[0:00]We have been getting so many emails lately, which is fantastic. We love them. But a lot of these emails have been about visa mistakes, visa denials, visa problems. Um, both problems that people have run into and problems that people have figured out a solution for. We love seeing that. So, we're going to give you eight things we're seeing a lot of lately so that you won't run into the same problems on your visa. Hi, I'm Rena. I'm Jason. We are baguette bound. We help Americans move, adjust and enjoy life in France. Okay, let's get right to it. Number one, when people choose the duration of their visa, and they intend to renew their visa in the future, so they want something that is renewable, they can continue on. You're going to stay in France. When they choose the duration, they choose six months to one year. Which makes sense because your visa is good for 12 months and then you renew it over and over and over. But that's the wrong choice. Do not choose six to 12 months, or six months to a year. That will get you a visa that cannot be renewed. You'll have to return back to the US to get a new one. Instead, on the duration question, you want to choose longer than a year. That will get you the one that is renewable. So, check that box. Yeah, more than 12 months. That's you. Next up. Housing, accommodation problems on the visa. How long do you need to show accommodations for to feel pretty confident that you're going to be approved? There is no specific requirement in the list, so you don't exactly know how many months of housing you need. One thing is for sure, you do not need 12 months of housing. We see people get approved all the time with less than 12 months. But what you do need is at least three months. That should be the gold standard. You should provide at least three months. This can be a lot of different types of housing, hotels, Airbnbs, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, any of those are acceptable, but show proof of three months or longer in your application. And you want to acknowledge that you do not have housing for the entire duration of stay and include a letter that says, I know I've booked temporary housing. My intention is to get on the ground and then start to look for longer-term housing, so that you can address that. Um, it is part of a bigger picture. Having more housing is not bad. We don't want to minimize that. But also we don't want you to feel stressed that you got to figure it out for the whole year, or you're not going to get a visa. But do do more than a week of hotel. That probably won't work. Number three is the letter of intent. Rena just referenced including a letter. That is a great idea. You want to include a letter as kind of a cover page for your application, saying who you are, why you need a visa, and what your plans are. But the problem is you can be too detailed. You can give too much information about your entire life plan and your entire background and why you love. That's not necessary. It's not a book. Be short, be specific, be simple. Where are you living? Do you intend to renew, why do you need a visa? Why are you coming to France? The flip side problem is being too vague. You provide a letter, you give your name and that you need a visa. Well, that's not enough. It needs to be something a little more substantial, so you kind of want to split the difference. There's a little bit of an art to it, it's less of a science, but name, why you need a visa, um, and where you're going to be and that you will look for additional housing after you arrive. Your intent in being here, and that should make sense with the rest of the documents that you're providing. All right, next up. Another thing that we've seen people, actually, we've seen a couple denials from this one, is not making it easy to interpret your financial data. Yeah, so most of the visas that you'll be applying for have some type of financial requirement, some type of proof of funds, proof of financial information, to meet some minimum requirement for your finances that you can support yourself in France. Often there is a lot of data to present. You might have many banks, many savings accounts, you might have several pensions to include. This can be page after page after page after page. So, keep in mind that the officials at the embassy are very smart, they're very competent, they are doing a lot of work. They're doing this very quickly. They don't want to do forensic accounting. Right, so your packet might be 50 or 60 or 80 pages of financial support.
[4:27]Don't force them to read 80 pages closely front to back, reading all the lines. One trick, something you can do to make it simple, is at the beginning of your financial data provide a summary sheet, a chart, uh, something simple. To make it clear that within those 80 pages behind it, there's really maybe only three or four or five things they're looking for. Here's the account, and here's the dollar that they're looking for. Then as they go through each page, they can just check it off. Yep, there's the money I'm looking for. There's that money. There's that money. I see everything here very simply. You make it easy for them to see that you qualify for this visa. And then all they do is they're looking for your backup information. Yeah, keep it simple. Number five. All right, not checking a source directly when you're feeling really confused with something. There is a lot of information online, a lot of people talking about this, providing opinions, uh, providing their experiences. That's all wonderful. Right, super helpful. Can be very confusing when you need specific information, not facts. Yes. So, something you can do. Refer to the French Republic, the French government websites about the visa. They provide a lot of specific information and exactly what you need or don't need for these visas. Yeah, use that as your reference document. Get yourself a browser translator if you haven't already so that you can search these sites. Yeah. The second thing that not a lot of people realize, um, and that sometimes people pay us money for, We're giving away a trade secret here. hate to give away our business secrets here. Um, is that you can actually email and contact the French Embassy in Washington or even uh, the French immigration offices here in France. And just ask them your questions. You've got something, you need a specific answer. You need some an opinion on specific data. You can ask. Right. It doesn't, I can't guarantee that they'll give you a really good response, but we have found that they've been very responsive. They're quick to respond and provide some type of resource or answer to your question. It's shocked us actually. So make sure your question is clear and specific and I probably wouldn't send them 50, but know that that is a resource that you can use, and we have several times. Short, simple, yes, no, this or that kind of questions. They're pretty good on getting back. All right, next up. uh, applying for a visitor visa with the intention that after you're here a year, you will just change it. We hear that a lot. I'll just change it to some kind of a work visa. Be that a profession Libral for self-employment or to look for a job and find actual employment. So there's a couple of issues with this strategy. Yes, it can be problematic. Um, and it definitely makes sense, right? The visitor visa is easy, and you'll figure things out as you go. Right. However, there's some problems here. First, um, after if you apply for the visitor visa, you're have certain limitations and restrictions, and you've made a promise not to work in the French uh, economy. Right. Later on if you want to change, um, there is the uh potential that the French Embassy or the French government, the French immigration officials, I'm sorry, the French immigration officials who have processed your change request, may assume that given you applied for something else originally, and now you're changing and quickly changed, perhaps you are not being completely honest and straightforward in your original application.
[7:46]Doesn't look good. Two problems. That will color their opinion on your change for a request change, and it may color their opinion on the original um, approval that they gave you for that visitor visa.
[8:00]So you put yourself in risk two times. Yeah. So what can you do about this? Right. Couple different things. One would be, you know, if you do come here on a visitor visa, and you're here for two or three years with a cup a, you know, a few renewal cycles, and then you think, oh gosh, I see this opportunity. I'd like to take advantage of it. I want to request a change. That's more likely to get approved because it feels more congruent with what you said you were coming to France for, right? So, one thing is just need to plan that you're going to need to wait for a few renewal cycles. And actually, once you get to five renewals, if you request a tenure card, a long-term residency, those come with work rights. So that's another path there. The second thing is, we've also seen sometimes that we get it, right? Like even if you know that you may want to work or open a business, it's a lot to come and do everything all at once. So the idea of coming on a visitor visa, finding your house, getting settled, not having the pressure right off the bat to move a business. Right. But what you may want to do is instead is actually, sometimes people have better luck going back to the US. Right, you do your first 12 months, your visitor visa, you go back to the US and then you ask for that profession's Libral visa. Right. So if you haven't been here for two or three full uh years, renewals, full renewals, and you feel like there's a need to change, you may have much better luck going back to your home country and requesting a change there. Right, just like ask for a brand new visa basically is what we're saying, you know. And the upside to that is your business plan, if it's for like a self-employment visa, it can be in English because you're applying to the uh Washington DC French Embassy. Save you a lot of time and a hassle. Yes. Okay. Number seven, feeling pressure to pay a lot of money to a relocation company because you feel like that's the only way to like guarantee you're going to get a visa. And fix all your problems in the future, right? Big promises can be made and they can cost a lot of money. Now, it can be really worth it to hire someone for assistance. Yes, this may be something you've never done before. Yeah. And some additional outside assistance and some expertise and some help can be really beneficial. Right. Just know that no one can give you 100% approval, that anything will be guaranteed. Yeah. No one can give you a 100% guarantee that these problems or hurdles coming in the future will be non-existent or they'll be simple to get over. There will be challenges when you get here. Yeah. You're doing something challenging and kudos to you. So, we just don't want, we think getting help can be great.
[10:37]And also, we want you to know no one can guarantee something that a third-party entity, the French Embassy in Washington is making a decision on.
[10:51]So, know that they might tell you if something goes wrong, they will continue to help you and work through it, but we don't want you to walk away thinking you've got to pay a ton of money to guarantee something because that's just not. Then this is the only way. Yeah, it's not in a relocation company's hands. Number eight. Mistake, not giving yourself any margin anywhere in those last couple of weeks when you're wrapping things up. And it's really hard because there is a lot going on at the end, right? You're maybe you're selling a house, you're packing your things, you're trying to ship things, you're getting stuff figured out with your pets. Your kids, um, You're saying goodbye to friends. You're trying to get in another meal at your favorite Mexican restaurant. And do that because it's hard to find really good Mexican restaurants when you're here. Yes. So there's a lot going on. I get it. Couple things you can do to try to create some margin and just make it a more enjoyable experience. When you buy a plane ticket, buy something that's changeable, so you can move the plane if you need to without feeling stressed. Pay a few dollars more. If you are moving out of your home and going into some type of temporary, like a hotel or something, plan on maybe you need a few extra days, and that's going to be okay. Budget for it. When you apply for your visa, you can do that up to three months before your arrival date. So you can start that early, which can be hard, but starting early is always better. Yeah. The last thing that a lot of people overlook is when you apply for your visa, you will select an arrival date on your application. This arrival date is the day your visa starts. That's when you're telling France, start my visa on this day, but it does not have to be the day that you arrive. Yeah. If you have to push it back and you get here, you know, say it starts on April 1st and you get here April 7th because something went a little haywire.
[12:43]Perfectly fine. Totally okay. Don't stress. Yeah. Yeah. So, build some margin in, take advantage of those options if you can. Yeah. All right. So, those were a few things that we've just been seeing a lot lately and we want you to be able to avoid them, but there's all kinds of things out there that we may have missed. Yeah, so if you've run into other problems or even better, you've run into problems and you've found a solution for them, put those in the comments below. Hopefully, we'll have some good conversation about those things. All right, thanks for watching. Oh bien. so.
