Lost Post #2: The Battle for the Carte de Sejour

As you will remember from this post, we had gone to the Prefecture of Police in the 14th arrondissement to apply for a carte de sejour, which was necessary because we were spending more than three months in France.  After going through all of the documentation in July, the folks in the 14th gave us an appointment in late September for yet another interview about our carte de sejour, this one at the big-dog Prefecture of Policy on the Ile de la Cité.  (Actually, they gave us two appointments, one for me and one for Suzie, but we both showed up for the first appointment, and, as hoped, they took us both at the same time, albeit, oddly, at separate windows.)  When we got the appointment, there was no indication that anything was amiss with our documentation; no one said that we needed to update any of it or provide any additional documentation.  Nor did anyone tell us that after providing multiple copies of everything to the folks in the 14th, we would also need to provide additional multiple copies to the Ile de la Cité folks.  But we found out right when we got to our appointment that the extra copies would be necessary, which lead to a frenzy of searching and copying while we waited for our number to be called.

Finally, after about a 15 minute wait, our numbers came up, and we went to two different windows to have our interviews, which struck us as odd since our documentation was identical (and gave rise to the possibility, which fortunately never happened, that we would have different demands made on each of us).  Once again, they went through our documentation -- the same as we had previously provided.  At some point, Suzie told her person that we were only going to be in France until December 31, which evidently provided her official with an idea, which she quickly conveyed to my official.  (I should add that my official was perhaps the least charming person I've met in France, a woman who was utterly bored with her job and who seemed to find my presence before her an affront to her day.)  The idea generated by Suzie's official was this -- rather than have us provide all of the documentation necessary for obtaining a carte de sejour, we were given another three-month extension of time to provide the documentation (the three months being, I think, the maximum amount of time that the officials had the discretion to provide).  This would take us to December 21, at which time, if we returned without the documentation, we would be told to leave the country within 10 days, which would be perfectly acceptable to us given that our flight leaves on December 31.  Essentially, the two officials had done us a type of favor, by recognizing (I think) that we were legitimate, law-abiding, non-deadbeat visitors who posed no threat to the French nation, and allowing us simply to stay in France for our remaining scheduled time rather than having to fight the system to obtain our carte de sejour.

This was OK with us; our goal had always been to make sure that we were in France legitimately, and not overstay the permitted 3-month period (although we had hoped to get the carte de sejour simply so we could say that we had accomplished that feat).  Most of the additional documentation we could easily acquire (it consists of newer versions of documents we had already provided), but showing that I have health insurance in France for the next year was going to be tricky.  (Note to the French authorities -- I do have such insurance, but I pay for it bi-weekly).  So all in all, this is probably a good result for us.

At the end of our interviews, they took back our existing "Récépissé de Demand de Carte de Sejour" and replaced it with another one good for the next three months.  Our papers are thus, for the time being, in good order, thank you very much, and we remain in France legitimately.