Nine nights in Paris, six in Rome, and the appointment that opened first was Rome’s. That is one of the quieter ways an Indian applicant loses three weeks, because France’s own portal settles the case in a line: the competent Member State is the one whose territory is the main destination of the journey in terms of duration. Nine beats six. The file belonged in a French queue, and the Italian consulate is under no obligation to rescue it.
France publishes more of its short-stay rules in English than you would expect — down to the euros per day it expects you to be carrying. All of it below was read on those pages on 04-09-2026.
Fourteen counters, and France lets you pick one
Decisions on applications lodged in India are taken in five places: the French consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Puducherry, and the visa section of the Embassy of France in Delhi. Those five decide — not the centre, and not us.
Where you hand the file over is a separate question, and here France is unusual. Submission is through VFS Global, at fourteen centres: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Puducherry and Pune. France-Visas states it flatly — applicants are free to approach the centre of their choice. You are not tied to the one covering your state.
In Punjab that is not a technicality. On 04-09-2026 the France-Visas page for India listed Chandigarh and Jalandhar as taking submissions on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, with Delhi open Monday to Friday. Two days a week against five is the difference between travelling next month and travelling after the season. Opening days do move, so read the centre’s own row on that page before you fix a departure date. Residents of Nepal lodge in Kathmandu, at least fifteen days before departure; residents of Bhutan go through the Kolkata consulate.
€65 a day with a hotel booking, €120 without
Most consulates ask for “sufficient means” and leave you guessing. France prints the figure. Its arrival page sets out what the Border Police may require you to justify, per day of stay:
- €65 a day where you present a hotel booking
- €120 a day where you do not
- €32.50 a day where you are staying with a private host on an attestation d’accueil validated by their town hall
- on a partly-booked trip, €65 for the nights the booking covers and €120 for the rest
Sit with that last line. A two-night gap in a ten-day trip is not an untidy detail; it re-prices those two days at nearly double. Which is the honest argument for accommodation proof covering every night rather than most of them — the booking is doing two jobs, and only one of them is proving where you sleep.
If a cousin in Lyon is hosting you, the proof is not their message on WhatsApp. It is an attestation d’accueil, applied for by the host in person at their mairie. Bring the original: the consulate stamps it, and you present it again on entry.
The reservation we hold, and why we don’t buy the ticket
For a Paris file the clean shape is a nonstop out of Delhi or Mumbai into Charles de Gaulle, returning inside the stay you are asking for, so the itinerary, the last hotel night and the last day of insurance land on the same date. If the trip finishes in Nice or Lyon, that leg belongs on the same itinerary, not in a stray PDF nobody asked for.
What we hand you is a reservation genuinely held in the airline’s system, with its own reference.
Buying the ticket outright is a poor trade while a decision is pending. The French application fee is €90 for a short stay and is not refunded, whatever the outcome; France puts the usual decision time at about 15 days, extendable to 45 where a file needs a closer look. That is a wide window to be sitting on a non-refundable fare. France’s own border list even accepts “your return ticket or the financial means to acquire one at the envisaged return date” — the file has to show a coherent journey, not a receipt.
€30,000, the whole Schengen area, every night of it
France’s FAQ is precise about this. For stays of up to 90 days, travel insurance covering medical repatriation and emergency or hospital treatment is mandatory; it must be valid throughout the Schengen area and for the duration of the stay; and it must provide cover of at least €30,000. Nothing on the France-Visas pages we read names an approved-insurer list — what they pin down is the cover, not the company.
Which leaves three ordinary ways to fail it: a policy running ten nights against a twelve-day itinerary, a sum insured quoted in another currency so that clearing €30,000 becomes an argument about the exchange rate, and a certificate naming France when the requirement is the Schengen area. One more catches people later — on a multi-entry visa, France says the certificate travels with you on every trip.
Where a France file usually comes apart
France publishes two worked examples of the jurisdiction rule, both worth memorising. Six days in France and fifteen in another Schengen country: the other country’s consulate is competent. Flying into a German airport but spending the longest stretch in France: apply to France, because first point of entry only decides the question when duration cannot.
After that the failures are mechanical. Documents in a language other than English or French may be asked for in French translation.
The centre is stricter than people arrive expecting, and France-Visas attributes the rules to the French consular authorities. Only the applicant goes in; a spouse or parent needs authorisation obtained by email beforehand. No phone, no laptop, no tablet, no camera, no bag beyond a clear file and a small handbag. So every reservation, certificate and statement enters that building on paper, in the order the checklist lists them. There is no pulling up an email at the counter.
Biometrics are ten fingerprints and a photograph, and France’s India page flags the two things that spoil the scan: a healing cut on a fingertip, and fresh henna. Let either settle before the appointment. Children under 12 are exempt, and if you gave biometrics for a Schengen visa less than 59 months ago and carry a photocopy of it, you may not have to give them again.
Réunion is France. It is not Schengen.
A short-stay Schengen visa does not admit you to France’s non-European territories, and a visa for those territories does not admit you to Schengen. Paris plus Réunion, or Paris plus French Polynesia, is two applications and two visas — France says so in as many words.
There is a carve-out, and India is named in it: where you hold a multiple-entry visa issued by a French consular authority valid for between six months and five years, a waiver for the overseas territories may be granted on grounds of nationality. Ask before you assume a second application is unavoidable.
Dates, and the appeal you hope not to need
You cannot lodge more than six months before departure. At the other end France’s general guidance is two weeks, while its India page sets a floor of five days for Indian passport holders born in India. Neither is a plan: the appointment queue decides whether you make your dates.
At the border, the ink is gone. Since 10-04-2026 the Entry/Exit System has replaced passport stamping across the 29 European countries operating it, France included, logging each entry and exit digitally. It adds nothing to the file you are assembling; what it changes is how precisely your 90 days in any 180 get counted afterwards.
And if the answer is no: for short-stay visas refused since 01-01-2023 the appeal goes to the Deputy Director of Visas, BP 83609, 44036 Nantes Cedex 01, within 30 days, in writing, in French, and signed. That step is compulsory before an administrative judge will hear the case. None of which we can move. The five French posts in India take the decision; what we supply is documents that hold up when somebody checks them.