Visa in Hand!

Got the visa yesterday. so weird how you just hand them stuff and they tell you to come back in an hour and a half and zippity doo dah! Visa. However, there was some confusion concerning my son and his need for a visa or french passport. I asked the visa section and they said he doesn't need a visa but he needs a french passport because he has dual citizenship - he is french he MUST travel on a french passport. Um, ok. So the "non-visa" section of the consulate is closed to the public in the afternoon, but the nice lady at the reception desk looked into it for me. She said that to get a french passport they'd need my son's french birth certificate. I said, uh, I don't have a french birth certificate - and she said well you should have received one when you got the livret de famille. Ummmm, well, let me look thru my stuff (two 7 tabbed-folders and an envelope) and she said that she would ask someone in the passport section.

So, I tried to reach hubby using semaphore and smoke signals - well, actually calling my dad and having him use skype to reach my husband to ask him if he had the french birthcertificate - and if i could call him on his cell phone. Yes, the man who detests cell phones got a cell phone - it's the way to go in europe, especially if you want a deal on internet and other services. anyhoo...he did have the certificate - he took it to register cedric in school. Someone from the passport section came out and said that he doesn't need a passport or a visa - if i have any trouble, just show the livret de famille to indicate that he is the child of a french citizen and doesn't need one.

When I picked up my visa, they asked me if i got the passport and i told them that I was told by the general consul that he didn't need a passport. They said "BUT HE MUST HAVE A FRENCH PASSPORT TO TRAVEL." I said, i don't know, that is what they told me. Mind you that these two departments are on the same floor, just a short walk away from eachother and they gave me the complete opposite answer.

They said hold on, we will check, but we just had this situation and he must have a passport. They continued passing out visas to the others who were waiting. THis whole time they absolutely refused to turn on their microphones. The lady i originally spoke to thought that my confused face was due to the fact that i couldn't speak french. I seemed to be the only person who had a hard time hearing. Everyone else could hear their names and all i could hear was "Mmmuhmumum" I wonder if I'm going deaf?

In the end they checked and got the same answer that I did and the lady called me over and she now decided that she could speak french to me and proceeded to tell me the same thing that the other lady said in english with the addition of - BE SURE TO GET A FRENCH PASSPORT FOR HIM AS SOON AS YOU GET TO FRANCE.

Oui, madame.

:-)