(the misadventures of an expatriate corporate dropout)

Monday, November 10, 2008

another milestone!


Today I received my 'Carte de Sejour' which grants me the right to remain in France for one year (well until next September, which is when my application commenced ... ) It gave me pause to reflect back when I was just beginning this blog (only April!) and was checking of my very long list of things to do ... including the visa and CDS process. And now another milestone is completed.

Other than not getting booted out, I'm not sure this particular document provides me much. I think I will need to commence with ANOTHER set of documentation in order to be self-employed next year. Which is what I am considering, perhaps a small business.

I think I also might be able to apply for a carte vitale (the privilege of paying into the French health system) ... but to be honest, I have read so many conflicting and competing accounts I am unsure.

I toss a note in a bottle out onto the interwebs seas ... oh please dear readers (or your associates you might inquire with) ... leave me a comment about just what privileges the Titre Sejour or Carte de Sejour entitles me to.

faithfully yours,

no regrets

8 comments:

La Belette Rouge said...

I can provide you with no helpful information about the cartes. But, I can congratulate you on how far you have come. Really? It was April when you started blogging? I feel like I have known you longer than that and yet it feels like just 15 minutes ago when you got your visa in the mail. Time is a funny thing.

Randal Graves said...

Yeah, just April? I think you're a liar, a filthy, filthy liar.

I was going to say that having a Carte de Sejour would entitle you to a Carte Vitale, no? But then I realized I know jack about French legal and medical systems. J'aime Baudelaire au moins.

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

LBR~ yeah on the days I'm impatient I remind myself I've really only been living in France for 3 months, what do I expect? (I don't count the first couple of weeks in a hotel as living here!)

RG~ you're right, I am a filthy filthy (girl) I mean liar, my first blog post was 3/21. But I think I had like one reader the first week.

Can't you start a whisper campaign with your many contacts and secret sources that will yield some juicy CDS and Carte Vitale tidbits for me? Your readership (and LBR's, for that matter) overshadows my humble abode by thousands. thousands, I'm certain of it.

Randal Graves said...

I'm going to pretend I didn't read the filthy filthy girl comment 'cause I'm a good, upstanding righteous man, I am.

If by thousands you mean 7 or 8, sure. In all honesty, I should pass these queries by my prof as she comes from France and might know, if not the finer points, the generalities. I had thought that anyone who resided in France, whether a citoyen(ne) or not, was eligible for a Carte Vitale.

Jennifer said...

This is a very helpful link:
http://languedoc.angloinfo.com/countries/france/healthinsure.asp#socsec

We got our Carte Vitales after we got our Carte de Séjours, but they've changed the rules a bit in the last 5 years. This is the updated info.
Let me know if you have other questions and I'll try to help! :)

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

Thank YOU, Loulou!

Jannie Fresh said...

it came!

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

hi janny - erm. apologies in advance for anything you read here that you find embarrassing.

and YAY, yes it came! xx