Switching to a French spouse visa from a student visa has been quite an ordeal! It is unbelievable that now, almost 6 months later, I have my spouse visa. (Read Part I and Part II)
We talked to countless people at the Bordeaux and Caen prefectures and were continuously being misguided. We were given estimated dates that were weeks off. So here is what has happened since my last post about switching to a French spouse visa.
Even though we were told I would receive a confirmation of receipt of my application from the Caen prefecture within 2 weeks (later they told us 2 months), we received it in 3 months. On this receipt, I was told that I would have to go to the prefecture in person to provide them additional information.
Since I received this letter a week before I was due, I was in no condition to wait in a long line to do this. We ended up going when Juliana was 2 weeks old. The newspaper ran an article that people were arriving to the prefecture as early as 1 am in order to get in line. Apparently, the prefecture takes only the first 40 people. So the first 40 people in line at 8:45am get to go inside and wait to be seen. Everyone else must then leave and try again the next day.
It was around 4 degrees Celcius in the evening, so there was no way we could do this with newborn. My husband would not be able to wait in line alone because he would need someone to switch off for bathroom breaks or to fetch food/water. We ended up arriving at 8:45 to speak with someone at the door. After much persistence, someone agreed to let us in because all we needed to do was drop off additional information. They let us right in and the person tended to us immediately. It helped we had Juliana with us!
The gentleman told us that my visa application would most likely be rejected! He told us that when switching from a student visa, I would have to return to my home country no matter what. There is a slim chance that it could be approved, but I would be better off returning to Florida and applying for my visa there. Of course, of the many times my husband call the prefecture about my visa, no one told him this!
After returning home, my husband called a couple lawyers and we were told that the law changed in June. Student visas can now be changed while in France. He called the prefecture and was told that they were not aware of the law change. The person told him that if I am refused, we could reverse the decision by going to court. It takes 6 months to get a court date. We would get the refusal in 2-3 months. So basically, it would take about 8 or 9 months to get it reversed just because our prefecture is not aware of the law change.
We found out that it takes up to 21 days to get the spouse visa at the Miami consulate. We were planning on going to Florida for two weeks to visit my family for Thanksgiving, so we changed our flight so that we could stay for three weeks. We arrived in Orlando on Sunday, drove to Miami on Monday and then received the visa exactly one week later. The appointment took about 20 minutes and they did not ask for any additional paperwork. Simple! I cannot believe we went through almost 6 months of phone calls, running around and stress.
Timeline
– May 21, 2011: Married in Bordeaux.
– June 6, 2011: Called Lantheuil’s mairie to start application process.
– July 4, 2011: Filled out paperwork with Lantheuil’s mairie.
– July 5, 2011: Lantheuil’s mairie mailed out paperwork to Caen’s prefecture.
– July 23, 2011: Call for the status and found the Caen prefecture is 1-2 months behind.
– September 30, 2011: Receive confirmation that the prefecture has my application.
– October 24, 2011: Go to prefecture and find out I will most likely be declined.
– November 21, 2011: Go to French Embassy in Miami to submit a new application.
– November 28, 2011: Receive my visa in the mail from the embassy in Miami
* Original estimated date of prefecture’s confirmation: July 26th, 2011
* Original estimated date of receiving my spouse visa: August 16th, 2011
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