The requisites to work in France are not complicated, you just have to follow some rules and present some documents. If a french company wants to hire other nationality workers it's necessary to have an authorization from the French Ministry of Labor. This document is a very important prerequisite for a long stay of an american worker in France. After approval this authorization is send to the Office des Migrations Internationales and then forwarded to the appropriate French Consulate in the U.S.. The applicant is notified and then he or she is able to follow the visa formalities. Finally is necessary to apply for a residence card.

   Ministry of Labor
   Service de la Main d'Oeuvre Etrangère
   127 Boulevard de la Villette, 75010 Paris
   Tel: 1-44-84-42-86
   http://www.travail.gouv.fr/

A temporary employment contract is when the contract can't be more than 18 months, and have to be renewed once. A fixed term contract doesn't have an exact work period, it must be declared in the contract writing. When you are working in a french company you will have a permanent contract if you have details like: date of employment, social security details, position of work, the company details, remuneration and the period of work.

Au pair programs are very known and are a good help for foreign students in France that wants to work, they used to live in the family's home and receive a salary to cover the classes, and a French Social insurance. The requisites are to have between eigthteen and thirty years, to be single, and the period of stay is from three or six months to 18 months.

The French Government gives many facilities for non-french people that want to study in France, but is necessary to obtain an authorization from the French Ministry of Labor. You can study and work at the same time, it's only allowed for students who don't have the enough economic possibilities to handle their studies payment, this permission is valid for three months, you can renewed this with any evidence of continuing studies.

There are also American university-sponsored programs in France which are available in summer periods, a semester or an academic year. For applying to these programs is necessary a good level of french language, and they are usually expensive but offer some advantages, the important one is that you can transfer your credits from a french universities to an american one.

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