# Waiting for recipisse



## Chubbspi89 (4 mo ago)

I just wanted to ask you a question about how long should i expect to wait to recieve a recipisse de titre de sujour.
I am the non eu citizen spouse of an EU citizen and we have relocated to france on July 15 2022.

Since then in have submitted my application to the Tours prefecture (by mail as that the only way they will accept it). It has now been almost a month and still no recipisse. I have already found employment and my employers are getting impatient and in have no idea when it will be ready.

At this point im not even thinking about the actual CDS. I atleast need the recipesse to start working.

Is it normal to wait this long just for the ressipisse??


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## BackinFrance (Nov 26, 2020)

I have no idea myself, but I noticed that no one has responded so am just trying to bring your question to the attention of someone who may be able to help.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Don't want to freak the OP out, but there are prefectures that never issue a récépissé at all (and may get a bit huffy if you ask them for one). But in any case, a month is not a long time to have to wait.

This page from Service Public might help as it explains what a récépissé is and how you get one. Qu'est-ce qu'un récépissé de demande de titre de séjour ?


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## Chubbspi89 (4 mo ago)

Bevdeforges said:


> Don't want to freak the OP out, but there are prefectures that never issue a récépissé at all (and may get a bit huffy if you ask them for one). But in any case, a month is not a long time to have to wait.
> 
> This page from Service Public might help as it explains what a récépissé is and how you get one. Qu'est-ce qu'un récépissé de demande de titre de séjour ?


Hey thanks for your reply. Much appreciated. You know i have actually hired a lawyer to make the intitial application and it seems as if nobody really knows what to expect. Ive seen on the this forum some poeple get the recipisse immediately and some never at all. I cant just wait and do nothing and hope they will get back to me. 

Do you think i should wait a little longer and get the lawyer to try to contact them??


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## ToulouseRob (Jul 7, 2016)

Just to chuck in the comment that everything stops in August. And July. Well, that's maybe a bit of an exaggeration but it does _all _slow down, even for official stuff. I guess you didn't really have much choice about it, but if I was choosing a bad time to start any kind of process in France, mid-July would be top of my list. I'm not sure if that is much consolation, sorry.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Chubbspi89 said:


> Do you think i should wait a little longer and get the lawyer to try to contact them??


Based on my personal experience, engaging a lawyer to handle anything connected with immigration here in France is a big waste of time and money. Won't bore you with the whole story (rather long) but immigration stuff is considered pretty routine. If you got the visa, it's more or less a safe assumption you'll get the carte de séjour - eventually. But a lawyer really has no power to speed up the process or even to help it along, and some administrators in the system may take the "lawyering up" as a sign that something is wrong.

As the Service Public site mentions, you will get a récépisée when your dossier has been reviewed and approved. However, for the spouse of an EU national, that's when they issue you the card. So for the moment, you have to assume they are still processing the dossier. And they will get back to you if you need "just one more document" or to have something translated or apostiled that you didn't already. It's one reason we tend to recommend to folks not to start looking for a job until your carte (or titre, in some cases) comes through. Many employers won't even talk to a job candidate until they have the card in hand. (Just to be fair in all this, if the employer is found to have hired someone who does NOT have a carte de séjour they are the ones who bear the brunt of any and all penalties and fines for hiring someone not entitled to work in France.)


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## Chubbspi89 (4 mo ago)

Bevdeforges said:


> Don't want to freak the OP out, but there are prefectures that never issue a récépissé at all (and may get a bit huffy if you ask them for one). But in any case, a month is not a long time to have to wait.
> 
> This page from Service Public might help as it explains what a récépissé is and how you get one. Qu'est-ce qu'un récépissé de demande de titre de séjour ?





Bevdeforges said:


> Based on my personal experience, engaging a lawyer to handle anything connected with immigration here in France is a big waste of time and money. Won't bore you with the whole story (rather long) but immigration stuff is considered pretty routine. If you got the visa, it's more or less a safe assumption you'll get the carte de séjour - eventually. But a lawyer really has no power to speed up the process or even to help it along, and some administrators in the system may take the "lawyering up" as a sign that something is wrong.
> 
> As the Service Public site mentions, you will get a récépisée when your dossier has been reviewed and approved. However, for the spouse of an EU national, that's when they issue you the card. So for the moment, you have to assume they are still processing the dossier. And they will get back to you if you need "just one more document" or to have something translated or apostiled that you didn't already. It's one reason we tend to recommend to folks not to start looking for a job until your carte (or titre, in some cases) comes through. Many employers won't even talk to a job candidate until they have the card in hand. (Just to be fair in all this, if the employer is found to have hired someone who does NOT have a carte de séjour they are the ones who bear the brunt of any and all penalties and fines for hiring someone not entitled to work in France.)





Bevdeforges said:


> Based on my personal experience, engaging a lawyer to handle anything connected with immigration here in France is a big waste of time and money. Won't bore you with the whole story (rather long) but immigration stuff is considered pretty routine. If you got the visa, it's more or less a safe assumption you'll get the carte de séjour - eventually. But a lawyer really has no power to speed up the process or even to help it along, and some administrators in the system may take the "lawyering up" as a sign that something is wrong.
> 
> As the Service Public site mentions, you will get a récépisée when your dossier has been reviewed and approved. However, for the spouse of an EU national, that's when they issue you the card. So for the moment, you have to assume they are still processing the dossier. And they will get back to you if you need "just one more document" or to have something translated or apostiled that you didn't already. It's one reason we tend to recommend to folks not to start looking for a job until your carte (or titre, in some cases) comes through. Many employers won't even talk to a job candidate until they have the card in hand. (Just to be fair in all this, if the employer is found to have hired someone who does NOT have a carte de séjour they are the ones who bear the brunt of any and all penalties and fines for hiring someone not entitled to work in France.)


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## Chubbspi89 (4 mo ago)

Hey Bev
Thanks again for your reply. Its amazing how different the process in France is from other European nations. I am Canadian (west coast, so little to no French which was my main reason for getting a lawyer) and my wife is Spanish. When I applied for the Spanish equivalent of the Titre de sujour, it was all done in a matter of days. We have also lived in Greece and also done in a matter of days. Any way, just to clarify what you are saying is that as the spouse of an EU citizen I am not actually entited to the recipisse and that I most likely would have to wait until they issue the card itself? And from what I gather could be months more of waiting, correct?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Unless they find that your dossier is "missing" something, the turnaround time should be pretty swift. I'd give it a good two or three months (pre-Covid they used to say something about 6 to 12 weeks - but all that has changed). And several people here report that they have simply scheduled an appointment at the prefecture and find that the card is there, ready and waiting for them even though they received no notification.


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