Our second cartes de séjour expired on 30 November, so we applied for our third first thing in August, at the four-month deadline. We included the same documents and info as for the previous application. In due course, there was a notice of receipt of the application, then, as before, nothing. We were going abroad on 22 November and only returning on 1 December. As previously, when we also went abroad, we asked for a récépissé. This time we received, just in time, prolongations, perhaps indicating that the issue of our cartes was not a foregone conclusion. The prolongations extended our stay in France until 2 December.
While away, we received a message from the government office to say -
”Merci de bien vouloir compléter votre demande en ajoutant une lettre justifiant l’origine de vos ressources, l’attestation de pension de retraite (annuelle ou mensuelle), des preuves de versements de pensions de retraite sur vos comptes bancaires sur 3 mois, des justificatifs bancaires indiquant l’ensemble de vos ressources financières en France et à l’étranger. Nous vous rappelons que les documents doivent être convertis en EUROS et traduit en français par un traducteur expert assermenté.. Afin de pouvoir mettre plusieurs pages, vous devez les scanner les unes après les autres afin qu’elles ne forment qu’un seul document PDF.” In English this is - “Please complete your application by adding a letter explaining the source of your income, your pension statement (annual or monthly), proof of pension payments into your bank accounts for the past three months, and bank statements showing all your financial resources in France and abroad. Please note that documents must be converted to Euros and translated into French by a certified translator. To include multiple pages, you must scan them sequentially to create a single PDF document."
We hadn’t had anything like this for our previous application and had, of course, already sent our bank statements, etc., with our original application in August. Has anyone else had a demand for French translation for this application? I had to have a translation before in another context and it is not cheap. And as for the bank statements in euros - doh! I am just going to annotate the statements by hand with a calculation based on 1.5€ per GBP.
At this rate we will be applying for our fourth carte de séjour before we receive the third.
Thanks to anyone who has any comments to help us avoid yet more queries from the other end?
That may be the stuff dreams are made on but in reality 1.15 would be closer
What type of CdS do you have, santiago?
It seems that there has been a bit of a sea change in terms of admin for foreigners, and people are being asked for more than previously. So showing that you have the required income is not unheard of fothose within first 5 years.
as for translations it depends on your appetite for risk. I would be very tempted to do my own translation, make it look as professional and official as possible and send it off.
Yes, of course, typo, I’m afraid.
We are both retired, non-earners, so count as visitors.
As for translation, the official ones have a stamp from the accredited translator. I think I won’t risk my own, good as it might be with AI these days. I have already sent the details of my income, albeit in pounds sterling for the UK pension. I have French bank accounts and these are no problem re the euros, of course, but do not hold any income other than what we transfer to them through WISE. I assume we may have to add our Assurance Vie?
In case of doubt, our income is several times the amount required for SMIC.
Yes, they do. This was for something relatively minor and I resented paying for translation, so I tried it on. And it worked, But it wasn’t time critical so wouldn’t have mattered if it had got sent back,
For financial resources we keep our livret A s full, and just send in a statement. It’s already in French, and in euros.
Should this be on another thread? Anyway one rarely has to tell the French authorities about a Livret A as they know.
I would like to feel that this is that simple. But, as you will have seen from what is copied in my first post, they do want more than this. “Why?” is another matter. My UK bank account is none of their business in this context. They could save money by just rolling over these applications and charging the fee.
that might have happened in the past, but things are being tightened up nowadays.
As has been widely reported on TV and in the Press (and discussed at length on Social Media/this forum) some people/retirees are being refused due to having insufficient/no French income.
I agree that there has been a lot of coverage about the requirements for applications for citizenship but haven’t seen any thing about changes in the renewal process for Cartes de Séjour. The source of our income is not at issue here. Please give me a link if I am wrong,
If I’ve got it wrong.. I apologise. and we can all take a deep breath and relax.
There’s been so much (almost) panic re finances and what might and might not be demanded for some CdS renewals . aargh.
This is what I use for my Titre de Séjour renewal - hence why it’s on this thread.
It’s a simple way of showing sufficient resources that works for me (so far)
I was just wondering if this were provided they would be happy, or maybe just something to try for next year…
origin of funds.pdf (3.4 MB)
It’s for citizenship. See 3.2 in this document
If only it were the same for the carte de séjour!
But a livret A is savings, not income. Which can vanish in an instant as around the price of a cheap car. I thought what was needed was to show income at SMIC level? But perhaps they are more lenient with people post retirement?
It’s €22950 - my car cost €7000!
It’s cash, not equities, so stays where it is until you withdraw it.
It is more than the SMIC for one year - the term of my carte de séjour, and it works for me.
I’m 58 but can’t work due to the visiteur status, so have no income.
Just saying, that’s what I do and it works for me.