Had problems with French over freedom of movement visas?

Has anyone else tried to go the EU route through France? I am a UK citizen with a Tunisian husband who spent four months in Tunisia trying to get the visa that my husband had the immediate right to as we were moving to France.
I spent all day every day fighting the French and the EU trying to sort it out for those four months, with the French authorities lying constantly and obstructing our rights at every turn.
We have been in France since July of last year and instead of the 5 year residence card that my husband was supposed to be given he got 1 year because apparently their computer systems will only do 1 year or 10 years. They said that he has to go back every year and re apply.

All the EU countries are breaking the laws of the EU but I know that the French are one of the worst.

Has anyone else tried to go this route, even with other EU countries? I would love to know because I am trying to collect as much information as possible because I am determined not to let them get away with it.

SOLVIT have passed their 10 week deadline with this residence card problem and have surprisingly done f*** all about it.

skele wrote:We have been in France since July of last year and instead of the 5 year residence card that my husband was supposed to be given he got 1 year because apparently their computer systems will only do 1 year or 10 years. They said that he has to go back every year and re apply.

That doesn't make any sense because a residence card cannot be valid for longer than five years and applications are in-country. Are you sure you have a residence card and they didn't give you something else? What's the exact title of the document. RCs can be issued for shorter times but I don't believe the authorities can do that because of a malfunctioning computer.

As far as I know in France this is a matter of the département. Maybe you want to mention it for others. France comes up here not too frequently but have a look for contributions from user 'pierre75'. He also advertises a forum in French in his posts.

Hi, France doesn't come up here too frequently I would imagine, because they don't let people have the visas to come here in the first place! We had one hell of a fight to get here.
Their computer systems do not allow for a five year card, they will only do one year or ten years and they apparently can't over ride the system, we were told that they hadn't been updated yet!
The French authorities will do anything to stop people getting these visas so I would love to know if anyone else actually got through the system.

I'll have to check exactly what's on the card when my husband gets home but I think it's something like titre de sejour, resortissant de membre de famille EU! Will get back to you on that one!

What exactly is it supposed to say?

I would actually expect the 'titre' to be 'carte' as the correct name is residence card. The Directive requires it to be called "Carte de
séjour de membre de la famille d'un citoyen de l'Union". This page here seems to mention what should be written on it. Sorry, I don't speak French.

My French is very limited!
It says on that page that it has to be marked family member of EU citizen, which it is.
It was in the hands of SOLVIT but unsurprisingly their 10 week deadline passed a few days ago with no solution.
I am very worried that we are going to have problems at the end of the one year renewing it because my husband is still looking for work.
As we can't afford a lawyer I don't know what we can do, SOLVIT are eternally useless and the EU are as usual not at all interested in their member states breaking the law.
It drives me crazy that there is nowhere to turn for help, even when you are following the regulations and living inside of the law, it's madness.

My wife had terrible dealings with a France consulate trying to get an entry visa as an EU family member. They have no regard for the rules at all, were rude and intimidating - demanding to see documents that they were not entitled to ask for. In the end they effectively told my wife to 'F' off and not to return to their premises. We had to take a more time consuming and expensive route to getting her into Europe.
I eventually complained to the EC, who agreed that rights had been infringed, but they cannot press forward in any cases of redress. Feel very let down by the system, but similar things happen all the time.

Hi Dazzle, can I ask you where this embassy was? My husband was lied to and told it didn't exist and they told the security guard to remove him. I wasn't even allowed into the embassy, which I was surprised at being an EU citizen. Considering France are one of the founder states of the EU and rights to freedom of movement are supposed to be one of the foundations of the EU you would think this would be easier! It's disgraceful that they do this and even more disgraceful that they are allowed to get away with it.
We had no other option so I spent a very long four months fighting and fighting and fighting to get this visa. Very naively thinking that once we had forced our way through it would be easier for others. That could not be further from the truth.

Hi Skele.. yes it was in Cameroon. The French were the designated 'competent authority'(!?) for issuing visas for the country where we finally live now.

After a LOT of complaining and giving in to their unlawful procedures, we eventually reached the point where they called my wife - she could collect the visa the next day, IF she brings a return airline ticket with her. They're not entitled to ask for this, and my wife had been open from the beginning that she was intending to reside in the EU with me, so a return ticket wasn't necessary.

Anyway she went there with a single outbound ticket and they went totally ballistic with her. Shouting and screaming at her, saying that they can do whatever they want, and escorting her out saying that she wasn't welcome back.. all while my wife was carrying our 2 week old son in her arms!

It was the same for me - they would not allow me into the embassy, or to talk with anyone, or to leave a letter for the manager, or reply to any of my emails and phone calls.

They are simply incompetent at their job - not to mention institutionally dearly beloved.

Oh my God, how are they allowed to get away with this? How can they be allowed to treat people this way? They're not just obstructing people's rights, breaking the law but abusing people.
This does seem to be mostly African countries where this is happening, have you heard of any other cases?

I've noticed a few threads on this site over the past 12 months that are similar, particularly referring to embassies in Africa

..a lot of mention of the French if memory serves

This is outrageous. If I were you I'd sue them for damages. If you can't afford a lawyer it does not matter, they have to provide you with one See http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/legal_ ... _ec_en.htm
The same goes for interpreters (in courts): http://www.humanrights.coe.int/aware/GB ... s/1093.pdf (see page 4)

86ti wrote:

skele wrote:We have been in France since July of last year and instead of the 5 year residence card that my husband was supposed to be given he got 1 year because apparently their computer systems will only do 1 year or 10 years. They said that he has to go back every year and re apply.

That doesn't make any sense because a residence card cannot be valid for longer than five years and applications are in-country. Are you sure you have a residence card and they didn't give you something else? What's the exact title of the document. RCs can be issued for shorter times but I don't believe the authorities can do that because of a malfunctioning computer.

As far as I know in France this is a matter of the département. Maybe you want to mention it for others. France comes up here not too frequently but have a look for contributions from user 'pierre75'. He also advertises a forum in French in his posts.

on the point of skele's hubby being told that the computer doesn't do 5 years, only 1 or 10, As I know skele and her hubby personally, and was also in France, my husband was issued a 1 year card also.

the prefecture stated that they only do 1 or 10 years as per their national immigration.

in another post skele mentions other people in France, and also one who was stuck in Tunisia for over 6 months waiting for the visa.... we are all friends, the couple who waited 6 months, are now in france, and the prefecture where they are has point blank REFUSED to accept any applciation from them for residence cards, stating incorrect visa, must have employment in france not be self sufficient, must have CHI must have own accommodation cannot be living with anyone else etc ~ they have been locked in this battle in France for 3 months.

EVERY prefecture in france appears to have a different requirement for registration!