To Visa or Not to Visa That is the Question
I’m learning that relocating to France, in many respects, is no more complicated than moving to another city or state in one’s own country. When you make the decision to relocate, there are certain challenges you can always expect: finding housing; packing, moving or shipping your belongings; familiarizing yourself with your new community and the amenities; dealing with new jobs or career choices; and of course making new friends and social contacts.
But there is one reality of living abroad that is enough to give any sane person a reason to go on anti-anxiety meds: The Immigration Process. No matter what country you’re moving to, it’s going to be complicated, and every country has its own unique rules and regulations. It’s like joining any exclusive club: play by the rules, you get in; try to bend, break or skip the rules, and you’re in trouble.
France, however, seems to take a particular delight in being a bit… um, shall we say, difficile about its immigration process. For one thing, the traveler will often get conflicting information from various “official” sources about how to apply for a visa to enter and stay in the country. When you’re moving to France on your own, without the benefit of corporate relocation experts, it’s hard to find a definitive source on what paperwork you need to produce in order to satisfy the bureaucrats, and hiring your own relocation specialist is very costly. Like most people on their own, I’m figuring it out the hard way and hoping I won’t make any mistakes I’ll regret later.
Just last week I had to clear the first big immigration hurdle in moving to France: applying for my Long Stay Visitor Visa at the French Consulate nearest my home. (Each French Consulate in the US covers specific states and has its own website with instructions.) The preparation for this in-person application process—for which, by the way, I could only schedule an appointment on-line between the hours of 12:00-12:30pm—took weeks of research and countless hours of work. Not to mention a lot of antacids and the destruction of untold numbers of trees for the many photocopies I had to make. I guess “paperless environment” doesn’t translate in French.
First, I had to try and make sense of the conflicting list of “required” documents posted on both the French Embassy and French Consulate websites: Do I really need an FBI/police background check, or don’t I? Why does one site say I need three copies of my passport and the other says to bring only one? I tried to be prepared for any eventuality, and arrived at the Consulate early, armed with a folio of every conceivable document I could think of (plus FIVE copies of everything, just to be safe).
Although I will wait for 1-2 months for a definitive answer on whether or not my visa is approved, my interview seemed to go well (though not so well for other people standing in line near me, who were sent away for reasons ranging from bad passport photos to “incorrect” paperwork or identification). The Consulate man who met with me even took the time to be quintessentially French, flirting with me by complimenting my perfume! (Why should that have surprised me?) And although he would not make a firm commitment about the outcome of my visa (never expect a fonctionnaire to be definite about anything), he did say they would be able to have it ready well before my scheduled departure in November. I’m taking that as a good sign.
Afterward, back outside the Consulate offices and breathing a big sigh of relief, I reflected that I may as well get used to it: this red-tape culture and love of insanely confusing paperwork and misinformation. From all accounts, it’s simply a fact of life in France, and since I’m choosing to live there, I’m choosing to take the bad with all the good. There’s nothing I can do about it except ride the tide along with all the other étrangers in France. As another visa applicant said to me while standing in line awaiting our admission into the Consulate, “France starts here.”
So, accept it I will, in spite of the fact that I went to an awful lot of trouble to get fingerprinted for an FBI background check because the Embassy website said it was required—and the guy at the Consulate didn’t even ask for it.
Welcome to life in France.
Resources:
Embassy of France in the United States: http://www.info-france-usa.org/
Finding the Nearest French Consulate in the U.S.:
http://www.info-france-usa.org/intheus/consulates.asp
