Many people are asking me: "You are still in America? I didn't know it was going to take this long!" It has been about 2 and a half months since I've returned to the US to wait patiently for my long-stay work permit/visa approval. In contrast, the visa (scientifique visa) I had to get for my postdoc in France took a couple of weeks. So what's taking so long?
3. Application for long-stay visa at the French Consulate. This takes 1 - 3 weeks.
4. Receive visa, go to France (finally).
5. Medical examination, application for residence permit (carte de séjour)... other stuff that I will encounter soon enough.
So, we are looking at a minimum of 8 weeks and a maximum of 12 weeks for the whole process... so two and a half months is right around average for the whole process. Except that my paper work should've started BEFORE I came back to the US. That is to say, even though I've been in the US for 2.5 months, the application process has been in the works for 3.5 months (well above the maximum).
The woes:
This started pretty early in the process. Due to complicated immigration policies, it is 99.99% guaranteed that a work permit WILL NOT be approved if I currently work/live/study in France and need to change from scientifique (or student) visa to long-stay (this is a whole other story). But the consequence was this: I was not allowed to be working in France during the application process because that is a dead give-away that I work/live in France. Thus I had to quit my post-doc early and crash at my parents place in Florida for a while. I call it a forced vacation, and the French love their vacations!
Although the application was supposed to be submitted in early February... it was not submitted until early March. The cause was some mixup with the mail which delayed the signature on the contract, thus changing the start date. But after that, things seemed to run pretty smoothly...
Within 3.5 weeks, my work permit was approved! I was going to get back relatively quickly! An appointment with the Consulate in Houston was made for April 19 and I just had to relax while waiting for a confirmation email from the Consulate indicating that they received my paperwork. What a great excuse to visit my sister in Austin... so I drove out to Texas a week early to just hang out with sister (note that I emailed CSE 4 times during this period to let them know that I still haven't received the confirmation).
The day before my appointment, I receive an email from CSE indicating that they cancelled my Houston Consulate appointment. The reason? CSE called the Consulate and realized that they never received my paperwork... something about "internet troubles." Could I stay another 5 days (their next earliest appointment... that is, assuming that I get the confirmation in time)?
Nisita mad!!!!
But who am I supposed to be angry at? The OFII office for not sending the documents, or the Consulate for not receiving it? Or CSE for not checking up on this sooner? Or the internet for not working?
The next day, they emailed me to assure me that this time the paperwork went through okay. My appointment will be on May 8th (earliest available)....in Miami. For some unknown reason, the OFII sent the paperwork to Miami the second time around.
Luckily I received the notification in time for the appointment, and as of today, received my visa :) So, France, here I come (again)!
I assume this is the "hazing" process that the French setup for immigrants as a way to weed out those who really want to stay in France. I have to say, we got off pretty easy because it appears that the hazing process to become President is getting struck by lightning.
In the end, I've had a nice "little" vacation here in the US! Instead of going to the French consulate in Houston, I went canoeing with my mom, sister, and sister's dog... which, I think, c'était mieux.
Well, like most French administrative dealings, there were many delays from such things as misunderstandings/miscommunications, too many people working different parts of the procedure (job security?), holidays (aka not enough people working), paperwork missing, technological problems, etc etc. Let me walk you through this typical procedure I've had to experience to obtain my visa...
Let's start with the people/companies/entities involved:
1. The applicant aka the immigrant aka the victim (me)
2. The awesome company that hired me (SGR)
3. The company my company hired to help with immigration procedures (CSE)
4. The French immigration office (OFII)
5. The French Consulate in the USA (Houston)
6. The other French Consulate in the USA (Miami)
The process:
1. In general, the first step is to get hired by a company in France. After 2 months of interviews with 2 callbacks, and 2 languages, I was fortunate enough to receive an offer from SGR in December. I feel extremely lucky given the circumstances of the economy nowadays, especially with the debt troubles with the EU countries, the 10% unemployment rate, and anti-immigration sentiment in France (see: Marine Le Pen, who received 17.9% of votes in the first election round).
2. Obtain a work permit from France. This was chiefly done by CSE, and included
2a. Collection of personal and corporate documents and application preparationThis entire process takes about 7-9 weeks.
2b. Submission of application to Labor Authorities
2c. Transfer of application to OFII
2d. Transfer of application to the French Consulate
3. Application for long-stay visa at the French Consulate. This takes 1 - 3 weeks.
4. Receive visa, go to France (finally).
5. Medical examination, application for residence permit (carte de séjour)... other stuff that I will encounter soon enough.
So, we are looking at a minimum of 8 weeks and a maximum of 12 weeks for the whole process... so two and a half months is right around average for the whole process. Except that my paper work should've started BEFORE I came back to the US. That is to say, even though I've been in the US for 2.5 months, the application process has been in the works for 3.5 months (well above the maximum).
The woes:
This started pretty early in the process. Due to complicated immigration policies, it is 99.99% guaranteed that a work permit WILL NOT be approved if I currently work/live/study in France and need to change from scientifique (or student) visa to long-stay (this is a whole other story). But the consequence was this: I was not allowed to be working in France during the application process because that is a dead give-away that I work/live in France. Thus I had to quit my post-doc early and crash at my parents place in Florida for a while. I call it a forced vacation, and the French love their vacations!
Although the application was supposed to be submitted in early February... it was not submitted until early March. The cause was some mixup with the mail which delayed the signature on the contract, thus changing the start date. But after that, things seemed to run pretty smoothly...
Within 3.5 weeks, my work permit was approved! I was going to get back relatively quickly! An appointment with the Consulate in Houston was made for April 19 and I just had to relax while waiting for a confirmation email from the Consulate indicating that they received my paperwork. What a great excuse to visit my sister in Austin... so I drove out to Texas a week early to just hang out with sister (note that I emailed CSE 4 times during this period to let them know that I still haven't received the confirmation).
The day before my appointment, I receive an email from CSE indicating that they cancelled my Houston Consulate appointment. The reason? CSE called the Consulate and realized that they never received my paperwork... something about "internet troubles." Could I stay another 5 days (their next earliest appointment... that is, assuming that I get the confirmation in time)?
Nisita mad!!!!
But who am I supposed to be angry at? The OFII office for not sending the documents, or the Consulate for not receiving it? Or CSE for not checking up on this sooner? Or the internet for not working?
The next day, they emailed me to assure me that this time the paperwork went through okay. My appointment will be on May 8th (earliest available)....in Miami. For some unknown reason, the OFII sent the paperwork to Miami the second time around.
Luckily I received the notification in time for the appointment, and as of today, received my visa :) So, France, here I come (again)!
I assume this is the "hazing" process that the French setup for immigrants as a way to weed out those who really want to stay in France. I have to say, we got off pretty easy because it appears that the hazing process to become President is getting struck by lightning.
In the end, I've had a nice "little" vacation here in the US! Instead of going to the French consulate in Houston, I went canoeing with my mom, sister, and sister's dog... which, I think, c'était mieux.
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