Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and have read quite a bit of what's here. You all seem quite knowledgable and I wondered if any of you could clear up a few confusions that I have. I am marrying a french man and moving to France to live, but we are a little unsure as to the best way to go about it. Marry here in the US or France? If we marry here in the US what kind of visa do you apply for and how long does it take to be able to travel to France to start my new life? If I marry in France what kind of visa do I apply for? Can you just travel over there, marry, then apply for a resident visa? I really have tried to find the answers to these questions all over. I found some people saying if I go there and marry then apply for a visa I have to leave the country and return after Im approved. This is confusing to me as it says on this web site http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/venir/visas/index.html that I dont need a visa to travel there to marry even though I pick long term as my choice for length of stay. Can someone clear that up? I would like to know which is the best choice as we may very well move back to the US someday and I dont know if it makes any difference in either country as to where we were married. Any information on these topics would be appreciated. I found TONS of info on having him move here with me and what to do, but very scanty about me going to France. Thanks in advance for any help :)

Hi Diane! I know the rules are very conflicting. One agency tells you one thing, and another something entirely different. I came here and married an EU citizen, and I had no visa (ever). I can only speak from personal experience, but for me it was very easy. I got married, and I have a Carte de Sejour good for 10 years.

Feel free to email me if you like.
kimincannes@yahoo.com

BTW, I know 2 ladies from Seatle living here (1 in Cannes, 1 in Grasse). If you like, I can pass your email to them so you can correspond (?)

thankyou so much ameri-cannes, I appreciate the reply ^_^

I just went through all of this myself. After looking at all the immigration/visa rules and such, we decided it would be simpler to get married in the US before moving to France. He was already with me in the US on a "marriage visa", which was actually fairly simple to get, but it took a few months. Once he was here, we got married, then made the decision to move to France about a year later. Like you, I could not find any information that said I needed to have a visa to go to France. I was already married to a French citizen - the problem was that I couldn't find any immigration info for people already married - just info for students, au pairs, people wanting to get married in France, etc. Since I fit none of those categories, I just used my regular ol' passport to come over here. Once I got here, my passport stay was technically only good for three months - after that, your stay in France is expired and you are technically "without papers", not the best situation to be in. This is where it was really frustrating - every person who worked at the immigration office told me I needed a long-stay visa, not just a passport, in order to get my legal work papers. I kept getting turned away. I tried to explain that I couldn't find any info that said I needed to have a visa for my situation, but I wasn't getting any sympathy. It was only 5 months after I arrived in France - and apparently had no legal right to be here - that someone at the immigration office approved my request and now I'm OK, getting my carte de sejour. It really tested my patience, but it can be done. My advice though? Apply at your nearest French embassy for a long stay visa if you get married in the US and then decide to come to France. I guarantee that's the first thing office people are going to ask you for when you want to make your stay in France legal and permanent, with the carte se sejour.

I hope this helps! I know I rambled a bit. Contact me and I can give you more details if you like. But coming from experience, I would go the visa route, rather than just the passport route. And if you ever decide to move back to the US, you'll still be good to go, since you got married there. As far as getting married in France, I'm not to sure how all of that works out. But knowing French bureaucracy, getting married here seemed much more legally complex than in the US and my husband and I didn't even want to consider it. :)

If you are married or pacsed to someone french, then you are supposed to receive the "visa vie privée" which means that you are here for family-based reasons.

i have heard that it is quite complicated to get married in france, because of all the paperwork required from the foreign partner. on the other hand, i have also heard that it is easier to get married in france. so, as it usually does in france, means that it just all depends on the particular fonctionnaire that you get, since each one seems to kind of play it by ear when it comes to bureaucratic stuff. you might end up with a fonctionnaire who is in a great mood and ultra sympathetic and willing to help you (and thus give the correct answers) or you might end up with the Booth of Death in which case your life will be a roller-coaster nightmare.

btw, voyageuse, i was wondering how you get the fiance visa in the US? how long does it take and do you have to apply while in the US? i've heard the fiance visa is good for 90 days....does that give you the right to work in the US while waiting for the marriage?

If you are in the US and want your French fiance to come to the US and join you to get married, you must file the paperwork from the US - the first paper one is the form I-129, Petition for Alien Fiance. There's quite a bit of paperwork involved with it, but it's actually not as bad as it looks (when compared with the French paperwork maze). Once your fiance gets the visa, he (or she) comes to the US with it and has 90 days to actually tie the knot. During that time, he can't work unless he also files for a work permit, which may or may not come through in this 90-day period. Once married, he can change his status to permanent resident (which gives him or her the right to work) by filing more forms. It's so much fun! I remember it all too well.
This link (http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=39c0194d3e88d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCR D&vgnextchannel=4f719c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1 RCRD) actually explains it pretty well.

If you are American already married to a French citizen but want to go to France to live, you have to apply at the closest French embassy or consulate in the US (I think there are about 10 or so of them) in order to apply for a long-stay visa. It depends on the embassy, but apparently this can be done by mail, and (also depending on the embassy), it can be a fairly quick process if you're already married. It's kind of like being married "legitimizes" your request for a visa to France. :)

thanks everyone so much for your replies ^__^ Well I feel a little bit better informed now. I've heard before that it really can depend on the mood of the person you are dealing with. That's something I'll have to get used to LOL! Getting married here in US does sound so much easier. I read over everything I had to do if I wanted to in France and it made my head spin! :p

My French husband and I (American) also got married in the US & then came here. We came to the US on vacation (no fiancé visa necessary because he did not intend to stay in the US after our marriage), got married, got our marriage license transcribed at the French consulate, where we received our "livret de famille", and went back to France. Much easier that way than trying to get married in France, in my opinion.

You do not need a visa to come to France if you are already married to a French national. (Or at least in 2000 that was true! These things do change all the time!) You get your residency card without it - as you've understood, though, it depends on who you are dealing with. We had to fight over that at the préfecture because the small-minded, self-important bureaucrats there did not know their own rules. We insisted, and they gave in and checked the rule book, and we were right. (We had gotten our information from the French consulate in Chicago.)

I didn't think a visa was needed either, until I went to the prefecture practically as soon as I got off the plane in France to begin all the paperwork, and was told that the law changed a few weeks before I arrived. Well, well, what a coincidence! I actually didn't believe them when they told me. So we kept going back, hoping to talk to a different person each time. It finally worked. :) Maybe the law really did change, I don't know, but I do know that if I had had a visa, that would have eliminated that argument they always used as soon as I showed them my passport.

I didn't think a visa was needed either, until I went to the prefecture practically as soon as I got off the plane in France to begin all the paperwork, and was told that the law changed a few weeks before I arrived. Well, well, what a coincidence! I actually didn't believe them when they told me. So we kept going back, hoping to talk to a different person each time. It finally worked. :) Maybe the law really did change, I don't know, but I do know that if I had had a visa, that would have eliminated that argument they always used as soon as I showed them my passport.
Yeah, I don't know if the law has changed or not since I got married; but our biggest problem was that the ignoramuses at the prefecture didn't even know their own laws, were extremely xenophobic, and were used to dealing with North Africans (who have their own set of rules, and a much easier time immigrating than anyone else).

As soon as I was able, I requested French citizenship so I don't have to go through any of that crap any more, not even every 10 years.

yes I'm becoming quite scared of the prefectures :( especially since I dont know hardly a word of french and I can just see my fiance getting mad at them LOL!

yes I'm becoming quite scared of the prefectures :( especially since I dont know hardly a word of french and I can just see my fiance getting mad at them LOL!
Oh well, it depends on which one you go to, as well. I was in a department with many, many immigrants - things were much easier when I moved to a different department.

yes it's funny I keep getting so worked up over this issue, and he just keeps saying "Honey, will you just calm down, I'LL take care of everything" Something I'm so not used to cause I'm always the one to take care of it all. Everyone here has been so helpful though and I really appreciate all the input and different views on what's happened. It's nice to meet other people who have went through what I'm going through now :)