UPDATE April 2012: According to a recent report from a reader, the Prefecture has stopped making appointments. Why does this not surprise me? Appointments were entirely too logical…
Expats with a Carte de Sejour dread that annual pre-dawn pilgrimage to the Prefecture, where you wait in line for hours before they even open …and then the fun really starts. To make the best of things, I usually arrive to this pre-dawn purgatory with a beach chair, a thermos of coffee and several newspapers… But today I learned that there is a new secret system in place, so secret that is is not noted on their website nor is it ever mentioned to the 50 bleary-eyed etrangers in the daily line of shame. I only found out when a fonctionnaire mocked me for my beach chair, prompting me on my way out to tee off on this ridiculous system, and that’s when she let me in on the secret.
Two months before your Carte de Sejour expires, you can saunter into the Prefecture at the luxurious time of 10am (but no later than 10:30 when the desk closes) and get an actual appointment for an afternoon two months later. Okay, that does mean going to the the Prefecture 3 times a year (once to make the rdv, once to be seen, and once to get your card) but at least you can sleep in. We don’t want to move too fast here, but did you know that in other parts of France, they have online appointment booking?
On to my second amazing discovery today: A new 3-year residency card called “Compétences et Talents” which has the added benefit of providing work permits to the spouse and children. It is open to those that can make an impact, including:
University graduates
Qualified professionals, regardless of their academic level
Investors in an economic project
Independent professionals such as artists, authors, athletes, etc.
Hmm …do you think Best of Nice Blog qualifies?
Related Post: As if going to the Prefecture wasn’t bad enough already…
OOOh-la, this brings back memories that make me cringe. Don’t know if it’s possible in Nice, but when I lived in Paris, this was possible to do by e-mail where you made a demand to the préfecture for the forms, which they mailed to you. Then in turn, you mailed back the forms with copies of all the stuff and in 30 days you would go and pick up your card. It worked like a charm. I finally got a 5-year card and will have to do the next renewal in Nice so don’t know what’s in store here. But something to check in to – can you do on-line here?
Wow, that sounds like a logical and efficient system, Anne! …But of course far too logical and efficient to be put in place here. We don’t even have online appointments yet, and can only dream of doing the whole thing by mail!
Pour cet exemple, je pense que Nice Blog est admissible avec 19,95 / 20 ! Cela peut rendre ces rendez-vous un peu plus humain. C’est déjà assez incompréhensible que ces luxueux bâtiments ne soient même pas capables d’organiser des rendez-vous avec Internet mais peut-être vivent-ils encore aux temps de la préhistoire là-bas…? Enfin, grâce à la carte “Compétences et Talents” que tu dois avoir, tu pourrais sans doute leur expliquer, voire les conseiller s’ils ne savent pas comment faire !
As Americans we fall into a category that includes the 3rd World… Africans, Indians,
South Americans, the Middle and far east, etc. Oh! Wait a minute, The U.S. is quickly
becoming 3rd World.
That’s amazing news, as lining up at 7 am with my toddler is a NIGHTMARE! Which desk do you go to at 10 am? The main info desk just inside the doors, or the desk that hands out the tickets back in the carte sejour processing area?
Here’s to hoping that Nice catches up with the rest of civilization and implements an online booking system, at the very least!
The desk that hands out the tickets, desk 3, at the end of the hall on the left.
If you’ve never applied for a titre de séjour in les Alpes-Maritimes, it’s useful to know that the local system is focused on keeping you from getting one. I spent 7 hours door-to-door at the prefecture the day I received my first titre de séjour. Until I read this column, I had understood that they refused to make appointments at all (unless you have clout — see below). Certainly they don’t for first-time applicants. If you aren’t one of the first 50 people in line (there were at least 300 the day I began waiting at 7 AM) you just have to come back and wait again the next day. And the next. Better train for running a marathon to get to the right desk after they open the doors at nine. And know as you prepare your documents that they make no attempt to provide up-to-date information, but hand out photocopies of no-longer-current requirements at the information windows both at the préfecture and in local offices, at least in Vallauris.
Once you’re seen, it’s like taking your driver’s test — they attempt to refuse all applications several times. I had to make 3 separate trips before I got my dossier complete, and I have a PhD in French! Pity the poor person struggling with the language. The third time, when I finally had everything perfect, the person at the counter said, “Mais où est votre mari?” But my husband wasn’t on the list! She said, “Je vais voir,” and left me standing there while she went and had a cup of coffee, made a bathroom stop or je ne sais quoi, and came back ten minutes later saying “C’est OK.”
The next year, after my husband wrote a letter to someone high up in the bureaucracy saying he was requesting a ‘humanitarian’ appointment for his geriatric wife, or he might withdraw all his business from France, I got a phone call the next day, offering me an appointment ‘at my convenience.’ I merely sat out in the hall at the Préfecture while a secretary went and got my new ‘titre’, good for TEN years! So much for égalité. That second year, I spoke to someone in charge, volunteering to help people prepare their dossiers so they wouldn’t have to go through what I’d been through. She refused politely, and explained that they intentionally try to discourage applicants because there are so many foreigners who want to live in the Nice area. “At least you speak French,” she said.
Also, just for the record, those of us who are married to Europeans living in France are not legally required to have a titre de séjour. But there’s a special rule nobody tells you, and which nobody will give you a copy of, or can even find, which says that for a non-European Union citizen to receive assurance maladie ( and my husband pays it for every month) you need a titre de séjour even if you don’t legally have to have one. Jeez.
It does seem like it is intentionally difficult. Living on the Cote d’Azur is not for the faint of heart! My first several times at the Prefecture were also 7 hour ordeals, but that is the beauty of this new system, even first timers can now make an appointment and avoid that early morning scrum. But that doesn’t mean the dossier scrutiny will be any easier!
BB — In fact it’s not only “Third World” nationals like “Indians” and now Americans (according to you) who need to go to the Prefecture to get a carte de sejour if they want to live in France for longer than 3 months. Any non-European Union citizens need one — whether they’re from Perth, Australia, Newport, R.I. or Democratic Republic of the Congo.
And as far as using the antiquated, British colonialist term “Far East” and lumping it into your picturesque vision of the “Third World,” — have you been to Singapore, Seoul or Shanghai recently? Those cities make London and New York look antiquated.
Gotta love Americans (especially expat Americans) – no other people on earth are so quick to deride and put down their own country. Like it’s a way to ingratiate yourself with French people. Not.
The only problem with the Compétences et Talents card is that, as I understand it, you’re obligated to leave France after it expires.
Great info. Confirmed this little nuget of good news about appointments last week. According to my guy at the guichet, yes, once you have the first carte de sejour, you can come back every year, 2 months before your carte expires to make an appointment.
Note: Competences et Talents visa is renewable. And one can request to become a citizen the third year. BUT Prefect wants to give competences et Talent visa, at least in NICE, only to those who can prove they can earn SMIG (minimum wage = 1,200 Euro per month). So for some artists this can prove tricky. I waited 16 months for my refusal. !
May the force be with us all.