# OFII appointment



## DC12345

After you arrive in France and do the validation right away (although you have 2 month to do after arrival), how long should it take to get the OFII appointment? It's been 5 months already and still go word from OFII. We did change our address once which I updated on my OFII portal...could that have caused the delay?


----------



## Bevdeforges

Yup - the change of address could be the source of the delay - especially if you moved to a different departement. But it can take longer than expected for any number of reasons, including delays related to the holidays and/or Covid.


----------



## papaia

DC12345 said:


> After you arrive in France and do the validation right away (although you have 2 month to do after arrival), how long should it take to get the OFII appointment? It's been 5 months already and still go word from OFII. We did change our address once which I updated on my OFII portal...could that have caused the delay?


My advice is to reach out to your local office (phone call, visit in person, etc.) ASAP, and see what happens. The issue is that you cannot afford too long of a delay, because you need a few things done by the year mark, and they take a while, i.e. medical visit and paperwork (~ one month between the time they send you the first letter), then the four sessions of OFII-led formation civique, which also span over two-three months, then the other three months advanced planification for the most important visit (prefecture). Just to give you some numbers from my own recent experience:

arrival: Sept 1st 2021
first OFII letter: Sept 20th -> scheduled for medical visit and interview: Oct 14th
1st OFII session: Dec 4th '21 / 2nd: Dec 11th '21 / 3rd: Jan 8th '22 / 4th: postponed twice, by OFII, now scheduled for Feb 8th '22, still waiting confirmation.
HTH


----------



## Bevdeforges

Just one point of clarification - both of you may want to indicate what type of carte de séjour you are after. It may have changed recently, but for a visiteur visa/titre de séjour, I think you only need to get the medical exam scheduled. Most other long-stay visas require the various classes and other visits, but which ones may still vary a bit from one type of residence permit to the next.

As far as the OFII visits are concerned, the local OFII (at the prefectural or regional level) often tries to schedule the classes and other visits when they have "enough" new arrivals to fill up a class. (And I suspect the number required for a class may well vary by the facilities the particular OFII has available.)


----------



## papaia

Bevdeforges said:


> As far as the OFII visits are concerned, the local OFII (at the prefectural or regional level) often tries to schedule the classes and other visits when they have "enough" new arrivals to fill up a class. (And I suspect the number required for a class may well vary by the facilities the particular OFII has available.)


Just one point of clarification: at least per my personal experience these classes at OFII have very little to do (thus *exclusive dependency on)* with the new arrivals *only*. In my classes I have folks having been here from anywhere between 2-10+ years. I am actually the only relatively "newly arrived" (less than one year) among my 14 people in my class. I met individuals getting tired or their last 12(!) years of yearly renewals of visas (why now? your guess is as good as mine), students in their last year(s) of college, individuals who have never had to get this done, being abroad for years, but in relationship with French citizens (spouses, kids, etc.), etc.


----------



## DC12345

I was told by my relocation company it'd just require one visit involving a medical exam and that would be it (so I almost had a heart attack reading papaia's comment). But it's a good idea giving them a call so I will do that (although the google review says that OFII Paris never picks up their calls)..


----------



## DC12345

papaia said:


> Just one point of clarification: at least per my personal experience these classes at OFII have very little to do (thus *exclusive dependency on)* with the new arrivals *only*. In my classes I have folks having been here from anywhere between 2-10+ years. I am actually the only relatively "newly arrived" (less than one year) among my 14 people in my class. I met individuals getting tired or their last 12(!) years of yearly renewals of visas (why now? your guess is as good as mine), students in their last year(s) of college, individuals who have never had to get this done, being abroad for years, but in relationship with French citizens (spouses, kids, etc.), etc.


Papaia may I ask what type of Visa you have and which city do you live in?


----------



## papaia

DC12345 said:


> Yes, I have the long stay visiteur visa /titre de séjour and I was told by my relocation company it'd just require one visit involving a medical exam and that would be it (so I almost had a heart attack reading papaia's comment). But it's a good idea giving them a call so I will do that (although the google review says that OFII Paris never picks up their calls)..


I am very sorry - didn't mean to scare you to the brink of a heart attack 😔 
I should learn to let the much more experienced folks speak to this type of issues. Take all my previous comments with the huge disclaimer: YMMV!!!


----------



## DC12345

papaia said:


> I am very sorry - didn't mean to scare you to the brink of a heart attack 😔
> I should learn to let the much more experienced folks speak to this type of issues. Take all my previous comments with the huge disclaimer: YMMV!!!


No no, you are good...I was just being dramatic  Thank you for your input.


----------



## Bevdeforges

papaia said:


> In my classes I have folks having been here from anywhere between 2-10+ years. I am actually the only relatively "newly arrived" (less than one year) among my 14 people in my class.


I had heard that the classes were opened up to those who arrived in France before they were required, or who missed them for whatever reason. By the time I heard that, I had already taken French citizenship, so as far as I know I was not eligible. Probably could "insist" on being included, but at this point I have enough other things to do.


----------



## mem1476

Sharing my experience in case it is helpful!
I applied for a visa long sejour visiteur from the US (as US citizen) in Jan 2021. Received visa Jan 28 2021. Entered France March 9 2021. Paid timbres fiscaux online May 2021. I received a call from OFII Marseille in September to come for a medical. I had just moved departments, I told them this, and they said they'd transfer my file to OFII Montpellier (new department). They said to wait for a contact from OFII Montpellier. I heard nothing, so I called back OFII Marseille several times over a month or two to confirm they sent my file over. They said to just keep waiting. After a while, I called OFII Montpellier, as I was getting ready to renew my visa and was nervous this would cause an issue. They said they had never received my file from Marseille, but they reached out directly to them and managed to get it fairly quickly. They scheduled me for a medical at Montpellier AFTER I had already submitted my dossier for a visa renewal (TDS - visiteur). I noted in the renewal docs the whole story with OFII just in case. I eventually completed the medical, but was never asked for proof of it or anything by the prefecture for my visa. The prefecture gave me a preliminary approval of my visa renewal a couple weeks after submitting it and said I should receive an SMS when it is ready for pick up at the prefecture. That was 6 weeks ago and still no text, but I have a paper showing it's essentially approved, so I'm not too concerned (yet).

Hope that helps!


----------



## DC12345

FYI - I had my OFII appointment (in Montrouge) which did not require a chest X-ray beforehand (even though the convocation letter said so) and I was able to get it done on site. No language test. Just bring your passport and the convocation letter..and a healthy body


----------

