I'm back from Germany and back to the Prefecture. I still haven't received my plastic carte de sejour and my paper one is about to expire - again. I'll have to go to the Prefecture (or Sous Prefecture to be exact) and see what's going on. Last time I was there they told me it was sent to the printers on the 30th October so I should be receiving it at any moment. Yeah right.
I also have to exchange my Australian drivers licence as my current one is about to expire. I wonder if the Australian Consulate can renew it for me. I suppose I should contact them just in case but I doubt it. I hope there's not much paper work involved in getting a French licence. Yep, that was a joke! I am in France after all.
So I'll have to get up early tomorrow so I can queue up for an hour or so. Seeing it's already 2am it's not going to be pretty.
I'll post about Cologne soon, once I get back into writing mode.
4 comments:
We've just received our CdS receipts too (the paper one is a receipt, not actually a CdS), "only" three years after applying for them. Expiry date in May so I can't see the Prefecture getting their act together in time to produce the permanent ones before that.
You're supposed to exchange your Australian driving license within 12 months of arriving in France, not when it expires. So, expect a bit of hassle on that front.
Wendy exchanged hers for a UK one whilst we were there and it stays valid around Europe and also saves the hassle of having to do some test in French (I think, not sure, that you will need to do that).
Why do you need a carte de sejour if you are British or are you talking about Wendy?
The length of time I've been in France didn't come up when I asked about the licence. I don't think they can prove when I arrived anyway as I don't recall them scanning my passport when I got here and there is no way they could know whether or not I'd spent all my time in France or in another EU country. I applied for a carte de sejour after being in France for more than a year so if they take that date then it has officially been less than 12 months anyway.
Yes, it's the CdS for Wendy.
I do wonder sometimes about whether it's worth bothering applying for such things when, as you say, they can rarely say when you arrived in France.
In Wendy's case, she was stamped in during 2003 which was a year before we actually started living here yet that 2003 date is the one that the Prefecture are running with as her arrival date.
Your driving license exchange seems "too easy"! Somehow I can't see it working out quite so simple.
Yeah, I'd be surprised if it turns out to be that easy to exchange the licence but she seemed pretty confident that it would only take 5 minutes or so.
People often complain about the Prefecture and the people working there but every time I've gone they've been very friendly and extremely helpful.
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