It's Visa Season!
We Thought We Understood the Process
Carolyn and I went to Houston (once again) in late March to apply for new visas. We were advised we should not have gaps between our visas since we are on a path to become permanent residents. Any new visa should start immediately after the last visa expires - it’s sorta like chain smoking. The last resident visa we got was only for six months and expired on April 9th. This time we hoped to get one year visas starting on April 10th.
As an aside: for the last 9 months Carolyn and I believed we had done something wrong on our last application resulting in six month visas instead of one year visas we had hoped for. We must have checked the wrong box, we reasoned. It turns out the check box has been removed, the French diplomats review your information and decide what length of visa you need. We hadn’t made an error, the rules had changed.
This is our third time applying for French visas with VFS and we felt like we were well prepared; we felt just a little bored. This is old hat—we knew which insurance to buy, which documents to print, and what hotel to book in Houston to ensure an easy walk to our morning appointment.
When we arrived at VFS, we went through the usual security procedures and sat in the usual waiting room. We were then escorted out to the service area where I was happy to see the same employee who had walked us through our previous two applications. YES! She knows us, this is going to go smoothly. When our number was called the person sitting behind the desk we were assigned to was someone different. Well, it will still be okay, after all we’re experts at this and we’re so obviously radiant with love for France.
Carolyn sat with the new helper. VFS only allows one person at a time to sit at the interview desk, no exceptions. There are advisory signs all over the office declaring that VFS is a third party processor submitting applications to the French Government on the applicants’ behalf. They cannot and will not advise you on the contents of your application. True to the sign, when Carolyn asked the new staff member if it was okay that the travel health insurance had both of our names on a single card, she stated that she could not give us advice.
Then the staff member asked “When are you traveling to France?” Carolyn answered truthfully that we hadn’t yet booked our tickets, but we were thinking about returning to France in late summer or early fall.
“Then why are you applying for a visa now?” the woman asked.
“We were advised to not have gaps in our visas since we hope to become permanent residents," Carolyn replied.
“That’s not what the one year visa is for. It’s for people who want to be French and live in France, not for people who want to go back and forth.” She proceeded to lecture Carolyn about how hard it had been for her to get her green card for the US.
I was sitting in a plastic chair six feet behind Carolyn and could hear enough to get worked up, and I was getting very worked up! (To be fair, my baseline state of agitation is normally a 6 even if I’m just reading the side of a cereal box.) I knew that making a scene, interrupting, or even approaching the desk was going to make things worse. Readers, it was all I could do to not point at the sign the helper had invoked two mintues prior and shout “WHAT HAPPENED TO NOT ADVISING?! JUST PROCESS THE APPLICATION, PLEASE!” I restrained myself and ignored the devil on my shoulder asking “What would Johnny Rotten do?”
Carolyn and the woman talked a bit longer, and the helper agreed to start over. “When do you plan to travel to France?” she asked.
“We haven’t yet booked our tickets, but possibly the end of April,” Carolyn answered - again, truthfully. (Our travel decisions are being influenced by family, the vaccination schedule for our new puppy, and of course political developments.) The woman finally said Carolyn was finished and excused her to be fingerprinted and photographed.
The staffer called me to the desk and I turned on the charm: Have you been to France? How do you do this job? I would lose half my working hours to daydreaming about the exotic places everyone is going. The rules are confusing and you are such an expert - can you move to France and be our visa advisor? I also reflected on how lucky we felt to have the ability to travel and move around freely and how much we love France.
Carolyn told me later that she had been nervous that I would be so agitated when I got to the desk that I would blow it. She couldn’t believe it when the employee began giggling with me.
We then left, and we had no idea if our visas were going to be approved. Would we get a year, would we get another measly six months, would we be rejected altogether and resort to the three month visa that any Joey Bag of Donuts can get at the Paris airport? I can’t overstate how nervous we were. Between the sucker punch questioning by a (perhaps) slightly overzealous employee and the fall into uncertainty after our earlier hubris, we were both ready for a cocktail at 11:00am.
Over the next two weeks, we braced ourselves for bad news; surely the French hate everyone and everything American because of the way the current administration is dropping turds into the global punchbowl. Who’d blame them if they were looking for any excuse to tell Americans to fuck off to back where they came from.
Finally, we received a text message that we had two FedEx packages headed our way! Again, no hint as to the outcome.
Readers, I’m relieved and thrilled to let you know that Carolyn and I got the visas we hoped for. Two new VLSTS visas valid for one year starting April 10th!
We’ll see you in France!
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time),
Carolyn & Roberto
Omg you poor things. Felicitations 🎉🎉
From a fellow six-er on the Richter scale, I applaud you for using humor to change the outcome of the situation. Way to go!