I tried to write a blog post many times. But every time, I would eat some snacks, do this, and then I would forget what I was going to write. Time passed in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, I was an old man.
This time, I thought I'd write about the biggest event, as the renewal of my residence permit (called carte de sejour) was just completed the other day.
First of all, in order for a foreigner to stay in France (I think it's the same everywhere else), they need a carte ed sejour. Without it, they're considered to be staying illegally, as we often hear about.
I've written many times in my past blogs about how this procedure is extremely difficult, but...
I arrived in Japan in 2002 as a student, but when I went to renew my student visa, I was treated so unfairly that I thought I would never renew it again! I recklessly applied for a salary visa in my first year, and honestly, I don't remember how I did it. Looking back, it was so reckless, and even though I had a job, I hadn't been officially hired yet, so why did I apply with this title???
And how was it actually done?
Hmm, that's a mystery. But I had to go to a lot of different places. I was told to go here first to get this paper, and when I went there, the card I was trying to apply for was the necessary document.
I went to a lot of institutions that don't even exist anymore. Ofura is a country of immigrants, and as I write this in 2023, the immigration problem has become quite serious, so I think the laws have changed and changed instead.
Ah, my back is starting to hurt while I'm writing this. I'll stand up for a moment, praying that I won't forget to write the rest.
Yayyy! I'm back, yay. I stretched.
What was it again? That's right, the story at the beginning. Well, there were a lot of things going on,
Student → Mysterious Organization → Salaryman → Unemployed → Business → 10 years → 10 years renewal (now)
When I looked at the last 10-year period, I thought, "2023... will they still be there? They're gone!", but they're still there!! He was surprised. Just as surprised as when he actually showed up.
And this time, even before I applied, I was wondering if I would need another 10 years. But I still have 75 days to pay off my debts at Ohura, so I guess I'll need it no matter what.
Nowadays, everything is on the internet, and when I was researching when to apply for renewal, I found that there were 10-year and permanent (semi-permanent) options. I thought, "Wow, that's great!", but when I looked into it more, I found that even the permanent option can be renewed after 10 years.
What is this!!!
(Maybe if you have this you can apply for a card that allows you to move and work within the EU like a real French citizen. But I don't think that's the case. Probably.)
Either way, I'll be updating it in 10 years, and since it's unclear if I'll still be here in 10 years, I thought it would be ok to update it with the same thing.
In the first place, it seems that this permanent visa can be applied for from the second renewal of the 10-year visa. So, the 10-year visa is the only option.
I'm used to applying, and although there was still an awfully long wait, it went smoothly. To be honest, my language skills aren't what they were back then! Back then, I didn't have a smartphone, and I had to carry around a thick dictionary. I couldn't say things like "je voudrais," and my replies were full of words I didn't know, so I didn't understand anything.
The application form was quite simple, and about a month later I received a SNS message saying, "Your card is ready, so buy the stamps for the card and come pick it up."
How simple.
And naturally, the SNS does not provide any navigation or links to go beyond that, so you have to find your way there on your own.
So I bought some stamps - they were expensive. I think they were 225 euros. I can't get my card without proof that I bought them, and I don't think I can even get a rendez-vous.
Even if I wanted to get a rendezvous, there are various rendezvous on the police, so I searched for that too, and when I finally found one, the site was so lame that it didn't work at all, and when it did work, when I went to the page to select the date, it said "The date doesn't exist."
I'm stuck here. I tried again and again but it didn't work, so I called the police.
Oh, I probably forgot to mention that all these cards are processed by the Ministry of Interior police.
Nowadays, all phone calls are announcements and you can't get through to a person. Even if you choose to get through to a person, the call ends up being cut off. I repeated this and tried emailing them, but the only reply I got was a week later, saying "Try again later."
So I started from scratch by searching for a rendez-vous website on Google, found one, and was able to get it easily, so I thought "Yay!" and printed it out, but it turned out to be a rendez-vous in Angers, a town near Normandy, not Paris at all...
Aaaahhhh!!!
But, but, on the page where you choose the date, it didn't say where or the name of the city. Oh, I guess if I looked at the website address, I would have been able to figure it out, but normally people don't look that far, do they?
I quickly canceled the rendez-vous I had booked and tried again on the authentic Parisian site that I had struggled with the first time, and this time I was able to get it successfully.
First of all, how was it possible to get rendez-vous so easily in Angers? I entered my card number and such, but it has nothing to do with that place. Is it such a sieve?
Later, I received an email from Angers police, who I thought I had canceled, saying something like, "Your rendezvous is in a few days."
This is where I get scared, being a coward.
What, I canceled it! Did my card go here? And so on. Humans are amazing, and all sorts of imaginations come to mind in just a few seconds. Amazing! Imagination!
After that, I replied to the email I received saying, "I canceled," and also called, but then I decided it was okay and left it alone.
I actually went to Paris this week, and even though I knew the rendez-vous was only supposed to take 8 minutes, I ended up procrastinating and waiting 20 minutes, another 20 minutes at security, and about 40 minutes at the exchange counter...
At first, I was in a hurry because my rendez-vous time was running out, so I wanted to go first, but I still couldn't get through, and I waited thinking, "It's over. It's over," and in the end, it seems that not a single person was able to get in on time. The convocation paper also said that you are allowed to be there 10 minutes before. It was impossible to be there on time.
Give me back all that frustrating time! Give me back all that frustrating time!
So, even though it was a simple procedure, there were still a lot of things that happened to me.
Tosa has successfully renewed for 10 years.
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