Re-Entry After Over-Stay?

There is a French Consulate in San Francisco. I am sure they can give you a much more authoritative answer than you can get here.

Did the French government get involved regarding your overstay? If so, what was their response?

If not, they may not have realized it.

Being married to an American has nothing to do with it. They're concerned more about you going to France to settle and try to work.

If you do go, I'd suggest having copies of all your receipts regarding the wedding as well as printed proof of when you plant to leave--like a photocopy of your e-ticket.

Jeff and Frank gave good advice, and as they point out, this is a legal question, so my thought is don't rely on us as we're not legal experts and it sounds like you need to be sure and don't want to take a chance on getting there and being denied entry. I don't know if there's any better alternative than contacting the French Consulate in San Francisco, I guess you could do so anonymously, here's a link to them http://www.consulfrance-sanfrancisco.org/spip.php?rubrique2

the only problem with contacting the French Consulate if the French government hasn't already gotten involved, is paramount to confessing to a crime. They could then ban her from entering.

If the French government has already gotten involved, then they have already made a judgement. If not, it's possible they are not aware of it. So why confess to a crime if you don't have to.

Sarah...you have not told us enough. Is the French government aware of your staying over for 6 months? Were you forced to leave? Did the French government say anything when you left? Did you receive any notice of your overstaying?

Thank you so much to everyone for your advice. I do plan to contact the consulate on Monday- thanks again you guys!

Frank,

I know, that was my hesitation in contacting the consulate but I do intend to do so anonymously.

So as to the conditions of my over-stay: I was never contacted by regarding the over-stay, nothing was said at the airport when I left, and I never encountered anything during my stay regarding acknowledgement by the government of my overstay (and presence in the country, for that matter)

Thanks Frank and interested to hear your response

I hope the consulate doesn't have "caller ID"! Maybe calling from a pay phone would be a better idea? I know of a friend who's daughter went to school in France and kept trying to get a student visa but was continually told to "come back in 10 days, come back in 10 days". She finally gave up. She's returned many times for vacation or work and has never been stopped; she never contacted the consulate to find out what the consequences would be....So far so good.

Sarah, because this is an interesting variaiton of a theme we commonly encounter on these forums, please update us when you find your answer.

If, as you seem to be saying, that you were in France, overstayed by six months (9 months unless you had some other Visa) but were never questioned when leaving, plus all this was at least a year ago...I would just let sleeping dogs be. In the view of the French, they really have no clue that you did anything wrong, but to inquire, their version may be very different and they will discourage you from entering. Now, if they had caught you on exit, you most likely would have been flagged, denying re-entry for up to 10 years. But if they did not question at all...then I doubt any flag would have been made.