Uprating a 5 year WA Titre de Sejour - Closed

que sera sera = whatever will be will be…
it’s from an old song.
https://youtu.be/CcWbZUgymkw

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Oooh! Ear worm! I’m going to be humming that now all evening. :grin:

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Thank you, yes I know the song but am not over keen on it and could have done without it for an ear worm!
I suppose it might once have seemed a sensible enough answer for a little girl in the 1950s but I am afraid I always found the song’s sugary sickliness quite nauseating especially when you thought about Doris Day’s life. And I cannot see its relevance here.
Often, being too fatalistic is simply an excuse for being lazy and not taking control of your life. I agree that you cannot control whether you are born with a face like the back end of a bus or looking like a cherub, but you have the choice whether to make the most of the face nature gave you or not to bother. Whether you will be rich or not is going to depend to some extent at least on what you do and what decisions you make (the same could potentially apply to a CDS).

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2 things come to mind here.

I will take a bet that the powers that be here will only create any specific process when they’re faced with a tidal wave of WA holders all trying to renew at once and feel themselves swamped. Hopefully prefectures will receive a nationally applying set if instructions, dare I hope it a national form for applicants to fill in. I hardly dare hope a website - but perhaps they will agree it will save the busy prefectures much time, and provide one again. Or not.

We have the example of ANTS to guide us. Many of us are quite worried that if stopped at a controle in our French car and French carte grise, we could encounter individual gendarmes or other officials, or busineses like Europcar, who are not aware or willing to accept a British licence, that we’ve been forced to keep, and don’t want to have any more, and waste lots of our time or add unnecessary requirements for services or contrôles we’ve been told our British licences must suffice for. Thus I suspect it will be with many WA cards falling out of date due to official overload. So the holder will be even more exposed and might not be able to risk going outside France, because their WA card has expired and officialdom has delays processing applications.

All this looks all too likely to me.

I’m reminded one time in Paris I was asked for supplementary ID. It wasn’t for anything serious like writing a cheque. It was probably me using my discount card in Printemps or something. I produced my student discount card which had expired about 6 weeks previous with signature and up to date photo.

No, this could not be accepted even when it was clearly me, for a purpose that wasn’t an official purpose, because it was out of date. Maddening. But I am sure a French person would find the refusal quite reasoned as a document is no longer valid once expired.

That is the position, despite what was said at the time, those of us with 5 year WA cards look like finding ourselves in.

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it was the words of the chorus I was referring to, not the song itself :slightly_smiling_face:
but, I’m sure you knew that, being an intelligent soul :wink:

I am not a betting man but I would be willing to bet that the application will be done online, when the time comes.
Most things to do with residence permits, work permits, carte d’identié etc are already online. I believe CDS renewal applications moved online earlier this year. I believe it was supposed to happen sooner but the calendar was put back because of the need to stop work on that tp develop the Brexit platform - but no doubt that was a useful experience for the IT bods.

On the contrary I am a very simple soul and I do not pretend to be anything else. Being simple I cannot see a difference between “the words of the chorus” and “the song itself”.
To me a chorus that says Whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see, is just plain daft and bad advice to a modern child because I think it is better to believe that what the future holds, depends very much on what you do or don’t do right now. So I am completely baffled what point you are trying to make.

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topic muted

There seems to be an awful lot of worrying out there regarding the 5 and 10 year cards. For those that qualified for a residents card pre Brexit, I would assume that the 10 year card would almost automatically be issued, unless the person in question has fallen foul of the authorities in some capacity. For ‘normal’ law abiding citizens I can’t see what the problem is, unless I’m missing something. Maybe a bit too much overthinking going on on the subject.

Please can a Holder of the CdS(WA) 5-year card, tell me the date on which said card “expires” …

(I note that my CdS(WA) 10-year card is dated 2020-2030.)

cheers

31-03-2026.

Edit - Card arrived June 2021 - of course, doh! (not 2020 as I put)

Well that is exactly what concerns me, because the WA states quite clearly that the normal FoM conditions apply. A 5 year CDS is issued in order to give recent arrivals an opportunity to qualify.

Thanks.
So you can apply for the 10 year card to be issued 2026 - 2036… provided you’ve “not been a naughty boy” :wink:
Seems straight forward…

I’m not sure there’s worrying as such, it just seems like some cough*who I think almost all seem to have permanent residency already :roll_eyes:*cough can’t seem to see why, for piece of mind, some would rather get acknowledgment of their permanent rights sooner rather than later. Frankly it makes me cringe to the degree some people on here are ‘by the book’ to an almost ridiculous level, but we’re all different and we all have different ideas and ‘life codes’ if you like, that we live by, so what’s important and valid for them is valid, it’s not my place to run them down for it as what they choose for their life is what matters. I only keep posting on this thread as it still seems like some are completely unable to appreciate that although they see it as a bit of a fuss over nothing, especially when we could have a far right, foreigner hating (unless they’re Russian seemingly) president for the next 5 years, anything that anchors someone to France just that little bit more and makes them feel a little bit more safe and comfortable, can only be a positive. But ultimately we shall see.

It’s a shame there’s not someone for residency like Kim C is for driving, someone with a direct line who could clear it up once and for all.

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Oh I can absolutely see why people would like that, that but I can also see why it may not be practical or possible and may not be considered necessary.
My ‘life code’ if you like is, that I accept there will often be a gap between what I would like, in an ideal world, and what I actually get. As long as I have what I actually need I try not to waste angst worrying about what I would like but do not have.

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Definitely, I agree with you completely, none of my comment was aimed at you, or anyone specific, it’s just unfortunate, as I said to you further up this thread I think, that people were told specifically that it would be possible, repeatedly, by the organisations working with the french and British governments to help people, and even by prefectures. I’m leaving out embassies and the ministry of the interior as I can’t actually remember for certain but I’ve a feeling they said similar too.

While as you say it may not be in the WA, trust me, there were a lot of sources saying words very close to ‘when you get to 5 years residency you will obtain permanent rights, a new card is not necessary until expiry as but if you want one you can apply to your prefecture directly to be issued one’. If this is all effectively nonsense it’s a concern as to where it came from and why it was said.

Just randomly my first hit on a search was the diocese in Europe who had the contract to do quite a few areas of France and were, I understood in direct close contact with the french government. Their page says

If you are issued a five-year Withdrawal Agreement residence permit, but reach five years of legal residence before the card nears expiration, you can request your ten-year permanent residence permit. This may not be immediately issued by the préfecture, but be assured that under EU and French law, your rights of permanent residence exist even if they’re not reflected in the card that you possess.

Source: https://www.frenchresidencysupport.org/post/the-withdrawal-agreement-residence-permit

Not quite as direct as my remembering but not far off. It’s certainly not saying wait to the expiry of the card before asking for a permanent.

Edit: I see now that @ JaneJones quoted the same article, and paragraph much further up. I really should scan the whole of a thread before commenting :see_no_evil:

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I just fill in various boxes on a spread sheet and return it to french based Englishm speaking accountant and three months later my tax assessmnt arives which he then checks…and any general queries are answered in between…best €120 I spend every year!..

Well this is the important bit surely and this is why I do not see any real need to exchange the card. You have those rights regardless of whether you are given a new card or not. I completely get that having a new card would give you reassurance that your rights have been recognised but I also get that people in offices do not see it as their job to issue documents because people want reassurance because they do not trust the system, they issue documents to meet actual legal requirements.

The narrative below is from the official explanation published by HMG when the withdrawal agreement was signed

30. Those who have not yet resided continuously and lawfully for five years in their host state by the end of the implementation period will also be able to stay until they have reached the five year threshold, at which point they will have the right to reside permanently. The Withdrawal Agreement enables the host state to restrict these rights if the individual is a serious or persistent criminal, or if they seek to abuse or defraud the system.

To me it seems pretty clear that at the five year point from when permanent residence started (which in most cases will be earlier than the start date of the 5yr CdeS) a settled personc who has met residency requiremrnts in first five years will have the right of pernanent settlement aka 10yrs card.

So worry ye not unless President Le Pen decides to tear up a whole raft of EU treaties, or of course if you are really naughty!

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To be fair the really naughty people are generally the ones worth being around, although maybe not in this context :laughing:

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