Immigration and the Curse of the Random Paperwork

If you have clicked on the header for this article, then you already have some inkling of what this curse entails. You, a person well-practiced in the art of Organizing Things (or at least passing stuff over to someone who can), have got everything in order for your move to France. Briefly, all goes well. You dowload, upload, télécharger, saisir and generally turn over information as quickly as it is requested and then stand by for an orderly response.  

But, no. Or maybe “non.” Another document is needed, a slew of mysterious acronyms and “cerfa” form numbers follow. And voilà, your finely tuned organizational system has come undone. Nor does it get better when you get here. Moving to France – to any country—means taking all of the paperwork, forms, requests, demands, appointments and submissions that an average citizen does over a lifetime and doing them all at once. C’est le bordel. And really, there isn’t any other way for it to be.

There are some obvious things that can help. First of all, no one will blame you if you resort to some very English swearing, throw your hands up in frustration and stomp off to the nearest sunlit terrasse to forget all about it for a bit. To my knowledge, administrative paperwork is not a recognized torture technique, but I’m pretty sure that’s just a missed opportunity. Frequent breaks from paperwork are psychologically necessary. They are also an effective way to get back into the “zen” space necessary to reduce your life to a series of identification numbers and dates on someone’s poorly-designed formulaire.

Beyond this you are going to need a “rubber soles” approach. Put on your best work outfit, by all means, but make sure your shoes have rubber soles. And this is what I mean by that: be prepared for the demands that you know are coming, but have a second layer of preparation for the “just in case” stuff. Here are 6 steps to make sure you are ready and able to adapt quickly:

1.     Begin with the things you definitely will need. Whether in cardboard files, special cases or plastic bins with animal stickers, these documents stay clearly visible, at the front and ready to go at all times. As someone planning a move or already in France, your mind should immediately go to passeports, visa documents, birth certificates and proof of residency (for more on the proof of residency tangle, read here).

2.     Once you have this first group of documents scanned and organized, it’s time to think about the second layer. This stuff ranges from “there’s a good chance they’ll ask for it” to the “probably not, but it could happen” category. Left to its own devices, this stuff quickly turns into a chaotic mess. There is just no sensible way to organize your driving history alongside your last U.S. property tax bill, your current cell phone contract and your mother-in-law’s maiden name. You need an index.

3.     Fortunately, cloud storage (done properly) creates its own index. Use it. Even if you don’t like cloud storage. Even if you don’t truly know what the phrase means. The fact is that you are much better off to have at least one copy of every essential document stored electronically somewhere other than your computer. Pick a storage solution (your phone and computer probably both come with something) and create one big folder for this second-layer stuff with as many subfolders as you like. We break up document storage for our clients by time period, but you can create any system that works for you.

4.     Now take the time to label every document with some title you can understand; “20230214_perm” is not promising, but “Lee drivers license receipt” will do wonders for your mood when you are scrambling to find it. Yes, it’s an incredibly tedious process. But you will be glad you did it. And viewed on your phone or computer, the storage becomes a list of everything you have, complete with immediate access from anywhere that allows you to connect to the internet. I can attest that this includes the Orange help counter, the car share office and préfecture staff desks.

5.     Update regularly. Whether you are living internationally or curled up on your sofa in your hometown, essential documents have a way of breeding. During your preparations to move and throughout the first year at least, you are going to need to take some time every month to dig through the stuff that has come in by post, email or SMS and make sure that copies get to your storage. We send regular reminders to our clients to update essential documents, but a quick monthly scan of your desk (and desktop) will help to keep you on task.

And finally, #6: the curse of the random paperwork is not going anywhere soon. When you do carve out that hour or two a month to manage your documents, be sure to schedule in a bit of a reward at the end. It’s just as important as the paperwork, itself. After all, you are here in France for a reason and it definitely isn’t the paperwork.