The TLScontact Appointment for a French Long-Stay Visa

TLScontact takes in your file; the consulate decides

Since April 18, 2025, TLScontact has been the official visa application processor for French long-stay visas in the United States. It replaced VFS Global. The process still starts on France-Visas: you complete the online application there first, then book your appointment with TLScontact.

TLScontact handles the administrative intake only: appointments, documents, fees and biometrics. It has no say in whether you get the visa. That decision rests with French consular officials, and paying the fees does not guarantee a visa will be granted.

Ten centers, and you can use any of them

TLScontact runs ten centers in the US. You are not tied to a center for your home region: applicants living in the United States, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico can book at any of them, wherever they live.

TLScontact’s own materials count 11 new centers under its contract. The eleventh is in Kingston, Jamaica, not in the United States.

• Atlanta
• Boston
• Chicago
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• New York
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington DC

Two fees, paid separately

A long-stay application carries two charges: the French government’s visa fee, which the change of provider did not affect, and TLScontact’s own service fee. The service fee is charged per applicant, so a family of four pays it four times. Budget for both before you book.

Visa fee

€99 for a long-stay visa; the student visa fee is lower, around €50 (confirm it). Some categories, such as certain spouses and parents of French citizens, are exempt; check the France-Visas fee calculator for your visa type

Service fee

about €220 for a long-stay visa (about €45 for short stay), set in agreement with the Consulate General of France and payable online

Currency

the service fee is fixed in euros but payable only in US dollars, so the dollar amount moves with the exchange rate when you pay

Refunds

the service fee is non-refundable and non-transferable, whether you cancel the appointment or the visa is refused

Biometrics

TLScontact’s fee pages list no separate biometric fee; collection appears to be part of the standard appointment

Optional extras

premium lounge, appointments outside standard hours, courier return of the passport, photos and photocopies, priced by each center; they do not speed up the consulate’s decision

When to book

France-Visas asks for long-stay applications to be submitted between 3 months and no less than 15 days before travel. Book your TLScontact appointment as soon as your online dossier is ready, about 2–3 months before travel, aiming to hand in the complete file 6–8 weeks before you leave. Availability varies significantly by consulate and season, so do not assume slots will be open close to your travel date.

Waits for appointments and decisions are longer in the peak season, roughly May to August and to a lesser extent December. The full month-by-month plan, including when to start each document, is in the application timeline guide linked below; it is worth reading before you book, because the appointment only works if the documents are ready for it.

What to bring

Bring originals. Digital copies are accepted for an initial review, but the originals are required at the appointment. France-Visas says that scanning and uploading your supporting documents into the online dossier beforehand makes the appointment faster.

• The completed France-Visas application form, signed and dated
• Your passport, with at least 2 blank pages; the center checklist asks for 6+ months of validity, and France-Visas’ general minimum is 3 months beyond your intended stay
• Two recent passport photos, 35 × 45 mm, on a white background
• Your appointment confirmation
• The supporting documents for your visa type, as listed on the checklist France-Visas generates for you

What happens at the appointment

At the center, TLScontact checks your documents, takes your biometric data (fingerprints and a photo) and collects the fees. Once it confirms that your document set is complete, it forwards the file to the consulate. The processing clock starts only then.

If the file is incomplete at the appointment, the countdown does not start and you have to reschedule. There is no formal expedited or premium processing for long-stay visas, and the paid extras do not change that. France-Visas describes processing times only as general guidelines that vary by nationality and visa type; treat any specific figure as indicative and confirm current wording on your center’s TLScontact page.

After the visa is issued

The appointment is not the last step. A VLS-TS long-stay visa must be validated online on the ANEF portal within 3 months of arriving in France, a separate step from TLScontact and easy to forget.

Expect extra biometric checks at the border too. The EU’s Entry/Exit System has been fully operational across the Schengen area since April 10, 2026, per TLScontact’s center pages. It replaces manual passport stamping with digital entry and exit records, and does not change the TLScontact application itself.