
Welcoming Tech Talent from Around the World to France - julien_c
http://visa.lafrenchtech.com/?visa
======
graniter
I live and work in France and I am well versed in this type of Visa. It's a
very nice arrangement, but it's still France. It's still dealing with the same
administrative burdens for everything else. You don't get treated special, you
just have a special deal. I've said before that if France wants to attract
foreign talent what they need to do is assign someone in the French
administration to help workers get established. That is _the_ hard part about
coming to work in France. If you've dealt with the DMV in the US, imagine that
for everything. You can't just walk into a bank and open an account. You can
make an appointment for next week...which is your first consultation. You'll
need to bring a long of documentation for your second appointment the week
after. You won't get your bank card for awhile, and by the way you'll have to
activate it before you can use it. That might take a week. You'll need to go
to Paris for a medical check that you can do your job. All French employees
must do this. And you have to do it every two years. Pee in a cup. Undress
over there. You'll need to go to the prefecture to get your residence permit.
It took me 5 months to get my initial appointment and a total of 9 months to
get my card, even though the "long term visa" in your passport is only good
for 3 months. Some people I know waited 2.5 years for their residence card,
another over a year. More? The French healthcare system is pretty good, but
you won't get on it until after several trips to the Social Security office.
Whoops, your entire file was sent back to you because they needed some
additional piece of documentation they didn't tell you about. Make another
appointment. Repeat. Repeat. Drivers license? If you are 1 of 14 states you
can exhcange easily, but you only have 1 year to do that, after which you have
to go to driving school. 3000 euros. Better learn French to pass the test.
Better learn French to navigate all the adminstration. So Year 1 you will not
be productive. You will be running around trying to stay legally. For an
entire year. Ask me how I know.

~~~
d--b
I am French and I went through the process of immigrating to both the UK and
the US. While I agree that France is particularly painful about burocracy,
what you describe is not a breeze elsewhere either.

You have to compare with other systems, cause I don't know of any immigrants
who can say "oh coming here was so easy".

That is unless you're sent by a big company who takes care of everything.

~~~
user5994461
As a French who migrated off, going to the UK was so easy.

I can't begin to imagine the burden a non speaking French person would have to
go through to migrate to France.

~~~
palunon
Note that immigration inside the EU is way easier than with other countries.

You don't need a visa, working permit, special bank account (for US citizens,
since the bank must report income, etc, to the US gov), your driving license
is valid, etc.

~~~
user5994461
Not really.

You change languages, currency, you need new bank accounts, new health
insurance, completely different educational system. All administrations are
different. The culture is also a shock. You will never find any of the grocery
or shop you used to buy.

A French going to the UK is not much different than a Mexican going to the
USA.

The only advantage is that you don't risk being deported by the police if they
don't like you papers. You are effectively allowed to be there by the virtue
of being European.

~~~
someSven
What's it with the bank accounts? You can transfer money within the EU without
any problems. I pay my rent in Spain from a German bank account. Though,
getting wired internet is another thing, these companies seem to ignore
European law.

------
corford
It looks great on paper but the devil will be in the detail and how well they
execute on the admin/bureaucracy side.

If my experience a few years ago with the auto entrepreneur scheme and URSAFF
are anything to go by, you'll need a lot of patience, the ability to speak
half decent French and a sense of humour if you want to avoid ripping all your
hair out :)

I love France (have even married one of their citizens!) but this is a country
where in 2013 we moved from one department to another and had to close our
bank accounts with the branches in the first department and open new ones in
the second department because there was no way to migrate accounts between
branches of the same bank o_O We literally had to post cheques to a friend in
the old department so he could deposit them while we waited for the old
accounts to be closed and new ones opened (complete with different cards,
chequebooks, account numbers - the works).

Why did we need to migrate accounts? Because you could only deposit cheques in
the same department as your local branch. Why were we depositing cheques?!
Because half of France (including my fiancées' employer at the time) still
uses them for everything (which is also great fun if you're in a rush in
Super-U and the person in front decides to pay with one).

Having said all of that, France is awesome despite its flaws and there are
lots of reasons to be hopeful with Macron now piloting the ship.

~~~
tajen
At least 20% of French people express capitalism-hostile opinions (and it goes
well beyond Mélenchon voters). You face hostility as soon as you make money,
with consequences ranging from being denied places in the kindergarten to the
"petit Gregory" affair where the 5 years old son of a newly promoted team
leader was drowned. I'm trying to show off as much as I can that I'm
sponsoring poverty, donating a lot, making a lot for minorities, etc, because
truth is, I'm afraid of getting mugged. People who criticize me, talking as if
I belonged to the group of tax evaders, themselves don't have a clean business
and evade taxes just as much as Greek citizen, so don't expect any rationality
in their despicable criticism. Things can be so simple as, if you don't buy
locally-grown groceries, you deserve to be told off in public for not helping
the local population.

If you belong to the Christian minority, expect to be harassed by those you
say "We need to respect all religions". Everyday you'll face jokes like
"priests rape kids, followers are stuck-up, donating is worse than sponsoring
a mafia".

President Macron himself is seen as a capitalist _enemy_ by those 20-50%, and
this Mélenchon group explicitly denies his legitimacy. There are currently
very active groups and many of my friends are preparing the ground on Facebook
(God knows what kind of riots they're preparing for September – you think I'm
kidding? wait and watch).

French people are entirely hostile to privately-owned companies and average-
wealthy managers, so, no, I wouldn't recommend my country for entrepreneurs,
not until they make peace with a reasonable dose of capitslism. And that's
where I have hope for Macron: If he does the right things, he may tame anti-
capitalism sentiments a bit and show that hard works does bring money.

~~~
gagabity
What happens in September? I'm going on vacation over there!

~~~
yaantc
There's been a call for strikes to protest against the labor code reforms by
several syndicates and far left parties (PC, Mélenchon's Insoumis). Expect the
usual circus, but I don't think it'll be too bad. There were already some
labor reforms under Hollande, and they went through. Now there's an even
bigger majority for it. But syndicates and the far left have to go through the
motions and protest on this. Get some popcorn, enjoy the show (not too close),
you may see a traditional French protest while here. IIRC it should be around
mid-September.

~~~
zdkl
If you really want to have some fun go poking around high school and facultés
de science humaines. You'll probably get to witness "the che" flags on faculty
buildings and students barricading the ways in. Why? Neither we nor them know.

------
notadoc
This seems sort of like the kind of visa system the USA would advertise to
attract a particular talented group, does it not? The founder visa looks quite
friendly and easy, but it's four years. What happens after that? And what if
the startup fails, does the founder have to leave France?

I also wonder how appealing these international visa programs will be in light
of the changing US immigration and visa system. Will the USA lose out on
talent? Will the USA lose on half of the next generation of billion dollar+
startups? Assuming the past trend mentioned in WSJ persists, anyway

[https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/17/study-immigrants-
fou...](https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/17/study-immigrants-
founded-51-of-u-s-billion-dollar-startups/)

~~~
pcurve
"The founder visa looks quite friendly and easy, but it's four years. What
happens after that? And what if the startup fails, does the founder have to
leave France?"

I think that ambiguity is by design, to attract certain type of demographics
for people falling under the employees and founders groups. (i.e. young,
unattached, adventurous)

For people falling into the investor group, I seriously doubt getting visa
renewed after 4 year will be an issue as long as they are willing to bring in
additional capital.

------
NoB4Mouth
Here is a country that refused to give me knowledge when i needed it but it's
now trying to lure me in.

A decade back i finished my high school in a French speaking country with
honors and got an admission in a French university to study Business
Administration. I've been refused the entry visa for some imaginary reasons.
Unofficially i was part of the group of potential foreign students who may
refuse to go back to their home-country after graduation. I then stayed in my
country went to university to get a "useless" B.A. that couldn't help me to
face the socio-economic realities of the world. In 2015 i read a book
"Googled" by Ken Auletta that shacked me to the core and pushed me to learn
how to code. I'm now a self taught programmer with skills that will benefit
any French Tech startup and products' projects that could create 1000s of jobs
in France if i decide to start my companies there. That said, I would not go
to France because it didn't welcome me when i wanted to get in order to
acquire knowledge. Now France "needs" me to come and boost their shrinking
economy with the tech-knowledge i have acquired elsewhere. Sorry Monsieur le
President, I ain't coming.

~~~
samer66
It should not be that personal. This a weird way to think of it, France is 20
million times different from the "France" of that person or persons, who
decided you do not go there. I was turned down from getting an entry visa to a
country when I needed it the most, yet go it later very easily for something
that I was not very keen to travel for it. By the way, I went to France last
month and loved every minute of it.

~~~
devdas
Don't let anybody kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every
piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They
call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell. \-- Mario Puzo

------
jgh
I've been working on relocating to France, and while I'm very excited to do it
it's been frustrating to try to get information about this program. People
don't seem to know what documentation is required, and replies come after
weeks (if ever) from government bodies.

~~~
wuxmedia
Sounds pretty French. Source: lived there for 8 years

------
seiferteric
Wow you have to have a graduate degree to even be an eligible employee, never
mind.

~~~
pjmlp
As it should be.

We don't have people calling themselves engineers just because can type a few
lines of code.

~~~
GordonS
I'm a self taught dev with 15+ years' experience. I only got a degree a few
years ago (did it while working). Honestly, I learned exactly _nothing_ useful
that I didn't already know.

I do a lot of hiring and, in my experience, having a degree (or indeed the
class/score of said degree) has no relation to the real-world abilities of
candidates.

~~~
realusername
"engineer" in France is a regulated title you can only get through a degree
(like Germany?). Actually I'm not even sure most foreign schools degrees would
be accepted as engineers in France.

~~~
byroot
That is slightly inacurate, "Engineer" is not a regulated title in France.
What is though is the "graduated engineer" (Ingénieur diplômé) title.

[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_des_titres_d%27ing%...](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_des_titres_d%27ing%C3%A9nieur)

~~~
JPLeRouzic
You are discussing about the university degree (as the parent did), but there
are other usages of the word "ingénieur" in France beside diplomas.

In France "Ingénieur" is also a civil servant title, or a title given to
someone who did that job and is now retired (I am "Ingénieur honoraire" and
have a master but no "Ingénieur" diploma).

------
hkmurakami
If they're looking to attract founders, founders will obviously care about
exits. It might not be the #1 concern, but it's up there. France has a
reputation for very high taxes and a seeming contempt for very large cash
windfalls. I'd be curious how they plan to improve this international image.

------
xiaoma
They're requiring masters degrees for entrepreneur visas. One thing Jeff
Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Lei Jun, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill
Gates, Larry Ellison, Travis Kalanic and Cheng Wei all have in common is a
lack of a master's degree.

Why would France add a restriction to their visa that would have eliminated
the founders of Amazon, Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX, Apple, Xiaomi, Facebook,
Microsoft, Oracle, Uber and Didi Chuxing?

Are they pinning all their hopes on someone following the path of Larry Page
or Robin Li, except choosing to immigrate to France to start their search
engine? Are the people who made the rule just not aware how few of the top
tech company founders have master's degrees? Is it some kind of intentional
low-beta strategy to try to scoop up a bunch of more certain, smaller wins?

I truly don't understand what kind of reasoning went into to this program.
It's just making France look out of touch.

Edit: ok apparently the founder needs money and it's employees who all need
masters degrees (nearly as bad).

~~~
ramblerman
There is a Founders Visa and an Employees visa.

Only the employee's visa requires a masters degree. All the big names you
dropped were people that never intended to be employees.

I'm not sure what the problem is.

> It's just making France look worse.

This is just silly.

~~~
grp
Yeah, and they would never have needed a special visa.

It's sad, there is so much myths and fantasies around those specific guys.

~~~
xiaoma
It's not a "myth" or "fantasy" that they didn't have master's degrees.

To the best of knowledge any of them would have needed a visa to go to France,
and one of them did in fact live in Canada and then the US on visas before
naturalising and starting three separate billion dollar companies along the
way.

~~~
grp
Please, don't misunderstand me.

 _special visa_ doesn't mean _no visa_.

myths and fantasies are not about their degrees but more on the public image
we have of us who do more harm than good in my opinion.

 _" Rather than placing tech leaders on a pedestal, we should put their
successes in context..."_ [1]

I would never advise someone to drop school without a strong family
background, a solid bubble opportunity or just luck. And I don't like schools,
for me they are clearly not the best places to learn, just to network.

[1] [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539861/techs-enduring-
gre...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539861/techs-enduring-great-man-
myth/)

------
magnusdeus123
I've been looking forward to more details about this program emerging seeing
that I'm a french-speaking francophile who recently made a transition to a
career in programming.

The minimum education requirement being a Master's degree is quite
disappointing. I fear they are making the same mistake as Japan when the
latter introduced their points-based immigration system that requires you to
be fluent in Japanese with a Master's degree and published research, making
far above the salary any Japanese worker would make in the same position.

France isn't exactly an easy country to immigrate to. I was toying with the
idea of doing a Master's earlier this year; this might be the motivation I
need to get it done now.

~~~
madeofpalk
The US has a very similar requirement for their visa (I'm specifically
referring to E3, which is the H1B for Australians) which only lets in
'skilled' people, defined by a university degree (or 3 years of work
experience for every 1 year of degree, so a total of 9-12 years).

It was pretty disheartening to get a job offer from a big tech firm in New
York only to have any chances shot down because of visa...

~~~
Danihan
At least it's only a 4-year degree though.

~~~
realusername
In France, 4-year degrees do not exist so it counts as a Bachelor.

------
sgroppino
It will be interesting to see how French engineers and computer scientists see
this type of visa. The perhaps equivalent H1B visa in the US is or was
obviously a big plus in certain areas but was lately perceived as an abuse
channel to get cheap labour to replace the locals. Hopefully this scheme won't
be abused...

~~~
kakwa_
1) As far as I know, this is only communication stunt. There was no new
legislation that eases immigration, it falls in the current set of laws and
regulations that didn't seem to cause major issues for now (at least for
engineering jobs).

2) At least on the posted website, there isn't any big SS2I/ESN (Societe de
Service en Ingenerie Informatique/Entreprise de service du numerique, aka meat
renters, like Capgemini, Atos, Sopra-Steria...) or big employers (like Thales,
Snecma, Airbus...) in the list. The list seems kind of legit as it seems to be
constituted only of small start-ups.

------
devnonymous
For those who are seriously considering moving to a European nation for work
purposes, you might want to also look up the EU blue card scheme[1] which is
most likely more flexible than this for employees (no idea of equivalent for
founders and investors).

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Card_(European_Union)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Card_\(European_Union\))

~~~
hluska
Edit - it turns out that the link I put here is actually for a private
company. I haven't had any luck finding a more official link for information.
If you can help, I'll update this.

~~~
germanier
Note that this is (one of many) websites made by private companies that try to
appear as official as they can without being (and collect some "fees" on the
way). I would be extremely surprised if there were actual employers on that
site or if they would actually provide a useful service regarding the real
application.

~~~
hluska
Ooops, I'm an idiot! Thanks very much for telling me (and giving me the chance
to correct my error).

~~~
germanier
The EU site is at
[http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/bluecard_en](http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/bluecard_en)
but as the thing is issued by the member states each country has their own
website with information. For example, Germany (which issues about 85% of all
Blue Cards) has some information here:
[http://www.bamf.de/EN/Migration/Arbeiten/BuergerDrittstaat/B...](http://www.bamf.de/EN/Migration/Arbeiten/BuergerDrittstaat/BlaueKarte/blaue-
karte-node.html)

~~~
hluska
Thank you very much for the link!! If my daughter and I end up in the EU, I
owe you a beer! :)

------
Animats
_There has been a very strong dynamic over the past few years around France’s
10,000 startups._

Any info on the success rate?

~~~
jedmeyers
Yet only 70 companies are allowed to hire talent based on the visa rules.

~~~
raitom
Out of those 70 companies, how many have job offers in english?

------
samfisher83
Will they pay as good as the Us? That is going to be the biggest motivator in
my opinion.

~~~
raitom
No, around 40k€ / year, before taxes.

~~~
slau
Sure, but it's not just that. The quality of life could be argued to be
significantly higher than in other places.

The job security once you land a decent gig is not something to be discarded.
This being said, Macron does plan on making it easier for people to be fired,
in order to make it easier for companies to hire. This is a big topic that I
could rant for hours about.

You do get all-inclusive health care. In addition to what the government
provides, most 40k€ jobs will come with an extra private insurance
("mutuelle"), which will effectively reduce health costs for you and your
family to 0. Depending on how nice your company is, you might be _taxed_ on an
extra 20-40€ of monthly income, which gives mutuelle rights to you and your
family. If you're unlucky, 20-40€ will be deducted from your pay for every
family member on the mutuelle. This is usually not negotiable as it is
managed/negotiated by the employee representatives/unions.

You also get fairly decent rents. 600€/month will get you a flat in any city,
except Paris/Lyon. 1000-1400€ will get you a nice place in most cities.

You also get access to a decent transportation network to most Europe, and a
very good internet connectivity, at the consumer level.

I moved from France to Denmark. I would say my wealth has increased (2-3x
salary increase), but my overall stress has massively increased. France has a
lot of good things going for it.

~~~
raitom
I'm French and I moved to San Diego, so....

My health insurance is paid by my company and I don't really care about free
education.

Yet, after all my bills, groceries for the month and rent (which is around
$2k/month) is paid, I still have almost $2k / month in my pocket to do
whatever I want. Good luck to have that in France.

The quality of life in Southern California is miles ahead from what I could
have in France. My only regret is about food.

~~~
computereye
I'm French and I'm curious as to how you moved and got a job in SD ? Thanks

~~~
zaatar
SD is "South Dakota" as abbreviated in US-English. See:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota)

~~~
philsnow
There are more people in San Diego (~1.2M) than all of South Dakota (~800k).
Even absent the context of replying to a comment about having moved to San
Diego, I think it would be reasonable to assume that "SD" stands for San Diego
instead of South Dakota.

------
alpeb
Very French for them to require a masters degree for employees. Contrast that
to the more welcoming working permit in Germany[1]. Also currently the startup
scene in Berlin looks pretty interesting!

[1][http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/work-
permit.h...](http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/work-permit.html)

------
ciconia
As some here have posted disparaging comments about French bureaucracy, I'd
like to share my own experience. I've have emigrated to France four years ago
with my wife and our two kids. On the whole our experience dealing with the
government has been quite positive.

Yes, some stuff feels really backwards, like getting a bank account (it helps
a lot if you have a big wad of cash to dangle in front of your banker, you'll
get treated differently), the RSI (social security for entrepreneurs) and the
CAF (child support) are frustratingly incompetent, but most bureaucrats we
dealt with have been quite understanding to our needs and some of them have
really gone out of their way to help us.

I think it really depends who you stumble upon, and most of all - if you make
an effort to speak French (which is definitely one of the hardest things about
emigrating to France) you'll find that in the end it all works out, it just
might take some time!

~~~
graniter
I am all for learning French and doing it "their way." The challenge I've run
into with it "just taking some time" is for some things you don't have time.
Things need to be done at or by a certain time. Like setting up utilities,
getting a bank account, housing, signing up for healthcare, enrolling kids in
school, etc. Those can't take time, they need to be done as soon as possible.
So you have to get them done before you are good at the language and before
you understand the processes. Things have worked out for us but Year 1 was a
constant scramble. Reducing the burden of all that I think it what would
really help recruit talent.

------
geodel
So Euro 300K for 4 years. It doesn't look like good deal compare to USD 1
million for permanent residency.

------
zura
No mention of self-employed/freelancers/consultants.

------
anonyfox
At this point it seems that many Europe nations are more "free" than the US.
Now with same-sex marriage getting legal in germany the probably last big
issue is resolved. You will not get extreme high salaries like in the US, but
there is stuff like free higher education and getting serious medical care
won't be expensive at all.

Also remember that the EU has a higher population than the US with very
diverse countries to explore just a few hours apart, all rich of culture and
stuff that is over thousand years old.

Oh, and of course we don't have Trump. :D

~~~
weberc2
I find European culture and history alluring, but I don't think Europe is
somehow "more free" than the U.S., in particular, you guys have much more
regulation and far greater taxes. Maybe you have a greater quality of life by
certain measures, but I think the freedom point is hard to defend. Maybe I'm
wrong?

~~~
biztos
Taxes are not higher everywhere, and where they are higher it's usually
because there is really awesome infrastructure and a social safety net and
other stuff you would normally want to finance collectively. Compare, say, the
homeless situation in Berlin to that in San Francisco... or compare pretty
much any bus system anywhere in the developed world to MUNI.

One freedom Europeans have is freedom from fear of the police, i.e. I don't
think there's any country in Europe in which you might have to fear for your
life when you're not doing anything wrong and happen to meet a cop, regardless
of your skin color.

Also I think there's more political freedom in countries where small parties
play a role in government, i.e. you don't have to choose between the Democrats
or Republicans or a symbolic protest vote.

And while this varies by country, there are places where you can be just as
"off the grid" as in the US and the bureaucracy will never find you (or even
try). But I wouldn't try that in, say, Germany.

Anyway, that said I wouldn't propose that an American is likely to feel "more
free" living in Europe, probably the opposite, but in some things they
probably would be.

Source: US American living in Europe for a long time. :-)

~~~
weberc2
Thanks for your response.

Maybe taxes in California are crater than Croatia, but I would be very
surprised if the average tax want much greater in Europe than in the US. Do
you have specific places in mind?

I also think fear of police is overblown in the US (maybe I would feel
differently if my skin were a different color, but this doesn't appear to have
a basis in data), and "freedom from fear of police" isn't really a political
freedom (at least in my mind) unless you are referring to police oppressing
people for their speech, political affiliations, etc, which clearly is a non-
issue in the US. That said, while the odds of being injured or killed by
police are many times greater than in Europe, they are still miniscule. It
seems analogous to the recently heightened risk of terrorist activity in
Europe--many times greater than in the US, but still not a reason to avoid
Europe.

I do think Europe is a good value proposition for a lot of people (I've lived
there and occasionally consider trying to move back), but I don't think
Europeans have more freedom.

~~~
biztos
The tax picture is complicated, as always, but consider Hungary, where VAT is
very high (27%) but income tax is very low (15% flat tax). Vibrant tech scene,
programmers are paid very well by local standards, etc.

Having gotten quite used to the mellow police of Europe (not that I've ever
been arrested or anything) I find the militarized police of the US unnerving
every time I go back. Not sure I'd call it a political freedom but having
mostly-friendly cops even in a really big city is a big quality of life thing.

Plus, drinking beer on the tram (in Berlin) -- that's definitely a freedom you
won't enjoy in California. :-)

------
thinkingemote
From reading the comments there seems to be huge potential for a startup in
France: Making it easy to navigate the bureaucracy. Automate everything,
streamline communications, speed up enquiries, etc

This is assuming that the bureaucracy cannot be disrupted itself outside of
the government. I imagine if such a startup would work it would have lots of
popular support. Uber for Bureaucracy.

------
NKCSS
I guess if I'd want to attract talent, I would not use the most depressing,
gray, bland picture of Paris I could find...

------
archagon
I wonder if there are any avenues to do this as a sole proprietor? I'm an
unattached programmer with a bunch of independent projects released and in the
works, but I'm not really interested in doing a full-on "startup". Currently
looking into DAFT, but I think France is a bit closer to my heart!

~~~
graniter
You could get a long term visitor visa. Lasts one year and is renewable. You
need to prove that you have income, medical insurance, and promise not to work
for a French company in France.
[http://sanfrancisco.consulfrance.org/spip.php?article2703](http://sanfrancisco.consulfrance.org/spip.php?article2703)

------
TrevorAustin
Does it have to be a graduate degree in something related to the job or would
like an MA in Art History do the trick?

------
biztos
Four years renewable is nice, but the higher tiers of "international tech
talent" _employees_ are usually eligible for a _permanent residence permit_ in
Germany.

Does France have anything to compete with that, other than better food?

~~~
graniter
It's four years renewable for the residence permit, but really the important
thing is to have a work contract. You get the residence permit because of the
work contract. So if you still have a work contract after four years, you
would just apply for another residence permit. You can have a work contract
that has no expiration (no fixed duration).

~~~
biztos
Yes, but with my permanent residence permit I can take a year off to write
poetry (if I could afford it) then come back and take a part-time job in a
cafe or be a freelancer, and nothing would happen to my status.

I'm not arguing that it's better to live in Germany than in France, that
depends on way too many variables (not just the food of course). But it would
be nice to see more competition. Maybe if other EU countries really started
beating Germany for tech talent acquisition, Germany might finally wake up and
allow dual citizenship. (Wishful thinking on my part.)

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calafrax
This basically seems like an H1-B in the US. The US has had H1-B for 25 years
now and is doing 100,000+ per year.

This seems like too little too late.

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bernardlunn
France needs to lower long term capital gains tax. If you work for 10 years at
big risk, the payoff should be big.

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enriquto
I see a blank page.

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expertentipp
Just a friendly reminder: as of today there has been a state of emergency in
France for over a year now. We are talking about situation with regular army
with full automatic assault weapons on the streets and police authorized to
enter apartments without court order.

~~~
hluska
I'm Canadian and have a 15 month old, so I'm not as up on European news as I
should be. Does that state of emergency stem from the Paris attacks in 2015?

~~~
computereye
It was supposed to be a temporary state but no politician wants to be
responsible of an attack if they shut it off...

I don't live in Paris but overall this doesn't change daily life by much. You
basically only see a couple police officers in front of police stations and a
couple guards in front of universities.

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madshiva
This on some case could be good, but there's plenty of people with talent and
they don't want to hire them or nor give them decent salary.

This is what ruin the French, only following trend. USA is doing TECH DAYS,
let's do the same.

