How I moved to France from Texas, with borders still closed and in the middle of a pandemic. Thanks Covid-19.
Background
For the first time in quite a few years, I was able to spend an extensive amount of time back home in Texas, waiting out the pandemic. I had taken a gap year during my masters, and spent the first half working in Spain. My plans for the second half were to travel for a few months, then do a summer internship in the US before going back to France for my second year. Obviously, that didn’t happen and I spent the lockdown period in Texas.
I started to worry that I wouldn’t be able to make it back to France in time for the fall semester. Borders were closed, and I needed a student visa. All of the embassies/consulates had closed and stated that they had suspended their visa service for an indefinite period of time.
Visa process
Although the consulates were closed, I could still start the visa process– I just couldn’t attend my visa appointment. I spent months getting all the paperwork together, paying the fees, and waiting for the embassies to open again. Meanwhile, I was also searching for apartments in Paris.
Hint: If you’re also trying to get your student visa, read this post.
I found an apartment in Paris, and my landlord was nice enough to hold it for me while we waited to see if I would be able to come. One day in July he sent me an article from a French newspaper, saying that the French government had decided to make they international students a priority, and they would start issuing visas for students, and only for students, the following week.
I was ecstatic! I checked the embassy website, found the opening time of the Houston consulate, and set an alarm on my phone to call them as soon as they opened and make a visa appointment.
When the day finally came, I called the Houston consulate and…. no answer. I was panicking. I found a number for a helpline and called them. After being on hold for 20 minutes, I found out that the Houston consulate had decided not to reopen for the time being. The helpline told me that I could still make a visa appointment, but it would need to be at one of the open consulates: New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.
For New York and Chicago I would need to quarantine so my options were narrowed down even further. I have a cousin living in LA so I decided to book an appointment there as I possibly had a place to stay. I booked the appointment, booked a flight, and asked off work for the following week.
3 days before my appointment, I checked the consulate website and discovered that the Los Angeles consulate HAD CLOSED. Are you kidding me??
I called the helpline again, and they told me my appointment would need to be moved to either San Francisco or DC. I was too scared to take a chance on another California consulate, so I chose an appointment in DC and paid to change my flight. The next day they announced the San Francisco consulate had closed as well.
I made it to DC and at this point, nothing was stopping me. I had my documents, I had paid for postage, I had my photos ready and I was going to get my visa dang it!!
France recently outsourced their visa application process to another company and the process went very smoothly with very nice people. I went to my appointment, got to explore DC a bit, and now just had to wait 3 weeks to receive my passport with my visa inside. I booked a flight for 5 weeks out in order to give myself ample time to get the visa.
Conditions on flying to France
Now I had to tackle the problem of getting to France. I read from the embassies that people could still fly to France under certain conditions. Most of these included medical personnel, French citizens, Military members etc., but then I saw the phrase: “Long term residents of France or those holding a long-term visa.” That’s me! That’s me!!!
The requirements to fly were complicated. First, I needed my student visa. Second, I needed to fill out a form stating that I had not experienced any Covid symptoms in the past 14 days. Lastly, I had to take a PCR Covid test no more than 72 hours before the flight and show the results in order to get on the plane.
PCR tests normally are done, sent off to a lab, and received within 3-5 days, if you’re lucky. I had to have my results within 72 hours!
I spent hours and days calling every clinic that I could think of, trying to find one that would did rapid PCR tests. Most places wouldn’t even test me without showing symptoms. Eventually, I found a lab in Dallas that, if you paid extra money, you could get your results back within 24 hours. SIGN ME UP.
Weeks went by of me packing, getting paperwork sorted, and waiting on the visa. During the week before my flight, my visa still hadn’t arrived, and I was starting to panic. I checked the website and sent an email, and they told me that there may be unexpected delays due to the pandemic and there was nothing they could do about it. If I didn’t receive it in time, I wouldn’t be able to fly.
My flight was Tuesday, my PCR test was Monday, and on Thursday I received an alert that they were shipping my visa. It was overnight shipping, so the package would be arriving on Friday. I could finally relax because everything was coming together.
Until Friday came, and my visa didn’t arrive. I called the helpline, yet again, and they told me that the visa had been shipped on Friday afternoon, not Thursday. This meant that the visa wouldn’t arrive until Monday. I would already be in Dallas for my PCR test on Monday and I had no way of getting to my mailbox in East Texas (3 hours away).
I then had to consider changing my flight. I had already paid and booked the PCR test for that Monday, and had no way of changing it. My flight was Tuesday, and I didn’t have my visa. My only option at this point was to change the flight to a day later so I could go home, get my visa, and still do my PCR test within the 72 hour period.
I called the airline and I was able to change the flight with no change fees, although I did have to pay a fare difference. It’s fine. Everything is fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Checking into the airport
Finally, FINALLY, it’s the day of my flight. I did my PCR test, my results came back negative, my visa had come in and I had my passport in hand, and I had all the documents proving that I was allowed to fly to France.
I arrived at the check-in counter at the airport with my huge bags, feeling confident that I did it! I’m here and I am going! The lady took one look at my American passport and said, “Excuse me. I can’t let you on this plane. The borders are closed.”
OKAY, LISTEN HERE LADY. I HAVE SPENT WEEKS RESEARCHING MY RIGHT TO BE HERE AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO STOP ME.
I just smiled and pulled out my stack of documents proving that I could, in fact, fly to France thank you. After arguing with me for a few minutes, she decided to call the border police and clarify the situation with them.
Her: “Oh okay so they said that you need an attestation saying that you have no symptoms.”
Me: “Yes ma’am. It’s right here.”
Her: “Oh… okay.” *a few minutes later* “Oh I’m sorry you need a negative PCR test result from the past 72 hours.”
Me: “Yep. Right here. See this date? Taken 48 hours ago.” Just let me on the stupid plane!
Her: “Oh, uh, alright. Great.”
45 minutes later, she had no choice but to print out my boarding pass and take my luggage. I. Am. Invincible.
Flying
As I boarded the flight they checked my documents again, this time with no problem. The flight attendant was dumbfounded that this small group of around 30 passengers had somehow found a way to get back into France. They closed off the back of the plane, and gave each of us our very own row to stretch out on. Best. Flight. Ever! 9 hours later we arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
I showed my documents once we entered the gate, but then at customs the guy only looked at my passport, shrugged, and gave me a stamp right next to my visa.
“Merci. Bon journée.”
Annnnnnd I did it! I made it to the apartment that my landlord had been holding for 3 months at this point and now had to conquer my horrible jet lag.
It was a lot of work to get here, but when I see my friends and spend time exploring Paris, I remember it was all worth it. I hope you will join me as I venture Paris and the rest of Europe. Bon voyage!
