[kirikara]

HI everyone,
so I am a bit worried by all the appointments my hubby has to go through since arriving in France.
Here is the thing. He was supposed to have his french citizenship by the time we arrived in France but the french consulate lost his paperwork when we applied (sorry misfiled it ...) and that delayed everything 6 months.
He went through the french citizenship interview in Chicago on May 19th 2011 and was succesful. Now he is waiting for the paperwork to come through which apparently takes 12 months.
We arrived in France early Jan 2012.
We got an appointment to the Ofii for March 20th in Toulon. Unfortunately we will be in Paris that weekend and my sister is visiting from abroad.
They are mentionning we dont want to cancel (plus i think he needs all that by early April to be legal, right?)..

so questions:
anybody ever tried to move the appointment from one town to another, the other one being Paris, where it sounds like it is a little hellish?

two: sounds like it is an all day affair? stupid question but where do you eat/ get coffe and all...???

three: if I come with him, will I just have to wait outside for everything? am I allowed in the building? at the medical visit? at any of the appointments?

(basically not going would be great for me since I d be able to stay with my sis, but I cant imagine him going through all that alone)

thanks everyone..

 

[kirikara]

forgot to add: he has a 8.30 medical appointment and then a 1.30pm appointment regarding french and job i think...?

 

[Bevdeforges]

The OFII appointment is done by departement of residence, so they aren't going to let you change your appointment to Paris unless you move there. There should be some way to contact them (check the letter they sent setting up the appointment) to tell them that he isn't available that day and to ask to reschedule the appointment. (I wouldn't give them alot of explanation about why he isn't available. Just say he has another appointment or something equally vague.)

There are a number of accounts of the OFII appointments here in the forum. You could try searching for them. But, this is France, remember, and each departement has its own peculiarities to how their OFII office works. Some folks report having at least one of the "civics" classes at the appointment - others just get an appointment for their civics, Life in France and possibly one other class. For some it is an all day thing, for others, half a day - and a few lucky souls report being in and out within a couple of hours. Just remember to get the tax stamps to pay for the appointment (around 300€) ahead of time.

I don't think you'll be allowed to go in with him. But they're used to dealing with foreigners, so he should do just fine.

To minimize the agony, I'd consider getting back from Paris in time for the appointment, though. (March 20th is a Tuesday - get back on Monday night and you'll be fine.) Or, if they reschedule the appointment, he's ok up to the date of the appointment they give him. If his citizenship comes through before the new appointment, you can always cancel that, explaining what happened. There's a certain amount of paperwork you have to go through once his citizenship comes through anyhow - getting his French birth certificate, applying for his carte d'identité and passport, plus registering him on the electoral rolls (though that can wait until the end of the year).
Cheers,
Bev

 

[kirikara]

HI, so I called twice the OFII to reschedule. One refused, the other one told me about 6 times not to cancel. Really actually it is not cancelling as there is no such thing, it is just not showing up. then they contact you for another appointment.
I asked if I could come with, I was told yes.
Not required though
The appointments came in 3 letters. One is medical is in the morning in one place, the other 2 are at the same time and around the same place (same building diff dept) but it is the civic class and the paperwork thing. It was confirmed over the phone that they are not 2 different appointments but kind of the same, (so yes they just LOVE to make it confusing to us regular people).
I booked the train tickets, but it really s*cks cause it is 140 euros of train return, plus 349 euros of stamps (yep, they just raised it, sent me a letter) for something, we really should not have to do in the first place!
Thinking about sending a letter with the bill to the chicago consulate.. GRRRRRRRR!