I applied for my titre de séjour in mid May as it expires in mid September. I had a couple of requests for more documents (the last one at the beginning of July) but now it’s gone quiet. I asked for an update and was told that I would be informed when a decision is made.
The trouble is that I have a visit to my mother in the UK planned for late September and I’m not sure what to do if I don’t have my new titre de séjour. Will I be allowed back in with an expired TDS?
Well having travelled out and back into France a couple of months back, showing my CDS stopped the border agents who were most interested in seeing it and waved me straight through from not stamping my UK passport which if they had done, would have flagged up somewhere in three months time that I had outstayed my welcome, most likely. That therein is your problem so I would take any proof that you have submitted an application for one with you and explain the problem plus if they see you already have one, it may not worry them as it is all somewhere online about you.
“Un récépissé de renouvellement de titre de séjour vous permet de voyager, s’il est accompagné de l’ancien titre de séjour ainsi que de votre passeport.”
You know that moment where your passport disappears below the counter and the officer/official looks off to one side for a second or two?
That’s when your passport is being scanned and the immigration database system of the country you’re attempting to enter pops your photo and everything it knows about up on the screen for the officer to review.
The stamps in your passport are only of any significance for travel outside of Western Europe where border authorities might not have access to any shared passenger data, although providing the Advanced Passenger Information most major international airline require you to provide will certainly give the destination country’s authorities a heads up on who’s arriving on what flight.
You have your UK passport? So you are using that to cross the frontier not this receipt. And do you have a WARP carte or some other titre de séjour?
Since I can’t think of anything else you can do (except hope it arrives in time)it just means they will stamp it which is pretty meaningless. You might get lucky and border guard won’t stamp if you explain.
I did 6 flights in my two months away and not at any time did my passport ever disappear from in front of my own eyes below any sort of counter or desk. The two US airports were only interested in my ESTA form being handed over and answering a couple of questions on the spot at the first one and the UK airports had machines to enter and to leave it was done by the BA check in desk at Heathrow. France going out and returning were more interested in my CDS as they knew Ryanair had already checked my passport.
I have my UK passport, that’s all. I don’t have WARP as I came over post Brexit.
They stamp my passport every time, regardless of my carte de séjour being current.
As I understand it, if you enter using your passport you enter as a visitor under the 90/180 rule, not as a resident, which could cause problems down the line when renewing the carte.
I am indeed applying the strategy of hoping it arrives in time. Also I am hopefully asking for a récépissé which should make it okay
Currently there is very little control on 90 day stays as no real way to monitor it. Overstayers usually trigger some other thing that makes people check their status. There isn’t a team of immigration agents poised waiting to be sent to knock on doors of people who have been here 91 days.
You have the paperwork you need so even if someone asks the question in 3 months time you have the answer.
Thanks for that. Obviously the Prefecture at Agen doesn’t have enough staff for their Bureau des Etrangers and so needs to be placed on the ‘Apply at soon as one can’ list.
On a practical note, if you are not confident with your spoken French, you might find it helpful to type up a summary of the situation in French using an online translator such as Deepl.com and then you will have something that you can hand to the French immigration staff when you return to France.
If you use the format of an ‘Attestation sur l’honeur’ I would think that all will be well.
Most will only accept applications 2 or 4 months before. Applying earlier may not get you at the front of the queue but rather the application will be piled in a dusty corner never to be seen again.
This is my second renewal, the first one went swimmingly leading me into a false sense of security. I certainly won’t make travel plans for September next year!
I’m happy chatting away in French and, having passed B1, am planning to take my B2 soon in preparation for the big leap into French administrative hell in a couple of years.
