Paris, A Life Less Ordinary: A Memoir by Krystal Kenney

Author:Krystal Kenney [Kenney, Krystal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Visa Saga

Être adulte, c’est être seul.

—Jean Rostand

“To be an adult is to be alone.”

After losing my student visa for being a bad student and not attending classes as an au pair, I spiraled into a weird paperwork purgatory. I wanted so badly to start my company and get things rolling, but at the same time, my paperwork didn’t give me the right.

Since I had not attended classes, I lost that student visa and was on my own to apply for a work visa as an independent contractor. I submitted my papers and now had the torturous task of waiting to hear the response. I would equate the prefecture of Paris to the DMV of America. You wait in long lines, everyone is angry and tense, and people with much smaller skill sets get to decide the rest of your life! It also doesn’t help that the paperwork office is inside a police station! You walk in there already feeling like a criminal.

I was so envious of all the people I met in Paris who already came to France on a work visa through their company—they didn’t have to face these visa monsters alone. Corporations would give them a lawyer or consultant to do all the paperwork for them and hold their hand through the process, all they had to do was show up and prove they existed.

I, on the other hand, would take a shot of tequila every time I had to navigate that hell hole. Sweating palms, reciting French bureaucratic sentences inside my head as I paced by the front door, arriving hours early in preparation and out of pure fear.

The fear spread to other parts of my life, and checking the mail became like a death sentence. I was so scared to open that mailbox and find a letter of rejection. I couldn’t imagine returning to America, what would I do there? My life was here! That much I had decided.

And then the phone—what if they called, and started speaking that speedy French I barely understood, but needed to understand to prove I belonged here, to understand what was happening in my future? Every time my phone rang my heart leaped down into my stomach, I always let it go to voicemail. At least if they left a message, someone could help me translate, it gave me more time to think and respond.

I hid from neighbors, and wouldn’t even go to the bakery. I became one of those hermit ladies who was peeking outside through her curtains watching the world go by, stroking one of her fifteen cats, too afraid to join society, only watching from a birds’ eye view as it sped by.

I decided I would need some help to make it through my visa journey, so I hired a visa “consultant.” She helped me go through the pile of papers I couldn’t understand, create a business plan, and file for an appointment on the confusing prefecture website.

My appointment day finally arrived. I was terrified and paced outside the prefecture an hour before my appointment.

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