French Bureaucracy Inferno

I have a bit of retroactive blogging to do myself, about when we first got here.

Murielle Trocello represents everything I hate about French bureaucracy. She works at the Inspection Académique de Var and we had to turn in all our salary paperwork to her, to get paid. This is the story of how things work in France.

First of all, they gave us until the first Friday of October to turn in everything we needed to get paid. The previous Friday was our very first day, the orientation where they told us what that paperwork was, which included a RIB from a French bank account we were to open the following week. Monday through Friday, they scheduled meetings, visits, and observations morning until 5pm, except during the two-hour lunch break. That is, during all the hours that banks are open. Okay… I asked for time off from the observations, which were for the most part observations of math or French class instead of English class, so I could go to the bank in time.

I will skip the headache of trying to open a bank account with a foreign accent, but in any case I got it done Thursday afternoon as all the businesses were closing. By Friday morning I had assembled the packet demanded, and took the first half hour of my lunch break to hunt down the post office, to mail it, certified mail of course, because I already at that point knew enough not to trust the French post. I soon got my certificate saying the package had been delivered and received, which I assumed meant my package had been delivered and received.

The next week I get an email saying that they have not received my forms, and I needed to scan them in and fax it to the following number ASAP. I barely got to this country, and you expect me to have a scanner? Fine. Whatever. I email Murielle Trocello with what scanned images I have, and I type up the RIB. The next chance I have at school, I ask the principal if I can fax the documents to the number I had been given, to be doubly sure.

On Wednesday, when school is not in session and all the elementary school teachers have they day off, I accompany my roommate to the Inspection Académique offices so she can turn in her paperwork by hand. That day I get a call from Mme. Trocello telling me I have not turned in everything, but I am already on my way, emptyhanded.

I get there, and I discover that both the email address I used and the fax number were wrong. She got most of my forms but the RIB, which was cut from a sheet into a small square had somehow gotten lost between the lobby and the fourth floor, because the receptionist opens the mail and someone else delivers it to the correct office. Furthermore, one of the forms I turned in was not acceptable, because it was not the original, even though the first thing we heard at orientation was to never never turn in the original.

But did I learn all of this in a calm and orderly way? No. Murielle Trocello basically greets me with, “Ugh I don’t have time for this. I never got your papers.” I insist that I sent them and only then does she attempt to look over her desk. And ah okay, you did send your papers but it’s just all wrong. “We’re already late you know! I was supposed to send this at 3pm but now it’s too late, we’ll have to hope that everything will still get processed in time. I’m supposed to leave in a couple of minutes.” Whatever. I keep my calm and figure out what I need to do, which turned out to be go all the way back across town and turn in that one sheet of paper by hand, but I don’t get to leave her office for another few minutes while she gripes to her colleague right in front of us.

I bring this up because as the year draws to an end, my friends and I have been coming in contact with this ridiculous system again. Luckily I don't have to discontinue my water and electricity, or my internet, or anything like that, but I do have to close my bank account, and already I can tell it's not gonna happen easily. I also have a friend who recently moved to France, and is going through all the immigration stuff now, so this can be a bit of a warning!

Visa appointment

On Friday, I went to my visa appointment at the French consulate in San Francisco. I was a little early so I wandered around the surrounding area. The consulate is right next to the entrance to Chinatown, but I stepped into an American Apparel. There was a family shopping there and I got so excited to hear them speaking French to each other; it made me anxious to go to France.

The appointment went well. You have to have a receipt printed off the consulate website to be let in at your appointed time (a little early is okay). Then you go in and sit in a row of blue chairs and people get called up one at a time, and you all have to scoot up a seat like in an assembly line. The only thing I didn't have was the second page of the OFII form, the one with the list of all the branches in France, which wasn't necessary but apparently they usually take it.

Laundry list of tips:
Make a copy of everything!
If you bring a pre-paid self-addressed secure envelope write down the tracking number for yourself.
Despite what the American assistant's handbook says, they didn't need a utility bill as proof of residence.
They did take a copy of the CERFA form (the pink one), even though it doesn't say on the website.
They take your fingerprints so don't commit any crimes.
You get a receipt that you'll want to hold on to, especially if you come back in to pick up your passport and visa.

I should get my visa processed in 10 days, and Natasha got hers really quickly, so that's reassuring. The lady was nice and was happy to see I was flying through Ireland, since she was Irish. There were lots of other language assistants there doing the exact same thing as me!

Making preparations/building expectations

Finally! I have everything I need for my visa application in order! I booked a ticket to Nice for September 20th that takes me through Chicago and Ireland, of all places, and I have beaucoup de photocopies of everything else. I even obtained a pre-paid self-addressed express mail envelope from the USPS so I can get my passport back from the French consulate without having to drive to San Francisco again. (Obtaining the envelope was an adventure in itself, but I explained my situation at the post office and they knew exactly what type of envelope was required).

This accomplishment was made possible by two very helpful websites, along with the assistant's handbook and Natasha's guidance:
http://www.assistantsinfrance.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=31868
http://www.consulfrance-sanfrancisco.org/spip.php?article624

And now I feel a little more free to start daydreaming about what it will be like on the French Riviera (and to start worrying about all the logistics of after my flight). Apparently though, Toulon is a bit "grungy" but with a character of its own, according to my predecessor. I got in touch with the girl who taught at my school this past year and have been getting great advice from her. She says I shouldn't expect Toulon to be as nice as other towns on the coast, but she did give me the name of a place where I could take painting lessons, and another for learning salsa. Perfect!

As for my actual job, it sounds like primary school, especially on a 9 month contract, will be a lot more responsibility than secondary school. The girl said she had to make all of her own lesson plans and teaching materials, and didn't get much help from the school in terms of navigating housing, social security, health insurance, and banking. I expect that at first it might be frustrating to be busy when everyone else is hanging out and making friends, but I think ultimately I will be glad to have a bigger job. I will be glad to walk away from this experience with a few solid skills. I'm looking forward to applying the ESL teaching principles I learned from TECC! Another warning I got was that teaching primary school makes it more difficult to find tutoring positions, but I'm sure if I'm proactive about it, I can find something.

Finally, of course I have plenty o' traveling goals! I basically want to go everywhere every weekend and holiday. And I'll add a point on our map for each trip!

Summer bumming

Why not start writing now. This seems like a good a place as any to complain about the stack of paperwork facing us this summer. All I've done is glance through the assistant's handbook to determine that there's nothing I need to take care of right away, as long as the Acadédemie de Nice hasn't sent me my arrêté de nomination--a contract stating that I have work in France--yet. But just glancing tells me that we're going to have to apply for visas, for a social security number so we can get health benefits, which will require us to translate our birth certificates, and probably for welfare so we can afford rent on our apartments. There are acronyms all over the place and if I weren't numb from post-graduation lethargy I would be panicking right now. It sounds like Natasha has already perused the handbook and all the websites, so she could probably explain it better. She also had the great idea of making educational materials this summer, like videos of us grocery shopping and entertaining ourselves The American Way. That will be fun!