The OFII convocation letter, explained (visite médicale & CIR)
OFII convocations look alarming and are usually good news: your file is moving. What the visite médicale and CIR appointments involve, what to bring, and what happens if you miss one.
A thick envelope from OFII (Office français de l'immigration et de l'intégration) with a date, an address, and a list of documents reads like a summons. It's almost always the opposite of trouble: OFII convocations mean your immigration file is progressing. Here's what each type involves and how not to trip on the details.
Why OFII writes to you
OFII handles the integration side of immigration: the medical check that validates certain first titres and VLS-TS visas, the Contrat d'intégration républicaine (CIR) with its civic training days and language assessment, and family-reunification logistics. When one of these steps is due, they convoke you. The letter itself is the appointment, usually assigned rather than chosen.
The visite médicale
At the end you receive a certificat médical. For VLS-TS holders and several first titres, that certificate is a required piece of your prefecture file. Store it like it's irreplaceable, because getting a duplicate is slow.
The CIR convocation
If you signed a Contrat d'intégration républicaine, OFII convokes you to a half-day session with a language test (positioning you against level A1), an interview, and later up to four days of formation civique. Attendance is contractual: the préfecture checks CIR completion at your first renewal, and unjustified absences show up in that file.
If you can't make the date
- Don't just skip it. An unjustified no-show can suspend the procedure the convocation belongs to (visa validation, titre issuance, CIR completion).
- Call or write to the OFII direction territoriale on the letterhead BEFORE the date, propose rescheduling, and keep proof you asked.
- A justified absence (work or illness, with documentation) is routinely rescheduled without consequence.
The fine print is the point
OFII letters bury the operative details (which centre, which floor, fasting or not, which originals) inside boilerplate paragraphs. Upload the convocation to Mes Papiers and we'll pull out the date, the address, the document list, and the consequence of missing it, in English, before you have to plan anything.