baguette

Bonjour!
I am having a hard time with the Prefecture!! Any help would be greatly appreciated. To fill you in:
I am British and moved to Paris with my Japanese husband last July ( spouse of an EU national ).
We have been back and forth to the Prefecture numerous times with our dossier of documents that are required to apply for his titre de sejour. We have everything on the list, translated into French and photocopied in triplicate.
Only each time we go, we are told we need something else and something else, or that such and such is not permitted. Finally we were given the go ahead to make the actual application and our convocation was on 6 December 2016.
However, the same thing happened, this time our marriage certificate (which had been pre-approved) was not valid because it didn't have my husband's mother's name on it. We were told our application would not even be considered until we got a copy of the Japanese family register. None of these things are mentioned on the list they give you.We have this document now and our next convocation is 3 March.
But I have this horrible feeling that the same thing is just going to keep happening.
My French is intermediate which doesn't help matters as they have so little patience.
From speaking to others about our experience, everyone suggests hiring a lawyer to come down with you in person on the day of the convocation. I looked into this and got a quote of €1000 !! which we cannot afford.
Please please any tips to nail it on 3 March!!!!!
They have refused to issue my husband with any kind of receipt so he still does not have permission to work and all the financial strain is on my shoulders.
Thanks in advance

petitefrancaise

Baguette, sorry you are going through this. It is indeed very frustrating.
The functionnaires have to tick the boxes - often they ask you for a piece of documentation because in France that particular piece would have the information on it that they need to tick the box. However, foreign documents will have different information on them.

Was your marriage certificate a french one? I know that my UK/EU one has both my mother's name on it and my father's. I would ask the fonctionnaire what exactly they needed to know, maybe there is another way of giving them the information that they need to tick the box?

Am I making sense? The documents are to enable the functionnaire to tick the box. Ask about the box and sit there until you have a complete list of what they need to prove.

I'm still traumatised about dealing with bureaucracy after 11 years in France! It helps to think of it in terms of steps - each time you have to go back, it's another step forward, even if it doesn't feel like it.

baguette

Thank you petitefrançaise
Yes, I have lost my confidence and the next visit fills me with dread.
One lawyer we spoke to said it is done intentionally to encourage foreigners to give up and go home. A couple in the same situation as us paid for a lawyer and although their marriage certificate also didn't have the mother's name on, everything was processed and they had their recipissee within 3 months of arriving in France.
we have been here almost 6 months 😕

petitefrancaise

I think it depends more on who you get in front of you, although certainly having a lawyer may well mean you get messed around with less, if only because they know what is needed and how to prove it. Does your husband have a job lined up already that he can start as soon as he gets the immigration stuff sorted out? If so, then I would seriously think about getting the lawyer.

baguette

He had a job lined up for November which we explained at the time and asked for a temporary recipisee so he could work but they refused. They said he can't work til he gets the card.
Ok, well I am contacting immigration lawyers and seeing if i can find a more reasonable price.
Also approximately how long does it take for the actual card to come after all the papers have been accepted at the convocation ?
Thanks in advance