Blog/2024-09-03/Getting A French Visa

Since I'm an Indian citizen, getting a visa is a common activity for me. Going practically anywhere is an exercise in paperwork. Some places are easy, like Hong Kong (which just needs an instant online application), some places are easy if you've got a US visa (like most of South America), and some places are hard (like the Schengen zone).

For much of my life I've had a Schengen visa since either my parents applied for me to visit as a child or because I've had to go there for work, and it's never ceased to be a huge pain.

The best experience is trying to get into France. The worst experience is trying to get into Norway - where they propose that you book all your flights but emphasize that you should not pay for them until you've got the visa (which requires a confirmation of your flights).

Anyway, I never did get that visa to Norway (which I intended to also use to go to Croatia for my friend's bachelorette) since I requested my passport back so I could go to a wedding. Schengen visas are hard to get because the contractor they've hired to run it has a limited number of appointment slots. Today, I found out why.

1. The ticketing system would print tickets but it wouldn't call them out
2. Agents would call out via some auction-like system ("What's your ticket number? 34? Does anyone have lower than 34?")
3. Verifying that your application is valid is pretty slow

The process for the French visa is much simpler than for the esoteric countries in Schengen.

1. If you've forgotten a document they'll print it for you there
2. There is a pretty short checklist on the France Visas site on what you need

While I was sitting there, a guy who was clearly IT was talking to someone who must have been the boss and explaining that "V1 wasn't working" or something like that. Eventually, they did actually get the ticketing system functional and after a little longer they got it to actually display to us and call out numbers (though the first few were wrong).

For the most part it was quite easy, and the location had Internet and did not prohibit cell phones so it was possible to book a hotel for one day that I didn't have covered.

One amusingly embarrassing part was that when I was called for my biometrics I repeatedly pulled hard on a door that I later found was locked and would be unlocked a few seconds later.

But in the end, it took about as long as I expected a visa appointment to take.

Timeline

Time	Event
1029	I arrived at VFS
1035	I received my number
1045	My appointment time
1150	I was called up to a counter
1215	I finished at the counter
1225	I was called up to biometrics
1236	I left VFS

There were a few strange details about the place. The elevators were labelled with a sign that said "Only 2 people in an elevator at a time" on one and "Only 1 person in the elevator at a time" on the other. The elevators themselves were large and could have held 10+ and indeed 4 others got in with me on the max-2 one.

There was a metal detector which fired since I had my laptop in my bag but it was completely ignored.

The whole place seemed a bit haphazard. One of the HVAC vents was in front of a hanging lamp and caused the lamp to oscillate continuously. There was a false ceiling over one corner of the space where sprinklers and a security camera were installed. The token system seemed to be running on Windows with the displays being dumb monitors (they all changed in lockstep).

Overall, this wasn't as nice as applying for a French visa in the UK (which is much nicer and faster) but it was definitely orders of magnitude better than applying for one to Norway.

Timeline After Submission

Timeline

Time	Event
Sep 3	VFS Appointment
Sep 9	VFS reports package arrival at Washington Operation Center
Sep 9	VFS reports dispatch to Embassy of France
Sep 9	VFS reports under processing at Embassy of France
Sep 12	VFS reports package in transit from Embassy of France
Sep 12	VFS reports receipt at Washington Operation Center
Sep 12	VFS reports package dispatched to me
Sep 13	Package recorded at my building front desk

Since the VFS reports are minutes from each other, I think they are all processed in batch and do not represent a true time log. However, I did receive my visa within 10 days of application.

It was a multiple entry visa for 3 months.