# Australian married to French seeking advice for process of moving to France



## marcusdylan (Jan 28, 2013)

Hi guys, 

Having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around what I'm supposed to do/do next. Turning into a bit of a horror story due to some bad advice.

Married a French woman in Australia almost six years ago, we didn't do a BANS at the time as we didn't realise we needed it. Applied for a transcription de mariage in September last year by sending to the consulate in Sydney. 
Booked our flights to France for April thinking we had enough time. Received an email address after hounding for someone to contact to know status and received an email about 4 days before out flight that it was rejected as my wife signed digitally (I know). As our flight was soon and I already had given notice for job/rental we contacted consulate again who informed us we could send our application to Sydney from France and could have our interview in the local mairie in France, so we took our flight and now I'm here.

Spoke to an association here who guaranteed me I'd be able to complete process here and they booked me an appointment with the sous-préfecture here in Béziers. After a complicated process with Victorian birth deaths marriages that barely works, finally received new copies of marriage/birth certs as the old ones (2 copies) are still in the hands of someone in état civil we believe. Arrived at sous préfecture, lady didn't even look at our dossier as I came with a stamp and not long stay visa as I thought was the case originally but was given bad advice from 2 different 'professionals'. Now have just over 2 weeks until my 90 days is up and still no word on marriage transcription being done. About to go back to Australia to avoid being detained, leaving my wife, pets and belongings behind. Have been living off savings for the past few months and starting to become a little panicked. 
What should I do?

Feel if I go back to Australia I'm trapped there without knowing where the transcription is. If I stay I become illegal.
Please help any advice is welcome, thanks I'm advance.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Normally, to get a foreign marriage transcribed here in France, you pretty much have to go through the French consulate in the country in which the marriage took place, which means you're going to have to go through the Sydney consulate. Did you actually re-submit your application for the Livret de Famille to the consulate in Sydney or are you relying on the prefecture in France to do something about it - because I seriously doubt they can do much of anything other than mailing the documents to Australia. (I had a somewhat similar problem when I first came to France and honestly the prefecture and the embassy/consulate people rarely, if ever, speak to each other or otherwise interact.)

Ideally, you probably should go back to Australia and simply re-submit the application for the Livret de Famille to the Sydney consulate. Or, if you are certain that the new application has been submitted by mail, you could just wait it out here in France (presuming that the consulate will mail you the Livret when it is ready). 

In practice it's exceedingly rare that they show up on your doorstep to haul you away if you have overstayed your 90 day "tourist" stamp in the passport. Not having the proper authorization documents will be a major inconvenience, since you won't be able to look for work or do anything that requires you to produce proof of your right to stay in France. Can your wife find a job (or maybe she already has one) so that at least you have a means of financial support and medical cover through CPAM? Even for a returning French citizen, she needs to have 3 months of residence before she can enroll with CPAM (unless she is having cotisations taken by her employer). 

The only other thing I can think of is to pretty much throw yourself on the mercy of the prefecture. (Helps if you go in with your French spouse.) Don't suggest anything, just explain the situation and ask them (as humbly as you can) what they recommend that you do. They probably don't really know themselves (because it's "not their department") but they get much easier to deal with if you ask them to help you and your wife with this situation.


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