Moving from the U.S. to France - which visa to apply for?

[ChicChic]

Originally Posted by dijid

If an employer sponsors you for a work visa, your visa is tied to that position. If they hire you for a temporary (ie 6 months) assignment, then you're visa would be temporary (ie 6 months). To renew it, you'd have to provide an attestation from the employer stating that you are still employed.

Thank you, Dijid.

All of this information is very straightforward and easy to understand. Why is it not so on the various government websites? Never mind. I just answered my own question.

I will let you all know how it goes with the Embassy today and I will share any new information I glean from it.

Thanks again!

[ChicChic]

Hello everyone! I just wanted to follow up and let you know how everything went. I apologize in advance for the length, but I thought that the details of my particular experience might help someone else perhaps seeking a similar path to a French visa.

So... my phone call to the Embassy was a bit of a downer as the woman on the other end of the phone seemed rather annoyed that I dare call the phone number for visa questions with questions about a visa. She actually said to me, "Ma'am (heavy sigh), everything's on the website." Mind you, this is after about a minute and a half on the phone. But I smiled big so she could hear it in my voice and thanked her for her time and resisted the urge to tell her about the 100's of websites pretty much dedicated to helping other people figure out the visa application process specifically because it's NOT all on the Embassy website...
but I digress. However perfunctory, she answered my questions.

I also received a call back from an American attorney in France who affirmed most of everything I've garnered from my forays into the interwebs. He offered to take care of the visa application process for $1,200.00. Ha!! I also generously thanked him for his time and free consultation and then of course never spoke to him again.

So after several discussions with my boyfriend and yet more internet research, as well as his conversation with his brother's attorney in France, we decided that our best option was to have me apply for the 12-month Long-Stay Visa. In a nutshell: I'm not, nor will I be any time soon, a student, a professor, or a scientific researcher. I don't have a job lined up with a company that could fill out a work visa on my behalf, my lack of fluency in French being a hindrance in this regard, and for the purposes of what we'd like to accomplish as a couple, a short-stay visa would be more or less useless.

The items I gathered and filled out were as follows:
- My passport
- Color copies of the identity page, the bar code page, and several blank pages of my passport
- 4 new passport sized photos
- 1 Long-Stay Visa application, duly filled out in French
- 1 visa questionnaire, also filled out in French, signed and notarized
- 1 different long-stay visa application to present to the OFII upon entry into France and for my temporary residency card (carte de sejour), also filled out in French
- Signed and notarized letter agreeing to not seek employment in France
- A letter from the health insurance I purchased for the duration of my visa stating that the coverage I chose satisfies all Schengen country long-stay visa requirements
- A copy of last year's W-2 and Tax Return
- A copy of the latest statements from 2 different investment accounts with Chase (one immediately accessible, the other one a retirement fund which will be rolled into the first)
- A copy of my most current statement of my 401K through my work (which will also be rolled into the accessible account)
- The original attestation d'accueil my boyfriend obtained from his mayor's office to show he can accommodate me in his home*
- An original copy of his earnings from last year
- A color copy of his French national identity card
- And the most efficiently and formally written romantic letter you've ever seen, in which he scribed in French to the Consulate an explanation of how we met and fell in love, in the hopes that if my meager savings and his earnings and promise to house me were not enough to sway them into believing that I would not seek employment or could afford 12 months without a job... the letter would at least appeal to their humanity. :-)

*the attestation d'accueil / logement certificat is really only good for a short-stay visa as the maximum amount of time they will allow you to officially accommodate a visitor is 3 months, but we thought it couldn't hurt to have an official document stating that my housing and daily expenses would be accounted for outside of just my savings.

I also made approximately 400 copies of everything which I have stashed on paper and on several computers and a cloud drive.

My Consulate appointment was on Monday the 10th, which I of course showed up for early. The "interview," and I would use that term loosely, consisted of me standing behind a glass partition through which I passed my paperwork and watched the woman go through everything. She reiterated the uselessness of the attestation d'accueil but kept it on file anyway. She asked me about my three investment account statements noting that two appeared to be retirement accounts, wondering if they would be immediately accessible. I explained in brief that the two larger ones would be rolled into the smaller immediately accessible one once I had given my notice at my work and could obtain the necessary paperwork for my 401k but that I had not done so yet because I was waiting on my visa approval to officially quit.
She asked me for my reason for wanting to journey to France, and I answered with a smile, "Love." to which she nary managed a smirk as she continued to thumb through the paperwork. I explained further that I am moving in with my boyfriend and our hopes are that we'll get married and I will live out my life in France and make it my home. Throughout our brief encounter, I tried to be friendly and to use what little French I have for greetings and pleasantries without being overbearing or seeming to try to hard. She pretty much ignored me at every turn although I think I did hear her mutter a "Bonjour" in return to mine.
I then had my fingerprints and picture taken. She took my prepaid self-addressed Express USPS Mail envelope and said I'd hear from them soon. She did not take the second copy I made of everything even though all the official websites say that you must bring an original plus one copy of everything (in bold letters), noting that "the Consulate does not make copies!" She handed it right back to me, uninterested.

On Wednesday afternoon I received a call from the Consulate and I'm pretty sure it was the same woman I met on Monday. She then proceeded to ask me almost verbatim the same question about my account statements. She started with the lowest balance one. I explained that yes, I am able to cash it out immediately without penalty. The next highest balance account along with the largest one which is about 50% more than the first two combined will all be rolled into the first one so that the monies will all be immediately accessible. I heard her flip through the papers. She got to the statement for the second highest balance account and asked me the same question. I calmly repeated what I just had explained a moment ago, choosing the same words I used before and used the day we met. She thumbed through the pages again until she got to the largest account and lo and behold if she didn't ask me the same question again, this time noting that this account appears to be "...a retirement account, and you're not planning on retiring, are you?" I explained again how they would be combined, and this time chose a couple of different words in case this was an instance of things getting lost in translation, and assured her (again) that the only reason this last account is still an active 401k is that I have not quit my job yet and it is through my job that I will have to get the paperwork to close this account. She said those were all the questions she had but our brief talk did not leave me feeling too confident about having enough money to satisfy them.

The rest of the week was a long one.

Alas! Today in the mail I received my passport back, and it has a new page:
my 12-month visa!!!!

I have also had my paperwork stamped and approved to bring to the OFII, once in France.

I've spent the rest of the time since my last post here putting everything I own pretty much, up for sale on the internet. I've managed to get rid of a few things like my dining set and a beautiful framed Mucha poster that I loved but that loses some of its charm being written in French if it were hung on the wall of a French home as opposed to a Chicagoan one. My car has not sold yet, and neither has the sectional couch from hell (because I keep reducing the price), but I have hope that they will soon. I've decided not to bring my dog on this first trip as it will take some time to settle in and there will be copious visits by and to friends all over France for the first few months I am there. Besides, with all the bags I will bring and the boxes I will ship and who knows what else, it just seems like a better idea to do it at a later date. Once settled however, when my boyfriend and I return here to Chicago for a visit probably early next year, on the return flight we will bring the pooch. Other than that, about the only anxiety I have is deciding on how many boxes of hair dye I will need to ship over in advance for my bi-monhtly root coverage before I find a place to purchase the equivalent product in France. :-)

Actually, truth be told, my biggest worry is my horrendous French. After 7 months of study, I'm no closer to being able to understand spoken French than if I had never studied a day. It's terribly frustrating and actually quite humiliating. I cannot speak French. At all. The Consulate should have no worries about my seeking employment because that little detail makes it quite impossible! Ugh. But... I guess my full time job once I land on French soil again, will be the study of the language as if my life depends on it because well... it does. :-)

Thanks again for reading. And hey... for any of you in the Chicago area: let me know if you are in the market for a giant, gently-used sectional couch. I know where you can get one, cheap. ;-)

Best to all of you.

[hulagirl]

Originally Posted by ChicChic

Hello everyone! I just wanted to follow up and let you know how everything went. I apologize in advance for the length, but I thought that the details of my particular experience might help someone else perhaps seeking a similar path to a French visa.

....
Actually, truth be told, my biggest worry is my horrendous French. After 7 months of study, I'm no closer to being able to understand spoken French than if I had never studied a day. It's terribly frustrating and actually quite humiliating. I cannot speak French. At all. The Consulate should have no worries about my seeking employment because that little detail makes it quite impossible! Ugh. But... I guess my full time job once I land on French soil again, will be the study of the language as if my life depends on it because well... it does. :-)

Thanks again for reading. And hey... for any of you in the Chicago area: let me know if you are in the market for a giant, gently-used sectional couch. I know where you can get one, cheap. ;-)

Best to all of you.

Best of luck to you. Where in France will you be living? Don't worry. Your French will come eventually. Just keep at it.
hulagirl

[ChicChic]

Originally Posted by hulagirl

Best of luck to you. Where in France will you be living?
hulagirl

I will be living in a house in the South, just outside Toulouse, in a small town called Caraman. At least, that is where we'll live until we can get a bigger place after some renovations to the current home. I'm excited. Thanks.

Oh! One thing I forgot to mention about the paperwork I included that I presented to the Consulate. I had only a print out of my one-way ticket to France. I have not purchased a return ticket. They did not ask about it.