Xavier de Marchi holds up a copy of the newspaper from his hometown in Bergerac, France documenting his plight.
INDIAN ROCKS BEACH – Imagine you’ve spent the last seven years building a business, raising a family, becoming part of a community where your customers call you by your first name and your city thanks you for your public service.
Then, you have to close that business in 10 days after which you won’t be allowed to work. What’s more, in three months you will be forced to leave the country all because a U.S. government official rules that your business is “marginal.”
This happened to one local family business and the community has now banded together to help Valerie and Xavier de Marchi, owners of the Café de Paris at 2300 Gulf Blvd.
Earlier this year the de Marchis, who are French citizens, began planning their application for renewal of a five-year license to do business in the United States. They gathered what they thought would be the requisite business records, proof of financial means and references from customers and friends then booked a flight to Paris – to apply at the U.S. Embassy for a renewed E-2 Treaty Investor Visa.
Among the letters of recommendation carried by the baker was one from Brigadier General Gilles Lemoine, French Senior National Representative to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Macdill Air Force Base.
“M. Xavier Demarchi provides great support to the French military detachment and greatly contributes to the US-France friendship,” he wrote.
There are also letters praising the de Marchis business from Mayor R.B. Johnson of Indian Rocks Beach and Mayor Patricia Gerard of Largo.
The treaty requires that Xavier, Valerie, and her son, 16-year-old Luigi, be present to renew the visa. The de Marchis booked round-trip flights to Paris and what they thought would be a routine meeting with embassy staff and at the same time a welcome chance to visit with family and friends near their second residence in Bergerac in the south of France.
The meeting at the embassy however proved anything but routine. Valerie said after a short 10 minutes, a lone embassy official who indicated he had no need to review their documents declared the meeting concluded and sent the de Marchis away with the promise that they would learn the outcome of their application via letter. When the notice came it stated simply that the business was determined to be “marginal” and their request for renewal was denied.
With no option for appeal and their visas reissued as tourist documents the family returned to Indian Rocks Beach Monday night, their world turned upside down with the knowledge that they would have to close the bakery by Dec. 11 and return to France before their visas expire.
Tuesday morning a banner appeared in front of the bakery.
“Sauvez la Boulangerie,” it said, “Save the Café de Paris ... help Xavier and Valerie keep their visas.”
Friends and customers have formed a support group. They held their first strategy meeting at the bakery Tuesday. International law consultant Jan Gorse of Holland and a longtime customer who now lives in Largo said the group planned to send letters of support for the de Marchis along with signed petitions to the State Department, including Hillary Clinton and elected government officials.
The Save the Café de Paris petition to support the bakery’s continuation is available online on Facebook and Go Petition (www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-bakery.html.) The group plans rallies at the bakery Dec. 12 and 19.
The group hopes to persuade the embassy to reverse their decision as was accomplished recently in New Hampshire when a similar ruling by U.S. officials in Paris revoked the treaty investor’s visa for Le Rendezvous Bakery and the small community of Colebrook let officials know they wanted to keep their bakery.
“It’s a matter of what is more important,” said committee member Jo Donovan of Largo, “a nice, international-feel meeting place or another empty storefront.”
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