Maybe you saw my blog a couple weeks back, talking about how I felt kind of lost on the site since a lot of UK members often discuss going home and situations that deal with being part of the European Union. Are there any issues that you want to see discussed on the site? Anything that we Americans can put a stamp on to let the "other" members (smile) know that we're here too?
Hi Carolyn,
Well, I will certainly try my best to get some of these issues out in the open. I know that people have been having problems with carte de sejours and driver's licenses and finding jobs here that don't require them to be independent contractors. As far as children, my son is 9 months old, born here in France,so it will be something that I'll be dealing with, ie. getting an American passport for him (even though he has a French one), social security number, and all that good stuff. If you think that there is something important to say, you should blog about it on SFN. More Americans are tuning in and DO want to hear what WE have to say!
Thank you for bringing up this question Holly! Glad to see it.
For the past three years I've been browsing alot of American expat-in-France blogs since I first came up with the idea to search examples of Americans (especially women) who have fallen in love with France enough to want to acheive what it takes to become qualified to live there. The way I've been seeing it, the most fortunate among them are those who have attained the opportunity by grace of a career-related situation and those already connected to France primarily by marriage to Frenchmen while still living in the States. Of course, there's also the category of cute real-life stories of having French boyfriends they met in America before actually getting involved with France directly.
As I was learning more and more of the more practical pieces of information through reading the blogs, I was quick to figure out that fluency in the French language is an obvious benefit, but to be in the position of expatriation in France without suffering serious failure (including deportation back to the U.S.) requires much more than just that. It has come to my awareness that most have successfully gone through the process with alot of hard effort, a stroke or two of amazing luck, and very little regret. Seemingly, the road to earning the right to live in France as Americans not EU citizens is rarely a result of having family members in France or (living) blood relatives who happen to be French.
I think the types of questions and answers here which would be very helpful to American SFN members, myself amongst them, are those that address the administrative and civil issues that apply strictly to Americans only. Topics I myself would be deighted with include the infamous paperwork ramifications of "being American" when dealing with the important stuff in the French civil and legal system, all aside from having money to pay for it all and having adequate social relations with French people. This includes the position of having children in French-American home life.
The big, famous one is the prospect of having a career in France and what being allowed to try for one entails. My personal favorite is legitimate American marriage into the French nationality. For many years I've wondered how that is typically acheived in the midst of already taking into account and dealing with the cultural differences. I enjoy reading about cultural differences in French-American interpersonal relations covering the areas of both private and public life situations and comprehend many of them. French-American professional business too. I studied them mostly in books and online sources.