...for a little while at least.
Oh the joys of trying to be legal in France! So...I won't bore you all with the details of trying to gain a long stay marriage visa thingy in France. It takes quite a large amount of paperwork for a French person to marry a person who is not French in France. One would hope that by completing this task you would then be able to stay in this wonderful country. Oh contraire mon frere! I knew most of this going into this thing so it was no surprise that after you are married in the Marie (town hall) you have to then take your Livre de Famille (proof of marriage) to your home country to get your long stay visa stamped. Once you have done this then you need to return to France and schedule a meeting with the prefecture.
Our meeting is scheduled for November 12th. During this meeting I am supposed to get a temporary something that will allow me to work, but it's not my actual carte de sejour (work permit if you will). That will arrive in about 3 months after that. During the time I am waiting for my CDS to arrive I am not allowed to leave France except for one visit to any other schengen country . I'm not sure why they allow you one visit, and if you drive or take a train they don't check at the boarders any longer so there is no one to stamp the passport. Anyway, all this adds up to no Egypt in November. I was a little upset about this at first, but I know that we will go eventually, just not now. I think I am mostly upset because we used TravelersJoy.com as a wedding site and many people have donated to our honeymoon. We still get to use this for our trip next year, it's not like we loose anything, I just really wanted to be able to post a followup web site to everyone who gave. Guess that can wait until next year when I can legally leave and return. Thank goodness TravelersJoy has no expiration date! (I highly recomend this site to anyone getting married, very easy to use and a great deal when compared to similar sites.)
This also means that I am not allowed to make a trip home for Thanksgiving which makes me a little sad. I have a friend who is about a month ahead of me in this process, that really helps. She also told me that the government will grant each person one emergency trip home if needed. So if something happens and I need to leave I can, but only to my home country. Now I'm getting a little frustrated because I want to plan our trip and book things and I can't because I don't friggin know when I will get this stuff. I am hoping I will know more after November 12th, but that's just a hope...after that meeting I will most likely just start planning for March I guess. Oh well, c'est la vie.
I actually wrote this post prior to leaving for Paris and scheduled it to post on Tuesday. I feel so techie...
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8 comments:
Chill, it will happen. Don't take anything you are told for granted though – check and double check that stuff is going to happen. Be prepared to sit in waiting rooms for hours, and make a fuss occasionally. And remember – c'est pas possible is just an opening gambit – it does not mean it is not possible, just that the functionary delivering the line doesn't want to do it. Well done on the scheduling :-)
Bonjour Susan! I'm new to your blog, and I'm in the process of reading your posts from the beginning (I'm in April 2008 right now!).
Just to let you know that I really like your style and humor :)
I'm French, 37 years old, and my husband is American. We have 2 kids (a boy who is 15 and a girl who is 10 1/2). We live near Paris. Yes, that's me from Marly le Roi going back and forth on your blog!
We've spent a 3 day week-end in Lille about 5 years ago and we had a wonderful time. Lille is a great place!
I'm sure that you'll have a great wedding on Saturday.
A bientôt,
Isabelle
That whole "you can only leave the country once" thing is a bunch of hooey, I wouldn't let it stop you from going home at Thanksgiving. If you're really worried about it, ask them to give you a "visa de retour" - it's just a piece of paper that gives you the right to leave the country.
Hmmm... That's sucky!!! It's all the bureaucracy thing... Interesting what Sam says... If worse comes to worse, you can always join us at Frederique's at Sceaux for Thanksgiving--- around Nov. 29 (Sat)!!!!
We had an AWESOME time last year!!!! See ya tomorrow! Leesa
* Isabelle, you should let us know next time you come to Lille and we'll show you around !
* Susan, you can still go to the ACL (American Club in Lille) reunion for Thanksgiving. I know it's very far from being with family (a very nice tradition we discovered there) but you can have a good time. We should come too, the kids loved it last year.
(I just read that Leesa offered you coming for Thanksgiving in Sceaux so you have 2 options now !)
About being techie, please teach me how you did it !!
They give you a piece of paper called a recipisse (they will either give it to you then and there at the prefecture or post it to your local mairie) and I was under the impression that one could leave the country and come back in with that...double check though.
Susan - I'm taking your advise, just trying not to stress out. I am also trying to prepare myself for a tiring process.
Isabelle - So glad you stopped by! I look forward to checking out your blog as well, and I am so glad you liked Lille, it really is a great city.
Sam - I was wondering if it was well enforced too. If I just show them my front visa page they would never know I was not a tourist. Thanks for the info on the other visa.
Leesa - It was so great to meet you! I wish I would have known some of the great places before my last day, but next time I stay there I will know just where to go thanks to you!! I will be in touch soon, might take you up on Thanksgiving...
Marie - Looking forward to seeing you next week! I can show you how to schedule posts, that is about as techie as I'm getting!
Rochelle - I have a friend who has the recipisse now (she is Russian) and they told her she could not travel with it, only work. They said she has to wait until the CDS arrives (in about 2-3 months). I will definitely ask though...
Thanks everyone for posting!!
Have a fantastic wedding!!!!
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