ChrisBrown

Greetings everyone,

I'm a British citizen living in the Charente area, my wife is from Russia and we arrived in France on the 12th of October 2016. The day after we arrived we had an appointment booked at the Angoulême Prefecture to apply for a family member of an EU citizen residence card, we arrived with all the relevant documents but were sent away as we didn't get the documents quite right. The next appointment that I could book was nearly three months later on the 10th of January 2017.

We went back for a second appointment, this time they accepted our application, but they made us pay 50.00 Euros in tax stamps but couldn't really tell us why! I did it for the sake of my sanity and we left, stupidly, without a receipt, all they gave us was a reference number scribbled on a piece of paper.

On the 31st January we received a text message to come and pick up the residence card. But, they want to charge us 290.00 more Euros. The first people I contacted were Europa and they confirmed that this type of card should be issued for free and linked me through to the French website which also states the same. http://www.service-public.fr/particu...sdroits/F19315

This morning I contacted the prefecture who have taken over a week to answer the phone and was met with an answer of “everybody must pay for a visa”, I advised them again that I was British and under EU law it should be issued for free, the woman repeated the same thing and hung up.

Is anyone else out there experiencing the same thing? Maybe someone can shed some light on why they are charging this much?

Many thanks, Chris Brown

Shirtback

From the link you provided (subsection "coût"): is it possible that the prefecture is applying (attempting to apply) fees for "... entrée irrégulière ou de séjour irrégulier..."?

And/Or they are confused because the application wasn't made prior to her arrival in France via a consulate in Russia?

How did your wife enter France?

dmu

This also occurred to me. The sum mentioned in the link corresponds to the 50+290 € mentioned by the OP.
On the other hand, the application seems to have been made iwthin the dead-line....

cardi

If you look at that link where it says Cout you will find that there is a charge of 340 Euros where the person does not apply for a visa within the first three months of residence.
Go back and explain that you tried to if you can.

Shirtback

OP (& wife) aren't applying for a visa...

cardi

Sorry not clearly explained. The visa is the penalty for not applying for the carte within 3 months of arrival.


lors d'une 1re demande de carte, un droit de visa de régularisation de 340 € est demandé au membre non européen en cas d'entrée irrégulière ou de séjour irrégulier (demande déposée plus de 3 mois après l'entrée),

baguette

I know the €50 is obligatory when applying because I am in the same boat, ie British with Spouse of an EUcitizen. We arrived in July and have stillnot got to our rendezvous yet! However I recall a friend of mine saying she had to pay €300.
I too would be interested in why.
It seems to me they are always sending you away and by the time you get your appointment, it is well past the 3 month point.

cardi

No fonc in France is ever disciplined for overcharging or deliberately delaying in order to charge what should be free.
It is always possible to write to higher level foncs with clear explanations and you can often , especially for late payment charges, eventually, get a fair result but is it worth it?
You would become one of them.

ChrisBrown

Thanks for all the replies, I actually forgot to explain the part about entry as it seemed like we had sorted it out with the prefecture, but this may be why they are trying to charge us. Let me explain as it might help (me / others).

Way before we entered France my fiancée received a 1 year multi entry Schengen for a holiday to Greece, at the time we had been planning to come to France and for her to apply in Moscow, but as she got this Schengen i thought it might be worth finding out more, the prefecture said it was fine, so did Europa and a ton of other web sites. So I thought this is great, this turn, this lead to me changing out marriage destination to Gibraltar as I found out Russians could enter on a multi entry Schengen, so we entered Spain, then Gibraltar and got married and everything went well. Then we re-entered Spain all in all about 2 weeks had passed since entry and then we entered France on a flight from Spain.

the day after we had the first appointment at the prefecture. It wasn't until getting back home a booking the second appointment that I realised she would be over by 10 days or so on her Schengen 180 day limit. So I called the prefecture to see if we were in the system as once you are technically in the system you should be okay, I checked and rechecked and they kept saying she was fine, don't worry you're in the system.

After what I've read here I'm guessing this could be it, that we were two days inside the three month window in France, but ten days over her 180 day limit. Even though they knew this when they sent us away, three months was the next available appointment...

Damn... Well I guess I will try to explain that we made the initial appointment one day after we got here, but my guess is they probably won't count it...

ChrisBrown

Also, on a side note. I have been in contact with Solvit, who seem to be completely useless. They have told me that France can impose any fee they like, and that the Residence Card is optional. Both of which are untrue, so that got me nowhere! Hence the reason I thought I'd post here to see what experience everyone else is having. Again, thanks for your input, I truly appreciate it.... Chris

dmu

Quite honestly, if they say you can go and collect the Carte, go and collect it and pay what they ask for! It's a small price to pay for peace of mind. Fingers crossed that you haven't gone over a possible deadlline for collection.....

Shirtback

Thanks for the further details. I suspect that not having got the documents quite right (as you mentioned previously) at the first appointment, the application WASN'T accepted into "the system" until the second appointment, never mind what the prefecture told you. By which time her situation had become "irrégulière". All personal speculation, mind you.

As dmu says, if I were you, I'd go collect the card & pay the fee.

ETA: I'm not saying that the prefecture has got it right or that you've got it wrong - I'm just saying that 340€ isn't a huge amount to ensure that your wife gets her legal status & you both get peace of mind.

You can then take the issue further if you're sure they charged you erroneously, but it may be more trouble than it's worth .

ChrisBrown

Thanks, yes I think you both are right. I will make a point when I'm there just to see exactly what it was that tipped it over, but I'm fully prepared to pay. Thanks for sharing your knowledge everyone

baguette

Count your blessings your wife has been issued the carte 😊

Congratulations!

It is not an easy path.