lundi, mars 02, 2009

The saga continues...

Well dear readers this is the latest installment of my French driver's license saga...

Last time I wrote back in December I had just sent off my dossier 02 to the Prefecture, the lovely lady at the auto-école helped me fill it out and then I waited... and waited... and waited some more. They said it could take 3 months to get a convocation so I was patient. I tried calling last week but apparently at 11:15am on a weekday people don't answer the phone, must have been pause-cafe..

Now its March and no news so I called the Prefecture. They transferred me to the DDE who said they have no record of my dossier on hand. So I called back the prefecture and they said they have no record of it either! She asked what I sent in, when I replied the dossier 02 formule all filled out she answered with shock, but no pictures? I said no, there was no list of other things to file so I just sent that. "oh, well if you didn't send the 2 pictures and your piece d'identité and and and of course we wouldn't have been able to fill it out!"

Figures, I forgot that I could have used my telepathic powers! Silly me.

Anyway she said she would send me the list of things to re-fill out and send back to her. As soon as she got them she would transfer them to the DDE to be put on the urgent list (after I asked if this was going to take another 3 months!)

So hopefully this will all work out. But to be honest I don't know if I'll pass the stupid code, I worked on it again last night and even paying attention to the pieges I still got TONS wrong because the ones I thought were traps were not and the ones that looked totally normal were...

Gah, if I survive this I'll need a gold medal.

Or maybe I should just drive on my American license and forget all this... works for so many other Americans!

06/03/09 Update: the lady followed through and sent me a new dossier and the list of documents needed. I got it done and sent back yesterday so I hope I'll hear back soon!

6 commentaires:

Justin a dit…

Thank sucks you are having so many issues. I just got mine Saturday after 6 months of correspondence. I was able to transfer but it still was a nightmare. Luckily the lady who gave me the form mentioned I needed to send photos. Good luck, and I feel your pain! And don't drive on your American license! Not a good idea since you have been here a while.

Kiwigirl a dit…

Good luck! I hope it all works out and you finally get your drivers license. Its a pity you can't do the whole swap thing, I can't figure out whether we can do it with our NZ licenses or not. Luckily as a student I can still drive on my NZ one with a note from the prefecture, not that it helps if driving outside of France!

BlondeInFrance a dit…

Vacation season is definitely not the time to do things at the prefecture, I had my own screamworthy incident last week, so I totally feel you. Good luck good luck good luck, it can't be said enough!!

Anonyme a dit…

That's awful, but totally not unusual let's face it. I won't start my anti french admin rant as i'll be here forever but at least you know that we feel your pain. I'm thinking about attempting to drive in france for the first time in nearly 4 years as the bus is becoming unbearable. As a brit though, it's way harder. I'll be opening windows when I should be changing gear! and as for the rules.... I have no idea either! It's so different to the UK! I'm working up the courage to get driving lessons here but it's not on my urgent list, yet!

Megan a dit…

Oh goodness. It was a nightmare for me too. It took me about nine months total. First I had to get a translation of my driver's license; Because I guess "name" and "date of birth" are WAY too hard to figure out. Then after I sent in my file, I had to go back every three months to get a stamp on a piece of paper, saying that my driver's license was in the process of being issued (because I had to turn in my US one, so I had no driver's license). Then, after about 8 months, they finally told me that I had to get a note from the translator specifying what class A meant on my license (basically that i can drive normal cars, not buses or motorcycles). Then I turned in that note. From the time that they got my note until they issued my license, it took about 2 days. I was lucky though because they gave me my US license back- I literally had to beg, otherwise they would have kept it.

MilkJam a dit…

thanks guys for the support... even if it takes over 6 months to exchange it i'd still rather go through that pain then this one!!! i swear i'd give up my first born child to make this code thing go away!!!

in the meantime maybe i should spend less time on the blog and more time studying... lol