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Hi Lou

Not easy to answer.

EU citizens are "foreigners" in NC.

Ask your French friend to read the French forum, specially about "local protection".

There was long time ago on the forum the story of a Belgian citizen with a contract who had to leave, because he was not allowed to work.

I think the best thing to do is to ask your consul here :

but he is only a honorary consul without email address !

If you have already a contact with an English school here, ask them to know if there is no problem for you to work in NC. I think some of their teachers are from Australia or NZ.

Good luck,

Pisolahy

Hi Pisolahy,

Thank you very much for your help. I will definitely contact the consul and see if he can give me any more info!

I have had a reply from one of the English Schools in Noumea who are interested in me working there on a freelance basis so I will ask them if it's possible for me to get a work visa given that I'm an EU citizen.

I have emailed and written to the French embassy in London already but so far they haven't been very helpful!!

I'll write back with my findings to help people who may be in my situation in the future...

In the meantime, if anyone has any more info then let me know!

Thank you

Louise

Hey Louise,
If you come on a long-stay visa, you can apply for a Patent. It's a number meaning you can work as a freelancer, billing people for your services. That way, you could work in a couple of language schools, or give private lessons without having to go through the process of obtaining a work visa (a long process).

The only thing is, I think with a long-stay visa (without work - meaning you promise not to work for a salary) you need to provide proof of sufficient funds...

You'd better look into it all.

Good luck,

Megan

Thanks Megan,

That's really useful. When I emailed the French Embassy in London & explained what I wanted to do, they kept telling me I didn't need a long-stay visa even though I was pretty certain I did. Really helpful when the embassy gives you wrong information

Definitely going to do a lot of research before I decide to move there though! Infact I'm going over to visit a friend in Noumea in Feb so should be able to decide if working there is feasible.

Louise

Well for anyone who might be interested in teaching English in Noumea:

My boyfriend living in NC at the moment has spoken to the embassy and found out: If you are an EU resident then you can stay in NC indefinitely. However, this does not give you the right to work.  In order to teach then you can work freelance and just apply for a patente (not a work visa) when you are in NC (I think this is relatively easy to get). If you want to work for a company out there then as most people have already said, this is damn near impossible as it's very difficult to get a work visa!!

Lou