easily anymore, and on the other, huge international productions and artists no longer being able to use their go-to people and needing replacements. But that’s besides the point really, it’s just a bit of background that this silent fool isn’t actually a fool on this topic. But equally I prefer not to offer any solution unless I know it to be correct, and the fact that I’ve said it’s correct doesn’t make it so…
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Telling someone where to look for the correct information is hardly claiming to be correct. Telling someone that they need to check what they have been lead to believe is normal in my world. Standing back and trying to make fun of those willing to help is not.
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Currently averaging about thirty postings a day, so might achieve full Crit Air status by Tuesday morning…
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I call these threads ‘full Partridge’. Anyone for a game of monkey tennis?
Although perhaps it’s more ‘know it all, knowing you’ 
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CHEESE!!
(Known in my childhood as ‘Postman’s Foot’)
I love when his wife in the car says, “Ooo, nanny!”
That’s made my day !
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Wow its been a busy weekend on here.
Thank you for further links and information. 
I have spent the last 5 years working in partnership with certain Government departments in France and I know that the business I would be putting forward to start up is in an area that is not on the whole high on the list of needed in France (except in the area I work in) at present but it has been noted that over the next 5+ years it will be in high demand and France will have skill shortages (sorry not willing to share exactly who and what I do but it is in Information Technology).
So I am sure with my experience of writing business plans and my history of running my business I should be able to put forward a good one plus In have had it confirmed that if I do make this move the teams I work with would provide a good recommendation on my behalf as they would like me to provide the services I have been providing to them.
Anyway thats a long way off at present as I need to check on everything else on my ever increasing list of questions to clarify…
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My only bémol regarding to your business set up or employability would be how good your French is.
I haven’t a clue about the minutiae of getting visas or work permits etc, so I don’t usually contribute to conversations like this one, but you do really need to have a good mastery of French if you want to work here and understand how your child is getting on at school.
Agreed my French is passable but not perfect, so I have arranged French Lessons for me and my son starting in the New Year
As for the work I currently do with the French it is me they hire for this and they have as hinted above confirmed it will not be a problem for me to do this work for them via my company in France I just need to make sure I can set this up and get it agreed, but if all I secure is the current next 2 years left on my contract with them then that will secure over 1/2 million Euros. Since this is now on the 2nd extension of my work with them it is likely to get a further 3-5 years of work for them.
For this work I dont need to speak fluent French but if I can improve my French then it will certainly help move my business forward and open up more oppertunities for me
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@RobertLT - From reading all the above, if you’re looking at setting up a business that will have a turnover of €250k+ a year you don’t want to be asking a bunch of random people on a forum for advice, you want to hire a French immigration lawyer and get it all watertight. 
With a proper business plan and thence a business owner’s visa.
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