The French Visa Application Challenge - Post Brexit

Post by Richard Maidment 

Tom and Carrie’s exceptionally kind offer to us was to take over their house in Caunes-Minervois for twelve months. For all sorts of practical reasons that was never going to work but we desperately wanted to take up as much of their offer as we could. The first hurdle is a direct consequent of Brexit that limits non EEA nationals (ie us) to a maximum of 90 days in the Schengen area in any period of 180 days. Furthermore once the quota of 90 days is used up one cannot return to the Schengen Area until 90 more days have elapsed. And no - a Schengen visa cannot be extended during one’s stay. To do so would mean leaving the Schengen area and applying for a new visa to continue the visit! So therein lies the first problem or should I say challenge. For this adventure to succeed there will be no problems only challenges and they will be faced and dealt with head on!

If we are to get away to clear our minds, reset our metaphorical body clocks and reappraise our future then three months is not sufficient. We decide we would need a minimum of four months. Therein lies the problem. To exceed the 90 day limit we need a visa. For all sorts of reasons Brussels has decided that those that leave the club should pay the consequences. No better example of that is in the area of visa applications for Brits going to France or wherever in the Schengen area.

The first step is to fathom out what sort of visa is required, secondly what the application process is, thirdly to establish the requirements for obtaining one, the cost involved and then to assess the prospects of success! As part of my research I established there are experts that specialise in helping those wading through the bureaucratic mire of visa applications. I think it cost £40 or thereabouts to speak to one such expert on the phone which I thought was money well spent. The upshot being that we fell in to the category of “ Long Sejour Temporaire Visa V2 VL ST Dispense TS”. Pick the bones out of that one! But such a visa would be valid for up to six months and that was what we needed to apply for. My expert advisor could see no good reason why we should not succeed!

French Visa Applications are processed by the Consulate General of France in London but the detail is outsourced to an organisation called TL Scotland. The initial application is made separately to both organisations on line for some unfathomable reason particularly as the forms are not identical! Oh yes and for married couples each spouse has to complete a separate application! The applications are supported by a host of documentation which can be submitted either on line or in person at the subsequent interview. Yes, you read that correctly each application is presented and reviewed in detail at a subsequent interview in London.

Let me divert for a moment to review the documentation required before a visa application can be validated and an interview arranged.

• A passport issued not more than 10 years before and one that is valid for more than 3 months longer than the stay requested. We each applied for new passports which we duly received on 5th September
• 2 ID Photos - strict limit on size, facial,expression etc
• Statement of purpose of travel including an undertaking not to engage in any professional activity. One has to nominate a host for one’s stay in France with proof of the hosts economic situation.
• Each applicant must produce his/her Last 3 months bank statements evidencing sufficient funds for the stay in France
• Full details of the accommodation where one will be staying. The name and proof of residency of the host in France plus the rental agreement or property title and a statement signed by the host confirming his/her establishment in France.
• Evidence of Travel Health Insurance plus a valid EHIC/GHIC

Unusual situations are not taken in to account in the management of the process. For example our hosts were Tom and Carrie but though they own a House in France and produced evidence in the form of a copy of the Title Documents of their home in their name they are resident in Spain! As an alternative I offered Susie Castay my French citizen cousin and property owner in Aix as a host (with her agreement) and explained why.

At our interview I explained the situation again and was told that all was well. Subsequently a few days after our visit I was asked for further ID evidence for Tom despite the fact that they had a copy of his passport. I duly provided some more ID evidence and crossed my fingers that that was sufficient.

Having collected all the information which is no mean task there is then the small matter of negotiating one’s way around the TLScotland web site, logging in, getting the application validated and receiving the code. On the face of it this is a simple matter of requesting a code at a particular stage of the process. Once issued the all important code one can apply for the all important interview with TLScotland. However the system is far from infallible. It took me days, literally, and several long phone calls to the TLS call centre to sort out the bug that prevented the issue of the validation code. No code, no interview, no visa!! Time was beginning to run down on the clock for our departure and with Christmas approaching I was beginning to worry whether the visa would arrive in time. Stress levels were at a high in the Maidment household. Given the apparent problem with the hosts residency we even considered making a Spanish visa application instead. But having studied the Spanish visa requirements which sounded even more bureaucratic we stuck with the French!

Armed with the acceptance of the application and the code we were finally able to arrange a time to attend our interview at TL Scotland’s offices in Wandsworth. That entailed bringing completed applications together with two copies of all the supporting documentation. Being a stickler I had prepared suitably labelled folders for both of us to present at interview. When on the due date we arrived at TLS’s offices we were directed to the relevant waiting areas to await our turn via a screen displaying our wretched Code.

The interview itself was relatively straight forward as our application was fully completed with all documents in place. We had a perfectly reasonable friendly man dealing with us. All seemed to be well apart from the further information required of Tom. A few days later we received a formal request for it which I submitted with fingers firmly crossed.
Interview over we were then directed to the biometric centre to have our photos taken and to be finger printed! That completed the visa nightmare. We left our passports for the visas to be affixed and returned in due course. To TLS’s credit less than a week later by hand of courier our passports embossed with our visas were returned. We had overcome our first but essential challenge.

 

 

 

 

Visa Application Interview Day - 10th October 2023

The long awaited day for our interviews, and the handing over of all the painstakingly accumulated documents and information had arrived!  We had to get ourselves to TLS Contact, the London Visa Application Centre at Wandsworth, for an appointment at 1230.  I was under the misapprehension that, all going well, we would be patted on the back and handed a visa each at the end of our interviews. For me, everything hung on today.  Richard must have sensed something was amiss as, while getting ready to leave, he said “you do realise that the decision will not be taken today don’t you?”  Well that pricked my balloon, particularly as he added “we may not hear for 2 or 3 weeks!”

Not one to be easily deflated, my excitement levels remained at ‘high’ and I didn’t come totally clean that I had indeed been hoping for final pronouncements that day.  

We’d put a lot of thought into the timings for this important day.  We weren’t going to leave anything to chance, delayed trains, missed connection, getting lost, so we had left home by 0745, heading for Tonbridge and a greater choice of trains, should either the Hastings line or the Dover line have problems!  Well, the very early start proved unnecessary, as when we asked for our tickets, showing our Senior Rail Cards, we were told that the first train from Tonbridge to London that we could use our Rail Cards on wasn’t until 0910 and we had planned to catch the 0830.  Oh well, frankly we had so much time in hand that we might as well wait the extra half an hour and put our Senior Rail Cards to good use.  So, prepared for a wait, we settled into the waiting room and, as much to pass the time as anything, I went off and got myself a takeaway coffee - not wise! We were waiting on the platform as the train duly arrived.  Just as we were about to board, I realised I’d left my hardly touched coffee in the waiting room! Quick sprint back, and the coffee was retrieved, We had an uneventful, somewhat silent owing to nervous tension, journey to Waterloo East.  From there we had to cross to Waterloo Main Line Station and find the platform for our connection to Wandsworth Town..  By this time the unwise coffee was beginning to make itself felt and Richard was muttering about a ‘comfort break’ too.  However, because we were now behind our initial schedule, we were keen to get on and at least get to Wandsworth before stopping, so with grit teeth we plunged on to find our connection.

South Western Railway carried us efficiently to Wandsworth Town station with no problems, but on emerging it was uncomfortably clear that we should alleviate our discomfort before even starting to search for the London Visa Application Centre!  We find a coffee shop and while I ordered two coffees to justify the use of their loo, Richard disappeared around a corner, armed with the code for the door lock written on a tiny piece of paper. I sit and look at my coffee. Time ticks by.  A move nearer to the loo, in order to aid a quick changeover, seems a sensible, if not an essential, idea.   Rounding the corner I find a distinctly desperate Richard, peering shortsightedly at his tiny piece of paper and punching buttons on the door lock with force, but with no response from the door.  Help is sought and Richard gains entry with relief!  My turn next and as I emerge I find a wide eyed, agitated Richard right outside the door.  “Don’t close the door, I left the briefcase in there!”

Mission accomplished and with all our belongings intact, we set off to find the Visa Application Centre with the aid of our phones and surprised ourselves by finding it quite quickly and easily.  We joined a multi cultural queue waiting outside, of which we, as white caucasians, were in the minority.  We worked our way fairly swiftly to the top of the queue, were ticked off on a list, pointed towards another door and told to watch for our code to appear on one of the monitors, which would direct us to the appropriate official.  The nerves have subsided a little as we are clearly at the right place, at the right time, on the right day and are expected!

We settled down for a spot of people watching.  We were in a large room with two long counters and about twenty positions where the business was done.   The official sits on one side going through all the reams of papers they are being presented with, and the nervous ‘applicant’ stands on the other side of the counter.  The scene was business like and ordered.  There were no dramas, no one was frogmarched out, there were no raised voices - quite disappointing really but probably better for the nerves! The numbers on the monitors slowly ticked by.  We were roused from our reverie by suddenly noticing our code had popped up and it was our turn.  Butterflies in stomachs returned as we made our way to the appropriately numbered spot at the counter.  Our official was a mild, slightly balding, softly spoken chap.  I was delighted to discover that I was not going to be interviewed separately. Richard handed over his immaculately prepared sheafs of documents and photocopies when requested, they were stamped, some were photocopied, we were asked our reason for wanting a Visa.  We said “we want to enjoy a longer time with our family in France, to enjoy immersing ourselves in French life and to travel around and see more of the country”.  He seemed happy with that explanation, we added our signatures, and handed over our passports.  He told us we should hear one way or another in a week or two and pointed us to a door at the far end of the room.  Expecting to find ourselves outside the building, we skipped through the door, only to find ourselves being directed to separate curtained cubicles!  Was this a strip search?!  Fortunately all they were after was a mug shot and our fingerprints - phew!

The next door did finally lead us out onto the street again, pink and sweaty and with a developing headache.  Wandsworth, or at least that part of Wandsworth, is really rather lovely; pedestrianised and full of interesting little shops and restaurants.  We made a beeline for a nearby Thai restaurant and toasted the success of today with pints of ice cold lager and paracetamol.  We even took photos of each other, pink and sweaty, and beaming from ear to ear.  Maybe, just maybe, we had succeeded with our first big challenge? 🤞

Let’s Start at the Very Beginning (a very good place to start!)

 Ageing is a strange process and is inclined to catch one unawares.  What woman hasn’t caught a glimpse of her mother in a shop window, only to realise that she’s looking at herself?  Or sat in front of a brightly lit mirror at the hairdresser/barber staring at a much older face than the one you are sitting behind?  Each new decade is a time of reflection on the passing years and some affect us more than others.  I personally hated turning thirty (thirty! I ask you!) and mourned the loss of my twenties and my girlhood. Turning forty didn’t hurt at all.  Husband Richard had a real problem at fifty and started dressing like an old man.  I even caught him eyeing shoes with velcro fastenings! Once into the new decade it soon becomes clear that there is nothing to fear, you feel the same and, if in good health, it’s easy to ignore the inevitable, imperceptible signs of ageing. 

However, your seventies seem to be a turning point decade.  Your doctor may suggest a general health checkup.  This catapults you into the ‘at your age’ bracket and you are suddenly taking a couple of pills a day because “at your age ……….!”  Health problems may not be affecting you much but sadly some friends and relations of a similar age are being affected.  And sadly too, some die and are gone.  Wonderful friends in their eighties and nineties, living life with enthusiasm, humour and fortitude, despite any physical restrictions, are the role models to follow. But am I now actually sitting in God’s waiting room, with no adventures and challenges left to embrace, waiting for the call?

I fear this may have been the tenor of a conversation with son Tom and his wife Carrie, over a glass or two in a local pub., when they were over from Spain in the Summer.  Added to the above was the sense that, although my life was full and rewarding, it was leaving me with little space to empty my head and see what might emerge, to be creative, to just ‘be’. It was the COVID pandemic and lockdown that reminded me of that ‘beginning of the summer holidays’ feeling.  All that empty time to be filled with anything I wanted to do!

It seems that Tom and Carrie picked up on all this and at breakfast the next morning LaGapYear was born!  The initial offer was for Richard and me to live in their house in France for a year; to be creative, to write, to paint, to draw, all with no restrictions of time.  I immediately felt a spark ignite within and, once they had convinced us that the offer was genuine and that they were serious, the conversation began.  One year in France is, of course, out of the question these days as visitors are limited to 90 days per year.  If we were going to treat this venture as a challenge and an adventure, our first challenge would be to apply for and get a Visa to extend our stay to at least 4 months.  And so it all began!

Richard and I are going to write this Blog with honesty, warts and all, both to encourage likeminded septuagenarians to consider doing their own adventure, and to highlight the ups and the downs, the ‘are we mad?’moments and the joyous moments of realising that life can go on and on being exciting and wonderful!  We cannot thank Tom and Carrie enough for their amazing generosity and for making all this possible.