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What documents do I need for a visa application to travel to France?
People from the UK, US and 68 other countries outside of the Schengen area need to apply if they want to stay for more than 90 days
Visits to second home in France: be prepared for visa wait
A Connexion reader shares his experiences of the French visa application process
![Robert Kneschke / Shutterstock](https://image.connexionfrance.com/103327.webp?imageId=103327&width=960&height=642&format=jpg)
Whenever The Connexion runs a piece on visas, I read it with interest.
As second-home owners, we naturally wish to spend up to six months at our house, rather than a miserly 90 days.
Your last article on visas made me smile: “All in all, the process takes around 20 minutes. However, waiting times can significantly add to this.”
Read more: Visas to stay in France for six months: Q&As on appointment process
Just as well the caveat about waiting times was added, but even the estimate of 20 minutes presenting one’s dossier is optimistic.
My application for a visa in 2021 saw me spend at least an hour at TLSContact in Wandsworth.
Two days later, I received an email from the French consulate saying that TLS should not have accepted my application, since I would need to apply at the prefecture in Nîmes!
The rules changed in June that year.
In 2022, I applied again and spent 90 minutes at the Wandsworth TLS offices – proceedings were slow as my interviewer was new and had to keep seeking advice from senior colleagues.
But I received my passport with a visa only a week later.
This year, I was at the TLS offices for a full two hours. I was surprised that yet again I had to undergo fingerprinting and retina scans.
However, nine days later I received my new visa, and in a few weeks’ time we are off.
Most TLS employees are perfectly friendly and efficient, though their telephone manner seems to have borrowed much from French bureaucracy: brusque, impatient.
I fervently hope progress is made in removing the requirement for second-home owners to get a visa every year in the same tedious and expensive way.
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