Hello all, I’m looking for some direction as to whether my wife should apply for a CDS. She and I have been officially resident in France since Jan 2016. I am an Irish passport holder and she is entitled to one too but needs to go through the foreign births register first which may take up to 6mths. Has anyone read enough french government statements to say whether a CDS would be required- (a) she is married to an EU citizen (b) there is enough time delay to wait for the Irish passport to come through. I’ve avoided getting to worried about all the current unpleasantness but each advice statement from gov.uk seems to get worse! All opinions welcomed.
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An Irish passport would give you more security.
She will apply for the Irish passport anyway but I suppose we were more worried about the interim in a no deal situation.
What are you worried about exactly David? Residency, health cover, ? BTW, I’m sure you can speed up the passport if you need to.
What I’m trying to find out is if there is no deal come Mar29th, and my wife doesn’t get a new Irish passport for 6mths, should she have a carte de sejour in the interim? We are “in the system” here impots, carte vitale etc. My original thought was to just wing it as any overlap period would be minimal!
David, there are so many ‘no-deal’ nightmare scenarios, if you believed each and every one you wouldn’t sleep at night. You say you are an Irish passport holder but who pays for your healthcare, the UK, Ireland or France. That to me is more important than anything else at the moment as the residency rights are easily sorted out by applying for a CDS until your wife’s Irish passport comes through.
I think that may be the thing to do. As I see it, she can apply as a british eu citizen before Mar 29th (or at least get in the system) or she can apply for one as the spouse of an eu citizen anytime. IF there is an agreement, then there should be enough time for her new passport to come through.
I wouldn’t bank on getting a carte de sejour before March 29th. Waiting times for interviews vary enormously from one department to the next. My wife, who applied online in June last year couldn’t get an interview until late October (Aveyron), and although everything was in order, she still doesn’t know the outcome.
An Irish passport seems the better option long term, but may also be the faster option.
Registering an Irish overseas birth is currently taking 6 months (I am at end of month 3).
Further application afterwards for passport.
Here in Toulouse seems to be quicker (Airbus influence…) We had a chat to some friends who have been through it and doesn’t seem to be too bad. We should be able to put together the dossier required. Looks like we will need to allow 8mths for the Irish passport to come through.
Glad to read that, we had an advisory interview in 2017 and were told we couldn’t apply until I’d made my first French tax return the following June (I’m a retired academic).
Also, despite there being a supposedly definitive list of our required documents, and my wife and I both having UK citizenship and British passports, the lady who interviewed us in the prefecture asked for all sorts of other documents, such as my (deceased) father-in-law’s birth certificate. I noticed that during both our interviews, the interviewers were continually checking with some guidance notes, but their resulting demands didn’t always correspond to those circulated by the French gov and relayed by th UK Embassy in Paris
My advice would be to take along every possible piece of evidence (and two copies of each)
Bonne chance!
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Ouch, that doesn’t sound good! Advice noted!
You can get in touch with the British Embassy who have said that they will help with cases like yours where the Prefecture is asking for documents well beyond the scope of the official government list.
It sounds as though you have come across a particularly unhelpful fonctionnaire who does not really know what they are doing.
There is a site in France that is called RIFT (remain in France together) they have a lot of helpful information including ‘forms’ you can download for CD’s…
Thanks Jane,
I think that is the case, but we won’t contact the Embassy just yet, as we don’t yet know that there’s an actual problem on the French side. Our cartes vitales seemed to take ages, but then suddenly arrived.
Irish passport will give the freedom of movement, but if you have paid NI in UK when working it is UK that pays your health care. That is provided the system stays the same as now…with S1.
if not 
I’m a few years away from being able to claim an S1 but who knows by then!
The Irish passport system is flexible. If I was you I wouldn’t worry too much and just let the Irish passport application progress. If you get into difficulties a call by you, an Irish citizen, to Simon Coveney’s office will probably sort it out. That’s one of the benefits of being a citizen of a small country, access.
Two examples. Some years ago I was living in Dublin but travelling regularly on business to La Defence. One Friday the Sofitel decided to ship my suitbag containing my passport off to Amsterdam with a busload of Dutch tourists so I was stranded. The next morning I pitched up at the Irish Embassy looking for a new passport. I was interviewed and asked for my address and it turned out the family home of the Irish ambassador to France was opposite our house in Dublin (his widow, a lovely lady, is still our neighbour there) 
Hand written passport duely filled out and I’m on the next Aer Lingus flight out of CDG. Fast forward to last December and my wife to be is experiencing a French administrative difficulty because her Irish passport doesn’t have her middle name and her Irish birth certificate does. Obviously they are not the same person 
Consternation in the Marie, as one would expect but indifference in the Irish passport office, which one would not expect. A quick call to Coveney’s office and bingo the passport office suddenly sees the error of their ways. IMO Ireland and France are similar insofar as there is the official way of doing things which suffices 99% of the time but there is also the “who you know” emergency route. I’m not too sure I’d get too far contacting smirking Jeremy Hunt’s office if I had a problem with my British passport.
To finish off, about six months after my suitbag had gone off on its solo tour of the lowlands I got a call out of the blue from a railway station somewhere in the Home Counties, can’t remember where, to say they had found my phone number in a bag that had arrived there. A week or so later I diverted on a trip to London to pick up the bag up and low and behold my long lost passport was still in one of the side pockets. Needless to say I continued to use both passports until the older one expired.
Hello
I hope I won’t bore you all with my recent experience getting my carte de séjour or carte résidence
Lived in France for 30 years, married to a French man , yep still the same hubby I married in England in 1983 … lol, our first 2 children born in the uk’, our 3rd born in France
My 2 eldest have now french identité cards, my youngest has à British passport . They all have British passports, they all have french identité cards.
However following my recent visit to the prefecture in draguignan, actually sous prefecture.
I have to supply the following information
…last 5 years tax returns
… last 5 years tax habitation.
… attestation from my employers, noting my contract and hours work each month
… my British up to date passport
… livret famille
… birth certificate
… marriage certificate
… a facture with my name and my adresse on. Called EDF for this which came within 3 day s by post
… as I work only 70% an attestation from the sécurité social noting my hours of the 30% and amount gained
… Attestation sécurité sociale
… carte vitale
I now have a complicated form to fill in and. Rdv in draguignan on the 5 th March
It’s ok as I have all of these papers, I was told to Bri g as much information as possible for this interview, ohhhh and hubby has to be present with me to prove we are still together, he has to sign the papers to say he his still with me 
.
I know that we lol have different experiences, this is an actual up date of my experience .
Different town, cities have different methods from reading post on this site.
Can anyone compare mine to yours lol lol ,
Oh I went today to get my voting card renewed… again the town hall in vidauban were a little confused as to whether I could apply for regional voting, I am now awaiting the signature of the mayor to see if I am accepted due to our dear brexit friend, in all I am sure he will not refuse. After all I may vote for him in the next local elections …who knows lol
Please share your experiences with me
Hugs
Sounds like the standard drill for obtaining a CDS permanente, Ann Marie.
My dossier ran to nearly 70 sheets of paper, which had to be provided in duplicate. Exactly what documents you need to provide regarding your income/activity depends on your status - for instance as a micro entrepreneur I had to provide quarterly declarations payments going back 5 years plus an annual statement of cotisations paid, so that was 25 separate documents in itself. If all you had to provide about your work was an attestation from your employer and an attestation from CAF, I’d say you got off quite lightly 
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