Me, my wife & my cat live in Paris as of yesterday!

[xmeyer]

I got a lot of help in this forum and I promised myself that I would give others help once I knew a few things. Now I do know a few things, so I will share some experience.

I work here because my US-based company has a Paris office and transferred me here. I qualified for permission to work and a long-stay visa under an expedited (ha!) process in which OFII does all of the work for both the permit to work and the visa. The France-based subsidiary contracted my services from the US-based company which continues to pay me.

I do not participate in the French SS system, but will owe French income tax. The application to OFII included a visa request for my accompanying spouse. OFII required an application; plus docs from the French subsidiary; plus docs from me, such as certified translations of diplomas, marriage certificate, birth certificate... I forget what all. After 2 months, OFII notified the French subsidiary that approval had been sent to the Consulate in Boston and they would write to us informing us to come in to pick up the visas. This did not happen for a while and the Consulates are black holes, so I made an on-line appointment with them as the only way to get a word in. On that day, when we showed up their opening position was "We've never heard of you, go over their and fill out an application." On presentation of a copy of the letter from OFII, the person at the visa window disappeared for 45 minutes. On return we were told to fill out an application and come back in the afternoon to pick up visas. In the afternoon they did indeed give us visas, but not a copy of the Consulate-approved contract that OFII will want to see within 2 months of arrival. Again, showing them the OFII letter got a response and after some wait, they came through with that. So some hitches that generated high anxiety, but success in the end.

The cat had his papers all in order weeks before this. He got the international chip, the rabies vax cert., the USDA stamped health cert, the final just before travel health cert, and the Air France approved carrier. But nobody either outbound Boston or inbound Paris checked any of this. Air France collected the $200, checked his carrier for bombs, and that was that. At CDG customs never gave him a glance. He's an old cat, was 20 in the fall, went baggage, and was nothing more than hungry and a bit stiff on arrival. He thinks French cat food is just dandy.

So here we are in the 5th, learning the neighborhood and figuring out how to get to work.

[RayRay]

Originally Posted by xmeyer

I got a lot of help in this forum and I promised myself that I would give others help once I knew a few things. Now I do know a few things, so I will share some experience...

Congratulations on making it to France! And thanks for sharing, including the cat, a very important member of our family.

I sent you a private message with a question, as well.

Good luck.

Ray

[Bevdeforges]

Welcome to France.

And that includes some of the confusion over which office does what as far as processing your documents. It's all part of "the French experience" - and just to add to the "fun" they seem to change the rules all the time to keep it interesting.

I'm impressed that your cat made the journey in such good shape. I'm sure he will find that French cat food is at the same high level as French people food.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Bev

[xmeyer]

And the process continues...

We spent the first week here just learning where to shop and how to get to work, but now in the second week we decided we'd better put some effort in to the next step of going to OFII to obtain the C de S.

It says in our letter from OFII that we should send them scans of our visas on arrival in France, so we did that by email (actually my employer did that) yesterday and today we got an email inviting us to OFII in Creteil January 9.

We've read many horror stories about OFII here, but for us, OFII has been prompt and efficient. The reason is that we got here under a supposedly simplified and expedited procedure for employees transferring from a US company to its French subsidiary. It's debatable whether this is either simplified or expedited, but there is one big perquisite: my company has a single OFII contact person to call or email for all issues. She knows our case and seems to be personally invested in seeing through.