r/Expats_In_France

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Hi! Has anyone managed to get a French 06/07 number while still living abroad?

I’ll need one before moving to France, mostly so I can receive calls and SMS. I’ve come across Onoff and Call.com, but I’m curious what people here have actually used.

Ideally I’d like something I can keep for several months without already having a French address.

Any recommendations or experiences would be appreciated!

Bonjour tout le monde ,
Jeune ingénieur ayant effectuer la totalité de ces études supérieures en France puis avec plusieurs année de CDI.
Je souhaite savoir quel sont la ou les préfectures réputé rapide pour une demande de naturalisation par décret , pour décider où je vais m’installer …
Car devenir français me tient vraiment à cœur.

Je suis actuellement basé à Nice et d’après les retour que j’ai eu certain atteigne des 5-6 ans de temps d’instruction.

Est que quelqu’un a des information sur la préfecture de Marseille actuellement et sinon avez vous une idée sur des préfecture rapide de traitement merci !

Bonjour,

Je suis une étudiante arrivée en France en octobre 2023.

J’ai fait le renouvellement de mon titre de séjour en septembre 2024 et je n’ai eu que des prolongations jusqu'en octobre 2025 où j’ai reçu une décision favorable.

Jusqu'à maintenant, je n’ai toujours pas de SMS me disant de retirer ma carte de séjour alors que mon titre expire en octobre 2026.

Ce que j’ai déjà fait :

- J’ai envoyé mon cas aux défenseurs de droits.

- J’ai envoyé une lettre recommandée avec AR à la préfecture.

- J’ai fait un recours en référé, mais ça a été refusé pour manque de motivation et incompétence du Tribunal (aucune décision attaquée/contestée).

- Les allers-retours à la préfecture pour expliquer mon cas ne se comptent plus.

- Les mails que j'envoie toutes les semaines à la préfecture restent sans aucune réponse.

- J’ai même envoyé un mail au service technique de l’ANEF pour dire que je ne peux pas faire mon renouvellement car je n’ai toujours pas reçu ma carte, et je leur demande de débloquer ça afin que j’aie une prolongation.

Il me reste moins de 2 mois, je n’ai rien à me reprocher, niveau école c’est nickel, je n'ai rien d'illégal.

S’il vous plaît, est-ce que quelqu’un a vécu la même chose ? Et qu’est-ce que je dois faire ?

Aller voir un avocat sera mon dernier recours parce que je n’ai pas vraiment les moyens, sauf si vous me dites le contraire.

Merci.

My family and I live in Paris and recently took a trip to Japan. We bought used kimonos at a second-hand shop for my three nieces who live in the U.S., as well as a few small trinkets. At the time, I didn't think to keep receipts -- in fact, for the kimonos, I'm not even sure the secondhand market gave us one.

We'd like to send these to my nieces in the U.S., but I see that as of August 2025, you have to declare the value of the goods you're sending, so that you can pay customs tax on it.

If you've sent a personal (not professional) package to the U.S. recently:

1. Do the customs taxes apply even to personal gifts?

2. I read somewhere that if the items total to less than $100 USD there's an exception to the tax. Can anyone confirm this?

3. If I don't have receipts or any formal proof of purchase, how can I go about declaring the value of these items? Is an estimated cost okay, or since there are now customs fees to deal with, is a proof of purchse/value required?

Any help would be appreciated!

Hello,

I'm in the process of buying an apartment and this process is so damn slow !

I first visited the apartment I'm buying in mid May.

The promesse de vente was signed in mid July. 2 months later.

My loan application was submitted in the last days of July. And 3 weeks later, the loan application still isn't accepted.

3 months in and I still haven't completed the purchase.

I expect one more month to pass. Is this normal ?

Sometimes I feel like this shouldn't be normalized, why is everything slow ?

Could we potentially look for property from abroad and buy?

I understand real estate is so different there. If the listing agent doesn’t have the listing she won’t show it, or something like that? Could someone explained this? Thank you!

I'm a native French speaker, and I’d be happy to help anyone who wants to improve their conversational French.

If you're a beginner, struggling to speak, or simply looking for someone to practice with, feel free to reach out. I have some free time and would love to help whenever I can — no pressure, no judgment, just casual French conversation. 😊

If you're interested, just send me a message!

So i’m moving to paris soon for a masters and i wanted to ask how the temperament of parisians or france in general regarding pakistanis. Are there blant racist comments ? biases in terms of finding a job or a house ? and the day to day interactions.

TLDR: the fuck am I supposed to do other than contacting the prefecture via email, contacting associations, going to the prefecture crying?

TDS Travailleur temporaire expiration date 26 February 2026

So I did my renouvellement 26 December 2025 (I didn’t know the rules had changed and I was on my last eligible day instead of first) PAR VOIE POSTALE AVEC ACCUSÉ DE RÉCEPTION as instructed (not my first time) meaning no trace of anything on ANEF (this is why I’m asking specifically for help from les Marseillais)

After harassing via mail, they sent me (sent for the first time ever instead of a rdv) a récépissé that is expiring on 26th of august.

I sent a cautionary email about the expiration on 23rd of July, last year emails had worked but now????? Crickets.

Some key points:

Yes in marseille my TDS isn’t applied for via ANEF, I can’t follow anything there

The prefecture sends an email or sms with a date to get the card (and in the past, récépissé) but sometimes they fail and in the past I went 2 times to try my luck, was accepted inside, card was ready. Not accepted anymore: tried this year for the récépissé

The fuck am I supposed to do? My workplace is understanding but I am indeed in danger.

11 years in France 8 in marseille NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS!!!!

Hi everyone,
I'm currently on a Visitor Visa V1 VLSTS and planning to apply for a change of status to Vie privée et familiale after PACS with my Italian partner who has French residency since a young age.

I have two questions for those who've done this recently:

1. Me and my boyfriend have been living together and have been since I came back with my visitor visa. I know in order to do the VPF visa you have to have utilities bills together. The thing is we live in a house owned by his family so we are not obligated to pay rent or utilities. Is this certain that we need this type of proof in order to do the vie privée et familiale visa? What else could we do to prove we live together and have common life?

We also don’t have any joint accounts together, what should we do?

Any recent experience and advice would be really appreciated!

I am running into the issue that many have. I am applying for a long-stay tourist visa from NYC. I am looking at bookings for what the site says should be at least 90 days but having trouble securing. Where can I book that I will have no issue cancelling in case the visa doesn't come through in time? Also! Does anyone know if they are actually calling or emailing these landlords/ hosts and verifying the stay? Thanks so much for your kindness and help!

I’m a Brit who has moved to France with my French partner and my daughter who also has French nationality. I’ve applied for my visa based being a parent of a French citizen- I did this in June and we have been here since April, does anyone know how long it takes? When we asked at our appointment in July, they said to call if we hear nothing after 4 months, any one experienced this? I’m super nervous about it all! They gave a document I can show should I have any issues but the silence terrifies me.

I just received the SMS that my first student séjour card is ready, but due to personal reasons, I can’t go back to France to get my séjour until November.

I just wonder is it possible that I get an appointment in November? Will they keep my card for this long time?

Hello all, I used to live in Antibes in 2024, and during my internship, I ordered a Zou transport card, since I'm 27, and not a student it's the normal Zou card. The card is valid, and recently I am eligible for the zou solidarité+ options due to my caf family quotient being below 600€ and I confirmed I'm eligible for it with an official from the zou ticket office.

This summer I visited the south for 3 weeks and I used the card to buy solidarité + tickets from Marseille, Aix en Provence and Les arcs Draguignan, I've been checked by controllers in all my trips and never had an issue.

Today when I left for my train from Les arcs Draguignan to Marseille saint Charles, I recharged my card in the zou machine, validated the ticket at the station and got on board. The female controller tapped my card and it didn't work, I showed her my justicatif d'achat but she didn't bother. She scanned the QR code and says I don't even have an account, mind you my face and details are printed on the card.

She starts to get very aggressive and says I don't have a ticket so I need to pay a fine, she refused to listen to me when I said I've been travelling with this card the same way for the last month.

She then goes on to lose her patience and blatantly says racist remarks - "I think you know your card is expired but yet you travel this way, your people do this often" I said I'm not aware. She then goes on to say, you are sitting in first class, and I'm supposed to be in second class! I said I just got into the carriage and sat down, I'll move, and I wasn't aware it was first class, she again says "your people always have excuses for sitting in first class" at this point I said your remarks are very offensive and racist and it's not nice, she refuses to elaborate further about the problem and says "I'm a controller, you can't argue with me, I am right" and gives me no other option but to pay a 60€ fine.

I have the receipt with me which has her agent number, I don't have her name and I'd like to lodge an official complaint for her racial profiling and her refusal to explain what exactly was wrong. If someone has made such a complaint before, can you please guide me how to? I'm based in Paris right now, so an online complaint is my only option.

Does this mean that 7-8 of her colleagues who checked me previously don't know how to do their job? Or is this lady trying to fine people without cause? She was impolite with others and fined several other people on the train.

For clarification, I'm a brown male from India, hence the profiling about "your people"

Thank you

Good evening I have been living in France with my family for almost 8 years kids are in school am working in CDI préfecture gave recipe as ordered by the court when I put in for renew they refuse to renew saying because it was coutmrt madat they sent and accompanied letter of OQTF any one please I need information on what to do, if I can reapply with my kids in school? Thanks

Hello. I currently live in Paris and looking to continue my French language lessons. Right now registrations opened for the courses at the mairie (Les cours d’adultes de Paris) but I found that the Patronage Laique Jules Valles also has courses. I’m currently between a B1-B2 level. So I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations as to which course is better. Thank you!

I received my long stay student visa today and it was refused. The reason provided states: "The information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was incomplete and/or was not reliable."

I submitted all the required documentation and finances for the entire duration of the course with the education loan sanction letter. Accommodation lease agreement for 1 year. I asked some students about this and one of them said that it's a technical issue from their end after he reviewed my cover letter and SOP, though my letters were a bit weak, rest everything was there. I have already contacted Campus France Delhi regarding this issue, but I would greatly appreciate your guidance on how to proceed. Should I ask my college to contact Campus France Delhi and try to figure things out?

Could you please advise on the next steps for a resubmission? If there are any specific suggestions or additional documentation I can provide to help strengthen my re-application, please let me know.

I received my Attestion de décision favorable which says

"Cette attestation n'est valable qu'accompagnée du visa de long séjour ou du titre précédemment détenu. Ce document autorise le franchissement des frontières de l'espace Schengen."

I am an Indian passport holder and need to travel to USA for a conference. I requested for a physical card but no news so far. Can I travel with the ATTESTATION DE DÉCISION FAVORABLE and the old titre de sejour?

Hello, I submitted my renewal request for my titre de séjour etudiant end of May but with missing docs like end of year transcripts because we didn't have them yet. I got une prolongation d'instruction until early October, and the notification along it said basically once you send us the documents we'll try to proceed your file asap. It's been 2,5 months since that, I got my documents but I have nowhere to put them, and I didn't receive a demande de complément since. What am I supposed to do?