Tag: Immigration

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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Life in France

Europe, a haven of peace for Americans

An advantage of glancing at a few French news sources each morning is that sometimes you are directed to an interesting story from a newspaper or magazine from elsewhere in the world. Such was the case when I saw in the Courrier International a story with the title that I used for today’s blog post. The original text that appeared in The Economist was actually labeled “Why Europe is a Magnet for more Americans” with a subtitle addressing the growing number of people “seeking to escape violence and political strife in the United States”. Although this didn’t focus solely on France, I still wanted to see what was drawing our fellow citizens to this continent.

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Unknown's avatarBob10 Comments
Dealing with government, Life in France

Applying for citizenship

Home in France for 5 years

Now that we’ve lived in France in a “habitual and continuous manner for five years” it’s possible to apply for citizenship. That time requirement can vary, for example, if you got your university degree here, or have a French sibling, spouse, or parent/grandparent/great grandparent but in my case it will be a Demande de naturalisation par décret (Request for naturalization by decree). That just means that I have to be integrated into the community, have a sufficient knowledge of the language, history, culture and society, as well as the rights and duties conferred by French nationality and adhere to the principles and values of the Republic. Whew, sounds like a tall order so I’d better get started!

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Dealing with government, Life in France

Five to ten

From the Service Public website

Although today’s blog post title sounds like a prison sentence it’s far from it; in fact, just the opposite. It refers to the ability to apply for a 10-year residence card after having lived in France for five years. We reached that milestone at the end of February and now we are holders of a Carte de résident de longue durée-UE or something similar in the US might be called a “green card”. Our French one is blue but no less significant. Previously we needed to renew our card annually to stay here legally but now we’re set for the next decade. So besides not having to pay a renewal fee of 269 € every year, what are the other advantages?

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Unknown's avatarBob11 Comments
Dealing with government, Life in France

Get the notary on the line

Le Bugue
Le Bugue

In the 2008 movie Mamma Mia!, hotel owner Donna Sheridan comments that her soon-to-be son-in-law will be publicizing her Villa Donna to the world by putting her “on the line.” She claims to be current with the new technology of “the Internets” wondering why no one has invented a machine that makes the beds. We had a similar thought recently regarding those “Internets” when we had to have several documents notarized for use back in the US. Given that a notarial act must generally be conducted within the state where the notary holds a commission, it was going to be a challenge with the Atlantic ocean between us and travel heavily restricted. Time for an “on the line” search for a solution.

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Life in France

B1 to be one

To apply for French citizenship requires a lot of documents. Some of them you have to request from the US, such as your birth certificate while others like your electric bill can be printed out at home. None of that is really challenging but anything that is not already in French has to be officially translated. There is one item, however, that does involve some work: 400 hours or about 18 months of study is what I’ve seen estimated online. An applicant must prove that she or he can operate independently in the French language, understand main points in conversations, cope with most situations that could arise while traveling in the country, and describe dreams, hopes, ambitions, and opinions with supporting reasons. This intermediate level is classified by the CERL (Cadre Européen de Référence pour les Langues) as B1 and this week I received my successful test results.

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Dealing with government, Life in France

Renewed

An early springtime renewal in our courtyard

To live in France full-time for our initial year here, our first step was obtaining a visa from the French consulate in Miami. Once we arrived in Carcassonne we then had to make an appointment with the Immigration Office in Montpellier for a medical checkup that would qualify us to stay here legally for the duration of that one-year visa. Three months before that expired we visited our local Préfecture (think, Federal Building, in US terms) to arrange for a time to drop off copies of our financial statements, utility bills and a few other documents to prove that we actually lived here and had the resources to support ourselves. A one-year carte de séjour (residency card) has annually been the result.  We’ve been repeating that process each winter since our arrival in February 2016 and you can read about that in our blog post Fort-unate that includes a link to the post from the prior year. This week we obtained our newest carte de séjour with only a few minor changes from the previous experiences.  Continue reading “Renewed”

Unknown's avatarBob4 Comments