Visa appointment

Today was the long-awaited day for our appointment to apply for work visas for France. We needed to take a lot of paperwork with us and I had a last-minute wobble when I realised I hadn’t printed out Cath’s form properly.

We made our 1030 appointment on time – on the site of the old Young’s brewery (where I once went for a job interview).

My experience of applying for visas in the past meant I was a bit apprehensive that things wouldn’t go smoothly, I would have forgotten some key document, we would be here for many hours.

But actually the process was very smooth. There was a bit of waiting but when it was our turn we had brought all the key documents and, although I was told off for missing a comma which meant the form had to printed again, it was all ok.

When they relieved me of more than £200, I was reminded of when I worked in Paris in 1990 how I just turned up and got a job in Monoprix without any need for documents. But I guess that’s Brexit for you.

A final biotmetrics appointment and we were done. It took 90 mins in all which is far faster than I had expected.

They suggested it might only take five working days before we get our passports back which means I should make my departure date of 30 January. Fingers crossed.

Celebrated the smooth process with a croissant. Felt fitting.