French + Schengen Visa

[rubindedhia]

We have booked a tour for Paris this christmas. However there aren't any appointments available at the French Embassy in London.

With your experiences please suggest the possibilities for an appointment to be available in forthcoming days or if there are any alternatives possible to get a French visa.

Thanks.

[sakura]

We have booked a tour for Paris this christmas. However there aren't any appointments available at the French Embassy in London.

With your experiences please suggest the possibilities for an appointment to be available in forthcoming days or if there are any alternatives possible to get a French visa.

Thanks.

Who is applying for a visa (nationality, status in the UK, etc)?

Nobody would know when appointments will be available, Christmas is always a very busy period.

[rubindedhia]

nationality is Indian and are under Tier1 visas

[sakura]

nationality is Indian and are under Tier1 visas

See this post here. You can try applying at other Schengen country embassies and make a day trip/first entry into the Schengen (e.g. Fly in to Belgium, then take a train to France). However, since it is leading up to Christmas/New Year, I doubt even the other embassies would have any free appointments.

Maybe try a visa services company?

[Siggi]

Rubindedhia,
You have put yourself in a differcult postion as the requirements for Schengen visas, state firstly you must obtain a visa from the country you are going to enter first .One assumes you are going to travel directly to Paris either by train, plane or car.
The only way I see around this is to make appointment with the Dutch, Belguim or Swiss embassies and travel to either of thoses countrys first, before entering France.

[Plum70]

Gd pt Siggi. Rubin, applying to the Swiss embassy may be your best bet as they never seem inundated with applications + they work with razor-sharp precision! With the swiss schengen visa you can take a flight to Geneva airport and then exit via the French sector (Ferney Voltaire) or exit via the swiss sector (make sure your passport is stamped or preserve your boarding pass for future applications to the swiss emb.) and then drive through to France.