Our self-addressed envelopes from the Préfecture des Pyrénées–Orientales in Perpignan arrived notifying us that our new Cartes de Séjour (Residency Permits) were ready for pickup.  The letter advised us that our 2016-2017 Cartes de Séjour can be picked at the Préfecture on Monday afternoon or Wednesday or Friday mornings. We are required to bring our old Cartes de Séjour and €106 each in timber fiscaux (tax stamps.) It took just over two weeks from the day we dropped off our renewal application to receiving the “ready to pick up” letter.

The following Monday we took the €1 Bus to Perpignan and spent the morning shopping, having lunch, enjoying an obligatory coffee in Place de la République, and wandering around the historic town center before the Préfecture’s étranger bureau (immigrant office) opened at 1:30.  We stopped by reception and were issued numbers and there were 14 people ahead of us.

Despite there being only one window open, the electronic display counted down quickly.  Most people only required one or two minutes to complete their transaction.  Most seemed to be doing exactly what we were doing, picking up a new Carte de Séjour. The waiting room looked like every other large doctor’s office/ DMV waiting room we have ever spent time in with individuals, couples, and families sitting, talking, and straightening out their documents in folders.

For this visit we were only required to bring our Cartes de Séjour and tax stamps for payment with our Passports for identification.  But we brought our entire renewal dossier, “just in case.” We were called up for our turns in less than a 30 minute wait and it literally took less than one minute each for the immigration officer to issue our new Cartes de Séjour for 2016-2017. We’ve spent far more time waiting in DMV lines back in the US. As often as we have been warned about French bureaucracy and “red tape” in France, we have pleasantly been surprised how straight-forward and helpful government representatives have been. Perhaps it is a much different story in large Préfectures  in major cities like Paris, Marseille, or Lyon, but in the Préfecture des Pyrénées–Orientales and the Préfecture de l’Aude in the Languedoc-Roussillon region we have always been well treated.

This year’s renewal process now complete, Tracy and I are legal residents of France for another year.

 

Related posts: First Renewal of Our Residency Permit (Titre de Séjour, Cartes de Séjour Arrived To Help Celebrate Our First Year In France,  Second Renewal of Our Residency Permits (Cartes de Séjour) Part 1, and Second Renewal of Our Residency Permits (Cartes de Séjour) Part 2, Parfait!  Third Renewal of Our Residency Permits (Cartes de Séjour) Part 1