Who we are
A small team who know the forms, the counters and the feeling of being sent home over one missing photocopy.
The founder
Laurent is a father of two daughters growing up on the Côte d'Azur. Through their school in Mougins, one of the most international communities on the coast, he found himself surrounded by families who had moved here from everywhere: Britain, the United States, Scandinavia, the Gulf, South Africa. Wonderful people, settling into a wonderful place, and all of them stuck on the same thing.
Not the language. Not the culture. The paperwork.
Having lived in several French cities and a few abroad, Laurent had a point of comparison, and the comparison is not flattering. French administration asks for more documents than almost any system he had dealt with, and it asks for them in a very particular way. Originals and photocopies. Scans in the right format. A justificatif de domicile less than three months old. A translation the counter will accept, which is not always the translation you were given. One line filled in wrongly on the ANEF portal and the file sits there, silent, for weeks, with no one to call.
Brexit made it sharper still. British residents who had lived here for years suddenly discovered they needed to prove it, in French, with evidence going back a decade. People who had done nothing wrong found themselves anxious about their own home.
Laurent started helping the families around him informally, one file at a time. It worked. Word travelled. Riviera Expat Services grew out of that, and the principle has not changed since: he handles every file personally, start to finish, so the person who told you what was possible is the same person who delivers it.
FR : Laurent, papa de deux filles, en contact permanent avec les familles internationales via la Mougins School. Il a vécu dans plusieurs villes françaises et étrangères, et constaté que l'administration française est nettement plus lourde qu'ailleurs, d'autant plus depuis le Brexit pour les ressortissants britanniques. Aucune mention d'une autre activité.
The team
Anabela is the voice you hear first. She is an expatriate herself, originally from abroad, and she went through the entire French administrative machine the hard way before she ever helped anyone else through it. When a client describes their situation to her, she is not taking notes on something abstract. She has stood in that queue.
Her job is to listen properly. She takes your call, asks about your situation, and works through the questions that actually determine what is possible: when you arrived, on what visa, what has been validated, what has expired, who is attached to your file. By the time the conversation ends, the essentials are gathered and Laurent can pick the file up knowing exactly where you stand.
Laurent holds the technical side. Every question about the law, the procedure or your specific file comes back to him, and he answers by email so you keep a written trace of what was said.
FR : Anabela, expatriée elle-même, a traversé toute l'administration française avant d'aider les autres. Elle prend les appels, recueille la situation et pose les questions essentielles. Laurent détient la connaissance technique et répond à toutes les questions par mail.
Beyond the two of us, we work with qualified partners we have chosen ourselves: accredited language centres for TCF, TEF and DELF certification, and specialists we call on when a file needs an expertise we do not have. We would rather send you to someone genuinely competent than improvise.
FR : L'équipe, c'est Laurent, Anabela et des partenaires qualifiés et compétents, dont le réseau de centres agréés pour la certification en langue.
Our guarantee
If we take your case on, we guarantee a complete and compliant file: every document present, every form correct, every requirement met, submitted the way the administration expects to receive it. We only accept cases we are confident we can bring through, and we will tell you plainly on the first call if yours is not one of them.
What no one can control is timing. Once your file is submitted, the prefecture does its work at its own pace, and processing times vary from one office and one season to the next. We keep tracking it and keep you informed, but we will never invent a date we cannot hold.
FR : Nous garantissons un dossier complet et conforme, construit pour être validé, et nous n'acceptons que les dossiers que nous sommes confiants de mener au bout. En revanche, les délais de traitement en préfecture ne dépendent pas de nous.
How we work
If the 2026 exams do not apply to your situation, we tell you on the first call, even though it costs us a sale.
Our fee and the French state's fee are always quoted separately. You always know which is which.
No ticket numbers, no rotating account managers. The same two people, every time.
FR : Transparence sur les frais officiels, un seul interlocuteur, et aucune vente de prestation inutile.
No commitment
Tell us where you stand. We will tell you honestly what applies to you and what it will take.
Book my free callFR : Appel de 30 minutes offert, sans engagement. Demande urgente avant le rendez-vous, message direct au 07 46 37 71 29.
