Morning campers!
A quick question, if you previously had a CDS and let it lapse, is there any point going back to the issuing prefecture and asking for it to be updated? or do you have to start the whole procedure again?
Anyone have any clue?
I may have been dreaming… but I’m sure I read somewhere that if you did have an out of date CDS… you would still be in the computer… somewhere… so it could simply be a case of “renewing after expiry” rather than starting from scratch… 
There is a charge made for renewing after expiry of CDS…so perhaps that is to pay for the computer search…
Of course, if you still have your old CDS… you still have to pay… but they don’t have to search… 
*** and you only have to prove what you have been up to since it expired… which means the entire time is counted as length of permanency (which might be useful)
I recall hubby showing me an old CdS (or whatever it was called back then) that he got in about 1996 (?). When he tried to renew it close to the expiry date he was told it was not possible because of EU rules blah blah. I know he kept it so may just dig it out and have a look. It would have been issued in Montpellier.
deleted - I didn’t think there was a charge but you’re right Stella, apparently there is!
Yep… It’s not much… but it is there… perhaps to encourage folk to renew for free within the “2 months before expiry” window
You’ve got me thinking now. I worked in France before the UK joined the EU, I wonder if I had a carte de séjour? I don’t remember anything about it but I guess I must have had. So in that case maybe I will get charged a fee when I have to do whatever I might have to do. Bxxxer.
Or, will the fact that I then left France for half a lifetime mean it’s a new application? I think it should.
Anna… you have to explain about the time in between… and if you spent too long away from France… drat and double drat… your “stay” starts from when you came back… (unless you were a French secret agent… in the French armed forces… or similar…) 
Yep I think if I start telling them my life story from the age of 22 when I went back to the UK up to the age of 54 when I returned to France, they’ll quickly do whatever it takes to get me out the door…
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You nutter…
Ok and do you have to go back to the issuing prefecture or your current one do you think?
Well, the system is on computer… do you have your old CDS… ??? For ease, initially… although I have no idea… you might as well go to your local one… and see what happens… the worst they can do is tell you to go to the “old” one…
Seems to depend (as usual) on the prefecture. On another site there has been some discussion on this subject. Some people have turned up with their old CdS and their details are on the computer and it’s been treated as a renewal. Some have turned up at different prefecture and been yold-no. It’s a new application. This us France after all!
I have 2 previous CDS’ so I am in the system somewhere. I am still ‘holding fire’ until we know for sure exactly what we need to provide and when !
did you renew one for the other ???
Yes up until we no longer needed them .
Excellent… then you original start date will be in the records… so you will simply renew (if and when) rather than do a first request… 
That’s what I am hoping, if and when needed 
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I just renewed my CDS but it didn’t have an expiry date on it. No charge.
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So. was it a doddle… what docs did you have to provide ??
my old CdS lapsed in 2011, When I applied to renew it at that time I was told it was no longer needed. Fast forward to July 2018, I went to Aix en Provence s/prefecture with the docs and photos required. They found me in their computer…but it still had to be treated as a first time application.