French Visa Warning

[rjcmcl]

Thai's and their partners should be very wary of applying for the Shengen visa from The French Embassy (via TLScontact). My partner who has valid UK and US visas and has visited Europe on a number of occasions applied three weeks ago and we still have no response. We had to delay our flight from today until tomorrow and we are now fighting with TLS to have the passport returned with or without visa as we planned to visit UK first. The ticket to London was supplied with the initial submission. After calling some "well to do" Thai's it seems there have been several high profile visa refusals lately. Today the TLS website still advises applying 6-10 days before travel. Clearly false information.

[theoldgit]

Thanks for the heads up on this, I wonder if it's the introduction of an extra layer of bureaucracy, ie TLSContact, that is slowing things down, or just that they are busy. Seem to remember that previously the French Consulate processed applications pretty quickly.

Any idea why the "well to do" Thais you spoke to had their visa applications refused? it may be of use to others.

[Who, me ?]

TLS is a joke. Just an extra useless step. No decision making whatsoever. Just grab your 1,200 Baht to process (and not very well) your application. Then, absolutely useless in case of difficulty

[KamnanT]

The TLSContact website says 6-10 working days, which is 8 to 14 calendar days assuming no statuatory holidays. But 3 weeks does seem well beyond their stated service level target. Any other members had recent experience and what was the turnaround time received?