Carte de sejour . A very long wait

We sent our documents end of Oct last year. Got a rdv on 20th of September.
We were told we would be contacted again in about 2 weeks to collect our CDS. That is Angouleme. So, by.my reckoning, you have about another 2/3 months to wait. Even if UK crash out there is a period of time given to obtain your Carte. So don’t worry.

Forgot to say, I sent a out 3 emails, one was answered saying they had received it.

https://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2019/09/26/bare-bones-and-untested-brits-in-europe-face-chaos-under-no

Apologies to the writer of that piece but to me it is very poor journalism in the Project Fear school. It has absolutely nothing new or useful to say, gives very few precise facts, uses mega broad brushstrokes and seems designed to stir up emotions and nothing more. It purports to be about freedom of movement and the author doesn’t mention even once what FoM actually entails. How anyone can call that an ‘analysis’, beats me.

Thanks for your reply, I know another person waiting since January but from the haute vienne. It’s just the non communication from them I didn’t like as you don’t know what’s happening.

A can’t count the number of times that I have been told by a french administrator of some sort that no news is good news. And that you will only get an early response if there is a problem. Totally the reverse of the way I was bought up.

My personal view (ie not backed by any scientific analysis) is that the automatic one-liner acknowledgement/thanks/etc that is very common in the UK in not embedded in french culture and rarely happens.

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I specifically enquired by email as to whether my documents had arrived.
I did get a response saying they had received them. On reflection I should have posted them recommande.

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The UK Passport Office says not to post passports for renewal by registered mail, but I did anyway.
They lost my passports (mine plus those of my 4 children) and then claimed they had never received them, that I hadn’t posted them etc. They said all this on the telephone and again when I went in person. They were easily as disagreeable as the most disagreeable people in offices here. That was in Liverpool.

Anyway red faces all round and much scuttling about in a panic when I produced the receipt for the registered mail and asked who had signed for my passports.

The moral of this tale is administration can be vile wherever, and always use recommandé with accusé de réception :grin:

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Sorry you had a problem with that. Registered post ( Commandee) is certainly the way to go with documents.
The normal post for my file was.8+ euros and I thought bugger it, that’s dear enough. I have to say the lady that dealt with us on our CDS rendezvous was lovely and could not have been more helpful…

As with almost everything it’s personality or lack of.

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I applied to Angouleme prefecture in January but have heard nothing, I’ve send questions by their online page to contact them but no response even though it says they will reply under 14 days.
Now friends who applied in January also have been told to reapply on the new online application page.
Anyone else had any news about this? I guess a lot of people have been waiting a long time with no news?

It surprised me how little the prefecture works each week, half days, no wonder they complain about too much to do.

Many offices which are closed to the Public on certain days… actually do have staff working on those days, just not accepting the Public. :zipper_mouth_face:

I’m sitting, waiting 'til I have some sort of idea of WTF is happening

That’s good , wish they could answer messages on their system then or telephone calls.

ĹOL if they only had to work during the hours the counter iis open to the public they would have grand jobs but as Barry says nothing would ever get done :smiley:
I used to work in university admin and at certain times of the year like the beginning of term or exam time when queues of students came along with queries, the only time we could get on with our work was before the counter opened at 10 and after it closed at 4. Often during those periods we used to have to do overtime, either coming in early or working late when we could work uninterrupted, just to keep up.

From what I’ve read and understood many prefectures have held fire on processing British applications for the CdS UE since it appeared that Brexit was inevitable and there was no point in going through the expensive procedure to produce a card that would need to be changed sooner gather than later. Once the Interior Ministry had opened its online site inviting Britons to apply for the card that they would need after the predicated no deal there was even less need to issue the ‘old’ cards. No deal seems less likely now and I’m sure that those people who have ‘applied’ online will find that the site evolves to take that into account. Spending time trying to speak to someone at the prefecture to chase up the outdated system seems to be pointless since the process has moved on. I believe I’m right in thinking that the new online system is no more demanding than the original application process through the prefecture.

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Hi Barry, we applied for ours under the “old” method by sending in docs by post.
I emailed them a few days afterwards and got a reply to say they had received it. That was the end of October last year.

I sent 2 or3 emails over time and one was answered saying they were dealing with it. We got an e mail and letter with a date for an interview in September. We attended taking a couple of docs they requested, had our fingerprints taken.

We collected our cards following an email from them. That was Wednesday this week. We have 10 year ones.

I know the format has changed now, done on line so I don’t know how its working or the time it is taking.

Hope you get sorted soon. The position in the UK is not good and remains a source of stress. There is a period of grace from the French Gov. So I wouldnt worry too much. Regards.

As far as working time is concerned the prefecture was closed for other business on Wednesday. It was just for CDS and for people claiming asylum.

It appears that they are working to a period of 12 months for the process.

Thankyou, nice to get a bit of assurance,
I sent my documents tracked but not signed for, as the mairie/ post said that’s all that was needed so I know they arrived but never had any contact from the prefecture to say they are been processed or they had them.
Funny why my friends were emailed to say reapply on line.
So if you think it’s around a year then late January before I hear anything.

It’s when you don’t hear anything you think your documents have been lost so you worry.
Thankyou for your reply.

Surely the CdS applied for today will mean that it will be an EU member card but when (?) the UK leaves then a non-EU CdS will be required.
Rather than go through all the hoops for the wrong card & then have to exchange it I am going to wait until everyone actually knows what is going on.
It is not as if we will be expected to produce one the day after Brexit!

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