France visa from the US: France-Visas and TLScontact

A visa for France is not a consular service in the United States. The ten French consulates do not take visa files, and the consulates' own information line, France Consulaire, says it does not deal with visa questions.

The official portal is France-Visas, and the paper file goes to a center run by TLScontact, the provider the consulates name on their pages.

Do you need one?

Start with the visa assistant on France-Visas: it tells you, from your nationality and the reason for the trip, whether you need a visa, which one, the documents to attach and the fee.

A US passport holder going for tourism or business for up to 90 days needs none; the separate guide on US citizens covers that case and its exception for journalists on assignment.

The short-stay rule is the same with or without a visa: 90 days in any 180 across the Schengen area. France handles the application when it is your main destination, or your first entry if there is no main one.

Applying from the US

You create an account and fill out the application online, then book a slot at the TLScontact center you depend on and hand in the file there.

France-Visas lets you file up to six months before departure, and warns that waiting times for an appointment and for the decision grow at busy times of the year.

TLScontact's US page, as archived in October 2025, listed centers in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Miami, Atlanta and Seattle, and sent postal applications through Washington. There was none in New Orleans.

Check the live list before you book, because the archived copy is a year old.

After you file

You follow the application on France-Visas, which also tells you when the passport is ready and how to collect it.

For a question about your file, the consulates send you to TLS VISA, the provider's line, at +1 (305) 602-5861; their own emergency numbers are for French nationals in serious trouble, and the network lists visa matters among the things that are not an emergency.

Frequent short-term visitors who need a visa can be given a multiple-entry visa valid from six months to five years, still within the 90-in-180 limit. Stays longer than 90 days take a long-stay visa, covered in its own guide.

Official sources: Demander un visa; France-Visas, visa de court séjour; TLScontact, France visa application centers in the US (Internet Archive capture of 14 October 2025); En cas d'urgence.

Details checked against the official pages on October 6, 2026.