I am a complete beginner when it comes to the foreign visa process. While working on and applying for my ex-husband's green card and citizenship put the fear of God into me about how just one box checked wrong can throw the whole process off - these forms and processes are all new to me. The result was a pretty nerve-wracking experience as I filled out the online application this morning.

This morning I received my Attestation D'Inscription from the Paris School of Business. Wasting no time (and sadly with no instructions from the school), I delved into the process of getting my student visa. 

The first thing to do is fill out your registration on Etudes en France (if you cannot read French, look for the English page in the top corner marked EN). If I could provide one piece of advice for this process: Compile All Your College Application Documents Into An Easy To Access Folder On Your Desktop. If you have not already done this (we cannot all be Type A about filing) - do this before you start. You will need to reference and use a majority of the same materials including a scan of your passport, a passport size photo, your CV and even your motivational letter (will save you time by copying and pasting). It should also be noted that the Etudes en France website does NOT handle large files. All documents will be need be compressed into PDF or JPEG under 300KB.

After all materials have been submitted, visit your local French Consulate's page and book an appointment no more than 90 days out from your departure. To be safe, since I have not booked my plane ticket, I have booked an appointment in mid-October. Hopefully that will give me enough time in case things go slowly...or even worse: If something goes wrong! Fingers crossed...

The above tip of booking at the consulate is opposite of what they tell you. You are supposed to wait until Etudes en France receive payment for the application and finish reviewing your materials. They will then send you an email instructing you to secure an appointment at the consulate. But slots at the consulate can fill up FAST - book one that works for your timeline, giving enough room for your student application to be processed. If you are nervous about timing, you can submit for an expedited review from Etudes en France (which also allows you to submit everything electronically via email - which for someone like me, who does not a printer, this is essential)

My boyfriend is thinking about joining me in France on a long-stay visa. If he decides on this route, I'll be sure to document that process too, since we will probably all be needing to know how to do that for when we are planning our retirements in the South of France (A girl can dream, right?)