Welcome to the first episode of Profiles in Franceformation, with your host, Allison Grant Lounes. I’m a Franceformation consultant and immigration specialist who has been helping people move to France since I began writing about it in 2011. I’m known for my comprehensive visa guide, Foolproof French Visas, and for my Franceformation method, a unique combination of life and business coaching with French visa and administrative support that helps you to create and pursue your dream life in France.

In this podcast, I’m going to be interviewing ordinary people like you who pursued their dream of moving to France, many of them from the Americans in France online community. We’ll hear their individual stories while they tell us in their own words why they wanted to move to France, how they ended up here, and how they navigated the bureaucracy they faced along the way. We’ll learn what the moving and immigration processes were like at different points in time and what challenges they faced adapting and adjusting to living in France, speaking French, and pursuing their careers here. And we’ll discuss what it means to be an American living in France: what we love, what we hate, and when France starts to feel like home.

When my guests talk about specific administrative challenges or visa issues, I’ll do a shorter followup episode where I walk you through the visa type or administrative procedure we discussed, so you can learn how to navigate it and what pitfalls you might encounter.

Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you on the next episode of Profiles in Franceformation!