We arrived December as I may have mentioned before. Wife holds an Irish passport and we bought a house in Bouches du Rhone. I applied December 16 for my Carte as a spouse. Got notified June that it was approved but only for one year and they backdated it to date we arrived so it expires December 16 2026. Just received the come and pick it up email and its not until September, so I will be picking up and applying for a renewal immediately as its within the three month window.
Curious is this common, but more whats the process for documentation for the renewal as not a lot has changed ( can’t get a driving license or carte vitale until have residency) - my wife is more established, and we did an initial tax return but almost everything else is the same. lastly any idea how long the renewal takes as its really stopped us from visiting son and his now fiancee in USA as my travel has been restricted to Schengen and a trip to UK with my British passport (hold US and UK)
Nothing surprises me with the bureaucracy but just curious, thanks
Not at all. They’re supposed to issue EU family Carte de séjour (CdS) for 5 years under the EU regulation, but France (occasionally) issues them for shorter 1 or 2 year periods, particularly (as far as we can tell) if they are not convinced about the income/resources being sufficient to cover the full 5 years.
I suspect (and this seems to have happened for one or two other people on SF) that they may extend/update your existing CdS to take its validity up to the remaining 4 years that they should have given you originally. Obviously you will need to show that your wife as the EU citizen, not you (!), has access to sufficient resources to ensure you are not a burden on the French taxpayer for the remainder of the initial 5 year period. I would therefore suggest you provide similar information to your original application, hopefully with more luck than previously. They are supposed to have a deadline of 6 months for renewal but as yours is really part of the initial 5 year first application, they should process it rather more quickly than that. I’d hope it wouldn’t take more than a month/six weeks, assuming your Prefecture is averagely efficient. You will still need to apply via the ANEF online portal, albeit your Prefecture does the work behind the scenes.
More likely explanation is that they want their timbre fee collected every year - it is revenue for the prefecture. I have the same issue with my two kids – they milk me for the annual DCEM while the statute indicates that 5-yr document is a norm. Alas, the prefecture has a full authority in these matters as long as they do not exceed the limits established by law.
That may well well be the case with France’s own CdS/visas etc.Fortunately for those of us needing EU citizen/family CdS they are generally free of charge, including renewals, under EU regs.
@Danieltaylor any further questions or reactions to what has been posted?
Thanks, certainly believe there is no worry on the income levels as we clear the requirements by quite a bit. We also own a house here etc. The attorney said each department is different and like Tice-Tice mentioned bouches du rhone seem to do one year initially. Hopefully the renewal will be five years. Annoying thing is have to show 12 months of healthcare coverage so will need to renew for another 12 months our private plan even though my wife fingers crossed will have cpam confirmed in the next 3-6 months. We will literally pick the card up on the 10th sept and apply the next day for the renewal.
Regarding your healthcare, you could talk to @fabian who has a company that offers many services (bar at the top of the page - Insurance) including i believe ‘visa qualifying health cover’ that can be transferred to a mutuelle once CPAM has done its thing.
I’m curious to know; when you applied for your Carte, did you need to provide documents translated into French? E.g. Marriage certificate, work contract etc? Thanks.
(Renewal of EU family CdS). I was specifically asked a couple of weeks ago for my UK marriage certificate to be translated by an approved translator. All my other documents, eg evidence of financial resources, medical attestations, utility bills etc were either already in French or I supplied them with my own summary translations,using AI.
I wanted to make it as easy as possible for the case workers revising my dossier. I read somewhere that they make up their minds in the first 2-3 minutes of reviewing a dossier - whether or not this is actually true I have no idea. However I was notified that my CdS was ready to collect only 8 weeks after filing my original application.
I’ve always found it pays to bury government agencies in beautifully organised paperwork. Either they’ll be mightily impressed or they’ll think that I’m a psychopath and it’s easier just to give me what I want.
Interestingly (to me anyway) , when the EU regulation was promulgated into French law, the spirit , if not the letter, of the EU reg was lost in translation. If you read the French statute, it infers that you get one year, unless you can prove that your financial means justifies more.
As you’ll know well, if France failed to properly transpose the substance of the EU directive into domestic law, an affected individual can challenge them in court. Under the French constitution, the judges are obliged to give priority to the EU directive over the French domestic law. That said, it’s very unlikely anyone would do that for France’s failure to give out a 5 year CdS…