Practice shows that the process of obtaining a visa to France is quite lengthy and time-consuming. Between the fact of the filing of documents and the receipt of the coveted permit stamp, the applicant can only wait for a solution by tracking the stages of the passage of documents by a detailed examination.
Next, we consider the main features of the visa tracking process in France, as well as some recommendations regarding this.
Documents required for obtaining a visa
In order to become the owner of the coveted permit stamp, any citizen of Russia must provide a package of documents. The number of required papers without fail includes a questionnaire filled out in accordance with the requirements established by the migration policy. It can be filled in both English and French. An passport with an unexpired validity period should be attached to the application, as well as 2 color photographs measuring 3.5 x 4.5 cm, made in accordance with the requirements. In addition to all of the above, the tourist must provide copies of all pages of the domestic passport.
To obtain a visa to the country of the European Union in question, you must provide a medical insurance policy, the coverage of which will be at least 30,000 euros. Also, in the process of issuing visas, the French pay attention to the purpose of the visit - it must be justified and documented.
The tourist must provide tickets for the return transport to the general package of documents, as well as paper testifying to the financial well-being of the applicant, which may include a bank statement, a sponsorship letter, a certificate of employment indicating salary, etc.
Where to go
To apply for a visa to France, Russians need to contact specialized visa centers located in major cities of the country. In addition, the request can be made at the consulates of France, which are located in the following cities:
- Khabarovsk
- Krasnodar;
- Ufa
- Irkutsk
- Kaliningrad
- Krasnoyarsk;
- Nizhny Novgorod;
- Vladivostok;
- Omsk
- Saratov;
- Permian;
- Samara
- Novosibirsk
- Kazan.
Tourists also have the opportunity to apply for a visa to France at the embassies of the country, which are available in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don and St. Petersburg.
Practice shows that requests for a visa to France are processed much faster if they were submitted at visa centers.
Where to track the process of reviewing documents
To date, the implementation of the process of considering documents for a visa to France is possible on the portal of the diplomatic mission. It is also possible on the official website of the center where documents were submitted. Practice shows that the VFSSMS portal is often chosen for this purpose. Tracking a visa to France on this resource takes a small amount of time. Moreover, according to experienced tourists, it is on this site that you can arrange a paid courier delivery of a finished document with glued permission to any convenient place.
Applicants should pay attention to the fact that on all available resources information is updated twice a day - at noon and at 5 pm.
If this is possible, the applicant can carry out the process of tracking the visa to France and the status of its registration through a personal visit to the center or a representative office of the country's diplomatic mission in Russia. Also, in some cases, it is recommended to do this over the phone, by the consulate's hotline number. It should be noted that in the process of making a call, you can clarify some other points of interest.
Tracking Procedure
In order to track a passport with a French visa, the applicant needs to go to the website of the necessary agency and, having found the link “Track your passport” on it, click on it. Next, you should correctly fill in the two columns ("Date of birth" and "Registration number"), in which you need to specify the registration number and date of birth, and then press Enter on the keyboard. In the event that everything was done correctly, the status will be displayed to the user, which reflects the stage at which the review process is currently located.
Where to find the registration number
Practice shows that the majority of applicants involved in tracking the readiness of a visa to France have certain difficulties associated with determining the registration number of the application. Where to find him?
The registration number of the application is indicated on the coupon issued after submitting the application for the provision of the permit document. Here it is indicated in the MOAS format, suitable for entering data in the appropriate field on the website of any visa center in France for visa tracking.
Tracking via SMS alert
Recently, many Russian tourists prefer to track the registration of permits by informing via SMS. In order to keep abreast of the entire process of considering the application, in the process of filing it is necessary to indicate the need for SMS-informing, within which the applicant will receive a message on his phone number confirming this.
It should be noted that this notification method is paid. As of 2018, its price was 50 rubles. Practice shows that in most institutions this service is provided automatically, but the applicant always has the right to refuse it.
Email Tracking
Studying the features of the visa tracking procedure for France, one should pay attention to the fact that today applicants are able to request appropriate notifications by sending messages by e-mail.
In order to find out the status of the application review process, you must first get the email address of the center through which the request for a visa to France was submitted. After a certain time, a letter can be sent to it, the contents of which should indicate the number of the passport, in relation to which the issue of granting permission to enter / exit is being decided. In response to it should come a notice reflecting the real status of the process of reviewing documents.
In this case, all notifications come automatically, and a relatively small amount of time is required to process the request.
Clearance period
When engaging in the process of tracking a visa to France, one must clearly understand that the procedure for considering a submitted application is carried out within a certain time frame. As practice shows, the normal duration of consideration of documents submitted through the visa center is from 5 to 14 days. In the event that the application was filed through an intermediary, then the specified time may be reduced, however, for this the applicant will have to pay an additional amount.
In the event that a visa is issued through a consulate or embassy, the application processing time is about 30 days.
Observations show that the length of the review process often depends on the time of year, as well as on some other factors.
Possible difficulties
As practice shows, the process of tracking documents for a visa to France is often accompanied by certain difficulties. As a rule, most often they are connected with the fact that not all systems designed for verification work flawlessly.
Practice also shows that very often users encounter a No records found in the system error, which can occur for the following reasons:
- The introduction of the ticket number is not in the format of MOAS.
- The information has not yet been processed by the staff of the visa center or representative office of the country's diplomatic mission in Russia.
- Instead of the required letter N, the symbol No. was entered.
- The lack of a sloping line (/) in the room.