Hello, all,
I’m a US citizen interested in relocating to France to be with my girlfriend, who is 100% French and living in Paris…
My question is: how would immigrating to France be easier if I started a business in an EU country other than France (notorious for its red tape).
In other words, if I opened, for instance, a TV production company in, for instance, a small EU country like Bulgaria, would that make coming to France easier?
Could I run certain transactions through the company to make it easier?
Thanks for any help you can provide
Mark…
Have you contacted the other Links that you were given on your other Thread…?
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[quote=“Mark_Keizer, post:1, topic:16376”]
how would immigrating to France be easier if I started a business in an EU country other than France
[/quote] As far as I can see, it wouldn’t. Why do you think it would?
If you’re serious about moving to France you need to focus on meeting France’s immigration criteria, rather than looking for ways to get round them. The EU as a whole treats immigration very seriously, immigration rules don’t leave many loopholes, and countries like France in particular are well aware that there are always people trying to get in by the back door so they are on the look out for them.
Don’t understand this but it sounds dodgy. What kind of transactions? To make what easier? The EU takes money laundering quite seriously too, if that’s what you had in mind…
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Yes, I did visit the links given to me and they were very helpful, thank you. It’s a very daunting and complicated effort and I need all the advice I can get.
Regarding starting a business, I was specifically thinking that it might help me rent a flat. An American friend who lived in France had to put 18 months of rent into an escrow account upfront before he could find a landlord to rent him a flat. Even though my friend had a job in Paris and an account at a French bank. If I had a business in the EU, I could run such transactions through the business so a landlord may be more willing to rent to me. That said, I’m not comfortable being accused of considering opening a money laundering operation. I have no interest in circumventing laws or doing anything illegal in order to live my dream. If I did, I’d hardly be using my real name on this board. So this site may not be right for me. But thank you for your previous information.
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Mark, no offence was intended. My comment was partly tongue in cheek - because as you say it’s pretty obvious that you wouldn’t be telling a public forum under your own name that you are planning a money laundering operation, so I never imagined that you’d take it literally - but only partly tongue in cheek, because depending on how your business is structured, putting private transactions through your business accounts may be classed as fraudulent. So I was trying to ask in an oblique way for clarification of your comment and also to point out that all transactions can be scrutinised quite closely because money laundering is high on every EU bank’s agenda. To be fair there was no way of knowing from your comment that you were thinking of the renting problem, but since that’s what you had in mind, then just to clarify: French rental laws are biased in favour of the tenant, therefore most landlords take out insurance to cover the risk of bad tenant and insurers normally insist on the tenant having a secure income to the value of 3 times the rent, either from a permanent job contract or from a pension or similar, and preferably from a French source. In the absence of insurance the landlord needs to find another way to protect himself. Unfortunately, being the owner of a brand new business in Bulgaria without any checkable accounts history going back several years, would not satisfy an insurer.
Again, apologies for the misunderstanding, I thought you’d see what I was getting at.
Mark…
It’s quite normal for folk to put down large deposits… whether on a rental property or whatever… I believe (though not sure) that even some Utilities ask new clients for this…
Please do not be offended… you might (or might not) be surprised to learn that quite often folk do try to circumvent the correct procedures…and they do ask us all sorts of convoluted questions to that end.
Money laundering is high-profile at the moment, hence Anna’s comment… which was not an accusation, just a reflection…
Why not scroll down the Threads and see if anything might be useful… you cannot be the only American trying to relocate to France…
best of luck
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