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A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

visa.lafrenchtech.com

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Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#241

Post by ec109685 »

nashashmi wrote: post #156
hacker_9 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone from the UK, my main reason for not moving anywhere else in Europe is the language barrier. I'm not even sure I'm capable of learning another language; 5 years in school trying to learn French + German, and can still only put together about two sentences. From what I remember, no one else seemed to really pick up the languages either.

I knew a colleague at work who tried for years learning German while serving in the U.S. Air Force in Germany. Never was able to pick it up. Then one day he found his future wife who could speak only in German, and he picked it up instantly.

Duo Lingo found that "sounding like a fool" is a big inhibitor to learning a language. With his wife, I bet your colleague didn't feel that embarrassment and could thus plow through and pick it it up.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#242

Post by Chris2048 »

true_religion wrote: post #179
finid wrote: post #165

So I tried to subscribe again and finally got a response, which reads: ` Bonjour, Nous vous confirmons que nous venons de recevoir votre email depuis http://visa.lafrenchtech.com Merci. A très vite. Bonne journée Envoyé depuis http://visa.lafrenchtech.com ` No big deal, I have a pretty good idea what that means, even though I don't speak French, but if they're trying to market to an English-speaking audience, me thin…

Why do you think they're trying to market to an English speaking audience, as opposed to a French speaking audience? French is the national language, and you'll be required to speak it in order to have a normal life.

In France, not necessarily Paris, or most large French cities.

> French is the national language

And what is the national language of Ireland?

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#243

Post by omginternets »

GrumpyBen wrote: post #234
omginternets wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And since when is it illegal to talk about homosexuals, non-white people or jews ? See: Eric Zemmour You're allowed to talk about them provided the contents of your speech is "they're great and I love everything about them". I'm not particularly fond of Zemmour, but his multiple condemnations absolutely qualify as political censorship.

You can't base your thinking on one particular example. Judges can make mistakes. The law makes racism, antisemitism and homophobia illegal. That's fine for me.

It was an example.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#244

Post by dvdhnt »

Tade0 wrote: post #176
mootothemax wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As someone from the UK, my main reason for not moving anywhere else in Europe is the language barrier. I'm not even sure I'm capable of learning another language I moved to Poland from the UK yonks ago, and have equally disastrous - if not worse - language skills as you. Not long after arriving, I accidentally got a job at a startup, and I'd been led to believe everything was done in English internally: communicatio…

> I moved to Poland from the UK yonks ago, and have equally disastrous - if not worse - language skills as you. Interesting direction. As a Polish person I have to ask: was your reason to move personal, or did you notice a career opportunity and went after it?

So, I still live in the U.S., but generally try to meet people abroad as often as possible while remaining in contact via Facebook, Snapchat, and WhatsApp.

While, personally, the U.K. and Sweden remain the most viable destinations if I were to move abroad, Poland isn't far behind in terms of the personalities of the people I've met, the scenery they've showed me, and the cultural/historical depth there. Obviously, take that with a truck load of salt since I've yet to visit.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#245

Post by inanutshellus »

rfrey wrote: post #213
jjawssd wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like double or triple the amount of tax Americans in a similar role have to pay at home

That works out to 37.5% tax. I paid considerably more than that working in California when you include health insurance.

California is consistently at the top of polls ranking by taxes paid. Sooo... it's not entirely fair to extrapolate to the USA from California, despite its size.

Two random results pulled from a search:

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/califo...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/us/millionaires-consider-l...

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#246

Post by emilyfm »

arjie wrote: post #205

What's the general deal with startup visas? Your startup fails, you have to quit the country? Seems like it raises the stakes for very little reason unless the country is otherwise startup-favourable.

I agree, temporary status increases the stress level.

The Canada Start-up Visa [1] gives immediate permanent residence, so you can stay even if the business eventually fails.

[1] http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#247

Post by dvdhnt »

matthewking wrote: post #119
hacker_9 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone from the UK, my main reason for not moving anywhere else in Europe is the language barrier. I'm not even sure I'm capable of learning another language; 5 years in school trying to learn French + German, and can still only put together about two sentences. From what I remember, no one else seemed to really pick up the languages either.

Also from the UK and I have the upmost respect for anyone that can speak a second language. I find it incredibly difficult to get beyond a base vocabulary to actually being able to use the language without sounding like a cave man. I assume there'll be a "click" moment somewhere but its hard work getting there.

Funny, I'm from the US and find it difficult to understand some of the accents from both North-Eastern Americans (ayy Boston) and some of the UK folks I've met (when they write exactly how they speak).

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#248

Post by CalRobert »

intralizee wrote: post #85

I would love to go to France. I'm in US right now, 1 semester left for degree and have interned at a respectable company. I wonder if they're looking for experienced engineers over fresh ones. I've read so much that work life and culture is so much better in France, so heres hoping...

Not France, but if you're looking for work-life balance and about to graduate, maybe check out the working holiday visa in Ireland. You can show up with the right to work, instead of having to convince someone to hire you while living abroad.

If interested, I would suggest doing your research quickly since the program has been watered down on the US side and I would expect some tit for tat as time goes on.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#249

Post by nraynaud »

bsaul wrote: post #194
hocuspocus wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's very little risk in joining a startup in France. You'll get almost exactly the same benefits as someone working at a big co. Work hours, vacation, retirement, healthcare, unemployment: everything is regulated by labor laws. But when a new grad from a top school can get 40k at a startup, no bonus no equity, or 70-80k total comp at Google, it's a no-brainer.

A new grad from top school shouldn't think about salary, but equity. Either as founder , or cofounder, or employee. The reason he chooses salary over equity is because it's a safer bet.

equity taxed at 40% if the gain is realized?

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#250

Post by adventured »

bru wrote: post #220
jjawssd wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like double or triple the amount of tax Americans in a similar role have to pay at home

Indeed! But then you get great health insurance, good public infrastructure and services, free top-notch education, etc. Basically if you're without any dependent, you may not see it as worth it, but once you have a family it really starts paying off.

People making the kind of money being discussed here, such that you trigger higher bracket income taxes, have great health insurance in the US as well. Further, decent jobs in the US almost always include health insurance compensation above the salary. I have a brother that works in a pretty normal job earning $42,000 per year (not an outsized salary in the US), he pays $27 per month for his health insurance through his employer, and it's a nice plan. That isn't unusual in the US, health insurance compensation is almost universally ignored in salary comparisons (while the inverse isn't true, the tax based health coverage in other nations is always noted as a perk that should be considered with salaries).

The education system you're referring to is not free at all. The very substantial income taxes in France pay for it.

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