France Immigration

The first six weeks in Paris were very busy finding an apartment, validating our visas, getting used to the kid's school schedule, and trying to settle in to our new way of life. We seemed to have a small break from "To Do List" items and all our days started to become a little more routine orientated. We were able to take small adventures around the city and really start to enjoy living here...Month 4 rolls around and wham, the immigration paperwork begins.

After 3 months of living in France, immigrants can apply for the healthcare system and start to work towards their renewal visa. The major to do list items were attend our first OFII (Office Français de l’Immigration et de l’Intégration/French office of Immigration and Integration) meeting, apply for the healthcare system, change our driver licenses, and register my auto entrepreneur work visa. First up is typically healthcare system. Both Brian and I had medical screening appointments but I accidently missed mine. I went straight to the second step, attending my OFII convocation. 

This process takes half the day. The OFII office is located outside the wall in the south neighborhood of Montrouge. It took me about an hour on the metro to arrive by 8:00 a.m. Once inside the building, the receptionist checked my passport and convocation letter before sending me to a waiting room. A group of about 30 people were quickly led into a classroom style room. An administrator gave a brief overview about OFII before handing out the language test. 

The language test is to assess your level of French... I clearly made this move with very little experience with the French language. The test was comprised of three (3) question and answer sections, two (2) short writing sections and an oral interview. No surprise here... I couldn't finish the writing sections; however, I was able to figure out most of the translation. After the written portion, people were called one by one to an office for an oral interview. I was one of the last people to be called back to an office. The gentleman was very kind and patient. He reviewed the test with me, had me read a couple of sentences and the assigned me 100 hours of French lessons. These French lessons are free and mandatory if we were to renew our visas.

Right after my oral test, I sat down for the main interview. We reviewed personal information discussing my family situation, living situation and why we moved to Paris. We rescheduled my medical screening and then looked at dates for four (4) civic classes and French language classes. The four (4) civic classes are every Monday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and spread out over five (5) weeks. Once those dates were established, I signed my contrat d'accueil et d'intégration (a commitment contract for my civic classes & language classes) and headed home for the day.