surely better for him to have the papers than to need to return for a second visit… he doesn’t have to wave them about… just be prepared… and he’s got a little list…
Personally my top tips for paperwork in France are:
Take EVERYTHING - dog’s vaccination card, chimney sweep’s bill, supermarket loyalty cards, blood group card etc etc etc.
Put the lot into a plastic folder. Or two if you want to really frighten them.
Apply post it’s liberally to all your paperwork so that your birth certificate is labelled “BIRTH CERTIFICATE” etc etc etc.
Use fluorescent hilighters equally liberally - so hilight the word “BIRTH”
Apply paper clips. Randomly. It is the pulling things apart whilst carefully putting your paper clips to one side that will mark you out as a true pro.
Finally - bring out the big guns and attach certain papers using…treasury tags. Whilst you sit there detaching the dog’s vaccination card from your birth certificate (obviously you don’t actually need to hand over the dog’s vaccination card) the fonctionnaire sitting opposite you will be sufficiently awestruck to process your application (for anything) without further ado.
And if all else fails, wave the ‘extra’ paperwork at them and ask politely if they require anything else.
Never fails.
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Brilliant !!
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Great advice Catherine but with work, renovation and other duties I’ll be doing well to get the basics together by Wednesday. I might take a whole bunch of papers anyway just to look officious even if I am not 100% sure what they even are.
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Permis de construire, supermarket bills… take the lot!! And good luck! Xx
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Brilliant - perhaps a set of differently coloured plastic folders would be the icing on the cake?
@anon88169868 Sadly I have friends who were born in France, but despite years of trying have yet to be given residence permits having returned here as political refugees. There is some deep rooted racial discrimination that I think we are very unlikely to be subject to.
Further down in the senate document (or an attached one, I forget) is stuff about the emergency legislation they will enact to sort things out.
Hope it’s ok to post this here . I noticed there’s an existing thread specifically entitled Carcassone préfecture carte de Sejour but the poster’s circumstances were different . We have only recently arrived and sent off an email for an appointment at Carcassonne for CDS . We got back an almost immediate reply with an appointment for April! Their website says they’re open 8:30 until 12:30 yet the appointment is for 2:30. My husband doesn’t want to ask for the appointment to be brought forward to before 29 March as he thinks this might be considered trying to queue jump or that there’s little point as they presumably give out the next available appointment. Any thoughts or similar experiences please on what to do?
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Don’t worry about the date. You have shown your intention to apply for a CdS and a date has been set. The reason for the time not fitting the posted opening hours is that the French authorities are making every effort to accommodate everybody. A date in April is good, I’m my department they are not handing out appointments anymore, they will contact people to make them at a later date. In the neighbouring department I’ve heard about people who have appointments for next Autumn.
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Thank you David . That’s most reassuring.
and a book… a large one!
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I made my appointment just last Thursday for 10h10 this morning in Vannes. I went overly prepared as Catherine had recommended with a duplicate dossier. In the end the chap just looked at my passport, livret de famille and some employment papers and issued me with a ten year, permanent card which includes a right to engage in professional occupations. I do not know if this is standard but I appreciate it as I work here. I have a temporary one for six months and will receive an sms within five weeks when the hard copy is ready for collection. We chatted about this and that and it was all done in about twenty minutes.
Maybe I just got lucky although I always put it down to my smile and charm.
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Well done… Damian… can you remind us which application form (if any) you completed… ???
cheers
Very well done, damian, and it reinforces the notion that fonctionnaires do have the power to use their judgement in the administration of the State’s affairs locally, and applied sound sense in your case, recognising your commitment to France and your contribution to French society.
I hope that we shall get a fair hearing for our own slender cause, but your own account is reassuring.
I think they will, David, as they exist for everyone else outside the EU. I sell the said timbres fiscaux in my tabac and at 269€ for the most common TdS I can’t see the hard up State missing out on that for each application!
Hi Stella and other fellow contributors. I did not fill in any particular form but rather went armed with ‘everything’ though I did stop short at store loyalty cards.
I used the attached instruction from the Morbihan prefecture as my base reference and then some.
I took attestations from URSSAf, the greffe, my French pension forecast and the rest. In the end the chap only took detail from my passport, livret de famille and tax return. However he could see all the other stuff and possibly was just relieved to have someone in front of him that could speak passable French and had taken the time to prepare a dossier. He said that there were a lot of UK applicants at the moment and inferred that some of them were hard work.
My temporary card states that a ‘titre de sejour permanent’ has been granted and is valid until August 2025 which is the expiration date of my passport and that the temporary card, valid until 23/04/2019, is only valid when accompanied by said passport. It also confers the right to engage in all professional activities. Whether the permanent card is unlimited once the police and state checks have been completed or is still time barred by my passport remains to be seen. I would hope by then (2025) to have pursued French citizenship in any event.
It took a little effort but in essence was ‘facile’ and I am pleased with my little bit of paper and the feeling that I am just that little bit more French. I am sure others will be equally successful (Peter) and I simply suggest that you go with everything you can lay your hands on just in case, a bagful of civility and a big smile.
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We will wait and see.
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How does holding a bit of paper that proves that you, a foreigner, has the right to reside in France make you feel more French? 
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Ooooh don’t be a spoil-sport David!
Me, I’m full of happiness just looking at that big, wobbly, iridescent, shiny bubble of joy and elation! And he did say a “bit” more French, not the full Camembert. Let him enjoy the feeling while he can, I want to share in it 
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I’ll let you know when I swan past you at the border control David.
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