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Who runs RhineDesk
A one-person practice, recently moved north, doing the same work it has done in France for years.
RhineDesk is the working name of MELEKHOFF & FILS, an entreprise individuelle registered to Elena Melikhova under the French auto-entrepreneur regime, NAF code 82.11Z. It is a one-person business: Elena is the person you write to, and the person who does the work.
Where a job needs a second pair of hands or a licensed skill, it goes to an independent professional working under their own registration and invoicing in their own name. Nobody is employed here.
I did this work for years in the south of France before moving to Alsace, and the move is the reason this site exists. The paperwork does not change much between Menton and Strasbourg. What changes is the local knowledge: which préfecture appointment system actually releases slots, which syndic answers email and which one only answers a letter, which garage will take a car with German plates without an argument. That part I have rebuilt here, on the ground, and it is the part clients are really paying for.
What a normal week looks like
Someone's carte de séjour renewal is sitting in a queue and nobody will say why. A house near the wine road needs checking after a storm. A German company wants three quotes from French suppliers and someone to look at the goods before the truck leaves. A family arriving in September needs a bank account before their lease starts, and the bank wants a proof of address they cannot have yet, because they have no lease. That last one is the most common problem in French administration and it has no clever solution, only a known order of operations.
Where I stop
I coordinate. I do not practise law, I hold no carte professionnelle for property transactions, and I am not a customs agent. Those are licensed activities and the licences matter.
When a case needs a lawyer, I work with the immigration specialists at AK AVOCATS in Paris. For notarial work, translation that has to be sworn, or trades that need a certified artisan, I bring in people I have actually used and stay on the file until it closes. You will not be handed a phone number and wished luck.
Languages
Day-to-day work happens in English and French. Both are working languages here, not a line on a marketing page.
The other half of the business
The same registration also publishes UpperRhein.com, an open catalogue of manufacturers and producers across Alsace and Baden-Württemberg. It is free to browse and the contact details cost nothing. If what you need is a supplier rather than a service, start there instead — it will cost you nothing and it is genuinely the better door.
Sister sites
For ongoing rather than one-off work, two related sites cover it. conciergeservice.fr is a subscription personal-assistant and concierge service for private clients in Alsace. frenchpropertycare.com looks after homes and second homes on a regular schedule. RhineDesk is where one-off and project work goes: a residence permit file, a relocation, a supplier visit.
Registered details
MELEKHOFF & FILS — Elena Melikhova, entrepreneur individuel. SIREN 842 069 510, SIRET 842 069 510 00019, code APE 82.11Z. VAT not applicable, art. 293 B of the CGI. Alsace, France.