General Info: Spouse of French citizen applying for Spouse Visa / Titre de Séjour
Hi all,
I had to make a list for a friend of all the stuff we went through moving to France. I thought I'd post it here in case it helps someone with the "well, what now?" question once you've decided to move to France.
This is what we did, and would apply to you only if:
- You have a French Spouse
- You got married in the US of A (and are a US Citizen)
- You want to move to France
The links provided are the Atlanta Consulate. I would recommend looking at your local consulates for the paperwork. Consulates of France in the US - France in the United States/ Embassy of France in Washington
It should be standard, but as you will soon find out in France...your mileage may vary.
Step 0: Get married. Get a Marriage license.
Step 1: Transcription of US Marriage license in French
http://www.consulfrance-atlanta.org/IMG/pdf/Requete_Mariage.pdf
Need copy of your US Marriage License, might need other paperwork (ask consulate by phone perhaps)
Fill out request to get a transcript of your marriage license (above)
Turn it in and wait! (I think you can do this by mail) Ours took a couple months.
Step 2: Getting a Livret de Famille (you need this to apply for your spouse visa)
Mise à jour de votre état civil - France in the Southeast region
Paperwork needed is listed on the site. Typical bunch of paperwork needed here, including the above transcription, birth certificates (less than 3 months old for the French (order online), the American needs to be long-form with an Apostille from the Secretary of State's office attached - would suggest getting 4 or 5 of these). Lots more paperwork needed, see site above for complete list.
After you get your Livret de Famille - you can now apply for....
Step 3: Spouse Visa Requirements:
Long stay visa for the spouse of a French national - France in the Southeast region
For this you have to make an appointment. Typically they fill up quickly, so make it in advance, but not so advance that you won't have your paperwork in time.
Again, paperwork required is listed on the site above. It is a lot. This is normal.
They will take your passport at this point to attach the visa inside, so you won't be able to travel for a few weeks.
Step 4: Moving to France OFII visit
Once you move to France, you will be provided with stuff to mail off to the local OFII office in France and then they will send you an appointment date.
You can read about my experience here: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/france-expat-forum-expats-living-france/98275-my-ofii-experience-montrouge-december-2011-a.html
It is basically a "welcome to France" video, a French test, and a medical exam.
Then you also will have to go to a Civics class, one day class about the history of France and French cultural values. A few posts down from the above link is about my Civics class.
This gets you a Validated Visa for your first year, which means you'll be legal for 1 year for living in France. Yay.
Step 5: A few months before your first year in France -- apply for Carte de Sejour (or Titre de Sejour)
You'll go the to local Prefecture and make an appointment for première demande de titre de séjour (do this 3 months in advance)
You'll make the appointment and get the list of paperwork from them. Don't trust the interwebs for the list - the Prefectures all have slightly different versions of what you need.
You'll go for your appointment (with all paperwork), show it to them, you'll get a Récépissé de demande de titre de séjour saying you've applied for it - and you'll have that for two or three months until you get your Titre de Séjour by mail...I think mine took like 2 months into the next year.
Your first Titre de Séjour will be good for...1 year! Yep, all that work for another basically 7 months of living in France, since you'll have to return to the Prefecture 3 months before it is up to book another appointment and get the paperwork list again.
Step 6: The next Titre de Séjour
So this is the same process as last time, go to the Prefecture for the list (yes, go again...you never know they change these things all the time) and book the appointment, give the papework, get a récépissé, then get your titre de sejour.
Mileage may vary here...they may give you another 1 year one, they might give you a 5 year one, or they might give you a 10 year one. I got a 10 year one, but I know others who got 1 year ones for several years and then got a 10 year one or a 5 year one. Probably depends on where you live....if we had lived in Paris when I re-applied, I bet I would have gotten another 1 year one, for example. But we live in the countryside now, so they were a bit more cool about handing over a 10 year one. Or they might had seen we had already been married for several years so they decided to give me a 10 year. Who knows. It's a mysterious process!
Step 7: Applying for Nationality
Acquisition de la nationalité française par mariage : conditions - Service-public.fr
You have to be married at least 4 years to apply for French nationality, and 3 of those years would have to be consecutively lived in France. If you have been married over 5 years it won't matter how long you've lived in France (maybe). If it was abroad then the French spouse needs to have been registered with the French authorities abroad through the consulate.
You will have to have a French test to have at least a B1 knowledge of French. You can download practice tests and sign up for tests at this website: Exemples de sujets | CIEP - the test is like 120 euros, and takes a couple hours. You have to get over 50/100 to pass.
You will have to have the normal paperwork you will have had all along in the process, plus a couple of extras (your parents birth certificates, for example). Again, see the website and visit the Prefecture for a complete list.
After applying for Nationality they have 1 year to approve you. The Gendarme will come and visit you, and then eventually you'll get a letter in the mail (I'm in this process right now, will edit this when I'm done).
Step 8: Drink lots of wine -- you are "done."
You can probably never really be done with French paperwork, but if you reach this far, at least you know that the worst is (probably) over.
Hope that helps. Please if anyone has additional info or see something that could use clarification, let me know below and I'll edit it. Looking back at all this again it seems like this is still the process, but who knows.
-Aaron
Hi all,
I had to make a list for a friend of all the stuff we went through moving to France. I thought I'd post it here in case it helps someone with the "well, what now?" question once you've decided to move to France.
This is what we did, and would apply to you only if:
- You have a French Spouse
- You got married in the US of A (and are a US Citizen)
- You want to move to France
The links provided are the Atlanta Consulate. I would recommend looking at your local consulates for the paperwork. Consulates of France in the US - France in the United States/ Embassy of France in Washington
It should be standard, but as you will soon find out in France...your mileage may vary.
Step 0: Get married. Get a Marriage license.
Step 1: Transcription of US Marriage license in French
http://www.consulfrance-atlanta.org/IMG/pdf/Requete_Mariage.pdf
Need copy of your US Marriage License, might need other paperwork (ask consulate by phone perhaps)
Fill out request to get a transcript of your marriage license (above)
Turn it in and wait! (I think you can do this by mail) Ours took a couple months.
Step 2: Getting a Livret de Famille (you need this to apply for your spouse visa)
Mise à jour de votre état civil - France in the Southeast region
Paperwork needed is listed on the site. Typical bunch of paperwork needed here, including the above transcription, birth certificates (less than 3 months old for the French (order online), the American needs to be long-form with an Apostille from the Secretary of State's office attached - would suggest getting 4 or 5 of these). Lots more paperwork needed, see site above for complete list.
After you get your Livret de Famille - you can now apply for....
Step 3: Spouse Visa Requirements:
Long stay visa for the spouse of a French national - France in the Southeast region
For this you have to make an appointment. Typically they fill up quickly, so make it in advance, but not so advance that you won't have your paperwork in time.
Again, paperwork required is listed on the site above. It is a lot.
This is normal. They will take your passport at this point to attach the visa inside, so you won't be able to travel for a few weeks.
** After you get your passport back with the Visa inside you can now move to France at this point **
Step 4: Moving to France OFII visit
Once you move to France, you will be provided with stuff to mail off to the local OFII office in France and then they will send you an appointment date.
You can read about my experience here: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/france-expat-forum-expats-living-france/98275-my-ofii-experience-montrouge-december-2011-a.html
It is basically a "welcome to France" video, a French test, and a medical exam.
Then you also will have to go to a Civics class, one day class about the history of France and French cultural values. A few posts down from the above link is about my Civics class.
This gets you a Validated Visa for your first year, which means you'll be legal for 1 year for living in France. Yay.
Step 5: A few months before your first year in France -- apply for Carte de Sejour (or Titre de Sejour)
You'll go the to local Prefecture and make an appointment for première demande de titre de séjour (do this 3 months in advance)
You'll make the appointment and get the list of paperwork from them. Don't trust the interwebs for the list - the Prefectures all have slightly different versions of what you need.
You'll go for your appointment (with all paperwork), show it to them, you'll get a Récépissé de demande de titre de séjour saying you've applied for it - and you'll have that for two or three months until you get your Titre de Séjour by mail...I think mine took like 2 months into the next year.
Your first Titre de Séjour will be good for...1 year! Yep, all that work for another basically 7 months of living in France, since you'll have to return to the Prefecture 3 months before it is up to book another appointment and get the paperwork list again.
Step 6: The next Titre de Séjour
So this is the same process as last time, go to the Prefecture for the list (yes, go again...you never know they change these things all the time) and book the appointment, give the papework, get a récépissé, then get your titre de sejour.
Mileage may vary here...they may give you another 1 year one, they might give you a 5 year one, or they might give you a 10 year one. I got a 10 year one, but I know others who got 1 year ones for several years and then got a 10 year one or a 5 year one. Probably depends on where you live....if we had lived in Paris when I re-applied, I bet I would have gotten another 1 year one, for example. But we live in the countryside now, so they were a bit more cool about handing over a 10 year one. Or they might had seen we had already been married for several years so they decided to give me a 10 year. Who knows. It's a mysterious process!
Step 7: Applying for Nationality
Acquisition de la nationalité française par mariage : conditions - Service-public.fr
You have to be married at least 4 years to apply for French nationality, and 3 of those years would have to be consecutively lived in France. If you have been married over 5 years it won't matter how long you've lived in France (maybe). If it was abroad then the French spouse needs to have been registered with the French authorities abroad through the consulate.
You will have to have a French test to have at least a B1 knowledge of French. You can download practice tests and sign up for tests at this website: Exemples de sujets | CIEP - the test is like 120 euros, and takes a couple hours. You have to get over 50/100 to pass.
You will have to have the normal paperwork you will have had all along in the process, plus a couple of extras (your parents birth certificates, for example). Again, see the website and visit the Prefecture for a complete list.
After applying for Nationality they have 1 year to approve you. The Gendarme will come and visit you, and then eventually you'll get a letter in the mail (I'm in this process right now, will edit this when I'm done).
Step 8: Drink lots of wine -- you are "done."
You can probably never really be done with French paperwork, but if you reach this far, at least you know that the worst is (probably) over.
Hope that helps. Please if anyone has additional info or see something that could use clarification, let me know below and I'll edit it. Looking back at all this again it seems like this is still the process, but who knows.
-Aaron
