No Soup for You!

We're lucky that my employer gives us the same rights and benefits as married straight couples. While the US government does withhold benefits from same sex couples (for instance, taxing domestic partner medical benefits and not allowing survivor rights on social security), usually it equates to $$ out of my pocket.

I guess that's why what's happening right now with my foreign assignment is so unsettling. The French government won't recognize Sarah as a dependent of mine, and thus she can't be included on my worker permit. Typically when a worker permit is done to go work in France, the spouse and children are included on the worker permit, and all the paperwork is included in one thick stack. So they won't let us do that. Sarah has to file for a visitor visa separately, and we're struggling to make all the timing work. Right now it looks like there will be timing problems for us.

Which finally brings me to my "No Soup For You" title. In trying to figure out the timing (and the requirement to have a Paris address before Sarah can file for her visitor visa), it would be nice to call the French Consulate in Houston and ask some questions. My employer called, and was told "We do not answer questions about Visas on the phone". So a native French speaker from my company called and asked in French. Same response. Email in French to the Consulate was like sending it to /dev/null. So, if I have a question about the Visa process, I have to drive 4 hours to the nearest Consulate, get my question answered, and drive home? How unreasonable is that? "No Soup For You!"