Cartes de sejour

[Le Petomane]

As these are no longer required, it can be difficult proving your arrival in France as a resident. I had a problem at the CPAM last Jan trying to persuade them that I had taken up residence when I actually did. If you're an EC citizen, there's no passport stamp. In the end I showed them the counterfoil of my boarding pass! It might be a good idea (as well as a courtesy) to go to your local mairie on arrival and say "I'm here".

[Nick Trollope]

Hi & welcome

I think that it is only common courtesy to make yourself known to your Mairie, especially in a small community. No legal requirement, however.

They will be able to give you an attestation that you are resident.

 

[Val_2]

I've always recommended that UK arrivals apply for a Titre de Séjour instead of the now defunct Carte. In fact, this was obligatory for my daughter to learn to drive with two years ago here in 29 and my son will apply for his next week. Our prefecture always stated that all 18's and over should have their own identity cards and at a cost of 88€ each,I will not let my son walk around Lycée with an english passport,not that he would want to anyway as he is more french than english having lived here a lot longer. Don't apply direct to the prefecture for a titre, do it through your mairie who are normally only too pleased to help with official documents and then if there is a problem they will ring and sort it for you if you don't speak french well enough. I still have a couple of years left on my second CDS to go and will apply for another(titre) after that