[Bevdeforges]

Ah, France! Unfortunately it looks like you may have made a slight boo-boo here. Your husband had a Schengen visa for 90 days after he entered the Schengen area (i.e. when his passport was stamped on entry to Italy). The 90 days doesn't start up again when you enter France.

The fact of his Schengen visa being expired means that he does indeed need to get some sort of visa - though I've never heard of the "visa conjoint european" that they told you to get.

You can't get another Schengen visa by slipping over the border to Spain, as Spain counts as part of the Schengen area. Technically he'd have to leave Schengen and re-enter from the US or UK to get another 90 day stamp - but you'd have to hope that the border guy doesn't notice the old stamp and refuse him entry based on that "90 days out of 180 days" rule.

Where have you and your husband been resident prior to this move to France? That's where he's going to have to apply for his visa, assuming he can't get another 90 day stamp in his passport. I would expect it should be fairly simple (and actually free of charge) to get a visa as the conjoint of an EU national in your old country of residence. He'll need to show evidence, however, that you are indeed resident in France - and that's where having a job would come in real handy about now, though your lease contract might do.

It is probably also possible to tough it out and just kind of hang tight until they back down and realize your husband isn't a threat to national security and just grant him the carte de séjour - but that's I how did things 15 years ago and it took 20 months and lots of bad feeling on all sides to sort things out. I don't recommend that approach.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Bevdeforges]

Beth,
First of all, don't panic. (That was my big mistake way back when.) Despite what they'll try to tell you at the prefecture, you're hardly the first person this has happened to.

Option one is to just go back and try again. Don't draw attention to the Italian stamp and if and when they notice it, just act innocent and say they didn't stamp your passport when you entered France.

Option two is to just make a holiday in the UK for a few days or a week or so. On re-entry, your husband should make sure they stamp his passport (don't make a point out of asking unless it appears they aren't going to do it). If they do notice the Italian stamp on exit, act innocent. Chances are they won't notice on re-entry to France. (They're more interested in making sure you haven't been overstaying your welcome in the UK.)

I'm betting you can get away with option two, then just go back to the prefecture with your nice, new entry stamp, just a few days old and go from there. When I first got my French nationality, I hadn't worked out how to manage multiple passports yet and I have several exit stamps without the entry stamps to go with them. (Because I came back into France on my new French passport.) No one ever noticed and/or asked about them.

Incoming border control in France is nothing like in the US. Besides, it isn't nearly as easy to match up those entry and exit stamps as it seems.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Bevdeforges]

Don't really know what to tell you, other than what I've observed in my comings and goings over the last 15 years or so. They have tightened up the visa and border controls over the last few years, but I still haven't heard of anyone (at least not any Americans) being denied entry over mismatched passport stamps. Problems of that variety normally come later.

This being France, however, there's usually a way. If you try the mairie, you need to go to the mairie where you are currently living. Play the wide eyed innocent and let them find the stamp in the passport. Like fatbrit says over in the US section, answer all questions honestly, but answer only the question you're asked and don't volunteer any extraneous information. If they ask you when you entered France, give them the date you did and don't say anything about Italy.

Do not lose your cool at any point, and when you hit a wall, lay your problem (without any detail) on the person you're dealing with ("oh, what would you recommend I do?"). It sounds lame, but it often works. Remember that fonctionnaires don't want any trouble - they just want to see the paper or stamp or whatever it is they were told they need. Besides, it never hurts to have a friend at the mairie or at the prefecture. And if you hit a brick wall, back down gracefully and come back another day with a new strategy.

Worst case scenario, if your husband winds up having to go back to the US, it should be a fairly short situation to get whatever visa it is he needs - or even just to get a new stamp in the passport on re-entry to France.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Bevdeforges]

... the answer is that it's been issued for ten years.

Of course it would have helped if the Préfecture had read my wife's name correctly - misspelt on the carte de séjour . They're going to have to issue a replacement, but least they've let her hang on to this one until it's ready.

Congratumelations! A ten-year carte is a carte residente, which is the foreigner's version of a carte d'identité. She's in!

And yes, the French have an annoying habit of "correcting" how foreigners spell their names - or putting on accents that don't belong, etc. You knew something had to go less than smoothly.
Cheers,
Bev