Woman gets carte in 'record' time at Nice

Although Connexion continues to hear from readers with concerns about their carte applications around France, news that one applicant at Nice – a prefecture where several readers previously reported difficulties – received hers astonishingly quickly, with one visit to apply and one to collect, is encouraging. It was also her first application for a card, whereas in some cases the prefecture had previously required people to have one or five year cards before applying for a permanent residency one.

The woman arrived two hours early for her appointment - as Nice operates a general four-day-a-week queueing sytem rather than people booking appointments - but reported being in and out in 45 minutes once the doors opened, without any paperwork difficulties.

It comes also as the prefecture has changed its website sections dealing with cartes de séjour so rules for Europeans applying for cards (mostly British people) are clarified.

If any of our readers have received a card so quickly – or quicker – let us know at news@connexionfrance.com

As we report in November’s edition of The Connexion newspaper campaigners for Britons in France were recently assured by the Interior Ministry that they have again communicated with prefectures over the official list of documents that are required and to ensure that none tell British people not to apply because “Europeans do not need cards”.

Meanwhile there have been assurances that prefectures which had especially long waits for an appointment for a card – for example up to two years away in Niort – are introducing new online systems to improve on this.

UPDATE: Since writing this article one reader who applied to Nice reports that hers took only 11 working days from submitting her application to receiving a text that her card was ready to collect.