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Just recently I was having a conversation with some colleagues on the very subject of “le dossier.” Nothing is done, nothing can be done and nothing will be done without a “dossier.” It is, I suppose, comforting in a sense, to have the masses so regimentally structured. Folks in the U.S. of A tend to have high-anxiety over our bureaucracy well I tell them they should all relax and experience real anxiety abroad. A dossier, in its simplest form is really just a collection of papers containing detailed information about a particular person or subject (usually a person’s police, credit, marriage and divorce records for starters). It can mean a folder, a file and it can even refer to where you place your back against a chair. There are big bulging dossiers, like the UN dossier or the Warren Commission dossier, there are many dossiers that never “existed” and police investigation dossiers. There are disarmingly nice little dossiers like the dossier de marriage with little cupids on it and inside an exhaustive list of documents to produce, have stamped, signed, attested or otherwise notarized. But in the vie quotidienne for most French men and women, it’s simply an indispensable file to do or get just about anything. If it’s not “un dossier” then it’s an “affaire.” I’m not sure which one is worse.
Let me discuss a hypothetical case of someone who has been in Paris for, a few months and deciding that they want to rent a larger apartment. Walking in with your ballpoint pen ready to fill out an application is not going to cut the moutarde that is, unless you just happen to have your dossier tucked under your arm with copies of 3 months of pay slips, proof of employment, so as to be sure you are not on any “plan social”or welfare, proof of insurance that covers your rent for 36 months should you decide to stop paying and skip out, your RIB, which means relève indentité bancaire which is worth is weight in gold and means you have a French bank account (without a bank account you have no real status and witout any status unrecognizable by as a person by the state); a statement from your existing landlord that says you reside in their building, a copy of your landlord’s ID card, copy of your landlords gas bill, copy of your passport. I forgot to mention that it is entirely possible that the dossier will need a document certifying that you cannot produce any tax documents if you have not been in France long enough and a document saying that you have dutifuly handed in your tax declaration for the current year. It’s only a couple of things that you can quickly put your hands on.
Are you sure that’s all? Very good question because if you don’t know which questions to ask then a most polite administrative official won’t tell you. If you appreciate Kafka, then you will feel right at home. You can’t know and you won’t know what you really need to know until its “review time.” It’s that lovely little process where the dossier is “examined” to ascertain if it conforms to all rules and regulations possibly promulgated under Napoleonic code. No exceptions Monsieur! Sometimes, even when you have done your homework and checked, no double checked to make sure everything is in the dossier, when it gets reviewed, you must accept the fact that something will be missing not for reasons of having completely messed up but for reasons of administration. If you are experiencing an administrative difficulty you may well be asked, encouraged, to submit your request in writing. The state will let you know ahead of time that the answer will be”No.” But we urge you to make the request. That too, by the way, will go in your “dossier.”
One day, Monsieur, when your dossier is of no further interest to us, it will be filed away for “reference.” If the information contained inside or your identity is too sensitive, your dossier will be destroyed along with all records of it. That is all I am at liberty to say. We will of course have to start a new dossier on you. Thank you for coming down to the Prefecture de Police. Bonne journée Monsieur.