Carte de sejour question

[egalanto]

Hello,

This is going to be a bit long winded..I apologise in advance.

I got a US visa to get married to a french citizen which is a 6 month visitor visa in december of 2011. I then got married in January of 2012. I got an OFII stamp on my passport which says visitor in February. I went to go to the prefecture to change my status to spouse of a french citizen, but they said I couldn't do that until I have proven 6 months of communal living, even though we got married in January. so in April I was able to provide 6 months of communal living (since I was living in france since october). They gave me a temporary carte de sejour paper. This paper is about to expire next week (july 25). So today I went to the prefecture to see how much longer it will take and to get an extension. They say they do not know when my offical paper will be signed for me to be considered a spouse and not a visitor.

Basically, I want to be able to work in france as a spouse of a french citizen. I want my status to be changed from visitor to spouse. Am I going about this the right way? I feel like it is taking too long, they are telling me it might be another 3-6 months before I get my carte to actually work in france.

I heard from a friend that it took them less than 3 months to get a valid working papers because they did formations provided by the OFII, but when I got my OFII stamp they never told me any of this.

Please advise. Am i on the right track? Or is there something I can do to speed up the process so I can work in france.

Thanks a million!!

[Bevdeforges]

It sounds like you're doing all the right things. It's just that each prefecture in France has their own variation on how these sorts of things work. And, incidentally, you've just hit the summer doldrums, when the fonctionnaires (and everyone else in the country) take their 4 weeks of summer vacation so the offices are kind of short staffed.

OTOH, there is very little hiring done in France in July and August, simply because so many people are away on vacation. Use the time to network to the extent you can - and come September (the big Rentrée) things will start happening so fast it will make your head spin.
Cheers,
Bev

[egalanto]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

It sounds like you're doing all the right things. It's just that each prefecture in France has their own variation on how these sorts of things work. And, incidentally, you've just hit the summer doldrums, when the fonctionnaires (and everyone else in the country) take their 4 weeks of summer vacation so the offices are kind of short staffed.

OTOH, there is very little hiring done in France in July and August, simply because so many people are away on vacation. Use the time to network to the extent you can - and come September (the big Rentrée) things will start happening so fast it will make your head spin.
Cheers,
Bev

Thanks for the assurance! I guess I'll just have to wait it out. Hopefully I'll be able to find some decent jobs come september.