# Brexit and carte de sejour



## joolongmarsh

Hello,

I have moved to France in sep 2020 from England, and have applied for the residency card in nov 2020, following the Brexit agreement.
I have received the confirmation email right after submission but, since then, no news. 
This does not seem normal, but I cannot believe that there is anything unusual in my application.
I have written regularly to the address of application and the prefecture, and have checked spam mailbox. 
I have tried several times a phone number somewhere on the website of the prefecture, but it never went through. 
Now the french government website simply says that the process is complete and you "must" have the residency card by now.
The UK government advice on the website was to contact the prefecture concerned, so I have resent emails. 
The only thing left to me seems to send a registered letter, as suggested somewhere I forgot.

But does anyone have any ideas or advice? Is there anything I can/should do more?


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## ARPC

Yikes. Yes the letter with delivery confirmation is the usual way of communicating with the prefecture, as when you show up months later and they claim to have never received your dossier, you have the evidence of your attempts. Some prefectures use email and the phone effectively and others seem to completely ignore it. I would send a letter enquiry, with delivery confirmation, along with print outs of your email receipt from 2020, and of the emails you’ve sent since, logging your efforts to be in touch. Once you receive the delivery confirmation postcard, call, or make an appointment if that’s the only way to get a response. What prefecture is this, if I may ask?


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## EuroTrash

As I recall, applications submitted via the portal were initially processed centrally and then forwarded out to the appropriate prefecture for processing as per your address. I don't know if this initial process was manual or automatic and if there is a possibility that yours was received centrally but never actually received by your prefecture? The email is proof that you submitted an application so your back is covered, but I guess the first thing to establish is whether your prefecture received it or if it got lost in the pipeline before reaching them. But if you have emailed both, and neither has replied, that is bad.
If you can't really get any joy, maybe you could contact one of the députés for your department? Of course now that Brits can no longer vote at all in France some députés might be less inclined to get involved, but might be worth a try?


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## Clic Clac

If none of the above works, contact the British Embassy in Paris, explain all the above attempts, and ask them if they can take it up for you.


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## Bevdeforges

EuroTrash said:


> If you can't really get any joy, maybe you could contact one of the députés for your department? Of course now that Brits can no longer vote at all in France some députés might be less inclined to get involved, but might be worth a try?


The French don't seem to do the "contact your deputy to help you out" drill. (DH tried this when I had my immigration problems and all we got was a nice, sympathetic note from one of the clown's office staff - but no actual assistance.) Oddly enough, this might be one of those times where you should talk to your local mairie and kind of throw yourself on them for "advice." They may be able to contact the prefecture for you to find out the appropriate course of action to run this down. (Don't forget, in an election year, the candidates need the support of 500 mayors, which puts the mairies in an excellent position to "problem solve" for their local residents.) Plus, the mairies have phone numbers for calling the prefecture that are not available to the general public.


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## Crabtree

I agree with Bev-pop to your Mairie to see if they can help otherwise I would make a personal visit to the prefecture if you can


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## EuroTrash

Bevdeforges said:


> The French don't seem to do the "contact your deputy to help you out" drill.


OK - I must have been lucky then! My député seemed very keen to engage, back in the day. I contacted her when Flamby was looking into scrapping the auto entrepreneur option and asked her if she would support retaining the scheme, and I got a very long email back signed by her personally, answering my points and explaining the other side of the picture, (she actually didn't support the scheme and she explained why, so fair enough). Encouraged by that I contacted her again a few years later in the context of an article I was researching and invited her to comment, and she responded very civilly again. After that I seem to have got onto her list of "Friends of XXX XXX", I get a Christmas card every year and an invite to the functions that she hosts!
But maybe they are more prepared to discuss issues, than they are to actually step in to help.


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## Poloss

joolongmarsh said:


> I have moved to France in sep 2020 from England, and have applied for the residency card in nov 2020, following the Brexit agreement.
> I have received the confirmation email right after submission but, since then, no news.
> The UK government advice on the website was to contact the prefecture concerned, so I have resent emails.
> 
> does anyone have any ideas or advice? Is there anything I can/should do more?


I wrote a post on the subject but it disappeared.
To sum it up, I wrote to [email protected]
and they always replied.
I first applied end of 2020 and finally got my WA resident card last week.

My text was as follows, if it helps:
_
Madame, monsieur;

en tant que citoyen britannique installé en France j'ai déposé une 
demande de carte de résident à la préfecture de xxxxxxx en fin 
d'année 2020.

J'ai déménagé dans xxxxxxx au 15 xxxxxxxx, ce que j'ai signalé au 
service des étrangers de mon ancien dept.

Ils ont confirmé vous avoir transféré mon dossier le 24 xxxxxxx.

Pourriez-vous, s'il vous plait, me confirmer la bonne réception de celui-ci
et me donner une idée des délais de traitement dans vos services?

En effet, j'envisage de voyager en dehors de l'EU et je n'ai aucun titre 
de résident pour la France.

N° dépot de demande - xx-xxxxxx N° GED - xxxxx

Je joins l'attestation d'enregistrement à la préf de xxxxxxx ainsi que 
la confirmation de transfert vers vos services.

Je reste à votre disposition pour tout autre renseignement,

bien cordialement ......_

You can always turn up at the Pref and ask to speak tp someone from the service "étrangers"

Don't accuse them of being negligent or incompetent - even if it's true, that won't go down well.
Rather that you're worried about being able to prove your identity, travel in the EU or out of it,
that they're certainly submerged with back-clogged files because of covid,
which you perfectly understand, blablabla etc
and how can they help you to understand what's happening?


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## Bevdeforges

Poloss said:


> Don't accuse them of being negligent or incompetent - even if it's true, that won't go down well.
> Rather that you're worried about being able to prove your identity, travel in the EU or out of it,
> that they're certainly submerged with back-clogged files because of covid,
> which you perfectly understand, blablabla etc
> and how can they help you to understand what's happening?


Always an excellent approach to take when inquiring of officials over a delayed or lost registration or application! In one very famous book on living in France, the author (Polly Platt) says that you should always preface requests like this with "Excuse me for bothering you, but I have a problem. Can you please help me?" It can be a magical way to open doors in this country.


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## joolongmarsh

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions! I start to feel hopeful again 
For your information, my prefecture was 92 (nanterre, ile de france), and then I moved to paris (75) last month. 
Although the change of address has been registered in the latter, I doubt any action being taken so I guess I would need to keep up with the original prefecture.


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## EuroTrash

Maybe it's the fact that you moved that is throwing a spanner into the works.
I seem to recall people who moved departments being advised that they had to submit a fresh application. It didn't seem simple to transfer an application from one prefecture to another.
Although if you only moved last month, well 92 should have dealt with your application long before that.


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## joolongmarsh

EuroTrash said:


> Maybe it's the fact that you moved that is throwing a spanner into the works.
> I seem to recall people who moved departments being advised that they had to submit a fresh application. It didn't seem simple to transfer an application from one prefecture to another.
> Although if you only moved last month, well 92 should have dealt with your application long before that.


Indeed, the first ever response from the prefecture (92) simply states that they are not competent to treat my application any longer, no explanation, no confirmation. 
At least it becomes clear that I need to focus on the prefecture de paris...


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## EuroTrash

joolongmarsh said:


> At least it becomes clear that I need to focus on the prefecture de paris...


... who may never have received an application. If the application you submitted via the central portal was forwarded to 92, who have filed it in the bin, and 75 have never received an application (because it went to 92 and is now in the bin, dossier for that application number now closed), that could be the crux of the issue.


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