I am once again legal to live and work in France for another year. I am set until December of 2009. This time around I worried a bit because I was changing my statute. It was quite easy and painless. This time there were no special circumstances and I could provide all the things they asked for, plus about 25 more pieces of paper they didn’t ask for, but seemed quite content to add to my dossier. this picture was too dark to use however.

It is not very pleasant to benefit from racism but that is exactly what happened to me. I think the 10 people ahead of me were from various points all over North Africa. Each one of them was missing one or more documents and had even more amusing stories to tell about why their dossiers were not complete, amusing to them but not to the poor civil servant who had to endure these “amusing” stories all day long. When she saw me, my pile of papers, and did not have to listen to some story about how my passport had been destroyed in an unfortunate tagine accident involving mint, I think she decided I would get my carte de sejour, even if my name were Osama bin Laden, which it isn’t.

So here I am getting ready to apply for my French drivers license. Guess what, my last license came from PA which has full reciprocity with France so all I have to do is apply, no École for me, and I will get both my motorcycle and car licenses. Not that I plan to drive too much but it’s nice to rub it in the faces of those of you who have to endure French driving school. I have had my share of bad news lately so sorry to gloat!

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• Carte de Sejour (20)

After the horrible experience I had getting my student VISA in DC, read about it here, I was dreading applying for my carte de sejour. A carte de sejour is a residency permit in France. Basically you have to get a VISA that allows you to stay in France for a period of time. Then you can go get a carte de sejour, this is the equivalent of an ID card. It also can entitle you to health insurance, a work permit, etc.

Well you can imagine with all the talk of the French fonctionnairres how frustrating it could be and the complications of the matter, did I say it might be complicated. Well for us it could have been extra complicated because we were staying with a friend in one department and eventually going to move to Toulosue which is in another department. Finding an apt can take a while so we weren’t sure if we should apply while in the department we were living in even though we had no intention of staying long term.

I thought of getting my carte de sejour in 24 and then changing my address when I landed in Toulouse, 31. I needed a justificatif de domicile. My friend could simply write an attestation saying that I lived with him etc in the 24. Well, we found an apt sooner than we thought we would in Toulouse so I decided not to apply for the CDS in the 24 and wait until we got to Toulouse. Well then I remembered that I was supposed to apply for it within 60 days of entering France, it was close for me but I still went over the time limit.

We had moved into our apt in Toulouse and started getting set up. We took a day to get my birth certificate translated and all the other things you must do to make your papers acceptable to the French, I thought of dusting them with truffle shavings, but that might be over the top.

It was 66 days after entering France that I was going to apply for my CDS. I thought they are going to give me a big problem over this. I am also not your typical student so that will be a problem too. Apparently in France you are only a student if you are under 26 years old. All discounts offered to students can only be redeemed if you have a student ID and are 26 or under. What do they consider those of us who go back to school and are over 26, lost? We went to the prefecture anyway, Bon courage, never bon chance.

We waited about 30 minutes in line at the Prefecture. When I got to the info counter they said of you are a student you need to go here. She said it as though I would be relieved not to have to stand in line with the lumpen. I thought, great they have a special office just for students. We went there and it was a much shorter line, only students, fonctionnairres that only handled one type of VISA, everyone was in the same boat so you could exchange tips if need be. I spoke to the info woman and she said I could wait since I didn’t have an appointment but since it was in the afternoon it might be best to come back the next day at 9AM. No one had stolen her baguette, she had normal facial expressions, no indignation, and if I am not mistaken, she even smiled.

9AM the next day I went to the office, I think it was called CROUS. I used to think Americans loved their acronyms but the French are big fans of them too. Since I don’t speak French very well I am never sure if a sign on a door that is written in capital letters is the name of the organization or an acronym. I prefer to make up my own meanings for the acronyms, my French ones make little sense so I do it in English. CROUS, Committee for Rescuing Overburdoned University Students. They should have a tagline We like you so much we’ll even give you healthcare.
I had no appointment so I waited. I kept seeing people leave and overhearing their conversations. They had forgotten this paper or that paper or didn’t think this or that was important and certainly it didn’t need to be brought to the appointment. This was clearly an affliction of non-American origins. I had every paper required, even some not required, and I made extra copies of all of them. About 10:15 I was seen. I had everything on the list. She even laughed because I had 2 copies of everything, I thought just in case. I think she was relieved because when she asked for each item I gave her each item. No questions asked, no problems, within 4 minutes I had my recipisse, a receipt that says I have given all my documents am now just waiting to receive my real CDS. In another week or so I expect to have my CDS.

For 2 months I have been agonizing over this and in fact it was quite a simple process. I think the VISA was much more complicated. Since I had such a terrible experience getting my VISA I assumed the same would be true of my Carte de Sejour and it was not. I am legal, for about a year, and then the process starts all over again, agonies and all.
Jean-Jacques and I are PACSED and he is French but that still doesn’t qualify me for anything. If we were married I could get a VISA for the spouse of a French national and I would be able to be here with no problems. So much for liberte, egalite, and fraternite.

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