Selling Algerian Visa Appointments Enters Corridors Of French Parliament

The file of selling French visa application appointments for Algerian citizens entered the corridors of French Parliament, through the Senate, through an ouright criticism of the procedures of TLS Contact, which grants appointments and receives visa files in Annaba, eastern Algeria, and Oran, western Algeria.
In this context, Senator Arnaud Bazin, on behalf of the Republicans, directed an account to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated November 03, 2022, in which he stated that he drew the Minister’s attention to the conditions for granting a French visa in Algeria.
The question, to which the French Foreign Ministry has not yet responded, stated that the online digital platform for appointments provides a limited number of them daily, with procedures that are difficult to understand, noting that a previous parliamentary report pointed the finger at the file of visa appointments and the financial returns resulting from it, which witnessed a real boom.
The senator underlined that the difficulties are especially related to taking the appointment, which increased with the emergence of many offices that anticipate everyone and win the appointments available on the Internet and resell them to visa applicants at high prices in their favor, in reference to Internet cafes.
As for Algeria, he added, the running company, “TLS Contact”, in addition to managing the registration procedures for obtaining appointments to deposit files, which is free but often impractical, it also proposes paid services such as assistance in creating and receiving the file on the weekends.
The latter concluded that “in addition to the surprisingly dubious aspect from a legal point of view in this file, I would like to know the statistical elements of the number of appointments that Algerians took directly on the TLS website for visa application, without resorting to service providers”. (Internet cafe owners).
The French senator concluded by requesting clarifications from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, regarding the solutions it intends to adopt so that visa applicants can obtain appointments in a more transparent manner.
As it is known, TLS Contact has been providing appointments for French visa applicants through the Annaba and Oran consulates for years, while VFS Global has been in charge of the process for the Consulate General in the capital Algiers since 2018.
A few weeks ago, the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, stated that her country would reduce the deadlines for granting visas to Algerian nationals and the Maghreb countries, and would bolster its consular offices with additional agents for the same purpose.