I am from Canada and planning to move to Paris next year. Do you have to be 18 to work full-time?
Paris - 2 Answers
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1 :
Do you know that you need a work permit to work in France if you are not a citizen of the EU? You should also understand that unemployment among the young in France is VERY high.
2 :
The legal working age is 16, or 15 for co-ops and apprenticeship programs. As the other poster mentioned a visa/work permit is mandatory to work legally anywhere in the european union, unless you have a EU citizenship or a resident status. In case you dont, I think Canadians are eligible for the working holidays visa program which would allow you to work legally in France for 1 year. If you do not have a visa and wish to work illegally, be aware that all decent employers will ask for your working papers. I would not advise you to get a steady kind of job illegally unless you got your job by a friend or connections and will be employed by someone trustworthy. You will be underpaid in the best case and your employer might blackmail you by threatening to call the cops on you (though he'd be in as much trouble as you'd be). A good informal job would be to help people pack/unpack boxes and all that on fairs and markets. You can usually agree upon a fixed payment, nobody will ask any questions though the job will most likely be tough. Finding a job legally might indeed prove hard given the unemployment rate it is however far from impossible, even if you don't speak French. Paris has a strong english speaking expat community and this would be a good place to start. You might wanna look on the web. There's also a free newspaper for expats called Fusac http://www.fusac.org/ which has classifieds for jobs in paris from translations or english private lessons to full time jobs. You can also check craigslist, the paris section is becoming more and more active and you will find several offers posted everyday (though only a small percentage of them are worth looking into). Hope that helps and have a great time in Paris.
