Category: Dealing with government

Dealing with government, Life in France

The cost of catching the flu

If you watch the TV show “House Hunters International” you may know the name of one of the presenters, Adrian Leeds. You would certainly recognize her signature red beret, glasses, lipstick, and outfit as she helps property buyers in Paris and Nice find the ideal—or compromise—new home. We’ve been following her since that first show in 2006 (now over 50 episodes) and used her book “Good Value Restaurant Guide” on every trip to Paris before moving to France. When our friend Sally sent us a link to one of Adrian’s newsletters, or Nouvellettres®, with just the short message, “Did you see this?” we were of course curious about what might be inside.

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Unknown's avatarBob9 Comments
Dealing with government, Life in France

Passport, ID card, birth certificate

Out of context, if you’d heard today’s blog post title abruptly spoken it might seem that somebody was in big trouble much like a police officer asking for your driver’s license and car registration. However, for those who’ve recently become French citizens, this trio (and more) represents the official welcome package to their new national identity. In June 2021 I submitted my request to become French and in February 2025 my wish was granted. Immediately I applied for the documents mentioned above and within a month they were in my possession. Still, I was hoping for an official ceremony and, sure enough, the invitation for that arrived a month ago, summoning me to the Préfecture (federal building) last week.

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Unknown's avatarBob22 Comments
Dealing with government, Life in France

I’m French, officially!

You might say Franco-American but that reminds me of a spaghetti product from days gone by so I think I’ll stick with French and American. Once you have lived continuously in France for 5 years you can apply for citizenship and you wait several months to see if your application will be accepted. With that accomplished, you then wait a year or 3 or 5, depending on where in the country you live, to be summoned to an interview by an immigration officer who must confirm that you are integrated into French society. A few months after that, assuming everything goes as planned, your name appears in the Journal Officiel (the US version would be the Congressional Record) and “suddenly” you’re French.

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Unknown's avatarBob49 Comments
Dealing with government, Life in France

Citizenship interview

There’s a France 3 TV game show called “Questions for a Champion” (thanks France 3 for today’s photo above) where they ask lots of general questions to determine a winner for the day. Last Thursday I felt like a contestant on that program except instead of being on a soundstage in Paris, I was in the compact office of an immigration officer in the Préfecture building in Montpellier. It was a little over 3 years ago when I mailed in my application to acquire French citizenship and about 2 weeks ago an email arrived summoning me to the interview. The purpose is to show that you’ve integrated into the society here rather than remaining an outsider who lives in a bubble that in our case would be called “Little America”.

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Unknown's avatarBob26 Comments
Dealing with government, Life in France

Passport renewal

Britain’s King Charles doesn’t need a passport. After all, inscribed inside is a statement from the Secretary of State, acting “in the name of His Majesty” to allow the bearer free passage in a foreign country. Although the Vatican doesn’t have immigration controls, citizens there have passports, including the Pope who holds #1. Even the President of the United States isn’t above the law, either in office or afterwards, as far as the State Department is concerned. To travel outside of the country, all Americans need a passport and except for some emergency circumstances they all expire every 10 years. That was the case for me so we had to find out how to renew your US passport while living in France.

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Unknown's avatarBob4 Comments
Dealing with government, Life in France

Vote

When you get a letter that starts out with “It has come to our attention….” it gives you one of those “uh-oh” moments. In this case it was from the Orange County Florida Board of Elections where we are registered to vote. It went on to say that the address we had given them was a business and that in order to vote they would need our residential address. During the first few years that we lived in France, Bill’s sister (thank you, Cheryl) was nice enough to keep track of our postal mail until we could arrange for a mail forwarding service. Once that was in place with our new address we moved our voter registration to Orange County, received our ID cards, and prepared to participate in the next election…until this letter arrived.

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Unknown's avatarBob14 Comments
Dealing with government

Where there’s a will

Both of us have a Last Will and Testament on file back in the US where they were drawn up by an attorney familiar with those types of documents. They would be legal in France, although the practicality of executing them here might be challenging. For one thing, they are written in English and while we have copies with us that could be officially translated, they still might need authenticating back through the county clerk’s office where they are on file. To make things easier for one of us (or if we’re both gone, someone else entirely) in the future, we decided to visit a notaire and have him create a Testament for each of us. After all, we live in France and any assets that are left will be donated to a charity here in town so it just made sense, but where would we start?

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Unknown's avatarBob17 Comments