Okay, I just wanted to write this up since the process was so confusing, and sites about it really didn't give me an idea of what it would entail, and I want to complain, too.
Since I'm here for the full school year, and I'm not a citizen of a European-Union country, I had to get a long-term visa in the U.S. before arriving, and a carte de séjour when I got here in France. The following is the story of what I had to do. Note: a great deal of this probably only applies to people studying in Toulouse, or something along those lines, so elsewhere, you might have different requirements/processes...but it's still always annoying.
Visa
Being from Pennsylvania, I had to go all the way to Washington D.C. - in person - to get my visa. It was confusing, and the requirements were weird (like a notarized letter from a parent saying they'd give me a certain amount per month, which seemed like an easier option than proving I had the funds), but they were spelled out on various websites, so when I got there everything went smoothly. I hadn't realized I'd needed to have printed out this one receipt from CampusFrance, and that was annoying, but all I had to do was wander to another office in the consulate and ask them to print it out, so it worked out okay. I had been stressed out, but the guy working at the consulate was really nice, and it was the end of their day, so that could have been why it was relatively empty and low-key. I left with my visa, went sightseeing with my brother to the Independence Mall, and returned home.
Carte de SéjourOkay, there is just something about the French bureaucracy that bugs me. And that something is their need for excessive documentation. I had to go to an authorized translator to get my birth certificate translated into French (though was it really that hard to read in English? Like they couldn't have gotten the gist of "Mother," "date," "name," and so forth?), and that cost me more than I wanted - something around 25 euros, I think, though I don't remember exactly. Plus, and this may be just a Toulouse thing, we were supposed to come with a stamp valued at 55 euros. I think you can buy it at a tabac, but luckily another guy in the program didn't realize he didn't need a carte de séjour until after he had bought it - again, confusing administration policies are so French - so I just gave him money for his.
I went to the C.R.O.U.S. office and waited around - there was no one at the desk, naturally, so I hung around pretty awkwardly - and then finally gave my copies of everything they could ever want to know about me to the lady, with only one close call. You see, the French govt asked for
everything I had already given the French consulate in the U.S. - except in French. I didn't have the notarized document from my Dad in French, because duh, he doesn't speak French, and it felt unnecessary to translate it. Luckily, the other guy working there knew how things worked, and when my lady asked him about it and said I had given it to the Washington consulate, he said that yeah, it was fine. Phew!
They then gave me a provisory carte de séjour, and I waited around until somebody gave me a paper saying they'd contact me about a medical visit at some later time. I asked when, and the guy said that if I didn't get it some time before my card expired, I should call them about it. Of course, my card didn't expire for another 3 months, so he was really not giving me any idea of when to expect it.
Visite Medicale
I get a letter two months later saying I have an appointment with the ANAEM in Toulouse (which is in charge of migration and such) for my required medical visit - for the next Thursday, giving me only a week. Lucky for me I don't have class on Thursday, or too bad, I guess. I was leaving the next day for the weekend, so I didn't pay much attention to the letter other than writing down when the appointment was, and where.
I finally read the letter fully the Tuesday before my visit and realize that it asks me to bring my vaccination record, hospitalization records, chest x-rays, glasses, and, if necessary, a maternity notice (congé - it's pretty French, don't worry about it). Now, why this "if necessary" was placed before the maternity thing and not before the glasses baffled me, and I pretty much spazzed about everything else.
No one had told me before coming to France, "Hey, make sure you bring vaccination and hospital records," and I couldn't get them mailed to me in time, and I don't have a fax machine with me in my French dorm room. So I freaked and sent a frazzled email to my parents asking what I should do. They emailed me a scan of my 11th grade physical I'd had done by my doctor to play tennis - you know, 3 and a half years ago - and it had a short list of vaccinations I'd had done. I've never been hospitalized, but they never asked for any of that anyway. Here's what did happen:
I go in, wait for a while, then am taken to a room where I'm told to take off all of my clothes in the chest area (AKA any shirts and bras) and put on this weird robe. The lady then makes me stand in front of the x-ray machine, though beforehand she checks that I've followed her directions (since I'm a stupid foreigner, after all), and she gives me more directions in rapid-fire French that I actually don't understand, and ends up just moving me bodily to the position she wants while continuing to blabber in French, and I understand that she'll tell me "aspirez" or "breath in" while she takes my x-ray. This doesn't happen until I misunderstand more of her directions, but it ends up okay.
Then I wait, then talk to a nurse who asks me if I smoke, whether I have insurance (sécurité sociale here), and I show her the VITTAVI information I got mailed to me after signing up for it when I registered for the IEP (Sciences-Po) Toulouse earlier in September. Then she looked at my vaccinations, and I found it funny that she knew that DPT was DTP in France, but asked me what "influenza" was (which I knew! I was so proud - "la grippe," by the way). She told me I should get a booster for DPT/DTP, and I told her the record wasn't quite up to date, and she said things I wasn't quite sure I understood about my university's doctor and getting free shots at this place at the Place de la Daurade (but I'm pretty sure I would have been confused in English, too).
Then I was ushered in to see the doctor, who asked if I smoked, took a quick look at my x-ray, said it was fine, and I was handed off to wait in another room. After some waiting, a lady came in, asked us (since there were others in the room) for our temporary cards and the letter they had sent us with a copied picture of the 55 euro stamp, and then gave us our full-fledged, laminated titre de séjour, all set for us (and a paper that says we've had a medical visit - if you reapply for the carte after a year, to renew it, you show them the paper and don't have to do the medical crap again).
WARNING!
The letter with the medical visit letter was confusing - it said to bring it with you to the medical visit, with the stamp "below" - and right there was a photocopy of the 55 euro stamp. Since I had already paid for the goshdarned thing, I figured I was fine with the letter and brought it with me. Another girl in the room had bought another stamp, and stuck it to the image on the letter. The woman working there must get this a lot, and she had the girl write a letter explaining that she had bought an extra stamp by mistake and needed to be reimbursed. Apparently this happens all the time since the letter applies to the whole region, but buying the stamp beforehand is unique to Toulouse, or something along those lines. So if you got your temporary card from Toulouse, your stamp was taken care of, but if you studied outside of Toulouse, you would have needed to get a stamp and attach it.
AGH! I hate bureaucracies, and the French bureaucracy is up there on the list, I think. But I have my titre in my hands, and it's all over since I'm only here for the year and won't have to renew. And that is quite a relief.
Word of the Day:radiographieX-ray
