assistantsinfrance.com

For the Australian and New Zealander assistants, the French embassies in both countries are now issuing biometric visas that require a photograph and all ten fingerprints to be taken. Therefore, personal appearance will be required at the embassies in Sydney and Wellington to obtain a visa for France and mail-in applications are no longer allowed. In Australia, you must make an appointment through the embassy's website, and in New Zealand, you must call the embassy.

*The embassy in Sydney will be closed July 15-17 for engineering work.

Language assistants and students in France will no longer be required to obtain a carte de séjour from the préfecture, as they have had to do in the past.

After the medical visit, you will receive a vignette to be placed in your passport. This will serve as a replacement for the carte de séjour, and you will still be eligible for CAF with this vignette.

The vignette *may* be valid for an entire year instead of just the duration of the assistant contract. Some details are still unknown and a little vague, but this change is to simplify the process for everyone involved. I'll post more information when it's available.

Starting with the 2009-10 academic year, the French Ministry of Education has eliminated the IUFM assistantships, leaving only the 7 month (secondary and primary) and 9 month (primary) positions.

The 9 month positions are continuously decreased every year as well, so eventually the teaching assistantship will only offer 7 month positions at either the secondary or primary level.

If accepted applicants put IUFM as a preference, obviously it will be ignored. The Ministry of Education just recently eliminated the positions, which is why the IUFM option was still on the application.

The US program has started sending out acceptance e-mails as of today, April 6. Congratulations to all those accepted!

L'heure d'été begins today in France and most of Europe, so don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour!

If you're traveling outside of France soon, and returning to France between March 20 and April 5, you will most likely have to show your passport and/or CDS to get back in. France is re-activating the border checks for all land and air crossings because of the NATO summit (April 3-4 in Strasbourg). Sarkozy, Merkel and the "nouveau président des Etats-Unis, Barak Obama" will be in attendance. Yes, they spelled his name wrong.

Article from immigration.gouv.fr

Tomorrow is another national strike in France! Trains are supposed to be "fortement perturbé" mais on verra...

19 mars 2009 : Grève Générale