French Bureaucracy
Paperwork!
I am officially going crazy. It has been 1.5 years in France and I have spent so much time doing paperwork. It just doesn’t end. People talk about the French bureaucracy and now I get it. I understand Nic who used to spend full Sundays working on paperwork. It is endless and repetitive. What have I had to do?
Here’s the list………
Carte du Séjour
We applied together, shortly after I arrived in France. Nic came especially to do this with me as we needed to be together for this. We handed in a full envelope (“dossier” favorite French word…not!) filled with copies of passports, birth certificates, family book (livret du famille), it went on and on.
I forgot to mention that this was after many attempts at obtaining an appointment
After our interview and acceptance of our documents. We were told that the card would arrive in the mail shortly. It did! That was actually easy. The card was valid for one year. What happened next?
I was sent a letter summoning me to appear to 4 integration days. This would teach me the rules of France, the history and anything I needed to know about health care, etc. France in a nutshell.
I would have loved this in 1992 when I arrived. They even offer language classes to those in need. I am somehow going in reverse. 35 years later…………
I went to all of these classes in Marseille and despite the inconvenience, they were actually quiet interesting and I got to hang out with refugees from all over and hear their stories.
Before blinking an eye, the expiration date of my CDS was approaching. The only problem was, that I didn’t have any signs of when I’d be getting my new one. I then realized that I needed to apply for it. Do everything all again! WTF?
So……I gathered all of the documents again. Passports, birth certificates, family book, ………
I sent it in and waited. I waited and waited……..
I was then in a position where my CDS had expired in mid October and I had heard nothing. I was afraid to leave the country for fear that they wouldn’t let me back in. It got complicated. I took the train to Amsterdam for Christmas as I was afraid that the airlines would pick up on the situation. I did not want to find myself stuck in Amsterdam.
I waited and waited. No news, only proof from the Post Office that they had received it. I know it is covid times and things are all backed up. I never inquired, I figured it would show up one day. It did! Mid January. So, I was living here for 3 months without official papers. It was not comfortable.
So, now, I don’t actually have my renewed CDS. The next one will be for 10 years. I have what they call a “recipisse”. This is a paper acknowledging that my CDS is being processed. I am still waiting. It is now March 1.
Carte Vital (French Health Care)
Everyone talks about how great the French health care system is. They are right! As long as you are able to apply and not be bogged down by more paperwork, lack of communication and constant worry that your file went missing as there is absolutely no way to talk to anyone. I called Marseille a few times. I had a guy on the phone who was speaking so fast that I had to keep asking him to slow down. I thought I’d jotted down all of the necessary information. I sent off what he told me via the post and held my breath.
I heard nothing for months and months. Finally, Nic came to France and I asked him to try and talk to someone. When I tell you that not only did we wait on hold for 45 minutes but when he finally was on the line with someone, they went through the whole “dossier” and the woman on the other end finally discovered that the whole request had been abandoned. Why? They found Nic in the system in the last place that we lived, which was Lille in 1998. I was not in there at all and because they didn’t understand it, they ignored it. So! That is why so many months went by with no news in return. How frustrating. He is French and thank goodness that he called. I never would’ve gotten through that. They were on the phone for 2 hours. No joke. So, 2 hours and 45 minutes, including the wait time for someone to pick up. This is how we made it work.
What did we need to do? Reapply…….Passports, birth certificates, family book……….Again!!!!!! UGGGH!!!!!
Well, I’m happy to report that after 1.5 years of trying to get that job done, the cards arrived in the mail. Blow me down!
The good news? I now have health care for the rest of my life and most of it is free. It’s a nice feeling.
French Nationality
We decided that this was a good idea. After being unable to hop on a plane without all of the necessary paperwork when Pia was stuck here due to covid, it seemed like the only logical thing to do. With 2 children in Europe, I should have access. We started the process.
Guess what? Passports, birth certificates, translations, family book………..
Plus! Criminal records for everywhere I’ve lived in the past 10 years (sigh………)
My parents birth and marriage certificate. There are so many other things, I’m drawing a blank writing this
The fun part is that all of the papers need to be dated within 3 months so coordinating everything at the same time is tough. I am honestly going nuts. I am almost there but I have wanted to throw in the towel many times. I finally sent it off and guess what? 3 weeks later, it came back mentioning all of the things that were missing or not dated accordingly.
Also, I need my CDS and they didn’t seem to accept the “recipisse”. So, having no idea when this will arrive, I am afraid to get the other papers done again (and. It’s expensive each time) because what if the CDS doesn’t arrive within 3 months? I’ll have to do everything again so that it is all in sync.
I honestly don’t understand some of it. Especially as this famous “family book” has all of our information in there.
Marriage
Births
Parents
Everything official that is related to our family is in there and we needed to provide all of the necessary documents to do this from the beginning. Why all of this duplication? And birth certificates that must be issued within 3 months. Wasn’t that the point of the family book? Also, all of the kids passports list where they were born. Isn’t a passport and official document?
Feeling tired in France today.