Appointment booking

Once your visa application is complete, you may book an appointment with the visa section of the Consulate general of France in Brussels. Appointment booking are only made online, free of charge and does not require any external intervention.

The appointment requested in view of the submission of your visa application will ease your reception. This step slightly reduces waiting time and allows a better file handling.

When you are registered on the visa department appointment table, (see "Prendre rendez-vous" tab), you will be able, if necessary, to reschedule the date and hour of your appointment, in the "Revoir son rendez-vous" tab. If you have to cancel the appointment, the visa department would be grateful if you could cancel it in the same tab.

At the end of the booking procedure, you should print the appointment confirmation receipt and present it to the Consulate General reception desk. In case of printing problem or loss, you can reprint a new receipt in the "Revoir son rendez-vous" tab. Last resort, you may come without receipt with your passport.

For appointment booking, please click here

Technical advice

In order to achieve this procedure, it is advised to use the following technical configuration:

• Internet Explorer (Windows), version 6.0 and above with  service pack 2 or Firefox, version 1.0 and above or Mozilla, version 1.7.8 and above.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5.0 and above in order to print the receipt of your appointment. If not available, you can download the software from the Adobe website.
• Allowing the opening of pop-ups is compulsory (see in your browser parameters).

Application processing time

The visa department is doing its best to process visa applications within an estimated 15 working days period, but this deadline can be increased due to additional checking, growing number of visa applications or technical problems.

• For short stay visa applications, it is advisable to plan to submit your application form 20 days before your expected departure date to France.
• For long stay visa applications, you should plan a 30-day timeframe between the filing of your visa application and your expected departure date to France.

We advise you to make an appointment with sufficient time before your expected date of departure in order to avoid any inconvenience.

A visa application can be deposited up to 6 months before the date of departure.

Weekly closing on Saturdays and Sundays.

Public holidays for 2020 (consulate general closed to the public) :

• 1 January : New Year
• 13 April : Easter Monday
• 1 May : Labor Day
• 8 May : Victory Day of 1945
• 21 May : Ascension Thursday
• 22 May : The day after the Ascension
• 1 June : Whit Monday
• 21 July : Belgian National Day
• 1 November : All Saints
• 11 November : Armistice
• 25 December : Christmas

Personal appearance:

Visa applicants must personally come to the Consulate general of France.

Preparing your appointment

The following items should be gathered before your visit to our visa department:

• Your passport must be valid for at least 3 months longer than the validity date of the visa requested
• Your resident permit issued by one of the three States of Benelux
• The visa application form must be printed, dated and duly signed, with a recent photography, compliant with standard ISO/IEC (pdf).
• The supporting documents’ list
• The requested supporting documents mentioned on this list, duly presented in the right order and ticked on the list.

Original documents as well as a photocopy of them must be presented the day of your appointment.

Biometric data collection

All visas issued by the French authorities are biometric.

All visa applicants have to appear personally at the time of the first submission of their visa application. Biometric data (fingerprints and photography) will be collected during the appointment.

However applicants who have had a previous Schengen visa delivered within the past 59 months and with the remarks ”VIS” on the visa sticker could be exempted from biometric data collection unless there is a mention “VIS 0”.

Children below age of 12 are exempted from biometric data collection. However, the child presence is compulsory. The child visa application file must be presented by one of the two parents or by the legal guardian of the child. The child’s ID photo, compliant with standard ISO/IEC (pdf), will be scanned.

In order to know the status of your visa application, please click here , get your receipt and follow the instructions.

Passport withdrawal will only take place once you have received an email from the visa section of the Consulate general of France inviting you to drop off your passport at the Consulate reception desk. Issuance of visas take place on Mondays and Fridays at 3 pm (passports must have been dropped off in the morning between 8:45am and 12 pm).