French Foreign Ministry: “We Have Adopted Additional Visa Facilities For Algerians”

The French Foreign Affairs Ministry described the visas granted to Algerian nationals as important for the country’s tourist attractiveness, and added that additional facilities would be adopted through various French Consulates to make the system more flexible and to deliver formal visas as an initial protection against illegal immigration.

Algeria, China, Russia, Morocco and India account for 60 percent of the French visas granted worldwide, the French Foreign Ministry said in a response to a Senate inquiry dated November 25, noting that this large number explains the high demand for the French tourist destination by these nationalities.

It was decided to adopt several steps at the level of the consular network based on facilitating and simplifying the relationship between the consulate and the visa applicants by proposing offers suitable for each student visa and completing the process in a quick and rounded manner.

 The relevant centers are available for depositing the files of the applicants, taking care not to transfer the objectives of the visa granted towards the objectives other than that presented in the application.

This means that a tourist visa, for example, must be used for tourism purposes and a health care visa ought also to be used for the same purpose (medication) or for the sake of student’s studies meaning to continue to study and so on.

According to the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, the France Visa portal includes information and details that provide the visa applicant with a look at what he should provide and know by category the  set regulations for the required visa.

According to the same document, the continued granting of visas for formal applications with high demand, especially in Algeria, China, Russia, Morocco and India, should not overlook the issue of not converting the visa goal that must be strictly respected.

The unexpected alterations introduced by the French authorities in the granting of visas to Algerians touched off a significant decline in air traffic between the two countries, according to the statistics of a French site specialized in the movement of air navigation, especially as it coincided with a change at the level of the company responsible for receiving files for the French visa notably in the capital Algiers and in the central provinces of Algeria.

In terms of figures, the three French Consulates based in Algeria issued more than 410,000 visas in 2017, while the number of requests exceeded 600,000.