Hey there,

Haven’t been able to get a response from the Dijon WhatsApp group for admission, so wondering if any tapifer are based there this year or former tapifer still there?

Thanks

hello everyone, I'm filling out my application currently and for my highest education (BA in english lit) it says to upload a university transcript

Should I attach a pdf of all my six semester marksheets? would that work? or should I request a transvript from my university? it's payable and I'll have to wait a bit for it to get delivered. but I don't want to risk my application, does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!

Hello! I just got here and I’m having the absolute best time, I’ve even been able to do a couple of trips to other countries, I found a gorgeous affordable apartment, and I’m really enjoying the city I’m in. My teachers are all very nice. I think I will leave here with an overall positive experience. I want to share this because I was super anxious and starting to think I would hate it here, but even as it’s gotten colder and more gray, I’m having so much fun and it’s been so fulfilling and rewarding already :)

That said, I just wanted to share a couple small money things I wish I had done differently. I do recognize I was very lucky with my placement… I’m pretty close to Paris, but still in a small enough town and it’s still big enough for me to feel fulfilled socially. Also side thing… I would suggest you start packing three weeks early if you have to move out of the place you are living in. I decided to start packing two weeks early and ended up trying to pack my bags and pack up my apartment at the same time. It was really stressful, and some things did not make it in because of the stage of packing at which I either saw them again or needed to put them in either box or suitcase. I’m not the most type A person so I really didn’t want to make a spreadsheet but my problem ended up being weighing my suitcase, so I would just suggest you have that suitcase weight before you even start packing so you can begin to weigh from day one and be pondering your clothing choices early/more carefully.

This is a big one I messed up… If you are using the spreadsheet on this sub Reddit to budget, make sure you are actually adding the transition cost themselves as a separate cost. I really underestimated transition costs (including my last month’s rent, last energy bill, moving truck cost, etc. before moving out) and some were higher than I thought (expected $60-$75 for a phone paid $150) technically, I have already eaten up a lot of the money I had budgeted for this. Tbh Americans, they changed the rules from last year and a lot of us now need an apostille so honestly just go ahead and get it. I wanted to avoid spending the money if I didn’t have to, but now it’s hurting a lot more to spend it after getting here w less (and no first check yet 😢). Personally, my birth certificate has a stamp that is really invisible raised texture on the paper, so it’s not visible or copyable, and the district did not accept it. Now this whole process will take longer. I will still have extra money every month, but I just wish it had occurred to me that the monthly cost was going to be completely separate from the transition cost. I also did a few trips early because of timing (Oktoberfest unfortunately starts Sept 19 and ends Oct 4) so that definitely impacts my experience, but just make sure that you are not only budgeting for the monthly cost.

Another small thing I wish I had done… Go ahead and just apply for another travel credit card whenever you finish applying for TAPIF, get the acceptance or at least significantly before you let your Job know you’re leaving. I have Discover, which I have unfortunately discovered Europe does not like ofc. My job was not happy to hear I’m leaving (done w this industry if you have seen other posts lol) so I had to attempt to apply on a “much lower salary” and I don’t have access to credit here (open to advice in the comments plz).

Honestly, this is really too small things, but yeah TLDR
go ahead and tack a few more thousand onto that monthly budget, get a credit card early, and get a luggage weight early. I waited a little bit longer after graduating to do this program so I could have the extra money and I’m definitely glad I did. Good luck!! It’s so worth applying, yall got this!

EDIT: I was able to get some help with it, I just have to pray now that I get my numero de securite sociale provisoire without too much delay...

Hello! Filling out my CPAM form for the first time. For my address, should I just put down my main school's address, or maybe my academie's address? The instructions page my school's secretariat gave me says "j'indique l'address de mon établissement principal d'affectation" but is that just for assistants who haven't figured out their housing yet? I do have my housing sorted, and when I called the hotline, the woman I talked to didn't seem very familiar with TAPIF, and so she wasn't familiar with the form my secretary gave me.

Also, for the section that says "j'indique les coordonnées de mon employeur ci-dissous:" would my employer by the rectorat of my academy, since he's the one who signed my arrêté? Or would that be the principal of my main school?

Thank you everyone!

Me and the secretary at my établissement spent several hours today trying to get my health insurance / french social security. I have all of my documents but everything I’ve received about it just says to hand it into the administrative office. We were following the instructions that the secretary had, went to ameli and made an account, but nothing we did after that would work. We tried to make a dossier but it would let us select and employer and so on, just a lot of confusion. Is there anyone who could help clear this up ?

Hi everyone! I am applying to TAPIF for next year, and am very interested in hearing current or past TAPIF experiences of being placed in smaller towns and/or medium/larger cities. I of course know no location is guaranteed, but I'm considering my application preferences, and I'd love to hear your personal experiences! As well as anything else I should consider (housing, costs, socializing, speaking french, traveling, etc?)

Merci beaucoup!

Just as the title says. I know if I’m arrested I could lose my visa but the grèves here are pretty non-violent as far as I’m aware. I’m with being housed by two teachers in the region and they’re both participating in the grève tomorrow. They wouldn’t expect me to do it, but I also don’t understand the full consequences of participating and was wondering if someone had more insight. Thanks !

hi guys, I'm currently writing my Lettre de motivation for Assistant D'anglais program... Could you please let me know th number of words needed for it? Any estimate? My letter is currently 483 words in french and 422 words in English. If I cut it down any more than this, it will look robotic and simply a list of what I've done.... No motivation or anything 🥲

bonjour tout le monde, I'm planning to apply for tapif 2027-28 and had some questions about the application

for LDM, do I write it both in english and french or french only? and is there any word limit that's appreciated?

As for the recommendation letter, would I need one? I'm currently persuing my B2 classes with AF, so if need be I can get my professor to write one for me.

Mainly I'm confused about how to structure the content for la lettre de motivation and what to include exactly. I'm an english literature graduate and have completed a certificate 1 month course in teaching english as a foreign language + 9 months of volunteering experience in teaching english to little kids and I'm currently working as a part time french teacher for beginners. I'd really appreciate your help! Merci bcp en avance, bonne journée!

are there any assistants living out in Angers that would want to do a meet up?

I plan on applying to TAPIF this cycle and ideally do grad school the year after TAPIF. I looked over the student visa for France pages and couldn’t find anything about residential requirements, ie. Can’t be in the country for X amount of days/months in a 12 month period prior to student visa application. Anyone have experience or insight on this? Best if you provide source of information. Thank you in advance.

What with all the strikes and schools (my school) continuously being closed, I haven’t had a single opportunity to meet other assistants at all, not the one in my school or any of the others since the reception for all assistants was canceled … due to the strikes.

I moved into an apartment and was really lucky to get close to my roommates. But they have lived here longer than me and have already established social lives and go out pretty much every night. Meanwhile, besides them, I have not made a single friend. They were supposed to go to an event but I felt too shy to ask to join them even though they have invited me out before.

I don’t know, none of us do, how long the strikes will last or when normal school in lycees will resume. My school goes on a day by day basis and communicates with me each day and says there is no school tomorrow. How do I meet other assistants? I am part of my region’s group chat already but no one replies in the chat and no one seems to want to meet up. I have lived in a different country before so I know how this isolated feeling goes. Once you start having days where you do nothing at all, you speak to no one, you feel like you have no friends, it is easy for depression to kick in. I don’t want to get myself there. Loneliness is perfectly fine, but I don’t want to go further.

Any ideas about how to socialize when school isn’t set up yet/no one in the chat seems to be open to meeting? What events do I go to? I don’t mind going to events alone, I just want to have things to do and not be in my room all the time, waiting for my roommates to come home and relying solely on them for socializing. Thank God I didn’t get that single apartment 🙏

Hi! I recently moved to Paris for the year to teach and I am looking for 2/3 roommates living in the city who are queer/queer friendly! :) I love dancing, exploring cities, reading, cooking, crafting and singing!

Pls reach out if you are looking for a roommate!

Hey! Was just wondering if anyone applied for France from London? I had applied 2 weeks ago but haven’t heard back. My flight is in 10 days and can’t help but overthink. Can anyone share their recent timelines? Thanks

The meetings in Bordeaux at the DSDEN continue to be cancelled due to the protests at the lycées. They have now moved them online. I want to be able to meet other assistants but it doesn’t look like we will have the chance to do that in person anytime soon.

Does anyone know if there are existing groupchats for people placed in the Bordeaux region? Especially for those of us living in smaller towns around it. If not, does anyone want to start one with me? 🤩

Bonjour les amis I am reaching out on behalf of a friend who has recently gone to France for university studies and is hitting the French friendship wall. He’s desperate to make some friends but finding it so difficult to break into French friendship circles are there any anglophones in the area?

I went to my school yesterday, and they’re great, can’t wait to start, but the secretary keeps insisting to both myself and my prof ref that she can’t help sign me up for the CPAM which is getting frustrating. I tried showing the page in our guide where it says to bring the documents to the school but my secretary’s answer remains the same. If anyone had any help or advice I’d deeply appreciate it as I don’t like being in a foreign country without insurance .

I am supposed to start teaching at a lycee on Monday, and I feel so ill prepared. When I went to tour, my English team said they could only meet me for 10 mins during their recess, 7 mins of which were taken up by me standing outside the school while a fire drill was going on with no clue what was going on. I talked to my prof ref for less then 5 mins and was handed off to a first year teacher to be shown around.

My prof ref has never initiated communication with me and I have to ask her for everything, and get more questions in response then answers. I don’t know the layout of my school, where the classes are, etc.

She assumes I know everything and tells me NOTHING.

Has anyone had an experience like this? Where can I go to get more support? Will the academie be of any help?

I’m working as a teaching assistant in evry but have been trying to find housing in the middle between evry and Paris. Somewhere around Juvisy orge or something like that idefk anymore. I’ve been trying to find a studio that is CAF eligible since I can’t function unless I live alone. I’ve tried aljt and Visale but they are taking forever to get back to me. I’m basically homeless and have been moving from hotel to hotel. My school hasn’t helped me no matter how much I have asked and I cannot set anything up u til I have accommodation. Thus is all so complicated for me as I am new to the country and financially independent. I’ve spent so much money in Ubers and hotels the first week and I’m really struggling. I really need help finding housing for next week. Please someone help.

Okay so for context I validated my VISA two days ago and I understand the OFII visit I’m about to receive the date of is absolutely unchangeable, but I’m TERRIFIED they will schedule it between October 17th and 31st (the first long vacation of my academy) because I (stupidly) planned a vacation to Italy during those weeks with NONE REFUNDABLE TICKETS AND LODGING 😿

When was your OFII visit and do you think mine will conflict with those dates???

I'm trying to submit my paperwork for Ameli and l'assurance maladie with CPAM and they are requesting an apostilled birth certificate, which I do not have. I saw people talking on various threads that in previous years they hadn't needed it and the handbook also said it was highly recommended not obligatory. But I called their english speaking line this morning and they said I had to have it apostilled. The only way I can do that is to spend over $ 130 on shipping and fees to send it back to the US, get it stamped, and have it sent back. Is there any way to get around this or is anyone else in a similar situation? Really trying to avoid the head ache and hassle of the cost and shipping!

salut! i'm trying to register for l'assurance maladie and it is asking for an offical translation of my american birth certificate. is this something that i can get done online, or do i need to go to an embassy or something? the directions on the application aren't super clear and i really don't want to mess this up lol

Hi everyone,

I'll be staying with my prof referant at least when I first get to France and I thought it might be nice to bring them some little thank you/ hosting gift that is hard to find in France. Friends suggested American nuts or candies (I'm American).

Any other ideas, especially from people who have been before, or nice, easy to carry, shelf stable little gifts I could bring to them?

guys I have a question, what type of visa do we get during this prgramme? does it make travelling to nearby european countries accesible? (italy, spain, germany, etc)

thanks!