Just a warning to visitors with Indian passport who have to transit through France - AVOID IT IF POSSIBLE!! We had a bad experience with the French consulate in Toronto. We needed a transit visa as our flight was thorugh Paris (2 hours transit time). They issued us a visa for the wrong date - Sept 7th instead of August 9th. That too after our application form, cover letter and booking details clearly mentioned 9th August!!! And then they refused to accept their mistake, insisted that they could not change the date and we said should apply again. What guarantee is there that they will issue it for the correct date? They also said it was their discretion to issue a visa for whatever date they choose!!!! Visa charges were $58. So, we had to re-route our ticket and incur additional costs of $80, not to mention the inconvenience all this caused to a senior. The consulat has staff whose arrogance is amazing!!
I'd like to take this up with some travel agents association and write to a newspaper as well. Anybody has suggestions on how to go about this?

Just wondering.. why you required transit visa for 2 hrs?

Yeah, why? If you do not clear customs, why do you need any visa?

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Diogenes
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The Cynic

You do not need a transit visa if you have a transit time of 2 hours or for that matter 8 hours, if you have a confirmed onward flight.

It reminds me of our interesting journey to India through AIR FRANCE. 4 years ago in December 1999 I went to India with my family through AIR FRANCE on our Indian Passports. We had our Flight from Toronto - Paris and Paris - Delh with a transit of only 2 hours in France. We did not need transit visas as we were not to go out of the Airport. But as the luck would have it, the Flight from Toronto got delayed because of a snow storm and we missed our confirmed connecting flight from Paris to Delhi. To make matter worse, the janitors and airport staff at CDG airport in Paris was on strike and all the flights to anywhere in the world were cancelled and there were a couple of thousannd stranded people on the airport. We were told that we would have to stay one day in Paris and the next day they hope that the strike would be over and we would be able to get a connecting flight. All the people in our Flight who had Canadian Passport were sent to the hotel but as we had Indian Passports, they arranged for our Transit Visa on the Airport itself and we did not have to pay any thing for the same as it was not our fault. It took around 1 hour and then the AIR FRANCE bus took people to the hotel. I asked them that instead of staying for 20 hours in the hotel I would like to visit Paris. So, they offerred free tickets to us for their buses which took us to the Eiffel Tower and we enjoyed our free stay in Paris at the Radisson Hotel.

The next day also the strike was not over and an Air India plane came from Germany to Paris, took us all back to Germany first and then flew to India after picking some more passengers from there. The plane was only 20% full and we all travelled sleeping by combining 4 middle seats. So, for us it turned out to be a 'very nice' experience as we could visit Paris without spending any money from our Pocket.

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Pramod Chopra
Senior Mortgage Consultant
Mortgage Alliance Company of Canada

No you do not need any visa travelling thro France.
Check it out here:
http://www.delta.com/travel/trav_serv/intl_travel/timatic/index.jsp

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Diogenes
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The Cynic