VLS-T Application: Summary

Key Points as at June 2025

From a French perspective your passport needs to be valid for 3 months after the end of the visa. Therefore, its issue date must be no earlier than 9.75 years before the END of your visa period. 

TLS Contact are used by the French Consulate in the UK to handle the administration of visa applications.  The decision on whether to issue a visa remains exclusively with French Consular officers.

The online part of the process uses TWO DIFFERENT websites, the France-Visas website and the TLS website: 

• They have separate login procedures. 

• The French Government site is good

• The TLS site in 2025 contains a number of usability issues. 

• Application screens on both websites are in English

• The TLS part of the application can only be made from within the UK

• You can create a group of people (maximum 6) to be processed together and have a single interview. However in practice people found in 2025 that it was virtually impossible to obtain appointments fro groups of 3 or more people.

• Take care to use the correct starting point – start with the France-Visas website,  NOT TLS 

• You can save your application form at any point in the process and return to it later. You will need to log in again.

Documentation 

• Is needed at the time of the appointment and may be provided in English or French

• Originals must be taken as evidence. Take copies which will be retained and not returned. Documents pertinent to more than one applicant must be duplicated. Documents must be submitted in the order stated on the France Visas application form and NOT stapled 

• Missing or unsatisfactory documents may mean that you will have to attend the appointment again

• See more detail here

Photographs 

• Two recent passport sized photos are needed for each applicant; the rules are very precise 

• 1 in 4 people had their photographs rejected in the period January to September 2021 

• Guidance on what is required is here. 

Planning your visa dates: - this page was highly modified in June 2025

See this page.

Obtaining a VLS-T visa: a step-by-step guide

1. Plan your approach to the visa application, it is complex and takes considerable time

2. Identify the documents needed at the time of applying in case there have been changes 

3. Register with france-visas.gouv.fr by setting up a user name and password 

4. Complete the application on the France-Visas website and record, for each applicant, the application reference number that starts with FRA1........   

5. The France-Visas website provide links to the TLS website, https://fr.tlscontact.com/gb/splash.php

6. Register with TLS by setting up a TLS user name and password

7. Complete the TLS part of the application for each person

8. Confirm that the TLS part is complete. (no changes can be made after this point) 

9. It is usual to get a single firm appointment with TLS for the whole group however it can be difficult to get an appointment for 3 or more people so it may be preferable to split the group. Note each group will requires is own unique email address and contact phone number. 

10. Once you have a firm appointment it is necessary to Submit your French Visa application. This will require you to return to the France-Visas website, and you will need to login again 

11. Prepare documents (note the need for both originals and copies)

12. On day of the appointment take papers, photos and passport to the interview. You will need to handover your passports.

13. Await notification that your passport is ready. It is not until you receive/collect your passport that you will know the outcome 

The steps are shown in the process map below. Guidance on steps 2-5 and steps 6-10 are available here.

Diagram of the Overall Process