The French foreigner's identity card

From the decree of 2 April 1917 every foreigner over fifteen staying more than fifteen days in France had to hold an identity card, which stood for the old permis de séjour. He declared his civil status, family, nationality, residence and references, brought three photographs full face without a hat, 4 by 4 centimetres, and had the card viséed on arrival and on departure in every locality where he stayed, by the mayor or the commissaire de police.

Its leaves are read on the card the Préfecture de police issued on 27 December 1938, good for a year: the number and the term beside the photograph, the prefect's signature and stamp; the bearer's name, birth, father and mother, profession and nationality, how that nationality was acquired and his family situation, the unused words struck out by the clerk; the spouse, the children the card exempted, and the address the day it was handed over. The card of the twenties has not been found and is printed in the same form; the cover and the visa pages are ours, and the office says so.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

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The paper

Parts reconstructed

• The card's cover and its visa pages are reconstructions: the card read, of December 1938, is photographed open on its leaves inside, and its visa leaf is cut off.

Still to be confirmed

• the leaves inside are read on one card, issued in Paris on 27 December 1938; the card of the twenties, under the decree of 2 April 1917, has not been found and is printed in the same form. What would settle it: a carte d'identité d'étranger of 1917 to 1935.
• the cover (the Republic, the prefecture, the title, the decree) and the visa pages (arrival and departure, as the notice of 1917 asks) are ours. What would settle it: a card photographed closed, and its visa leaf.
• the term follows the decrees read: three years by calendar years from the decree of 25 October 1924, two years by calendar years under the finance law of 26 March 1927 and the decrees after it, two years day for day from the decree of 10 July 1929; the card of 1917 to 1924 is given two years, its decree unread; the card read of December 1938 ran one year, and the decree-laws of 1938 that may have changed it are not followed. What would settle it: the decree of 2 April 1917 and the decree-laws of 1938.
• the worker's and the non-worker's card, the reduced tariff and the words on the worker's situation are not printed. What would settle it: a card of 1925 to 1937.

Sources

• Préfet de police E. Laurent; poster, Paris Musées (AFF5397), on Wikimedia Commons (CC0), Préfecture de police, Avis relatif à la délivrance d'une Carte d'Identité aux étrangers, Paris, 8 May 1917, the decree of 2 April 1917: every foreigner over fifteen staying more than fifteen days in France holds the card, which stands for the permis de séjour; the declaration (civil status, family, nationality, residence, references), three photographs full face without a hat, 4 by 4 cm; the card viséed on arrival and on departure in every locality by the mayor or the commissaire de police (art. 2) (read directly)
• Wikimedia Commons (public domain), Carte d'identité d'étranger No. CC 41778, issued by the Préfet de police, Paris, on 27 December 1938 to Vladimir Jabotinsky, journalist, first leaf: the number, CARTE VALABLE du 1.1 1939 au 1.1 1940, the photograph under two eyelets, Délivrée par M. le Préfet [de Police] le 27 DEC 1938, Le Préfet, the office's round stamp, Signature du titulaire; second leaf: Nom, Prénoms, Né le, à, de, et de … née, Profession, Nationalité, Mode d'acquisition de cette nationalité : filiation, mariage, naturalisation (rayer les mentions inutiles), Situation de famille : célibataire, marié, veuf, divorcé (rayer les mentions inutiles); third leaf: RENSEIGNEMENTS SUR LE CONJOINT (Nom, Prénoms, Né le, à, Nationalité), ENFANTS dispensés de la carte d'identité (Prénoms, Date et lieu de naissance, Nationalité), Lieu de résidence et adresse au moment de la remise de la carte; fourth leaf: the visas (Vu … à … le …), cut off in the photograph; green paper printed with the RF monogram and laurel (read directly)
• Ministère de l'Intérieur; Gallica (BnF), Instruction générale concernant l'application des dispositions du décret du 25 octobre 1924 relatif à la carte d'identité des étrangers (décret au Journal officiel du 1er novembre 1924), every foreigner over fifteen staying more than fifteen days asks for the card within forty-eight hours of his arrival, at the commissariat or the mairie, proving his regular entry, with four photographs full face without a hat, and pays the tax; a récépissé valid fifteen days, a month at most; the card made by the prefecture alone, the tax stamp at the top left of page 1, the photograph on page 2, blind-stamped on two corners; validity three years (art. 8 of the decree), every year begun counting whole (valable pour les années 192.., 192..), cut to the visa's term when the visa is limited (valable jusqu'au …); the salaried worker's contract, and for the others the words 'affirme qu'il n'est salarié à aucun titre' (read directly)
• Hayard, Paris; Gallica (BnF, 8-F PIECE-6992), Ministère de l'Intérieur, Nouveaux décrets réglementant le séjour des étrangers en France (Hayard, 1932): the report of 9 July 1929, the decree of 10 July 1929 on the delivery of identity cards to foreigners, and the decree on their tariff, the report: since 1924 the decrees (of 9 September 1925, 30 November 1926, 20 January 1928, 26 April 1929) made the card valid 'en principe' two years, every year begun counting whole, and the commission asked for two years day for day; the decree, art. 1: within eight days of arrival (or of his fifteenth year), at the commissariat or the mairie, four photographs, the particulars (name, forenames, filiation, profession, nationality, family, the children with him, last domicile abroad); art. 2: made by the prefect alone, the photograph blind-stamped on two corners; art. 5: valid, save contrary indication, for two years from the day of entry into France, renewal in the first quarter after the last year of validity; art. 7: a salaried worker's health certificate and work contract; the tariff (loi de finances of 26 March 1927, art. 88): 100 francs full, 20 francs reduced (students, scholars, writers and journalists, wage-earners under 18,000 francs a year, farmers working their own land …), the card required of every foreigner staying more than two months, valid two years (read directly)

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