Renewing French Visas

An important question former teaching assistants and international students in France ask me concerns the renewal of French visas. So long as your reason to renew the visa is of the same nature of your visa, the renewal process should be a breeze; if you're changing the nature of your stay in France, things are more complicated--but it is possible.

As Americans possessing a French visa, we must register with our local OFII and obtain the vignette OFII as soon as we come to France. Chances are you've already completed this process, but did you know that the combination of your visa and vignette OFII serves as a titre de séjour? This is an important idea for understanding the visa renewal process.

To be legal in France, you are required to have a titre de séjour, which is typically an identity card communicating information about you to relevant French authorities. As first year Americans, we don't receive this card and instead receive a use the combination of our visa and the vignette OFII to form an equivalent titre de séjour. I suppose the reason is to reduce administrative tasks surrounding the titre de séjour, but, let's be honest: the administrative tasks are probably more tedious for French civil servants, mais bon.

Prolonging your stay beyond your visa end-date is possible and simple if your reason for staying is of the same nature as your visa. A teaching assistant who came on a work visa, for example, and who plans on renewing a work contract with his or her school; a student with a student visa who wishes to continue his or her studies into a second year: these are reasons to stay that are of the same nature of the visas with which they came. In this case, to renew the titre de séjour, you need to go to your local préfecture or sous-préfecture (if your department is organized as such) and provide them with the documents they require.

If you would like to stay in France but change your reason for staying, this process is more complicated, more expensive, and more time-consuming--but it is possible. Personally, I did the teaching assistant program while beginning a master's degree at a French university in Paris, so, when I wanted to renew my titre de séjour, I was told that I couldn't. I couldn't because I had a work visa and my reason for staying was to continue my studies--i.e., the nature of my stay had changed. (An exception to this rule: students graduating from a French institution of higher education have the right to look for work after their studies.) The solution to this problem is to return to the US with your grades and an admission note and apply for a student visa at your local consulate. Then, when you return to France, you make an appointment with the OFII--and you're already familiar with the rest! You'll be good for another year.

A good piece of advise from anyone who has gone through the agony of French administrative tasks is to be aware of the requirements, to bring everything (as well as copies) plus anything else you might have. It just helps to be overly prepared.

Difficult First Week of School

My first week at the University of Paris Diderot was quite disheartening. All week, I was coming home stressed and critical of the college's complete lack of organization. I didn't want to socialize with other students, I didn't have time to lunch and my biggest accomplishment during the week was to have been able to find all of my classes on time. I'm serious.

The Universities of Pairs Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Nanterre and Saint-Denis all have architectural flaws. Paris 8, for example, is constructed with huge glass walls and ceiling, almost like a Greenhouse, which let in so much light into a building that has no circulating air to begin with that we were forced to open the windows in February to get a little air. But I never could have imagined that simple design flaws could be the root of so much stress.

Paris 7 is literally a labyrinth of stairs that lead nowhere but to concrete walls, where floor numbers change depending on where you are in the building (sometimes it's 1, 2, 3, 3, 4; sometimes it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 6. Both in the same building! ...and I was trying to find floor 5!), where it seemed fine to the architect that one should divide a single building that serves one purpose into three incommunicable sections with randomly assigned room numbers. The cafeteria meant to serve 25 thousand students is large enough for maybe 200 max, while one can clearly see that the gardens serve only an aesthetic purpose and do not even provide outside seating.

Other than that, I think I will seriously enjoy my classes. My instructors all seemed serious and the course contents seemed exactly what I wanted... with perhaps a bit more translation work than I was hoping for, but at least my technical writing class is taught be an actual professional technical writer!

...I just hope that Lycée Michelet will not be inflexible with the hours that they're proposed.

Réunion d'information pour le Master 1

Halle aux Farines at Paris 7

Yesterday was the meeting for all of the Master students in my degree program. It took place in the Halle aux Farines and was almost a waste of time.

It was nice to see who some of my professors will be, who the secretary is and who my fellow classmates are, but almost all of the information that we listened to was information that we could have easily found on the website. In fact, all of the information that they gave us was the information I used to select this particular Master's degree program in the first place; it's what sets this degree apart from the numerous other universities in Paris that offer an applied languages degree. (At Paris 7, they focus on technical writing and translation as opposed to marketing and translation like the majority of other schools in France.)

Regardless, the school year is beginning. I am newly nervous that my teaching schedule will conflict with my school schedule, but, as Anthénaume has assured me, we can only wait to find out. My teaching schedule should be set by the end of today!

Emplois du temps 1° semestre

University of Paris Diderot, Paris 7

The Université Paris Diderot has finally issued my student course schedule... five days before my classes begin. In the US, I would have known five months ago what courses would be offered; in France, despite the fact that there is almost no choice in the courses that you are going to take under a specific academic track, making it easy for the administration know exactly what courses are going to be taught, this is a normal administrative delay.

My courses are exactly as outlined in the tronc commun aux trois parcours (the trois parcours being the specializations, mine of which is conception de documentation):

1. Rédaction de documents techniques
2. Langues IL: initiation aux outils de constitution et d'exploitation de corpus
3. Conception de documents
4. Outils IL-HTML
5. Traduction scientifique et technique
6. Traduction économique
7. Introduction à la linguistique de corpus
8. Terminologie appliquée
9. Méthodologie...
10. Corpus appliqué...

I am very excited and nervous about starting on the path to completing a degree in France. I worry that my job can be rather flexible with regard to my course schedule, but I still have to send my coordinator my obligations. It will definitely be complicated to work and study in France; I will definitely stress a lot, but it will be worth it in the long-run. At least I can count on Anthénaume for emotional support!