Visa Concern - Long Stay Visitor Visa France
Jun 25, 2019, 1:45 pm
#46
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: PHL
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, BA Silver, FB Gold, ITA Volare Executive
Posts: 3,295
Alas, no appts. available within my time frame. Have had to go the courier route. It's only money, right? 
While I'm adding observations for posterity, in addition to not having realized that the second passport system was set up for problems like this (have to leave a passport at a consulate during a period when traveling abroad):
I also had not realized the extent to which this VPS Global system had/has taken over the visa system. In the past, I had gotten long-stay visas for France, and some involving a lot of peculiarities that just weren't handled on the website, but back then -- before 2018 as it turns out -- the consulates were approachable for visas via phone and e-mail; and if you were decent about things, someone would work with you. I have a now-funny memory of getting into an argument about what documents you needed for what visa and what status, and when the consular official claimed something was required, I whipped out a couple of printouts of webpages, ostensibly the corresponding French and English versions, and pointed out that the (make-work) documents required did not much overlap. There were some obvious important ones that featured in both languages, but there were some dopey ones on the English site that weren't on the French site, and vice versa. I got some traction from that, and on another occasion when I pointed out some internal contradictions in some other arbitrary definition of the situation, at the consulate in Washington, the guy at the desk actually picked up the phone and called the police prefecture in Paris, in front of me, and ironed things out (in my favor). Those days, it would seem, are now in the past.
While I'm adding observations for posterity, in addition to not having realized that the second passport system was set up for problems like this (have to leave a passport at a consulate during a period when traveling abroad):
I also had not realized the extent to which this VPS Global system had/has taken over the visa system. In the past, I had gotten long-stay visas for France, and some involving a lot of peculiarities that just weren't handled on the website, but back then -- before 2018 as it turns out -- the consulates were approachable for visas via phone and e-mail; and if you were decent about things, someone would work with you. I have a now-funny memory of getting into an argument about what documents you needed for what visa and what status, and when the consular official claimed something was required, I whipped out a couple of printouts of webpages, ostensibly the corresponding French and English versions, and pointed out that the (make-work) documents required did not much overlap. There were some obvious important ones that featured in both languages, but there were some dopey ones on the English site that weren't on the French site, and vice versa. I got some traction from that, and on another occasion when I pointed out some internal contradictions in some other arbitrary definition of the situation, at the consulate in Washington, the guy at the desk actually picked up the phone and called the police prefecture in Paris, in front of me, and ironed things out (in my favor). Those days, it would seem, are now in the past.
