In a significant update, the international visitors to France will now have to get used to a new visa appointment process. The French visa authorities have announced a new and mandatory process for obtaining visa appointments at their visa sections internationally.
This modification is already in force and affects all applicants, regardless of whether they are seeking a long-stay French national visa or a short-stay Schengen visa.
France Visa Process
To book their visa appointments, applicants must now adhere to a redesigned online procedure. Initially, you need to check on the Visa Wizard page that you need a visa to go to France and the type of visa required, whether for a short or a long stay. The visa wizard will help you determine, depending on your situation, the visa requirements, as well as the visa fees and required supporting documents.
If you have stayed in the Schengen Area within the past 6 months, please use the Visa Calculator tool to determine the precise number of days remaining for your authorized stay.
Booking of an appointment will only be possible for individuals who have been verified as needing a visa.
Once confirmed, you need to visit the visa appointment portal. Here, you need to submit your appointment request through the Demarches Simplifiees platform. If you do not have an account already created on the website demarches-simplifiees.fr, you need to initially register there.
Once you have registered, you will need to complete a brief questionnaire, indicating in particular the date of departure, purpose of your visit, and the duration and purpose of the stay, and validate it.
If your application is accepted, you will be contacted via e-mail to let you know the date of your visa appointment. If you do not reply to this email to confirm your availability, your appointment will be cancelled.
Before your appointment, your visa application procedure on the France-visas website should have been completed. On the day of your appointment, you must come with your printed application, including all the supporting documents requested. Incomplete applications will not be processed.
Anyone coming to the appointment with a different identity than the one given when the appointment was made will not be allowed to apply.
The service provider (or consulate) will review your application, collect the visa fee, collect your biometric data (photo and fingerprints), and keep your passport and the copies of all your supporting documents in order to forward them to the consulate.
The visa application process will take approximately 20 minutes at the visa centre. You may be exempt from attending your visa appointment in person if your fingerprints were previously collected as part of an earlier application, less than 59 months before the date of your current application.
Your application is monitored by the visa centre where you applied. You will be notified when your passport is ready for collection from the visa centre where you applied. Visa applications are generally processed within 15 days. This period can be extended up to 45 days in particular cases if the examination of the application justifies it.