Visa Drama

Now I’ve never had the pleasure of getting a Visa before so I don’t really have anything to compare this to but our experience felt insane.  Marc, however, was not surprised.  He felt it was all very typical of French bureaucracy.  First off, we had to schedule appointments with the French consulate online, not by phone, not by e-mail, not in-person.  It had to be online and the problem was that there were no appointments available.  The website clearly states that you should give at least 2-3 weeks for the turn-around time and mind you we were only at 6 weeks out.  We tried to get appointments for at least 2 weeks with no luck before we started to freak out.  At this point Marc started e-mailing the consulate hoping we might get a response.  After several attempts we finally heard from someone assuring us that more appointments would be available soon.  Marc checked every couple hours over the next day and finally more appointments appeared on the screen and he quickly grabbed 3.  The website instructions state that every Visa request must have its own appointment! We received 3 appointments for August 8.  We had changed our flight to August 24 so again the turn-around time was not much but at least we had our appointments.  

With the 2 weeks leading up to our appointment we meticulously got all the paperwork in order, following the instructions to the T.  We promptly arrived 30 minutes early on the day of our appointment with 3 separate stacks in order and ready to be submitted.  Every box was checked and yet we were still nervous that we may have forgotten something.  We patiently waited for the consulate to open.  Went through security and waited for our name to be called; I had the first appointment.  A very kind French woman called me to the window and was willing to complete all 3 of our applications at the same time.  So far things were off to a good start.  

As she starts to proceed through our paperwork she abruptly stops, flips through the paperwork several times, and then switching to French starts asking Marc questions.  She calls over a Supervisor who proceeds to ask further questions of Marc.  With my limited French at this point I’m only understanding about half of what’s being said but I could tell that things were not looking too good.  Finally Marc stopped corresponding with them to bring me up to speed.  Apparently our American marriage certificate was not enough to show that we were married.  They wanted to know where our French documents were.  What French documents?  We didn’t have any French documents and let me point out that no where on the website did it say we needed French documents!  Marc hadn’t filed our marriage, or for that matter the birth of our children, with the French Consulate and so as far as they were concerned Marc did not have a wife or kids!!  (I guess I kinda screwed up on this one - Marc) With a 6-month processing time, taking care of these documents was not going to be possible before we left.  At this point we were definitely starting to panic. What now?  

The ladies who were helping us informed us that there was another option.  Rather than getting visas as a spouse and children of a French national we could go on tourist visas.  This would still allow us a year in France however now we would have to pay for the visas, show health insurance for the year, a notarized letter stating that I promised not to work in France, and enough funds in the bank to support a year in France without work!  That last one was impossible.  The Consulate expected us to show $2000 per person per month for the extent of the trip.  If only we had that much in savings.  The Consulate was willing to get started on the Visas while we got the rest of the documents in order.  2 weeks and 2 days left before our flights  Ugh!!! 

We left there feeling the pressure to figure this out and fast.  That afternoon we purchased emergency health insurance for me and the girls, about $1000.  Then we were back on the phone with Marc’s brother asking for his assistance in basically assuring the French consulate that he would be the financial sponsor of me and the girls.  Thankfully he was able to do this for us and overnight put together all the necessary documents!  Another reason this trip would never have been possible without the generosity of Marc's family.  I typed up a letter promising not to work in France and found a notary who was willing to meet me at 9pm to notarize the letter.

Short side note here about my experience with the notary.  We agree to meet after work at the local Starbucks.  I beat her there and realize that the Starbucks is closed.  So I call her and we change our meeting to the Peets a couple of blocks away.  She was running late and didn't arrive for another 15 minutes or so.  When she got there we exchanged pleasantries and set-up to do the notary, which at this point she discovers that she has forgotten her notary book at home.  She asks if I could wait for her to go home, get the book, and return.  Ummm, No.  Instead I suggest I follow her to her home, which she agrees would be fine.  I follow her home and she quickly takes care of the notary.  What was going to be a $60 notary, rather than the usual $10, because of the "convenience" of having her meet me, actually ended up being free since she felt bad she had forgotten the book.  I arrived home exhausted but relieved that finally all the documents were complete, scanned, and off to the Consulate.  Now we just had to wait and hope we would get the Visas before our flight.

The week before our flight we had still not received them.  I honestly was half expecting that we would have to drive to the Consulate on our way to the airport to pick them up. However that was thankfully not the case.  The Friday before our departure they arrived!!  Relief is not a strong enough word to express how we felt.  Finally the task was complete and without much time to spare!