Nice Fonctionnaires

Last Friday, the H and I finally made our way over to the U.S. Consulate to start the process for his green card.

The U.S. Consulate here in Paris allows certain people to apply for a green card - basically, you have to be a U.S. citizen who resides in France with a carte de séjour - BUT - not a student carte de séjour. They only process the immigrant visas on Friday mornings.

I had read on various forums that one is supposed to arrive at the U.S. Consulate super early - like, at 7 a.m. since the cut-off time for immigrant visas is at 10 a.m. and they only take the first 10 people or so. Given the strike, we ended up grabbing a cab at that early hour and were the first in line at the Consulate - it hadn't even opened yet! Within 5 minutes of our arrival, 6 other people showed up too.

Anyway, then we went through the security check (everyone was super nice) and then we were the first to grab a number at the kiosk. It was quite chilly inside, and then we had to wait until 9 a.m. when they called our number. (The other people who showed up after us were all there for temporary short-term visas to the U.S. - the vast majority were journalists and a few flight attendants). The H and I realized that we probably could have saved ourselves a few hours of sleep and come in a few hours later; as it turned out, there were very few people there for an immigrant visa. (Though we noticed the security guards did not seem at all surprised that we were there so early, so we wondered if maybe it was because of the strike - all immigrant visas go via the Paris Consulate, so this means that people in the South of France and even Monaco, for example, must make the trek all the way to Paris).

All of the "fonctionnaires" at the U.S. Consulate were super friendly, smiley, and very nice (even the French people who process the short term visas were really nice to everyone). Our fonctionnaire went through our papers, though she did not ask to see my carte de séjour, saying that she believed me that I was a legal resident in France. We did not fill out the DS-230 form, though this was because 1) on the USCIS website, they say the DS-230 is part of the 2nd packet; and 2) the DS-230 form on the U.S. Consulate website says that it expired on 7/31/2007. I explained all this to the woman who smiled and said, "Oh my goodness, you are too smart for us!" Then she went on to explain that the DS-230 being part of the first packet is a particularity for the U.S. Consulate in Paris, and it didn't matter about the expiration date, so we could just fill out right then and there. I also hadn't brought photos of myself, so she sent the H off to fill out his form, and me to take pictures and pay the whopping $355 fee for the visa application, though she firmly told us to "come right back to me when you are done, even if I am dealing with other people, you just skip ahead, you hear?"

There was a minor fiasco with the credit card machines not working, so we had to leave the consulate and withdraw cash to pay for the visa (a whopping 284 euros). We came back (it was all very hassle-free, as the security guards remembered us from earlier in the morning, and waved us through with a big smile, and said, "It's okay, you can skip ahead, I remember you guys!"), paid and submitted all the other missing forms, and then were told to take a seat, as we would be called for an interview. The interview consisted of an American woman who asked us a couple of questions in English, like "How did you two meet?", "When was that?", "When did you get married?" (and then "Congratulations!!!" when we told her it was in July), and "Why do you want to go back to the U.S.?" That was pretty much the extent of her questions, and then she told us, "Well, your I-130 has been approved, we will send this over to the U.S., and you should be receiving the second packet sometime in the next 3-4 months."

It was all very exciting and extremely efficient - we were out of there by 10 a.m. The H was marveling over the entire experience - "Wow, everyone was SO, SO nice! Everyone smiles at you, and no one yells at you! And they didn't tell us to come back next week with all the missing stuff! It was so fast! It took just an hour for the whole thing! And the waiting room is really, really nice and high-tech!"

I was feeling all smug about the whole thing, because I remember once mentioning to the in-laws that I was outraged over the way the French fonctionnaires treat people, how unpleasant they are to everyone, and how slow everything goes at the Préfecture, not to mention that I'm pretty sure that half the time, the fonctionnaires just randomly make up a list in their heads of the documents you need without even knowing if they exist. The MIL had responded rather defensively, "Oh, yeah? Well, EVERYONE KNOWS that American fonctionnaires are SO MUCH WORSE, and they are actually REALLY MEAN to EVERYONE." I had considered asking her at the time "And you would know this because...?" but realized that would be rude, so I had only said, "See, I don't think that's really the case, because I've never had a bad experience with the American authorities" and she said, "Well, maybe this is because you are American, because EVERYONE knows that Americans are REALLY MEAN, I mean they are barbaric and everything," which left me very perplexed as to who "EVERYONE" was. At least now that the H has been through it himself, I can subtly rub it in to the MIL that American fonctionnaires are actually very nice and smiley people. HA HA HA!

BTW, on a side note, the day the strikes started (last Thursday) also happened to be the day that Sarkozy announced his divorce from Cecilia. The Socialists claim he did it on purpose, in order to steal the thunder from the strikes, and I can't say I disagree. However, I also think no one really cared about the divorce - I mean, it was inevitable what with Cecilia looking all miserable every time, and I can't say I blame her - I would be miserable too, if I were married to a power-hungry, ass-licking gnome who probably snorts massive lines of cocaine and is getting his groove on with his Minister of Justice.