what do you think about the french fencing..?

[veeco]

My professional qualifications are a french certificate 2nd degree of fencing, I've passed it in 2000 in Châtenay-Malabry, my first degree has been passed in 1997.

This is a 4+ year degree, so it might be possible to get an H1-B visa using this diploma.

I work since 1997 in the same club in Paris. I have got a diploma in modern pentathlon first degree too.

Next year you will also have 10 years experience and I believe if you can document it, it is possible to get a diploma equivalency in the US.

Other relevant visas, that other fencing coaches have used: J1 visa (internship and training program), O1 (extraordinary ability worker).

You don't need a B1 visa to visit fencing clubs in the US. France is part of the visa exemption program, which means that if you have a passport that was issued before October 2005, or if your passport was issued after and is a biometric one, you can enter the US for up to 3 months for business or pleasure, as long as you don't work there.

If your girlfriend is a teacher, she could look at working for a French school. There is a website: http://www.aefe.diplomatie.fr/ which lists all of the French schools outside of France. You could look at the schools in the areas you are interested in. I would recommend looking at the Northeast (Oregon, Washington state), California, Nevada, Southwest (Texas), and the East Coast (NY, NJ, MA, Penn). These are the areas where there are lots of schools and fencing.

[mlr2fence]

Another thing to consider.....I assume that you would be interested in flying back to France or having friends/family visit you so check out ease and cost of flying between the US city you are considering and France. (East coast is easiest for this) Its also nice if you live in a tourist destination where your visitors would want to make frequent trips and have something to do when they do visit and you are working. Consider the beach, theme parks (think Disney World) museums, etc.

[glowstix]

Another place to consider is Eastern Canada (Montreal/ Toronto). Both English and French are spoken and there are several good Universities.

Here's a link on immigration to Canada in both French and English
http://www.cic.gc.ca/

and the Canadian Fencing Federation website (again French & English). http://www.fencing.ca/

no no, go to alberta!! actually toronto is quite nice and there are 3 clubs that i know of (one for each weapon i think).

another thing to consider is that immigration to canada is a more realistic option these days compared to the US. based on the original poster's background, he qualifies easily.

[Beowulfman6]

If your wife is a proffessor that's another reason to look at Brevard College; we have five or six vacant or soon-to-be-vacant faculty spots right now that need to be filled. And we need a fencing coach (although we are probably way to small to even show up on your fencing radar). I'm just now beggining the process of trying to find a new coach so I can't realy provide a great deal of info about the possition yet.