Working in France

Hi,

We’re coming to France for a couple of months and I fancy picking up a few hours casual / low skilled, freelance or voluntary work to help me improve my French.

I’m an Irish citizen so it’s doable, but as usual on the Internet, there’s a load of conflicting info about the rules! Registration etc.

Can I just apply for jobs or pick up freelance work with a wave of my passport or do I need to complete some additional paperwork? We’ll be in France two months.

Hope everyone’s well. Can’t wait to come out!

With Irish citizenship, at least you won’t be theoretically barred from carrying out work, voluntary or otherwise without some kind of work visa, notwithstanding any other legal requirements linked to the type of work you intend to do (reserved professions, qualifications, etc).

Freelancing generally implies in France that you are working for yourself, i.e. you are not employed by someone else, and that you will be dealing with the regulatory side of things. This probably would require you to produce invoices for any paid work you carry out, the form of which will depend on whether or not you already have a registered business outside of France. If you don’t, then it seems to me that registering as an autoentrepreneur in France, when you don’t have a stable residence in France, isn’t going to be possible either.

Too many unknowns for anything more concrete at the moment.

Join a temp agency

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With a few simple steps ypu can be an auto-entrepreneur legally in France as a non-resident

https://www.economie.gouv.fr/cedef/resident-etranger-micro-entreprise-france

Would a temp agency want a tax and social security numbera.

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Reckon I’ll just have to rock up and see what’s what. I’m registered as a sole trader with HMRC, so I have that going for me.

That’s probably a good place to get some solid info. Thanks!

@Bristolpete
a good idea to ensure you and your family have medical insurance to cover your time here… and you might need to mention that you could be working…

best of luck

I can only speak for voluntary work, my only proper job here was as an employee and I didn’t have to worry about any bureaucracy.

But, after retirement I have worked for over 11 years as a volunteer and received reimbursement of legitimate expenses. Always wary of falling foul of the taxman I kept scrupulous records of every centime along with the justification for it, including the fact that it was way below what the authorities allow for such tax free payments.

So my advice would be to do the same, with all receipts and nothing hidden. I did also do one small job for a neighbour/friend which involved digging out tree roots with my mini-digger. For this I insisted on payment by cheque de l’emploi, mainly to cover me for any injuries incurred. To my great surprise this miniscule amount produced a tiny addition to my pension. :rofl:

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Thanks! I’m a good record keeper and I’ll do that!

@Stella I never go away without health cover. Our bank provides it as part of our account, but being a small print geek I spotted it’s for thirty day trips now. Luckily there’s an upgrade.

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If you have a French bank account get yourself paid by cheque emploi service, that way everything is legit.

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And, as I said above, a percentage gets added to your eventual pension. :joy: