The goal of the application process is to get this SIRET number. We will also go over how to invoice correctly and pay your taxes. But first, there are some limitations on who and which professions can use the micro-entrepreneur status, so let’s determine if it’s right for you.

WHO CAN BE A MICRO-ENTREPRENEUR?

Common usages by expats include freelance translation services, language tutors, English teachers, artists, yoga instructors, tour guides, web design, photography, stylists and marketing professionals. I use mine for freelance media consulting work. Here is a full list of qualifying métiers.

There are some important limitations including:

• You cannot employ anyone (though you are able to work with your spouse).
• You can’t make more than 70,000 euros per year (President Macron upped the max) or else you have to use a different type of services structure.
• This is not a work permit. You must already have permission to work in France before applying.
• If you want to open a boutique or sell items, micro-entrepreneur status may not work for you. Also, some employment activity is forbidden under this status such as construction and other services where you need special permits. This website can help you determine if your activity qualifies.

HOW TO APPLY

The website to apply is www.autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fr (only available in French).

Click Créer mon auto-entreprise.

Click the button that says: Déclarer mon auto-entreprise. This takes you to the start of your application.

On this page you have to choose your work activité. Be careful with this choice because it is a pain to change it after you submit.

SPOILER: This page is annoying. If you want to browse the categories, you have to go through each domaine d’activité, and then check the box on the right that says “Afficher toutes les activités du domaine,” and see if your activity is in the choisissez votre activité list. Or you can press your luck with the autocomplete field.

As soon as you select an activity, you will be taken to the main application form.

This asks for pretty straightforward information, but very much depends on your occupation, preferences and tax/fiscal situation, so I can’t give you advice on which options to fill out. There is no default, one-size-fits-all choice.

I do suggest you complete the form in order because it is also super finicky, and requires you to fill out certain fields before others.

At the end, if you aren’t finished, you can save what you have by clicking enregistrement provisoire. When you are ready, hit VALIDATION to send your application!

After you validate you will be given an application number (numéro de dossier) and a password. SAVE THIS. You should also receive an email confirmation, but you never know.

NOTE: This online application is equivalent to the form: Déclaration de début d’activité – Personne physique (P0 PL) — if you want to do this the old-fashioned paper way.

RECEIVING YOUR SIRET NUMBER

If everything you submitted is fine, you should get your SIRET number (your company ID number) via mail in about a week. Super fast for France, right?

You will actually receive two numbers: a SIREN (a personal ID number that follows you for life) and SIRET (specific to the activity you chose). You only get one SIREN, but can have multiple SIRETs if you have different business activities. You may notice your SIRET number is your SIREN number plus five unique numbers at the end. The SIRET number is what companies will need.

Félicitations, you can now legally freelance in France!

HOW TO INVOICE

Companies or clients who hire you will need some specific info in order to pay you. Here is a sample invoice:

A few details to take note of:

• When listing the fee for your service, you need to indicate that it is Prix HT (prix hors taxes). This is because when you work under a micro-entrepreneur status, YOU are responsible for the taxes, not the company and that needs to be indicated on the invoice.
• For the same reason, you need to put “TVA non applicable, art. 293B du CGI” underneath the total amount billing.
• If you want to be paid by direct deposit, be sure to include your banking info including the IBAN, SWIFT/BIC and RIB. Note: you technically need a dedicated bank account for this work activity.

DECLARING & PAYING TAXES

When you work under a micro-entrepreneur status, you are responsible for declaring and paying all the taxes on what you make, instead of the client who hired you. Companies obviously love this and France’s intention in creating this status was to better accommodate the “gig economy.”

• Declaring your revenues

You have two options for declaring: You will get a tax form in the mail, or you can set up an account on www.impots.gouv.fr. This is the same website you may already use to pay your personal taxes, but you have to set up a different account for your business activity.

Depending on which you chose on your application, you need to declare your revenue either monthly or quarterly. The first time you declare will be after your first FULL quarter (or month), and in that declaration you will include the partial quarter/month during which you created the account. The charts below indicate when you need to make your first declaration.

Don’t forget to also include your micro-entrepreneur revenue on your personal tax declarations as well.

• Tax Rate — Taux de Cotisations

Good news for les micro-entrepreneurs — beginning January 1st, 2019 everyone starting a company benefits from L’Accre, which is a gradual tax for your first three years of working under this status (see chart below). After that, the tax is 22%.

Still have questions about the process? Check out this FAQs page which has a ton of details on it. Good luck!

If this how-to guide helped you, please consider buying me a coffee to say “merci” and help keep this blog going!

But you still have to adjust to a foreign land, create a new life and integrate into a society unlike what you’re used to. Not an easy task.

When I first moved to Paris, I thought I had mentally prepared for these challenges. I’d been honest with myself that the adjustment wasn’t going to be all fun and games. But there are certain things in life you can’t really grasp until you’re in the thick of it.

A year and a half in, I’m still learning something new everyday. But I have a firm understanding of what I did right before boarding the plane for France, and what else I wish I had known.

Have a serious talk with your partner about the level of support you will need

In the excitement of moving, its easy to get caught up in the daydreams of walking along the Seine, hand-in-hand with your spouse as the Eiffel tower twinkles in the distance. You’re not thinking about what happens when you can’t find a job or you try to exchange something at Monoprix and the process goes awry and you cry in the store (I speak from experience).

These are also the moments that will make up your new expat life. Doing an assessment of where you will need help and how you are going to handle it as a team is a must. Some questions to discuss:

• How much help will I need with the language? Will I be able to get through day-to-day life alone? Do visa or employment paperwork alone? Work in the language? Are you prepared to help me with all that if needed?
• How much support will I need financially? How will the balance of our financial responsibility change once we are there? How long could I potentially go without working? Will I be making less money?
• How much of a social support system will I have? Do I have my own friends or family there? How much are we going to see your family? How often will we travel back to my home country?
• How much emotional support will I need? Will my level of independence be much different there? How could that balance of power change our relationship?

Give yourself a timeline

Set an amount of time you are going to stick it out no matter how hard it gets. I told myself (and my husband) I was committing to 2-3 years and if after that I still didn’t like it, or couldn’t build a life, we could broach the subject of moving back. I knew from moving to NYC in my 20s that it takes years to really feel like you live in a city. So I wasn’t going to make an assessment until I had given it enough time to really know Paris.

The purpose of this commitment is two-fold. First, there will be many times, especially in the first year, that you will want to give up. Where it all feels too hard. Where it feels like you will never learn the language. Where it feels like the loneliness is unbearable. In those moments, booking yourself a one-way ticket home and saying au revoir to all that will be immensely tempting.

The second is that if you have in your head that you can or will leave, you’re not going to give it the same effort as if you’ve committed to this being your life for at least the near future. You won’t work as hard to make friends, or learn the language or even learn your way around the city. If you go into it believing you have an escape hatch, you will reach for the emergency brake instead of pushing through the hard times.

Understand it is a lot of hard work and be ready

Time for a come to Jesus moment with yourself. Moving abroad is not all ponies and unicorns. It will change you, it will change your relationship, and it will be a lot of hard work. The sooner you get the fantasy of wine on terraces all day out of your head, the better.

The idea many people have about life in France can make you feel guilty if the reality isn’t a dream. Friends back home will tell you you are so lucky to live here (true!), but therefore may not be receptive to hearing about your struggles.

For a better idea of what to expect, I recommend reading up a bit on French culture, history and the intricacies of the language — as well as the tales of expats who came before you. Here is a list of books I read before moving.

I don’t regret moving to Paris at all, but immigrating and adjusting hasn’t been easy. The amount of payoff you get is directly related to how much work you put in. If you don’t put in the effort, you will fail to integrate, period.

After you move into your new home, unpack, and memorize your own telephone number in French (took me longer than it should have) — the work of building your new life and identity begins.

Don’t rely on your partner for your entire social life

Most expat husbands and wives find it is important to their happiness that they don’t feel completely dependent on their partner. This requires putting yourself out there, and getting yourself out of the house a lot.

If you have even remote connections in your new country, use them. I found that when I announced I was moving to France, friends and acquaintances happily offered to connect me with anyone they knew here. It can feel awkward to have to meet so many people, many of whom you won’t “click” with, but there is no shortcut to making friends.

Other ways to meet people:

• There are a ton of resources online — from MeetUp events to Facebook groups for expats based on country of origin, interests or reason you’re in the country (such as for au pairs or spouse groups).
• In Paris, there are dozens of organizations that cater to expats — from theater groups to libraries to church groups to sports clubs.
• Try getting involved in a hobby you had in your new country. Become a regular at a yoga studio, sign up for an art class or another activity you loved back home that could attract like-minded people.

Even if you participate with your partner, it will feel good to be leading rather than following their plans. It’s also okay if your personal social life is in your comfort zone. While I do speak French with my husband’s friends and family, my personal social circle is almost entirely in English.

Give your days structure

Be disciplined about getting out of the house, studying and looking for opportunities to meet people. Get out of the normal touristy bubble and learn about local events you can add to your calendar. You will learn very little about your new home by sitting on your couch, as tempting as it is sometimes.

If you don’t have a job yet, I recommend using language school as a way to give yourself a set schedule. This worked great for me.

If you are searching for a job, be open-minded and get creative about the opportunities you look for. Dedicate time everyday to searching, applying and building a network. For more tips on finding English-language work in France, check out this article.

Language, language, language

It may seem obvious, but still needs to be said: Make learning the language a priority. If you can afford to and need to, take a few months when you arrive to dedicate to language courses and giving yourself time to learn your new environment. Classes don’t have to break the bank, and this can give you some adjustment time.

For those of us living in our foreign spouses’ homeland, the language is integral to connecting with your partner’s family and friends and becoming more independent. Personally I don’t enjoy the process of learning French much, and feel dumb much of the time, but the change it makes in your quality of life is immense.

Avoid playing the comparison game

The guy you read about who was “fluent” in three months. The woman who created a blog and now makes a living off her Instagram account. The friend-of-a-friend who landed a job in a week. These stories aren’t the reality for the vast majority of people who move to another country, so try not to use them as a yardstick.

Part of moving is figuring out who YOU are in this new environment. You may not have the job, family, friends and social structure you had back at home — and it can be hard to know yourself without all that. Focus on learning what works for you, not comparing yourself to others (who probably aren’t sharing all their struggles).

Don’t take it personally and move forward

Cultural differences will sometimes make you feel like people are being rude, when in fact they are just being French. There will be times when you feel like an alien because your normal ways of communicating don’t translate. Try not to take it to heart (easier said than done, I know).

You live in France, and you’re going to have to adjust to the way things are done here — the country is not going to change for you. So the sooner you accept that and learn how to deal with it, the better your life will become. You can spend all day comparing how things were done back in your country — but deciphering the culture and moving forward will be more productive.

Don’t forget to enjoy yourself

In the whirlwind of setting up your life, the pressure can feel overwhelming. Remember to still take time to do things you love, discover new places and take care of yourself.

Find the parts of the culture that really interest you and do a deep dive — maybe it is the language, food, regional differences, design or history. Or just give yourself a “day off” every once in a while to take a break from learning and treat yourself.

When you’re in the day-to-day struggle of building a new life, it can be hard to accurately assess your progress. Sometimes I beat myself up about my language skills, the number of friends I’ve made, or how I don’t know the names of the streets in my own neighborhood. But when I compare my life now to when I arrived, or even six months ago, I feel proud of myself.

Every few months (or whenever you’re feeling discouraged), check back in on some of the milestones you’ve hit with language, social life, work and learning about France.

Set goals, but don’t judge yourself too harshly if you don’t hit all of them exactly on time. The reality is, it will likely take you longer than you expect to adjust to your new country. Give yourself time to make it work, and cut yourself some slack.

Integration and adjustment must be measured in months and years, not days and weeks. By having realistic expectations, you and your relationship will be more likely to succeed. And of course, each person’s process is different, so please leave a comment and share what worked for you if you have additional advice!

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5. Be Flexible

Unless you are transferring within your company from home, there is a good chance you will have to take a step backwards or into an position that isn’t your ideal. The advice I’ve heard from other expats who made this jump is to take the first job you can in order to get French experience, make connections and learn the French work culture. It may not be your favorite job ever, but it will help you get a better one.

Also, the younger you are and less experience you have the harder this process will be because France’s youth unemployment is high. If you are entry-level, consider taking an internship (stage) in order to gain experience and learn the French ropes.

6. Build a French Network

I had spent ten years working in NYC, but my established professional network couldn’t help me much once I was in Paris. So I started attending expat and journalism-related events in order to meet others who could perhaps help me get my foot in the door. Meet as many people face-to-face as you can in your industry, or even just making connections with expats who may know others in your profession.

7. Join Expat Facebook Groups

A great way to find events is to join Facebook groups specifically for expats and industry professionals in your city. Some groups allow members to post job opportunities as well. Here are some to start with, but be sure to search for ones specific to your situation too:

• Americans in France
• American Expats in Paris
• Expats Living in Paris
• Expat Life in France
• British & Irish expats in Paris
• Married to a Frenchman (for us expat wives)

While you’re at it, join the Am I French Yet? Facebook group for updates on expat life in France!

8. Translate Your Resume and Experience

Translate your resume into French, or at least add the French equivalents for job titles so recruiters have a better idea of how your experience from back home lines up in France. For example a manager is a directeur/directrice and a communications officer would be a chargé de communications.

But be clear about your French level on your resume — to not do so is setting yourself up for embarrassment during the interview process and could hurt your chances for future opportunities at the company.

For regulated professions, you need to get an equivalency certification that is recognized in France through the CIEP. You may be required to take additional courses to practice in France. In some cases your degrees or experience may not be recognized at all, which is extremely frustrating.

9. Start early, have patience and keep your chin up

It takes longer to land a job in France than in America because of the economy and the labor laws that make companies more careful about hiring. It isn’t abnormal for it to take a native-speaker six months to a year to land a position, and you’re fishing in a much smaller pond. So start as soon as you can, have a plan for your finances and try not to get frustrated (easier said than done, I know). The waiting game is difficult and involves a lot of rejection. Spend the time throwing yourself into learning French — it will give your day structure, and help you out whenever you do land that job.

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You’ll need to navigate these inevitable workplace culture distinctions in order to to adjust to your French office and make a good impression on your coworkers. Here’s what you can expect:

1. The Cafeteria is a culture shock

When I first saw the wine in my French company cafeteria, I thought surely no one is actually drinking that. Wrong. It is perfectly normal to enjoy wine or beer with your meal at work in front of everyone. I have also never seen foie gras in an American cafeteria, but voilà it was here around Christmas.

Sometimes French culinary tastes mean you need to be careful about what you order as well. At lunch I once ordered a veau (veal) dish assuming it was just stewed meat. After one very chewy bite, I googled the rest of the dish name —rognons— to discover I was eating kidneys. After expressing surprise to a colleague, I was informed this is a normal dish commonly served to French children at school as well. Can’t imagine American kids eating veal kidneys at lunch.

2. Work-Life balance is real

It’s a phrase commonly thrown around in America, but a concept so rarely actually achieved. The French however, have work-life balance down. This is in no small part due to the government regulating work hours and the cultural importance of vacation and family time.

By law the statutory working week is 35 hours, but that doesn’t mean French people are lazy. Working overtime to meet a deadline happens, but in France productivity is more important than face time. If you have to put in extra hours, that doesn’t make you a harder worker, it means you aren’t able to get your work done as fast as you should.

French people also get five weeks minimum paid vacation time. Culturally they just have more respect for time off and don’t talk about work constantly like many Americans. That’s a change I can get behind.

3. You’re Paid Once a Month

It is normal in France to only be paid once a month, usually near the end of the month. This has been an adjustment for me since in the United States I was paid weekly or bi-weekly and I feel this made budgeting easier. Perhaps French people are all eating ramen noodles in the days before their paycheck comes through, but I’m guessing they are just better with money since they don’t have credit cards or student loans to worry about.

4. Keep your personal life private

Sure some French coworkers are also friends, but there is more of a line between personal and work life than in America. People are less likely to share details about their spouses, kids or daily updates on how the puppy’s housebreaking is going. And they’re less likely to be asking you the same.

This doesn’t mean they don’t like you, it is just the culture to not open your personal life to everyone. It is uncommon to find family photos on people’s desks, and you aren’t expected to attend your coworker’s birthday parties or baby showers.

Also, while French people love ‘la bise’ to greet each other, cheek kissing isn’t used as a greeting at work unless you are also close friends with your colleague. So be sure to shake hands as you would in America.

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5. Makeup isn’t necessary to look “professional”

In America, I rarely encountered women at work who didn’t wear makeup. French women in general wear less, but I was surprised to see how many women –including women in high-level positions– don’t wear make up on the job. How refreshing.

Don’t equate this with being informal though. French offices don’t have “casual Fridays,” and showing up in a sweatshirt and sneakers is generally a terrible idea.

6. Email isn’t constantly checked

In 2017, a French law went into effect establishing workers’ “right to disconnect.” Translation: you don’t have to check your emails after work hours. The goal is to keep employees from being overworked, protect their private time and prevent burnout. It isn’t expected that you will be glued to your email, replying anytime of day or night.

This means you shouldn’t expect an immediate response to your emails, which was something I had to get used to coming from NYC. Emails may not be checked until people actually get to the office, and that is accepted.

7. Work doesn’t define you

Ask a lot of Americans who they are and they will answer with their profession. In France, few people define their lives or themselves by their job. Work and ambition is important to many French people, but they rarely consider it their most important or interesting quality.

It’s often said that Americans live to work and French work to live. This mentality bleeds into social situations too. It is considered rude to quickly ask what someone does for a living when you meet them, and it isn’t uncommon to spend a whole evening at a party never hearing about a person’s job.

8. Time off for meals

Just as French people don’t approve of eating while in the car or walking, they appreciate taking time away from the desk to focus on meals. Sometimes this is just 20 minutes in the company cafeteria, but others it can be a leisurely two hour lunch with wine. In New York, I ate 95% of my meals at my desk huddled over my computer, as did my coworkers.

Snacks are far less prevalent in French workplaces too, as snacking isn’t really part of the culture. People don’t have drawers full of treats, nor are they munching down chips at their desk. So best to leave that American pastime for when you’re at home.

Also interesting, in France your work meals have to be subsidized. Companies are required to either have a subsidized cafeteria (cantine) or provide meal vouchers called “tickets restos.” Employers pay at least half the cost of the tickets, which are around nine bucks each, and the employee covers the rest. Many restaurants offers meals for the exact cost of the vouchers, and they can often be used at grocery stores as well.

9. Coffee and Cigarette breaks are common

While Americans tend to drink coffee as a way to keep up energy and work harder, the French are having their tiny coffees at work as a way to take a break, clear their heads for a moment and actually enjoy their drink. These frequent coffee breaks are often social opportunities too and taken in groups.

While fewer people smoke in France now than they used to, cigarette breaks are still common as well. There is less of a stigma in France with smoking, so people aren’t sneaking away like they often do in America where being a smoker is looked down upon at work. French people will openly have their lighters on their desks and take smoke breaks together.

10. Dial down the American enthusiasm a bit

Part of the collective American personality is being positive, energetic and friendly. But that overt openness can rub some people the wrong way in France. My advice would be to tone it down a little. Don’t share all the details of your life right off the bat, don’t ask personal questions, don’t invite coworkers to your house quickly and try to listen more than talk at first while you adjust to the French style of working.

In the same vein, don’t get upset or offended when your French coworkers critique your work without sugarcoating it the way we do in the United States. They aren’t being purposefully cruel. This straightforward communication is normal in France and it is not uncommon for colleagues to argue in the office in ways that would seem confrontational to many Americans. After all, the French love a debate.

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