Another Trip to the Prefecture
In procuring legal papers to reside here (not work, mind you, reside) I have so far undertaken the following process:
May 2008
Visit French consulat in San Francisco in order to apply for a long-stay visa based on my impending marriage to a French resident (not a citizen). This involves a great deal of documentation, purchasing travel health insurance, lots of passport photos etc. They keep my passport and tell me to come back when i’m actually married.
July 2008
Return to the consulat in order to submit official marriage documents. Receive a visa that is valid for 3 months (???a tourist visa is valid for that long) and states that I must apply for a carte de sejour within two months after my arrival. They attach a separate piece of paper that says I need to do this two weeks into my stay, but I ignore it.
August 2008
I arrive in France.
October 2008
Make first visit to the prefecture in my district (92), they just give me an appointment to come back and actually apply later.
December 2008
I return to the prefecture for my appointment, making copies of endless documents, and ultimately receiving a paper called a “recepisse de demand de carte de sejour” - a receipt of my application for the carte de sejour. It has my picture on it (the woman behind counter chose the ugliest one) and it expires in March.
What to Expect in 2009
I will receive the carte de sejour in three months - this would be February or March. It will expire in August and I’ll have to start all over again. Meanwhile, before receiving it, i’ll have to set up some sort of medical appointment to be examined for any contagious diseases I might introduce into france (of course, by this time my little diseases, if there were any, have had plenty of opportunity to jump ship and start a metro-based epidemic).
So you see, from the time i initiated this process in San Francisco, to the time I actually receive the carte de sejour it’ll have been nearly a year. But the process hasn’t been too tedious or stressful, being that there are long breaks between needing to deal with it, though the prefecture does steal a bit of my soul every time i walk in.
What is stressful is that, after all this, I’m not even able to work here. This is what I was told, verbatim: “you can stay, you can enjoy all France, but you cannot work” (read with sing-songy French accent). Sooooo, I “stay and enjoy” - and have found enough ways to keep myself busy that I do “enjoy” — for someone in my field (with a graduate degree in art history) there is plenty to occupy myself with. But, we are two people living on one income in one of the most expensive cities in the world, so if I was able to work - even teaching english for example - the extra money would help a lot (in purchasing those repetto flats I have my eye on).
In two and a half years time, I believe, my husband can apply for French citizenship. What this will mean for me and for my status, I’ve no idea, but i suspect it won’t change much. There are two other possible avenues for obtaining working papers: I find a company to sponsor the status change (they must file paperwork with the prefecture, pay a large fee, and prove that no French citizen could do this job), or obtain my Polish passport if it’s possible. The latter would also take its fair share of time and bureaucratic wrestling, and it’s unclear whether I am eligible, due to my father’s unique immigration circumstances (political refugee in 1962).
So, in the end, my status is “visiter.” And my husband and I have put a lot of money and time into getting the official “okay” for me to “stay and enjoy.” And enjoy I will, dammit.