CampusFrance: Welcome to Bureaucracy

Before she left for Germany to be an au pair, my stepsister, Hélène, encountered a German woman on the streetcar. Hélène, who only spoke a little bit of German, must've expressed some concern about being able to communicate during her trip because the nice Berliner said to her, "Don't vorry. If you make ein mistake, de German vill politely correct you... Not like de French -- Dey don't vant you to know!"

While the statement may be based on an unfair stereotype, it sure struck a cord with me and my co-exchangers and good friends, Le Jumeau and Le Chef, as we were filling out the CampusFrance form. Why? Let me count the ways:

First there's the website. I get it, we're going to France, we should have a working knowledge of the language. Fair enough. I even started the application form in the French version, but when that became a bit iffy (and I really like to be sure what I'm answering on government forms) I switched the language setting to English. Apparently, the French Embassy's webmaster speaks about as much English as I speak French because all the hard words were still en français. Awesome. The website had a few other quirks. Both my inbox and my outbox on the site's email page - you communicate with them 100% on their terms; there is literally no phone number for CampusFrance - were labeled "list of received messages," the options for the type of education you have received are ludicrous.

Overall, the layout was kind of confusing and the expectations were extremely unclear. The user guide helped a lot: http://usa.campusfrance.org/en/1.html

With the help of Le Chef, who's very precocious, as well as my university's study abroad office, I discovered that I only needed to report my social studies grades and did not need to attach the "proof" the website demands when filling out the 3 part (each with 3 steps) "Education" section. But after doing this, clicking through the point of no return, and sending in my $70, I have a little box that says "Education à completer." This ambiguous phrase is rather terrifying when accompanied by the warning that if any part of your CampusFrance application is incomplete, well, no visa for you! Yikes!

Le Chef had the same message, and he is now the proud owner of a visa, so we'll see what happens when Le Jumeau and I get to the consulate. Yay roadtrip!