FINALLY!

The consulate called. They have my papers. I should have my visa early next week.

The visa saga continues....

The French consulate in Sydney were very nice when I talked with them on the phone, however they are impossible to contact. If you select English their telephone number gives you a recorded message, telling you to refer to their website, it then hangs up on you. If you select the French, you may actually get through to an actual person who will then hang up on you because they don't talk to you about visa matters. They don't reply to emails either. Faxes don't always go through, and they don't reply to all snail mail.

Start of April

Offered job at Poitiers university

End of May

Poitiers university sent me the contract and papers. I signed and sent back the next day.

30 June

Left France to go back to Australia. End of my Carte de Séjour.

12 July

Receive email from my contact at the university, informing me that I have approval from the department of employment for my visa. France then goes on holidays for a month

15 July

Thinking that this approval meant that my papers should have arrived at the consulate, I send my visa application to the consulate in Sydney.

23 July

The consulate rejects my visa, saying that I need my ANAEM papers to have already arrived at the consulate.

18 August

With still no news and with France coming back from holidays, I try for a few days to get in contact with the ANAEM in Poitiers. Eventually when I do (because they don't actually answer the phone), they tell me that my papers have been sent on from there.

22 August

I finish working at my fill-in job in Australia.

24 August

I send a letter to the consulate (written in French) asking if my papers have arrived at the consulate.

27 August

The day I had originally booked my flight for. Obviously, I had to cancel this.

1 September

The first actual day of my contract.

3 September

Still no news, I get in contact with the ANAEM again. They inform me that my papers had been sent on to the Minister on the 14^th of August and then back to them and were now ready to be sent on to the consulate.

9 September

The consulate telephones me and leaves a message on my messagebank (because my network was down!), informing me that they have to wait for the ANAEM papers before they can process my papers. I assume that means that they have not yet received the papers.

Also the date that I was supposed to get PACSed with le Niortais

15 September

The start of classes at Poitiers university.

20 September

Still no news so I send another letter to the consulate. No reply.

29 September

I try faxing a letter to the consulate, asking if they have received my papers yet or not. The fax number doesn't work, despite trying over and over. I then decide to send the letter by express post.

1 October

The consulate telephones met to inform me that no papers have arrived. I then call the ANAEM in France and they say that they are waiting for authorisation from the director to send my papers by fax to speed up the process.

6 October

I call the ANAEM again and they tell me that the papers were sent early last week.

7 October

I send a letter to the consulate by fax, asking if they have my papers and to let me know.

8 October

I send a letter by express mail to the consulate, asking if they have my papers.

GOOD NEWS (of sorts...)

Well the bad news is that the consulate still hadn't contacted me to say that they had received my papers because they hadn't! The good news is that they contacted me to TELL me that they hadn't as I asked them to do in a letter I sent them 2 days ago. Thank god they at least did that!

I will call the Poitiers ANAEM office when it reaches 9am France time and ask them (tell them, demand them, beg them...) to send my papers again by fax and immediately to the consualte! Luckily le monsieur au consulat told me to send my passport (not to worry about all the other papers again! yay!!!) and that I could book my flight when I had received my visa - god that makes things SOOOO much easier!!!

Luckily Greg was still awake when I found all this out, so I updated him. I'm assuming it will be about a week before I could leave. By the time the consulate gets the papers, processes them and then sends me back my passport avec le visa, it will be about a week all going well.

I have now finished 2 scarves, started a third with a fancy pattern (that my mum wants so I better finish it before I leave!), bought a Nintendo DS and some games. So I have been filling in my time while waiting for.....diddly squat to happen. I'm just glad it's almost over!