Could I please reach out to anybody who has gone through the visa application process recently? I have completed the form on France-visas and got my receipt. However I am having a problem trying to book an appointment on TLS Contact which seems silly for something so simple and I am getting really frustrated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hello David. We have successfully obtained 6 month visaâs each year for the past 3 years. It is normal to have problems with the TLS website. (FYI we used the London offices)
They seem to update/clear/refresh records overnight/over weekend so the inability to get through to the appoinments page can be cleared by the next day without you doing anything. As it BH weekend in UK it would not suprise me if things did not work until Tuesday.
So first suggestion is to wait.
Graeme
I am so looking forward to this process, well the end result rather than the process 
Think its time I took a look at the form(s)
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The best bit is the day of the appointment at the TLS offices. Thatâs really fun the first time you do it. When you get an appointment, itâs not just for you, but for about100 others who are mainly Asian (I have no idea why).
Subsequent to our last visit, I have tried to write a âthis is how the day goesâ set of notes.
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Just received back my 6 month visa for the third year in a row. Definitely gets easier the more times you do it. TLS is the more difficult part but even that has improved over the last couple of years. If I can help at all just shout.
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Does your application reference number match the office where you want your interview to be? That was a problem with ours: for some reason, the system registered us with a London ref (itâs clear from the number of that is the case: thereâs an abbreviated version of the city in the ref) so I couldnât get an Edinburgh interview.
Had to start the whole process again.
Thanks BuzzP, probably not until next year as project to finish in the UK this half of the year possibly longer as I seem to be slowing down and stuff takes longer
Just wait until you have to factor in CBAđ
At the beginning of the process you are asked which office you wish to visit. The reference number you are given is FRA12345678 etc but doesnât state interview office in reference number.
Nope, that isnât how it worked for us (otherwise the problem wouldnât have arisen).
The person I phoned was very helpful and pointed out what I hadnât spotted, that the reference number contains a marker for the interview location (as I mentioned in my last post).
My reference number (the second time round) for an Edinburgh interview began FRA1ED2024 (followed by 7 more digits: I just looked it up).
IIRC, the other identifiers (in the same position as the ED) are MCR and LDN.
Another case of a website designer needing a good thrashing around the back of the bike shed 
Honestly dont they test this stuff with the public?
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Choosing the correct options was a bit tricky (and the fun continued when the time came to validate our visas).
OTOH, the lady at the âinterviewâ (us standing at a counter for over an hour) was lovely and very helpful. We were in a group, like @GraemeL , but around a dozen (it was in September).
The system was not great, but the staff we encountered were all very kind and helpful.
And we had to do it only once, of course.
Just looked back at paperwork and our FRA number included MC in it. So didnt realise it meant Manchester just thought it was 2 random letters
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All helpfull info
@JohnH Apologies- bit off topic - but did you get your WARP?
My rendezvous is on 17 June so thereâs progress at least. I might have mentioned before that I wrote to the prefecture last year asking them to tell me what the process was. Rather than answering the question, they replied with a rendezvous for January which I didnât see until after the event and, in any event, was no use as I was still working.
Iâm getting a little bit twitchy as Iâm approaching 3 months without any sort of CdS so I feel a bit exposed should I come to any sort of official attention.
Ah yes. You did mention the January appointment.
Iâm sure as long as you can show youâre in the pipeline and have an appointment for June, youâll be OK.
At least you got an appointment. Nothing to do with the administration seems to work well here in Strasbourg any more. Not the Prefecture. Not the CPAM. Itâs like all the humans have just disappeared and you canât get a intelligent answer from anyone.
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