marriage complications in france - Americans in France


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ForumRead Message

Subject:	marriage complications in france
Date:	Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Name:	nicol
Message:	Have been in france now since sept and do not have a titre de sejour, i have overstayed my three month tourist visa. As my boyfriend (french) and I had plans of marriage, i did not worry to much about this detail. however in completeing the formalities of the marriage application we have just read that my irregular situation is not only illegal but that i could end up paying 3700 euro and possibly time in prision and can not come back to france for 3 years. I'm horribly frightened by this as we are truly in love and just want to get married and live happiy ever after but now we are worried that if we proceed with the applicatino that we will be seperated, etc... Does anyone have any experience or advice to help guide us moving forward? Is this a real threat? should we continue with the application or perhaps think of getting married in the states instead? would appreciate any help that anyone might have.. sincerely, nicol

Replies Posted 9.

Name

nicol

Message

thanks for your encouragement angelique :) i think our plan is that i will return to the us and we will follow every procedure to the very last detail from this day forward. so that might mean i have to go back to file the petition for him to enter the states as my fiancé and then after we get permission he can come in to the country. just looking into the I129f petition at the moment.. i know your right, that love will help us through, its just hard. we both havent been able to sleep since we found all this out and its just so difficult to be so out of control. flying back and forth between countries is something we dont have the means to do. but we'll figure out a way, i think were on the right track...

Name

angelique

Message

I know how you feel, we have 3 different nationalities in our household, and this is not funny at all. It's like playing chess everyday. I think the first think to do is being in a regular situation. That's sound like bitting your tail, but i don't know if any mayor would marry someone in a irregular situation. Maybe, returning in the USA and coming back with a tourist visa and then getting married would work. Getting married in the USA with your boyfriend would require a trip back to France for your boyfriend after the marriage, because i think there's a condition of not changing your situation (like marital) with an american tourist visa. Correct me if i'm wrong. Anyway,to me, the best place to get married is the place where you're planning to live. Good luck... Love will give you the courage to go through all those stuff. angelique

Name	nicol
Message	thanks for the information caroline! do you happen to know the name of that law/initiative? would like to read more on it.. at the moment we have been discussing returning to the US to marry instead, not sure if we will encounter the same problems, but we are researching it :)

Name

caroleen

Message

Hi Nicol,

just wanted to let you know that a new immigration law in France is being voted now and chances are that it's gonna be passed at the end of June, making it even harder to emmigrate to France...and making life for illegal totally impossible, the law is much stricter. So...you have to hurry to get your situation fixed ! ( well, I'm sure you already knew that, but anyway...I'm just trying to help!)

okay, good luck to you and vive l'amour franco-americaine!

Name

Lori

Message

Good luck to you Nicol. There is always a solution to any problem. It just might involve some unpleasantness along the road. It can also make a difference from prefecture to prefecture and person to person. Moods can contribute to a person's willingness to be helpful or not (I'm referring to the French authorities).

There are lots of interesting laws here in France. It is always best to be informed and keep within the law. I realise that is what you are trying to do now. I wish you all the best.

And read that site because your options are all laid out for you.

Name	nicol
Message	ok, thanks again lori for your help :)

Name

Lori

Message

Hi Nicol: If you do go to the website I mentioned, it tells you your options on how to proceed (in your exact situation). It also answers the marriage question. It also states that anyone giving shelter to someone they know to be of irregular status is also breaking French law. You really should read the site in its entirety. It offers you legal answers to all the questions you have asked.

Name

nicol

Message

thanks for your help lori. i will look further into the cite that you listed. i just keep finding the same information relating to penalities for the situation that i am in and i would like to know if there is a way of correcting it. this last year i was able to have the state aid for medical visits, etc.. because i was here under irregular circumstances and when applying for that application the gentlemen explained vrey very explicitly that i can qualify for this special help only if i am here in france under irregular circomstances for more than 3 minths, not working and here with the intention of resting in france. these were all true and i explained our future plans of marriage and he said that if i accept this aid that i can not leave the country for one year... it sounded absolutely absurd but he continuely insisted this point through out the whole application process. i just feel really stuck, as it looks as though we risk huge penalities if we continue with the marriage, but also if we leave, andif we stay, i just continue to live here illegally....

Name

Lori

Message

Hello Nicole:

You may want to refer to the following website that describes the law in great detail.

http://sos-net.eu.org/etrangers/indexetr.htm

Below is a sample of the data. You can find much more by visiting the website. I guess it is a bit late to ask why you didn't regularise yourself before now. Good luck to you.

La situation irrégulière : qu'est-ce ?

Vous pouvez être en situation irrégulière au regard :

* de l'entrée en France si : o vous êtes entré sans les documents nécessaires o les autorités vous ont refusé l'entrée en France et vous êtes tout de même entré o vous êtes entré en France alors que vous étiez sous le coup d'une interdiction du territoire ou d'une expulsion * du séjour en France si vous restez en France sans titre de séjour en cours de validité au bout des trois mois après votre entrée * du travail si vous travaillez sans autorisation préalable de travail alors qu'elle est exigée pour la profession que vous exercez (il y a des cas pour lesquels une autorisation de travail n'est pas exigée) Cliquez pour savoir si vous devez obtenir une autorisation de travail pour votre activité professionnelle