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Rabat – France has announced that in two years applicants for Schengen visas will be able to complete applications and receive a visa online. The French strategic committee for visas made the announcement on Thursday, November 14.
The committee, that sat for the first time on November 6, includes representatives from the French Ministry of Interior and from the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
An inter-ministerial committee for migration and integration decided to create the new committee with the aim of facilitating visa applications and improving policies. The new committee has three main objectives; preventing security threats, controlling the migratory flow, and promoting exchanges.
“The strategic committee for visas has decided to put new mechanisms of coordination between the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs in place. [The new mechanisms] will ensure a closer follow-up of visa deliveries, especially in countries where large numbers of visas are delivered,” said a press release from the committee.
The committee also announced the upcoming stages of the “France-Visas” project. The project aims to “ensure a paperless process of visa deliveries in two years, leading to better efficiency.”
“All the steps of visa application can be done online. The only information that will require the applicant’s physical presence in a consulate or embassy is biometrics,” adds the release.
The announcement comes after applicants from different countries, including Morocco, expressed their anger at the delays of visa deliveries and the difficulty of booking appointments.
On October 29, Moroccans signed a petition and sent it to France’s ambassador to Morocco, Helene Le Gal, demanding immediate intervention to end the frustrating situation.
According to the Consul General of France in Rabat, Florence Causse-Tissier, the French consulate in Morocco issued 315,000 Schengen visas in 2018. The number makes Morocco the country that receives the second most visas from France, after China.
