British & living in the EU ?

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 Doug 31 May 2021

timely reminder if you live in France, the Netherlands, Malta, Luxembourg or Latvia that if you haven't already done so, you have a month to get your rights to stay recognised.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/31/britons-face-deadline-reta...

Can't speak for the other countries but the French system was relatively quick, simple & free.

 supersteve 31 May 2021
In reply to Doug:

The process in France was surprisingly pain free. Tick a few boxes online, then a couple of months later get a meeting in the local prefecture to get the paperwork stamped. ID card then arrived about 3 weeks later. 

OP Doug 31 May 2021
In reply to supersteve:

Think my appointment was about a month after I filled in the online form, was told the card would take 2 or 3 months but it arrived after maybe 3 weeks. If only changing my driving licence was so simple (18 months & still waiting.... )

 supersteve 31 May 2021
In reply to Doug:

Agree on the driving licence. Applied 3 years ago and after 12 months they wrote saying I didn't need a French licence. So applied again in November - still waiting. Although it was good that I could have my photo taken at one of the passport photo booths which links direct to the licence agency, so no need to send anything in the post. 

 Webster 31 May 2021
In reply to supersteve:

it was so very un-french!

 steve taylor 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Doug:

My wife applied to the Beziers prefecture in December and still hasn't had an appointment!!! Though you're right, the application was pretty straightforward.

 James FR 01 Jun 2021
In reply to supersteve:

Just out of interest, when you say ID card, what actually is it? A titre de séjour? And when do you have to renew it?

And just to add to what Doug said, in France you have one more month to make the application - you have to have the card by 1st October.

Post edited at 08:26
OP Doug 01 Jun 2021
In reply to James FR:

I guess he means the card you get sent to prove your status as a resident, has a photo & your address so does look like an ID card (its the size of a bank card & plasticised so more practical than a passport). Mine is valid for 10 years, not sure if they all are.

 yorkshireman 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Doug:

> I guess he means the card you get sent to prove your status as a resident, has a photo & your address so does look like an ID card (its the size of a bank card & plasticised so more practical than a passport). Mine is valid for 10 years, not sure if they all are.

I guess it replaces the titre de sejour if you have one (which of course we didn't need to have when we were in the EU anyway). I applied for one anyway a couple of years back just to be on the safe side back when I lived in the Drôme departement. I've since moved and had to change it for an Isère one but I'd lost my passport, and ironically they wouldn't accept my old TdS as proof of ID to pick it up. Anyway, finally found my passport (that's what a year of no travel ends up doing) so going in on Thursday to pick it up. Maybe my post-Brexit ID will be ready instead by now?

I'm having the same problem as Doug on driving licence. My UK one expired last summer (well the photocard anyway) and I applied through the ANTS service and it's been 'in progress' all this time. I'm told we're allowed to continue to drive on an expired licence but I keep my paper counterpart (with the actual UK expiry date) as well as the printed out attestation from ANTS in the car all the time just to be on the safe side.

To rub salt into the wounds my UK passport expires next February so I need to apply for a new one, which unfortunately is going to come back blue.

 supersteve 01 Jun 2021
In reply to yorkshireman:

I now have a Titre de Sejour, to show permanent residency - it is valid for 10 years. I won't bother with citizenship unless I really have to. My driving licence expires in 2024, so hopefully it will be sorted by then! Although, I did get randomly pulled over by the police a couple of weeks ago (don't get me started on how lazy French police are - they were ignoring vans, single male drivers, etc, as these may produce paperwork, instead they were pulling over cars like mine which had a family in, so was unlikely to cause them any problems...). Despite my wife being French, I did all the talking in English, so the policeman just told me to drive on - too much hassle for his lazy brain to contemplate. LOL

 James FR 01 Jun 2021
In reply to yorkshireman:

Luckily I changed my driving licence years ago, I just gave them my UK licence and got it "converted" to a French one - it's the old paper format that looks like something from the 1970s and falls apart after a few years.

It did cause me problems once at a car rental place as the date of issue had been copied from my UK licence and was before my 18th birthday, which their computer wouldn't accept.

10 years for the titre de séjour sounds like a good deal, but I don't regret going down the (very long) citizenship route, mainly because it means I can now vote!

 yorkshireman 01 Jun 2021
In reply to James FR:

> Luckily I changed my driving licence years ago, I just gave them my UK licence and got it "converted" to a French one - it's the old paper format that looks like something from the 1970s and falls apart after a few years.

ANTS were returninig applications unless licences had expired because they were getting overwhelmed with applications from Brits pre-Brexit so I wasn't able to do it early.

> It did cause me problems once at a car rental place as the date of issue had been copied from my UK licence and was before my 18th birthday, which their computer wouldn't accept.

I have the same issue with car insurance as they never accept a licence issue date before your 18th birthday.

> 10 years for the titre de séjour sounds like a good deal, but I don't regret going down the (very long) citizenship route, mainly because it means I can now vote!

I don't think you can apply for the 10 year TdS any more but since it's auto-renewable (without any obligations to prove residency or earnings) I figured it was as good as citizenship in the short term (will have been in France 10 years come this December).

I'm going down the citizenship since we're properly established here, and every day have less and less desire to ever go back and live in the UK here, and it seems like the natural thing to do. Of course having an EU passport again will be a big bonus.

OP Doug 01 Jun 2021
In reply to yorkshireman:

I've decided to put off applying for citizenship until we've been married for the required 4 or 5 years (my wife is French but although we've been together for close to 20 years we only got married 2 years ago). French citizenship through marriage seems to require a lot less documents (& expensive translations).

 supersteve 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Doug:

I will do the citizenship thing once I have been here a bit longer. My wife is French and we have no intention of moving back to the UK, so it is inevitable. 

 Carless 01 Jun 2021
In reply to supersteve & Doug

For the citizenship by marriage, remember to keep documents to prove how long you've been married and preuve de vie commune.

When I did it, I supposed it was for the last 5 years, but no, it's for every year of marriage: trying to find documents proving living together for the last 26 years is entertaining

 supersteve 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Carless:

We have been married 9 years. I'd better start looking for paperwork...

 James FR 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Carless:

The other route (naturalisation par décret) sounds easier than that! The only time-consuming part for me was getting parents' birth certificates and then getting them translated.

OP Doug 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Carless:

Thanks for that tip, what counts as 'proof' ? I assume that bank statements for a joint account, joint tax declarations & household bills with both names are all options.

 Carless 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Doug:

They said the best is joint tax declarations or similar

Amazingly when I searched in a filing cabinet downstairs, I found photocopies of our joint tax forms or cadastre payments back to 1994. Hoarder? Me??

The guy in the French Consulate I submitted the dossier to said it was rare to see such a complete dossier 


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