[Sbuckner22]

I currently have a long stay visitors visa and am currently renewing it as it expires on the 4th of October.

So today I had a beautiful morning outside the Essonne prefecture at 6am, fast foward 6 hours of waiting and a lady behind the guichet gives me an appointment. This appointment is for a paper which says I'm legally able to stay in France until my visa is ready to be collected. The problem being that the appointment is after my visa expires.

The woman at the office just told me that it is accepted, the paper work is fine and she gave me an appointment. I told her that it's after my expiry and she just shrugged her shoulders, I asked if this is legal and she also shrugged. She just wrote down an appointment date and sent me off on my way.

My questions:

What paperwork do I need for this appointment? Is it purely to receive the paper without me showing anything except my passport?

Is it possible that the person could deny me because the visa has been expired?

Is there anything else I should know?

Thank you in advance,

Stephanie

 

[dustoff]

Following, because I'm in the exact same boat. Only my appointment is at the end of October, and I'm not expected to receive my visa renewal until sometime in December.

I wouldn't be too worried about it, except for the fact that I'm scheduled to fly to the US for Thanksgiving, and I'm a little worried about whether I'll be allowed back into France after my trip...

 

[Bevdeforges]

This is one of those things where the notion of "ambiguity" comes into play.

In fact, you aren't renewing your visa, but rather your "titre de séjour" (residence permit). As far as leaving and then entering the country again, as Americans, you don't really need a visa to return. They can (and probably will) simply stamp your passport on entry like you were a regular visitor - especially after the expiration of the long-stay visa in your passport.

For any situation in France where you would need your titre de séjour, you need to have some evidence of the fact that you have made an appointment to renew - ideally some piece of paper (literally, even an e-mail if you made your appointment online) confirming your appointment and dated prior to the expiration of the titre de séjour you currently hold.

Where things get nasty is if you are from a country where you can't enter France, even for the short term, without a Schengen visa. For that, you need to ask at the prefecture what (if anything) you can do if you need to leave the Schengen area while your renewal is being processed.
Cheers,
Bev