This applies to EU nationals who want to get a Carte / Titre de Sejour (Residence Permit) in France. This probably won’t be necessary unless your country annoyingly decides to leave the EU!
So firstly you have to sign up for a slot at the prefecture (council office) of your departement (county). In our case, the departement d’Ain, we booked these online here: http://www.rdv.ain.gouv.fr/booking/create/898
They ‘sell out’ quickly, so you need to look at the ‘start of the week’ – I am guessing this means Monday but I’m not certain.
You’ll have to fill in the attached ‘dossier’ (form), from when we applied in 2019, and this lists some of the documents you will be asked to provide. The bold indicates my surprise, because I was expecting to only have to provide those, especially after the email conversation below!
So the form only asks for 3 main things:
- Current passport
- Proof of address – must be within 3 months, so a recent quittance de loyer (rent receipt that you get every month). Best to take your rental contract with you too.
- 3 passport photographs
And then, depending on your situation, something to do with your working life. In our case this was:
- Attestation from your employer stating the number of hours you work
In fact, when we arrived, we were asked for a whole lot more. Fortunately, my wife Alice had heard rumours that this may be the case, so we came prepared, carrying every document that we have. It felt like they were constantly trying to trick us – aha, you won’t have this – But we managed to pass every test!
So it was all a bit hectic so I can’t remember exactly what we actually had to provide (and we didn’t get to keep any of the documentation so I can’t look it up) but most things were pretty standard. They have a photocopier in the prefecture so if you need to copy anything, you can do it during the process (although this will add to your stress! – I would photocopy all of these in advance). From memory, we provided:
- Full Birth certificate – I say full because until about a year ago, I just had a short form as my parents didn’t pay for the full one. We’d heard rumours about translating it, but they were fine with our French one.
- Livret de famille (Family booklet) – this obviously doesn’t exist in the UK, so we gave our marriage certificate.
- Salary slips for at least the last month, maybe more. You may as well take a copy of your employment contract just in case.
- RIB Relevé d’Identité bancaire – Standard Information about your bank account.
- Proof of health insurance that covers you in France – this was the trickiest bit, as it had to be in French and most of our communication from our Swiss insurer is in English. Luckily, we found a document in French that expressed this. It would now be a lot easier with us as we have registered with Ameli.fr and have a ‘carte vitale’ (French health insurance card)
Beyond that, I can’t be certain, but you may as well take along:
- Tax returns if you have them – we hadn’t been here long enough.
- Bank statements?
It seems (from the documents they gave us) that we applied for a “carte de séjour permenant” which surprised me, because I thought you had to apply for temporary 1 year permits first. Perhaps being from the EU makes a difference.
Anyway, we managed to satisfy the demands, deposed our dossier and 4ish weeks later we got a letter asking us to arrange an appointment to pick up our Carte de Sejour – hurray! Another 3 hour return drive, just to pick up a card. On the plus side, it’s valid for 5 years and is apparently easy to renew.
Good luck!