difficulties « Vegemite Croissant

Jobs for Expats

20 12 2010

I’ve been reading the expatriate websites and chatting to a number of expats in France about the work they do here, so I thought I’d share my ideas on jobs for expats.
Finding work in a foreign country can be tricky. Not all people make the move with work lined up – some are the trailing partner, who merely hopes they can find a job that works for them. This is made even more difficult when you’re still learning the language – not many local businesses will hire someone who can’t speak the local language well! So, I put a little thought into the sorts of work expats (or those wanting a working holiday abroad) can pick up fairly easily in a new country.

What could you do?

Types of work for expats could include:

Freelancing Online (piece work or ongoing tasks for regular clients)
Starting a Business
Freelancing with Local Businesses
Full/Part Time Work Locally

Specific ideas could include:

Writing Online
Website Design
Teaching First Language to Locals
Teaching Music, Computing or other Non-Language-Based Skill
Assisting in a Help-Line in your First Language for an industry you are familiar with (eg. Banking)
The list goes on forever..

Tell us what you think in the expat job ideas poll and feel free to add your expat job ideas in the comments!

Need a Job Now?

For those of us living and working abroad who are always looking for freelance contracts and piece work, you know all too well how annoying it is to trawl the same websites for the new jobs or to see a pile of RSS jobs that are so old that there’s no point applying. To get around this, I created a few websites that pull in the RSS feeds for the best jobs. This way, you can just check out the new work and ignore the older stuff.

Best Web-Worker Jobs
Best Expat Jobs in France

For writers and web designers, I’ve put together a page of the Best Web-Worker Jobs.

For the Expats in France, I made a job board for the Best Expat Jobs in France. It pulls in both the web-worker jobs and jobs for English-speakers in France (this includes translation and jobs to teach English in France). Hope it can be of use to you!

If you’re still confused and could use a bit of motivation in regards to getting a new career, check out some of my other posts (from Bootstrap Your Life) on careers and work.

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Tags: expatriate websites, expats in france, living and working abroad, teach english in France, working holiday abroad
Categories : difficulties, freelancing, issues, language, money, work

Buying a car in France

11 05 2010

Buying a car in France seems to involve a lot of unexpected steps, so I thought I’d share what we’ve learned about it.

Step 1: Car must be checked by garage
The people selling the car need to take it to a garage and get it checked over sometime in the 6 months prior to the sale. No-one seems to check this on any of the forms, but it’s known to be required.

Step 2: Get insurance cover before you buy the car
Get hold of a copy of the seller’s Carte Gris so you can quote the license plate number, car number and other details. Get your insurance sorted before you drive the car. The insurer should then give you a month to get your new Carte Gris information to them.

Step 3: Fill out prefecture forms when sale is made
Don’t expect the person selling you the car to know this step – I think it’s one of the changes to the Carte Gris system in the last few years.

Before the sale, go to the prefecture and get two forms:

“Declaration de cession d’un véhicle”
Application for “Certificat d’immatriculation” (Carte Gris)

The first form needs to be filled out by both parties and the other just by the buyer, but both parties will need information from the old Carte Gris. So, it’s better to fill them out together while all the information is in front of you.

Note: There’s usually a counter in the Prefecture where you can get the forms without waiting.

Step 4: Take forms to Prefecture
The buyer has one month to ensure these forms are taken to the Prefecture. Any later and they’ll be fined for driving the car. Technically, I think the seller is responsible for the first form. However, the prefecture had no problems with the buyer bringing in both forms. Also bring ID, proof of address and some money for payment for the transfer (in May 2010 the fee was 94 €).

The Carte Gris system has changed in recent years, so the Prefecture helpfully supplied me with a step-by-step guide for what happens next. Basically, it involves waiting patiently and not bothering them unless two weeks goes by without your Carte Gris arriving in the mail. Strangely though, in an entire A4 sheet of helpful information, it didn’t bother to mention the next step because it’s so obvious to French people.

Step 5: Get new number plates
When cars are sold in France, the registration number/number plates need to be changed. The new number is printed on the Certificat d’immatriculation. So, with the provisional Certificat d’immatriculation, you can get new number plates made for the car by going to any garage/mechanic (in May 2010 it cost me 23 €).

This last bit really surprised me. I knew that the plates would be changed, but I thought there would be some sort of centralised process for it, eg. the plates being sent to me. If mechanics in Australia started printing their own number plates they’d get investigated by the police. So, I never expected that the next step would involve casually strolling into a garage with a photocopy and getting new number plates made for the car. I still wouldn’t know if I hadn’t happened to have spoken to someone who knows I don’t know the process here.

On that note, I also noticed that you need to apply for an updated Carte Gris if you ever move house. Wouldn’t have expected that either. Hope it doesn’t cost as much as when you transfer in to your name!

Image Credit: Karol Siedlaczek

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Tags: car france, car in france
Categories : bureaucracy, daily life, differences, difficulties, legal, transport

Working out French Freelancer Taxes

17 06 2009

: Image by blmurch via Flickr

I’ve spent most of today trying to make sure I had my freelancing tax obligations under control. I think that with the French freelancer tax reform only occurring in 2008, people are only just getting around to publishing useful information on how it works.

I had already registered as an auto-entrepreneur earning less than 32000 €, URSSAF have my details, I have a SIRET No & SIREN No.

I also have a big pile of junk mail that I find difficult to sort from the important mail, but that’s another story.

I have a few nice brochures from URSSAF which seem to say that during the first year all freelancers pay the same amount, since it’s unlikely that you’ll guesstimate the wage correctly anyway. There looks to be payments due to three sources: URSSAF, RSI and CIPAV (the bodies that collect for retirement, health and taxes).

What I was worried about was that I haven’t received any letters saying “Pay this tax” or whatever. I haven’t heard a peep out of CIPAV – I only know their name from the brochure.

So, I was wondering: What normally happens here? Do I get billed? Do I have to chase people up? Can these payments be taken from my bank account?

None of my French friends have any idea, since they’ve never freelanced.

But, all this confusion was before I found this wonderfully useful post by “This French Life”.

It led me straight to an English PDF of the Auto-Entrepreneur System which explains heaps of stuff about freelancing in France and the Auto-Entrepreneur Website (L’Auto-Entrepreneur) where you declare earnings and pay tax as a freelancer in France (register by SIRET number).

It’s EXACTLY what I wanted to know. Thanks to Alison from PBBS Translations for providing the translation. I know I’ll make good use of it!

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: tax preparations
Categories : benefits, bureaucracy, business, difficulties, English, France, freelancing, Government, health, important, insurance, internet, money, retirement, taxes, website, work

Webform nuisances and 3G USB internet

18 05 2009

: Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been searching for a 3G USB key (Clé) for sporadic internet access. I thought I’d share a little about what I learned, as this is a fairly normal thing for travellers and new residents to want, since travelling and unstable housing doesn’t really lend itself to reliable internet access.

The two main providers are Orange and SFR. Both have contract and non-contract versions available and all of the options are fairly pricey. Now, I’m not going to discuss relative figures because they change. But, be warned about the contracts. One contract I saw said “30 € for 6 months” in big letters followed by “and then 40 € for 24 months” in fine print. So, read it over several times before you sign.

In non-contract options it’s wise to note that SFR top-ups need to be used in 15 days, whereas Orange top-ups last a month. This was a huge selling point for me, since the top-ups from either place have inspired me to limit my usage to 5mins at a time and stretch each top-up over the maximum time possible. Also, SFR don’t bother to mention if their USB keys work with Macs or not (since you can choose the USB key yourself – and pay for that on top). I’ve heard most of the USB keys are made by the same manufacturer and don’t work with Macs even when they say they will. I also tried one that said it would work and failed. Orange clearly state that their USB keys are plug and play for Mac or PC, so I’m really hoping they tested that before they wrote that on their site.

When trying to buy my USB key, I got stuck when the webform asked for my “département de naissance” and would only accept a French answer (in a required field). I gave up in disgust and when I came back to try again the USB key cost an extra 50 €. After chatting to the lovely online help person it turns out the right answer for foreigners is ’99′. I’m posting this here in the hope that it’s a standard answer and might help someone else in the future.