The visa application must be filed with the consulate of the Schengen country of principal destination (where you spend most of your time).

If the trip involves several Schengen countries without a principal destination because the length of the stay in each country is identical, the application must be filed with the consulate of the first Schengen country that will be entered.

Persons applying for a visa at Consulate General of France in Canada must be Canadian residents. Consular authorities consider that a foreigner’s habitual residence is deemed to be in the consular district which meets the following criteria :

• stay of more than three months in the “visa district” ;
• if the applicant is a national of a third party country, proper legal residence in Canada.

A service fee will be charged and will be payable online when making an appointment.

Wait times vary depending on the number of applicants and the season. Users are therefore required to anticipate in order to obtain their appointment at least :

• 15 days before the departure date for a short stay visa,
• 1 month for a long stay visa.

You cannot submit an application more than 6 months before the scheduled departure.

Security checks will be performed before you are admitted to the premises.

Bulky bags, electronic devices, weapons and dangerous items are prohibited.

Closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

Public holidays in 2022:

• Monday, March 21^st : Human Rights Day
• Friday, April 15^th : Good Friday
• Monday, April 18^th : Family Day
• Wednesday, April 27^th : Freedom Day
• Monday, May 2^nd : Workers' Day Observed
• Thursday, June 16^th : Youth Day
• Thursday, July 14^th : French National Day
• Tuesday, August 9^th : National Women's Day
• Saturday, September 24^th : Heritage Day
• Friday, December 16^th : Day of Reconciliation
• Monday, December 26^th : Christmas Day Observed/Day of Goodwill

Processing times - upon receipt of a complete application - are given as general guidelines and will vary according to the applicant’s nationality and the type of visa.

There is no expedite procedure for a visa, and the Visa Section cannot influence this timeline of process.

Reminder: do allow at least 15 days for visa processing but do not submit your application more than 6 months before your planned dates of travel.

After your appointment and submitting your application at the Montreal VFS GLOBAL centre, you can track the progress of your application by entering your GWF number you will find on your receipt (FCML for Montreal, FCTT for Toronto, FCVR for Vancouver, FCOT for Ottawa).

As soon as your visa application has been processed by the Consulate, you will receive an SMS informing you that your passport is ready to be collected at the VFS GLOBAL center where your application has been submitted.

Only visa applicants or persons authorized by them can collect passports. Third parties are not allowed to collect them

Passports can be delivered to your home or office by courier on the payment of an additional fee at the VFS Center.

Preparing the required documents and making an appointment at the window

When you are scheduling an appointment i.e. via the call centre or on the VFS Canada website, you will be asked to immediately provide an email address where you can receive the appointment confirmation letter. You will be asked to show this letter when you visit the VFS Global Centre. You must print the letter out before visiting the Centre along with your other visa application documents.

Application in person

Visa applicants must submit their visa application in person at a VFS Centre after scheduling an appointment. Please remember to bring the following:

• Printout of the appointment conformation letter);
• The file containing all the required documents presented in the same order as on the checllist ;
• Visa processing fees.

If your visa application is incomplete (i.e. documents are missing), you may choose not to submit your application until you have all the required documents and come back to the Centre at a later date after scheduling a fresh appointment. You will not have to pay any processing fees if you decide not to submit your application at this time. However, if you do decide to submit your incomplete application, you will be asked to sign a document acknowledging that your application is incomplete and that certain documents are missing. Submitting a complete application does not guarantee that the consular authorities will issue you a visa.

Biometrics

Your photograph and fingerprints will be taken in the biometric booth. Applicants with temporary injuries on their fingers are advised to wait until their injuries have healed before scheduling an appointment. Henna on fingertips may also result in an unclear scanned image and should hence be removed or allowed to fade before the applicant's appointment date. Children under 12 years of age are not required to provide biometric data, their application must be submitted by the child’s parent/legal guardian. The ISO/IEC format photograph of the child will be scanned. After visiting the biometric booth, you may leave the Visa Application Centre.