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Showing posts from August, 2015

Getting Information in France: A Scavenger Hunt

I'm now in the always dreary and often stressful process of renewing my residence card here in France. I have to renew it every year, as this is one of the policies for non-European residents. A familiar scene happened the other day when I began to search for some answers to questions about my particular case, which requires changing the status of my residence card. My first technique was to call directly the administrative office where I would submit my application (called the préfecture ). I got no answer, even after calling four different numbers, several times. The line answering machine, however, suggested a general number, which I called promptly.  First thing after calling, it was announced that I would pay 15 cents/minute for the call, and that my waiting time was under 2 minutes. When I finally got to talk to a person, I realized that this is a general number for all of France, and not specific to my region (where procedures can be a little different). So esse