Today I received my "convocation" in the mail to renew my carte de séjour. That basically means that I have a designated appointment time to go and renew my residency permit.
I hope everything will go smoothly. Here in Paris, you are supposed to call a special hotline that is just for people renewing residency permits - you get an operator who will give your your date and time for the appointment, and they will send to you via mail the documents you need to bring with you.
The thing is, when I called the préfecture's number to schedule an appointment, I wasn't sure how I was supposed to renew, since I will have to change my status to that of "spouse of French national". (My current visa is based on a Pacs, which means that I have "strong family ties").
The operator who picked up was actually very nice when I explained the situation to her. She actually spent a few minutes congratulating me on my upcoming wedding! Unfortunately, she didn't know any more than I did. What made the whole thing all the more complicated is that my current visa expires on July 3rd, which means that I have to start the renewal process by June, but I also need to change my residency status, and the wedding doesn't take place until July 21st. The phone call dragged out into a 40 minute ordeal, during which she tried to speak English for some strange reason (I haven't spoken English with a French person since about 1998, but I do appreciate the effort on her behalf) and put me on hold several times to check with her supervisor about the whole process. It ended with her finally explaining what I was really supposed to do, and her asking me if I understood, whereupon I would repeat what she had just said and then she would confirm that I understood by repeating back to me the same exact things.
So, apparently I totally understand what is to be done, but truthfully I am still a little confused....mostly because she said I will pick up my actual visa at the same time that I will change my residency status, but doesn't that mean that I will need a whole new card? Sigh........
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I'm confused too, how does your residency status even change? Because married and pacsed people both have the same cds (ie. vie privée et familiale)...
And when you say visa, are you talking about your carte de séjour? Or something else?
Hey Sam,
Yes, carte de séjour = visa/residency permit, etc. Makes it easier for non-French speaking people to understand.
As for my residency status, I don't know....I mean, I know it is the same cds "vie privée" but they are making a really big deal about how I will now be a "spouse of French national".
BTW, the operator said that "votre chérie" doesn't need to come with me for the convocation, since I will "just be getting the récépissé" but when the BF and I checked the list of documents I had to bring, it says "présence du conjoint ou partenaire obligatoire".
Go figure....
Post a Comment