Green card holders in America do not get to enjoy visa-free travel to France unlike the citizens of the United States. You need to apply for a visa to France with the local French consulate in the US before you are allowed to visit France for either tourism or business purpose.
Update : It is now mandatory to get COVID Insurance when you travel Abroad. Click the below link to get your COVID Insurance at cost price.
The French consulate had the highest visa rejection rate when compared to other countries with a rejection rate of 11.13 percent.
So make sure that you have all the documents in place and you are sure you need to apply at the French consulate and do not make any expensive bookings in advance before your visa is approved.
Where and how to apply for France Schengen visa in the United States?
Once you are sure that you need to apply for Schengen visa at the French consulate, you have to then select at which consulate of France in the United States you need to apply
Update : It is now mandatory to get COVID Insurance when you travel Abroad. Click the below link to get your COVID Insurance at cost price.
There are ten French Consulates General in major American cities, one being attached to the Embassy in Washington, DC.
To know which consulate of France you need to apply to visit https://franceintheus.org/spip.php?article330.You will see a grey map of America. Select your state from the map.
We have selected Florida (FL) in this example. This is highlighted in blue above.
You will then be taken to the French consulate page, In our case, Florida has its French consulate in Miami.
If the language is by default selected as French and you want the website in English, then select English as highlighted in red.
How to apply for France Schengen visa in the United States
We suggest that you make sure that there is an appointment slot available for you before you begin collecting your documents. If there is no date available then you can apply at a different consulate by changing your plan slightly.
Make an appoint 1 week in advance and then start preparing Schengen visa documents. Further in this article we have explained in detail how you can get all the documents you need for your Schengen visa in record time
To make an appointment with the French consulate, You will need to click the below section
You will then be then taken to the Visa for France page. The link to make appointments varies from each consulate Select the appropriate link from below.
Once you have booked an appointment, you will get an appointment number and a confirmation of your appointment can be printed out.
some Notes as per the French consulate
Documents needed for France Schengen visa from America
Here is a summary of the documents you need to submit for France Schengen visa for green cardholders.
- Passport
- Photographs
- Permanent Residence Permit card
- Completed Schengen visa form
- Flight itinerary
- Hotel bookings
- Schengen visa insurance
- Proof of sustenance
- Cover letter
- Letter of employment(if employed)
- Company registration(if self-employed)
- Letter from college (for students)
You need to submit a photocopy as well as an original of all the documents to the visa consulate.
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Duly filled Schengen visa application form – Need help with filling the application form? You can download our guide for step by step video instructions to fill your Schengen visa.
Download Schengen visa application form here
Passport with at least two blank pages and valid for at least three months after you return to the United States of America.
Two photographs as per the spec mentioned by photo specification for visa application.
A valid U.S. permanent residence card (“green card”) or a valid US visa with valid I-94 / valid I-20 (+ ONE COPY), or an Advance Parole document. The applicant must bring the original green card or US VISA together with photocopies of those documents too.
Students with an F1 visa must present the original and a copy of their I-20 properly endorsed for travel (a certification signature is only valid for one year). The validity of the travel endorsement must cover the intended trip in Schengen + 3 months.
A confirmed Flight itinerary or reservation for Schengen visa Flight itinerary is a safer way of submitting a visa application without buying an actual flight ticket which can prove to be expensive if your visa is refused.
Of course, in fact all the embassies mention the same. We have added links to the official visa pages which you can verify.
France Consulate
Your travel itinerary : you MUST BOOK your airline ticket but do not purchase until the visa has been approved.
We recommend that you do not purchase travel tickets until your visa has been approved. On the other hand, you may provide us with a reservation, a planned itinerary or an online printout of a roundtrip ticket.
Travel reservation to and from Schengen area, not a ticket. Note: Make travel reservation which you can cancel
Flight (roundtrip)/travel reservations and full itinerary (if several Schengen States will be visited or if the trip covers several Schengen States and non-Schengen countries) with the name of passenger and one copy
Round trip ticket/reservation, originating in this jurisdiction to Europe (and ultimately to Italy) and back, including internal entry and exit points of travel i.e. EURORAIL tickets, car rental, internal flights. The names on reservations have to reflect the names on passports.
We can provide you with flight itineraries which is accepted by not only for Schengen visa but for all visas. We have customers using the same flight itinerary for Malaysia visa, Singapore visa, India visa, UK visa etc.
In fact the European union visa requirements for visa states the same.
As per the official document,
Round trip reservation or itinerary with dates and flight numbers specifying entry and exit from Schengen state. Schengen authorities accept the itinerary when applying for the visa but request the original air ticket when visa is collected.
That is why we have 100% visa acceptance rate although some of our customer have been requested to provide “additional documents”, none of their visa has been rejected for providing fake documents. With 80% of our customers being return customers or companies which process visas for their employees/clients, our approach is the best approach if you want to ensure the safety of your visa.
This is our orders screen for this month. Most of the orders have been placed by repeat customers.
The best part about our service is along with getting a flight reservation without payment, you can also get confirmed hotel bookings, personal cover letter, leave/no objection letter for your visa consulates.
Proof of accommodation such as hotel bookings We would not suggest you to make your hotel reservations before your visa is approved. We have seen many customers who make all the bookings thinking they can cancel them once they get their visa only for the visa process to be delayed resulting in huge cancellation fees.
Want temporary flight, hotel or insurance for your Spain Schengen visa appointment ?
Proof of sustenance (either as bank statements travel cards, credit cards) to show that you can sustain yourself financially when you are in Europe
Proof of socio-professional status (if you are working) :
- letter of employment in the U.S confirming your salary, hire date, position and dates of vacation (business registration if self employed)
- and your last 2 payslips
- or letter from your school or university confirming your enrolment status, attendance and expected graduation date
A medical insurance with a minimum cover of €43,000 . See our article to get travel insurance for Schengen visa
Personal Covering letter or travel itinerary explaining in detail the purpose of the visit. This needs to explain in detail your entire travel plan and all the documents that you have submitted addressing the Embassy in your area.
That is it . Once you have accumulated all the documents, you can apply at the Schengen consulate of your main destination.
How long does it take for your Schengen visa to be processed ?
Well to be honest, it depends on the country you are the citizen of . IF your citizenship is from one of the “good” countries, then your visa will be granted within a week. IF you are from a “naughty” country then your visa application can take 2 to 3 weeks. If you are holding a green card in America and applying for Schengen visa from one of the below countries, expect some delay :
If you are from India, China Russia etc then you will get your visa sooner. So account for delay when you are planning your visa.
Can you apply for France Schengen visa from America if you hold a B1 or B2 visa ?
No, if you are in the US with a B1 or B2 visa, then you need to apply for France Schengen visa in the country where you hold your full citizenship. You cannot apply for Schengen visa within the United States.
FAQ about France Schengen visa by US permanent residents
No, Schengen visa is not granted for 90 days, sometimes you will get visa only for the number of days that you present in your travel itinerary and your flight & hotel bookings . See the sample attached below . The visa is granted for 15 days mentioned in the dates. If you want you can add some flexibility by adding 10 days to your itinerary. You can do this by using our flight +hotel plan
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Because we are the best in this business. We have been in operation from the past 5 years and in those years we have processed over 100,000 orders such as yours. Here is a screenshot of our sales this month alone
But the interesting part is over 50% of our customers are referred by previous customers
Our documents can change based on the availability of the agent
This is our flight booking sample
Our hotel booking sample
[pdf-embedder url=”https://travelvisabookings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Hotel-Riu-Costa-Lago-All-Inclusive-Torremolinos-Mar-17-Itinerary-7160682756408.pdf” title=”Hotel reservation for visa application”]Our Insurance Sample
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Yes 100%. We do not save any of your card or Paypal information. All your payments happens on the payment gateway and we get only the payment confirmation. We do not save any of your information on our website except your check out form
Unfortunately, no you cannot apply for Schengen visa with B1/B2 visa from the US. You will need to go back to your country of origin and apply from there.