The service fee from tourists will be collected by the visa center in advance – that the procedure for obtaining a visa to France has thus changed, tourists literally “in the first lines” on the official website warned the visa center VFS Global. The unofficial reason for the new measure is the need to combat bots occupying entry slots.
“Before making an appointment, you must fill out an online visa application form on the official France-Visas website. Please note that when making an appointment, an advance payment of a service fee of 35.5 euros in rubles is charged at the exchange rate established at the time of making the appointment, ”the website of the visa center stated.
As the experts added, most likely this the measure – in fact, paid booking of slots – was introduced partly in the interests of tourists. Thus, they are trying to prevent bots that previously actively occupied slots for their subsequent resale through intermediaries. It is expected that now the tourist will have to pay only one “official” fee of the visa center, without additional payments to intermediaries.
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