How To Get a Long-Term French Visa

​I knew when I arrived in Tunisia to do my visa, people would not understand. I don’t think most Tunisians look at visas as cultural exchanges. Most of the time they are viewed as either a vacation for the wealthy or a permanent lifestyle change.
 
The day after we arrived, Moez and I located the group that now handles the French embassy’s visas in Tunisia. We parked and positioned ourselves in a relatively short line in order to get the information we needed. With Moez distinction of being a French resident, we weren’t sure of the visa type required. It appeared that a visa for a long-sejour – so easy to handle in the U.S. – was in fact nowhere to be found in Tunisia. Once I did find it with the help of a call center, I discovered they required significantly more things to be turned in than what was required for the exact same visa in the U.S.
 
The man behind the counter became completely baffled when we explained the situation. He asked for clarification from Moez:
“You are…”
“Tunisian-American with French residency.”
“And she is…”
“An American.”
He looked at us again. “But Americans don’t need a visa” he said.
“After three months they do.”
“Ah, right.”
He got up and gave us a paper. “But why on earth would an American want to go to France for an extended period of time?” he questioned Moez.
It is hard to explain to people about cultural exchanges and new life experiences, so I didn’t bother.
 
I tried to explain to the man what the issue was. The problem is, there are different visas, and I am not sure which one I need. He clearly didn’t know either, so he finally handed us over a card for the call service. I realized, he had never come across this case before – which kind of made me nervous. It was with sudden realization that this might just be the first time an American has been issued a visa from Tunisia for France.
 
Yikes!