TIPS FOR OBTAINING A FRENCH VISA (MIX students)
The French visa application process can seem daunting and confusing. Still, with proper preparation and initiative, you will be able to secure a French long-stay visa within a reasonable timeframe (1-2 months). In this article, I will provide a timeline and personal notes on the French visa application process.
For any stay in France exceeding 90 days, you will need a long-stay visa.
Obtaining this visa will require you to travel to the mainland (continental United States) in order to complete all of the necessary requirements. This is because the various French consulates in the US do not process visas, they only issue them. The French Consulate has outsourced the processing of the visa to a private third-party, VFS Global (Visa Facilitation Services Global). We will discuss VFS later in further detail later on.
I was accepted to the Rennes School of Business for the Fall 2022 semester. This affected my timeline, as I received my acceptance letter to the school five days after submitting my application
My timeline for obtaining a visa was as follows:
Late April 2022: create an account with the OFFICIAL French visa website and begin to fill out the visa application
https://france-visas.gouv.fr/en/web/france-visas/long-stay-visa
Notes: You will still be filling out the visa application on the official website. You will need to complete your visa, print out the completed application form, and obtain all requisite documents, before your scheduled appointment with VFS. If you do not want to upload documents to the website (for security or personal reasons), you can bring hard copies to the VFS appointment.
Q: What are the requisite documents?
A: - Visa application form (a physical form that you print out after you complete and submit
the visa application online)
- Passport Photo (2 copies) (VFS staff will embed one copy to the top of your printed visa
application)
- Valid travel document (by "valid" they mean not expired, for Americans, a travel document
will be your passport)
- Copy of passport (all pages)
- Valid Photo ID (for US citizens this can be a driver’s license)
- EEF certificate/info (EEF stands for Etudes en France and part of Campus France, which we
will discuss later on in the article).
- Proof of accommodation (school acceptance letter detailing accommodation,
correspondence, and/or rental contract with landlord/housing manager)
(This list may not reflect future changes, but is up to date as of 2022.)
Q: Do I really need to make a copy of everything?
A: Yes, and when it asks for every page of your passport, they mean EVERY page. I know that this is extremely tedious but if you do this the people processing your application will appreciate you. Although you might get some extra copies back if you made more copies than needed, it is better to be safe than having to scramble on the day of your VFS appointment to print out that one document you didn't think you needed.
Early May 2022: Create an account with VFS and schedule a visa appointment
It is important that you secure an appointment ASAP. The slots fill up FAST as there is generally a very high demand for visa services. All of the appointments at VFS's San Francisco office for the month of June filled up by May, so I had to go to the Los Angeles office instead in order to secure an appointment. Although VFS actually does accept walk-ins, ALWAYS make an appointment. This will ensure that you are serviced on the day and time specified. There will be a fee that you pay to VFS. You may also purchase other services from them to make your life easier. I recommend the courier service.
Early - Mid May 2022: Create an EEF account with the official Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs portal (Pastel Diplomatie) and receive EEF certificate at https://pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr/etudesenfrance/dyn/public/authentification/login.html
You will need an "EEF'' or Etudes en France number for a complete visa application. This is an identifier assigned to you by Campus France (a public institution in charge of promoting French higher education abroad), which is used by officials to identify your EEF record. Under normal circumstances, Campus France would act as a platform to apply to a French university, but since I was already accepted to my exchange school through the Manoa International Exchange Program (MIX) the processing for obtaining an EEF number was different. In the case of MIX students already accepted to a French university, you can go to the "students already accepted" section of the EEF process to fill out the requisite information and receive your EEF number. Unfortunately, you will still have to pay the $250 processing fee to Campus France (as of 2022) in order to get your EEF details formally approved and receive your EEF certificate.
Q: What if I don’t receive my EEF certificate before my VFS appointment?
A: This complicates things and may delay the visa process. My advice would be to provide your EEF number because this is the unique identifier that is used in association with the information you provide on the EEF website.
Mid May 2022: Book a flight to LA
You don't have to go to LA but I went to the LA VFS office since the San Francisco office was booked and LA was the cheapest alternative in terms of flight tickets.
Early June 2022: Receive EEF certificate
As long as you filled out the forms through the EEF website correctly and provided proof of your acceptance to a French university you should receive it within 3 weeks (it took Campus France about 2 weeks to process mine).
Mid June 2022: Print out the complete visa application and all supporting documents + copies
The only part of the visa application that I did not fill out was the signature (you fill that out in front of VFS staff, who acts as a witness), and the "insert" photo square on the top right corner of the first page of the visa application.
June 23rd 2022: Fly to LA
This flight was pretty straightforward and without issue. I took Hawaiian Airlines because it offered the cheapest ticket prices for a travel between HNL and LAX.
June 24th 2022: Appointment with VFS
Upon arriving at the VFS visa application office, you will be seated in a room before being called to present your documents. As long as you have everything requested, including the visa application and supporting documents, it should be a relatively painless process and the VFS staff working with you will take the lead on compiling everything together so that it is prepared. As a courtesy to the VFS staff, I made sure to arrange the documents in the specific order requested by VFS. After they package your application they will ask you to wait in the lobby/room to be called to take your biometrics. The biometrics process is nothing too crazy: they take your fingerprints using a special machine and a neutral, front-facing portrait with a camera (basically identical to a passport photo).
July 1st 2022: Received my long-stay visa and my passport at my home address
I paid extra for the VFS courier service so I did not have to go back up to LA to pick up my passport and visa.
It is ok if your timeline looks a little different give or take a few days. The main takeaways are that you should book a visa appointment EARLY and come to the VFS appointment PREPARED.
Bonne chance et bon voyage!