[Tanja]

Hi again...BEV are you out there??? more stuff for your book!!!!

I am currently in the process of flying back to Australia to marry my French boyfriend. We will then apply for a 'visa de long sejour' so I can come back and stay here in peace...
However, having just booked my flight back home (financial ouch!), I have stumbled upon this bit of information...

Basically, before I became an Australian citizen I grew up in Austria for the first 12 years of my life. I don't have a passport or a residency status there, my Mum was a cheap labor person from the former Yugoslavia and worked in Austria for 12 years, so I went to school there and I have paperwork to prove it.

Ready??? Please read below. Anyone know about this???

Résidents de longue durée - CE: The rules are slightly different for non-EU nationals who have been long-term residents of another EU country (Résidents de longue durée - CE). A third-country national who has resided legally in an EU country for a minimum of five years, need not apply for a visa long séjour and may make their residency application at the Préfecture within three month's of their arrival in France.


What do you make of that???

cheers Tanja

 

[Tanja]

PS. Résidents de longue durée - CE

I found that latest piece of info on the following site:

Residency in France for EU and non-EU Citizens - Carte de Séjour French Residence Permit - AngloINFO French Riviera, in the Côte d'Azur (France)

 

[Bevdeforges]

The "trick" with that loophole you found is that you have to be able to "prove" your residency - i.e. that you were living in another EU country legally and with some sort of residence permit or visa. (Plus, there may be something about the residency having to be after the age of 14 or 16 in order to count. Check the fine print.)

That type of resident permit is intended for someone already living legally in another EU country (generally with a work permit and already enrolled in the social insurances there) who has some good reason to move countries without having to go back home.

In your case, you'd have a tough time proving your residence (even if it might meet the letter of the law) and, because it was so long ago, the préfecture would certainly try to deny it. You're more or less assured a visa doing it the way you are now. For only a slight chance that you might be able to squeeze in under this other regulation, consider the air fare an investment in your sanity!
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Tanja]

The "trick" with that loophole you found is that you have to be able to "prove" your residency - i.e. that you were living in another EU country legally and with some sort of residence permit or visa. (Plus, there may be something about the residency having to be after the age of 14 or 16 in order to count. Check the fine print.)

That type of resident permit is intended for someone already living legally in another EU country (generally with a work permit and already enrolled in the social insurances there) who has some good reason to move countries without having to go back home.

In your case, you'd have a tough time proving your residence (even if it might meet the letter of the law) and, because it was so long ago, the préfecture would certainly try to deny it. You're more or less assured a visa doing it the way you are now. For only a slight chance that you might be able to squeeze in under this other regulation, consider the air fare an investment in your sanity!
Cheers,
Bev

Thank you. You're so right. I think it's called grasping as straws.
ps. Did you happen to read my other new thread in relation to going back to Oz???
Cheers
Tanja