Belgium
Get information, make an appointment, and submit your application
Apply for a visa for France
If you are a legal resident of Luxembourg, Belgium or The Netherlands, you may submit your visa application to the Consulate general of France in Brussels. The decision to issue or to refuse a visa is only made by the French Consulate General in Brussels.
You may apply up to 6 months before your date of departure to France.
We advise you to submit your visa application at your earliest convenience.
Non-EU citizens must be in possession of a visa to enter France, regardless of the length of their stay and whatever travel document they hold.
However you are exempted of visa for a short stay in France, overseas departments and communities (DROM-CTOM) or in another Schengen State if :
- You hold a valid residence permit issued by a State in the Schengen area.
- You hold a passport issued for less than 10 years, valid for at least 3 months longer than the scheduled date of your departure, issued by one of the countries listed in the following link (https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F21921).
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.
Whom should I contact?
Visa applications submitted by legal residents in Benelux are examined – upon prior appointment – by the Consulate general of France in Brussels.
What are the application fees?
A visa application file can only be processed after payment of visa fees (pdf) charged by the French administration, which have to be paid in euros (€) either in cash or by credit card.
These fees do not correspond to the visa cost but to the visa processing expenses. A receipt corresponding to the paid amount will be provided to the visa applicant.
No reimbursement, even partial, will be provided in case of visa refusal.
Book an appointment
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.
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
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).
Consulate General of France in Brussels
(by appointment)
| Monday | 9:00 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. | 2:00 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. |
| Tuesday | 9:00 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. | 2:00 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. |
| Wednesday | 9:00 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. | 2:00 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. |
| Thursday | 9:00 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. | 2:00 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. |
| Friday | 9:00 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. | 2:00 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. |
(without appointment)
Passports must be dropped off at reception the same day between 2:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.
| Wednesday | 3:30 p.m. |
| Friday | 3:30 p.m. |
Pratical information
Weekly closing on Saturdays and Sundays.
Public holidays for 2026 (consulate general closed to the public) :
- Thursday, January 1st : New Year's Day
- Monday, April 6th : Easter Monday
- Friday, May 1st : Labor Day
- Thursday, May 14th : Ascension Day
- Monday, May 25th : Pentecost Monday
- Tuesday, July 21st : Belgian National Holiday
- Wednesday, November 11th : Armistice Day
- Friday, December 25th : Christmas Day
Practical information on the progress of the appointment
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.
Follow your application
You can follow the progress of your request from your France-Visas account, under "My requests".
Collecting your passport
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 Wednesdays and Fridays at 3:30 p.m. (passports must have been dropped off on the same day between 2:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.).
Official passports
Official passport holders (diplomatic or service) are welcome to submit their visa application upon prior appointment on Mondays and Fridays between 2:30pm and 4pm.
The withdrawal of official passports will take place every afternoon from Monday to Friday between 3pm and 4pm.
Important : incomplete applications will not be processed.
The short stay visa request for official passport holders must be submitted, if possible, three working days before the scheduled date of departure for France. In general, issuance of the visa takes place the following day of the visa application being filed.
Visa fees will be waived if issued in the framework of official duties.
In the framework of the assumption of official duties with an embassy, a Consulate or an International Organization, the application form for a long stay visa should be submitted 15 days before the desired date of entry in France.
Studies
A certificate from the French Institute of your country of residence is required. This document will be directly transmitted to the Consulate general of France in Brussels.
Procedures :
- Students from Belgium : no document required as your file will be directly transmitted to the relevant service
- Students from Netherlands : please contact the French Institute in Den Haag
- Students from Luxembourg : please contact the French Institute in Luxembourg
In case of any problem related with your visa application, the visa department of the Consulate General of France in Brussels can help you. Please kindly send your inquiries to this e-mail address.