French visa application now available in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines — Cebuanos and those from nearby provinces who are planning to go to France soon need not go to Manila to process a French visa as an application center is now fully operational in Cebu City.

After Manila, TLScontact has finally opened its Cebu office located at the 12th floor of Latitude Corporate Center along Mindanao Avenue at the Cebu Business Park.

French Ambassador Marie Fontanel graced the inauguration of the new French visa center along with Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama, Honorary Consul Michael Lhuillier, and TLScontact Southeast Asia Zone Manager Matthieu Béchu.

Fontanel in an interview with reporters during the inauguration shared how happy they are to be one of the most well-loved destinations in the world and would like to keep it that way and see more tourists visiting their country soon.

“We really wish and hope, this good news continue, and many more to come,” said Fontanel.

Fontanel, in her second official visit to Cebu, was elated with the latest development as she expects more tourists to visit France soon coming from the Philippines, including the Visayas and Mindanao.

Aside from that, Fontanel is also looking forward for more Cebuanos and the rest of the Filipinos to go to France for studies and even for some business venture.

“We have an embassy in Manila, of course we have a visa center for many years in Manila, but the Visayas also has a big number of population and they are obliged to go to Manila and it might be difficult for them to go. So we discussed opening a visa center to Cebu and we really do hope that this will become a center, with the population in the Visayas and population in Mindanao. Now, naturally, it is easy to launch the process for visa application here in Cebu,” Fontanel said.

Aside from those in the Vis-Min area, the French Ambassador said even those in Luzon might also consider coming over to Cebu as currently, waiting period for their appointment for a visa application in Manila is about three weeks.

“It could even be easier to launch the visa application here in Cebu than in Manila,” added Fontanel.

TLScontact Southeast Asia Zone Manager Matthieu Béchu disclosed that for all the countries and places they have been to, they have received the “warmest welcome” in Cebu City by far, thanks to Mayor Mike Rama who has also invited them to set up a booth or information desk during important events in the city soon.

“This place here is not just a process place. Our commitment for TLScontact-Cebu and the people of Philippines, is really to offer a simplified, efficient and transparent visa experience for all of you who are going to France in the coming months,” said Bechu, who also assured faster visa processing than in Manila.

For those who cannot go to Manila or Cebu, however, Bechu said, they also have another service offered which they call, “apply anywhere” where they collect the application and send one’s visa to the applicant’s doorstep.

For his part, Mayor Rama also thanked the Ambassador for her visit, as well as TLScontact for being in Cebu which he coined as “Tender Loving Sugbuanon” for faster memory recall.

For more details on the visa processing, one can go https://visas-fr.tlscontact.com/visa/ph and their Facebook account. — Caecent No-ot Magsumbol/ATO