I am in France. Where do I actually start?
By settling your status before your company. That is the order founders most often invert, and catching up always costs more than anticipating: a company set up before the visa question is settled may have to be redone.
The Setting up path takes the subjects in order. And a member who has been through it will tell you more in twenty minutes than any guide.
I am Quebecois. The France–US treaty does not apply to me, what changes?
A great deal, and it is the question French-language sites handle worst, because almost all of them are written for the French.
Treaty-based visa categories depend on nationality, and the list of signatory countries is not the same across schemes. Tax treaties differ too: Canada and France did not sign the same text with the United States. The network includes Quebecers who have settled here, they are the ones to talk to, not a French founder.
Belgian, Swiss, Moroccan: is the network open to me?
Entirely. French Executive Network is a French-speaking network, not a French one: Belgians, Swiss, Luxembourgers, Moroccans, Tunisians, Algerians, Senegalese, Ivorians, Lebanese and francophiles all have the same place in it.
This is a substantive choice. Florida is home to North America's second largest French-speaking community after Quebec, and Canada is the state's second largest foreign investor, ahead of France. A network speaking only to the French would cut itself off from most of its ground.
Will I be taxed twice?
It is the most common fear, and the answer depends entirely on your tax residence, your nationality and the structure you choose, so on an accountant, not on a website.
What French Executive Network does: introduce you to the French-speaking accountants and tax advisers of the network, who know which treaties apply to your situation. What it does not do: answer in their place.
Is my degree recognised?
There is no automatic equivalence in the United States. Depending on the occupation, recognition goes through a private evaluation body, through a Florida professional board, or through nothing at all, many occupations require no credential.
Regulated professions in Florida fall under the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. For the rest, your background is worth what the person across the table makes of it, which is where a network helps.
Will my spouse be able to work?
It depends entirely on the category you enter under: some open a work authorisation for the spouse, others do not, and the process is separate from yours.
This is one of the subjects where an approximate answer costs the most, and where you need a lawyer. The network introduces you to some.
I already have a company in Europe. Subsidiary, branch, or start fresh?
All three exist, and they differ in tax consequences, in what they imply for your personal status, and in what it costs to unwind them if you stop.
The Setting up path describes what each form covers. The choice itself is made with a business lawyer and an accountant, and several members of the network have done exactly this.
Why Central Florida and not Miami?
Because Miami is already served and the corridor is not. The French-American chamber has been there since 1983, accelerators are plentiful, the community is old and dense.
Between Tampa, Orlando and the Space Coast, six million people, simulation, space, aviation, health, there is nothing. See our region.
Concretely, what does membership bring me?
Three things. The right people to talk to: French-speaking accountants, business lawyers, tax advisers and bankers from the network, introduced by name. The members who have already done it, who will tell you what cost too much and what they would do differently. And the corridor gatherings, from Tampa to the Space Coast.
The tiers are on the Membership page.
Does French Executive Network really recommend firms?
Yes, it is the core of membership. We introduce you to professionals from the network, by name, with the context of each: this one works mostly with French-owned structures, that one is the only genuinely bilingual practice.
One limit, said once: nobody is recommended because they pay. A partner buys visibility, never a place in the recommendations. And the final choice, like the professional liability, remains theirs and yours.
Is the directory listing paid?
No, and it will not become paid. The basic listing, name, sector, city, website, is free, claimable and correctable by its holder.
The enhanced listing is a paid option. It is never a condition for appearing: a directory you have to pay to enter is not a directory of the region, it is a directory of those who paid.
Are the figures on this site reliable?
Those on French speakers in Florida come from SelectFlorida, the state's official economic development organisation, and each carries its source, its year and the date it was retrieved. The site fails to build if a figure is published without a source.
No figure about French Executive Network's own audience or the size of its community is published: the association has none that is measurable yet, and inflating that kind of number always turns against whoever advances it.