Interesting carte de sejour process

[scabadaska]

I arrived in France last week and yesterday went to get my carte de sejour here in Paris. I am a student attending la Sorbonne and they now have a specific prefecture set up just for foreign students. Anyhow, I took all required documents, did the whole process and to my surprise, everything went quite smoothly - then she begins to tell me that they no longer issue year long carte de sejours to students and that I was receiving a temporary one for 3 months in which I must return and reapply for another one that will be good for only 6 months, then 6 more months and so on. I realize that in France nothing is ever the same for different people and most certainly not for different prefectures, but this is quite odd. With my 3 month temporary carte, I can not take work nor open a bank account. I was really depending on summer work this year to help with tuition costs. On top of that, it seems like not only is it a huge pain to constantly keep reapplying, but by doing so I am ever so often increasing my odds of my carte not being renewed. I have read many, many accounts and this is certainly a new one to me. I have my medical exam on July 22 and then have to take the results with me when my next appointment at the prefecture is (not sure yet - must take an appointment online in 28 days).

Any info or help would be great.

[Bevdeforges]

Best I can do is to direct you to the Service-public website here: Généralités sur les demandes et remises de titres de séjour - Service-public.fr

Was looking for something else today when I noticed the little blue section at the top of the page. Apparently there is a big change going on for cartes de séjour for students and certain other categories. It's possible that your prefecture is simply waiting for the official word on how they are going to handle this, or that the promised interpretations just haven't yet been prepared and circulated.

All I can say is "welcome to France!" This kind of thing happens all the time, and no one at the prefecture will ever admit that they have no idea what is going on. Some changes in the law have been held up for YEARS awaiting publication in the Journal officiel of the details about the rules changes.
Cheers,
Bev