Moving a Paper Mountain

Sometimes I wish moving to France from America was as easy as boarding an airplane with a one-way ticket. Those times occur each year when we have to renew our carte de sejour for long-stay visitors. Admittedly, the first time we applied for the carte de sejour was the most tedious and challenging. We knew of a few Americans who had moved to France to work, or to study, or who had French partners, but no one that had simply relocated from America.

We relied on the internet and the French Embassy in Chicago to lead us through the application process. We also relied on an empty room in our house that quickly became the Carte de Sejour Room; filled with wobbly stacks of paperwork that all too often tumbled across the floor, a fax machine that only occasionally functioned and a computer with French Embassy as the homepage.

We completed forms in triplicate and in both English and French. I will always remember the enormous help from our French teacher and friend, Ann Wolff, for not only her translation work, but also her support along the way. I will also remember that at the time we were requesting police records, someone in my family got a speeding ticket. I’m not saying who got this traffic violation, but, Elsie is too young to drive and it wasn’t me.

Later on I needed my employer to complete a letter stating details of my employment and, most importantly, that I was currently employed. Can you imagine the conversation I had with my boss over that one? It was then that my two week notice became a nine month notice. A promise to my boss for a France vacation chez nous and voila, said letter written.

It took nearly a year to reach our goal to purchase those one way airline tickets. The first part of the carte de sejour application was merely to gain authorization to enter France. Upon our arrival, we had medical exams and immunizations, paid the timbre fiscal and our paperwork trail continued. Our determination heightened (as did our blood pressure) until we had our carte de sejour in hand several weeks later. Our relief could only last for the next 10 months or so, when the dreaded time to renew arrived.

Basically, France needed reassurance that we were not criminals, that we would not take employment from a French citizen and that we would not seek financial support from the French government. And they need this reassurance every year for five years. In 2010, we will be eligible to apply for French passports. No matter how absurd the hoops are to leap through or the red tape is to untangle, I intend to stay here for that passport.

If you are an expatriate in France, and from the EU, considerez-vous chanceux. If you are an American wanting to reside in France, I hope you have a sizeable space for your Carte de Sejour Room, a spouse that drives within the speed limit and a boss that dreams of a vacation in France. Bonne chance!