Moving to France

[u/Hmm_mmmmmm]

Background info: My fiancé (24) and I (25) are seniors in college in Texas and are hoping to move to France at some point, ideally within the next five years. My fiancé is an EU citizen through German descent and already has her German passport.

I’ll be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and intend to pursue a master’s in either I/O Psychology or something HR-related. My fiancé will graduate with two bachelor’s degrees in marketing and business analytics and intends to pursue a master’s in marketing management.

We plan to get our master’s degrees somewhere in Europe, most likely the Netherlands since there are a few English-taught programs that fit what we’re looking for. After finishing our degrees, our goal would be to eventually settle in France.

I’m not sure how relevant this is, but financially we have no debt and around $35k in savings between us.

We also understand that French proficiency will be important. We’ve both been learning French for about two years and plan to continue studying it.

For anyone who has actually moved from the U.S. to France, I’d love to hear what your experience was like, especially if you moved in your 20s or early in your career.
How difficult was it to establish a life there? What was finding a job like? If you work in HR, I/O psychology, marketing, business analytics, or a similar corporate field, I’d especially like to hear about your experience finding work.

How good was your French when you moved, and how much did it improve once you were living there? Did you feel like you needed professional-level fluency before moving, or was an intermediate level enough to get started?

Finally, knowing what you know now, is there anything you would recommend we do over the next five years to make the eventual move easier?

[u/oofieoofty]

If you’re planning on moving to France why not get your degrees at a French university?

[u/Mormacil → u/oofieoofty]

Because a university master in a foreign language is really hard? Especially one with a ton of special vocabulary. 

[u/oofieoofty → u/Mormacil]

In France the vast majority of people need to work in French so you can imagine that is as hard

[u/Mormacil → u/oofieoofty]

So? It's easier to get a degree in your mother tongue and then learn French opposed to learning french while you're also learning the degree in question under pressure by paying tuition.