For all those coming to France

[Coton90]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

If you're married to an EU citizen, you may already have right of residence in the EU - at least in many countries - as long as you are living with your spouse. At the least, you're probably entitled to a visa as the spouse of an EU national.
Cheers,
Bev

Hello Bev,

Thank you for sharing the benefits of your experiences. I'm in a similar situation as you, married to a French national. I'll be retiring from the Civil Service in the States and moving to the Herault Department, where we're building a house. I was wondering if you could shed some light on the required documentation I'll need to stay in France. In addition to my pension, my wife may be joining the family business raising and selling oysters.

In reading some of the other posts, I can honestly say that many of the people in my wife's region are warm and friendly, but then again, I may be getting biased treatment because I'm family. While working in Europe for 20 years, we've taken countless trips there and I've gotten familiar with the region and I have a pretty good idea of what I'm getting myself into. The only draw backs I see are the summer months where it gets too hot for my liking and the marginal infrastructure that really can't handle the large influx of tourists. On the plus side, its a whole different world there where time moves at a slower pace and people take the time to enjoy life. I'll certainly be glad to leave the DC area where its too expensive and too congested.

[Bevdeforges]

Coton90, you're in the unfortunate situation of having fewer rights than someone married to an EU national moving to France. You need a visa. (Makes no sense - but then again, welcome to France.)

You need to contact the French consulate that covers the area in which you are now resident. If you don't already have a livret de famille, you should get one now. Armed with the livret de famille, they more or less have to give you a visa - either on the spot, or with a maximum of a day or two turnaround time.

When you arrive in France, go to the préfecture and get a carte de séjour. Depending on your degree of integration (i.e. how well you speak French) you may or may not be asked to sign a contract of integration.
Cheers,
Bev

[dcat]

This wasn't addressed to me, but since I didn't understand it, I thought I would ask.

Isn't being married to a French national the same as being married to an EU national?

[Bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by dcat

This wasn't addressed to me, but since I didn't understand it, I thought I would ask.

Isn't being married to a French national the same as being married to an EU national?

You'd normally think so, wouldn't you?

But as far as immigration goes in France, if you're married to an EU national living in France I'm told you have the same rights in France as your EU national spouse. (This is apparently a change in the rules over the last 10 or 15 years - was not at all the case when I entered France in 1995.)

However, if you're married to a French national and you're not an EU national yourself, you need a visa, a carte de séjour and the whole megilla.... After a while you get used to stuff like this.
Cheers,
Bev

[Coton90]

Thank you for the prompt reply Bev. We do have a Livret de Famille and I am mentioned in it as being married to my wife. My wife tells me the immigration laws have recently changed so we'll have to check this out as well. Take Care,

Jeff

[mflute]

Thanks for this post - most interesting and helpful! I'm from South Africa and just started with the process of imigrating to France. I hope to move to one of the villages around Lyon. Luckily I am already fairly fluent in French!

Mikki

[francezoe]

Hi Dvora,
We have just joined this site and are not yet in France but I wanted to tell you about our experience finding a place to live in La Rochelle (where we are going in September). We, too, had the same concerns as yourself about finding friends however after our experience in emailing and phoning various potential landlords we are feeling far more positive. I contacted 27 different people before finally settling on a place. Only 3 of them were short and unfriendly "pas possible". The others were friendly, very interested in our plan to come to their city and gracious when we rejected their home in favour of another. In fact, 3 of them replied that we have their phone numbers and we should call them when we arrive! We have become long distance friends with one couple who are great and even helped us negotiate a lower rent on the place where we will be living. We are feeling more confident about the possibilities of making friends and are wondering if the reputation for closed behaviour is perhaps based on the Parisians who seem to be quite different. The few French people that I know here in Toronto have said that things are far different in the provinces.
Good luck with your plans.
Zoe

[Bevdeforges]

Hi Zoe, and welcome to the forum.

I can confirm the fact that people outside of the Paris area are generally much more open than the "Big City folks" - I think you'll find that to be the case in most big cities around the world.

I'm also betting that you contacted your potential landlords in reasonably fluent French. That can make a huge difference in how you are received, especially in France. (Which was sort of the point of this thread in the first place - thanks for helping me make my point!)
Cheers,
Bev

[Coton90]

Anybody know the rules in France regarding dual nationality? My daughter, who is 18, was born in Stuttgart but has an American passport since I'm American and her birth was registered with the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt. Her birth was also recorded with the French Consulate in Strassbourg and she is included in our Livret de Famille. We're going to have her U.S. passport renewed but would also like her to have a French passport as well, if possible.

[Bevdeforges]

The French are pretty blasé about dual (or in your daughter's case, "triple") nationality. The big thing will be if she has had a carte d'identité for her French nationality. I take it your spouse is French (or why else would you have registered her birth with the French consulate?).

The website Service Public is probably your best bet on how to proceed. Nationalité française - Service-public.fr

Cheers,
Bev