Apply for Schengen Visa in Los Angeles 2022

A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa that allows a person to travel to any member of the Schengen Area, per stay up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes. (What is Schengen VISA?)

Warning
This post is NOT a tutorial. It only aims to share my personal experience. You might encounter differently than me while you apply for a VISA.
Warning

The 26 Schengen countries are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

So, if you want to travel to any of the countries above. You need a Schengen VISA.

The three following factors are determinative on where you should file your Schengen visa application:

The number of countries you will be visiting
The number of days you will be spending in each
The country where you will step in first, in case you visit more than one of the Schengen member states

After having clear three factors given above, then you will be able to decide where to apply, according to the following rules:

If you are planning to visit only one country – then you need to apply at the diplomatic representation of the Schengen you will be visiting, located in your country of residence.
If you are planning to visit more than one country – then where you need to apply depends on the number of days you will be spending in each of the states you will be staying.
When spending an equal amount of days in each – then you need to apply at the diplomatic representation of the country where you will arrive first.
When spending unequal amount of days in each – then you will need to apply at the diplomatic representation of the country where you will be spending more time.

(How to figure out where to apply for a Schengen visa?)

Since I am planning to visit Paris first, so I should apply for a France VISA.

Fill out the Application Form

From this step, please refer to THIS POST from AIRTICKETNA.

Electronic Application Form Website:

https://france-visas.gouv.fr/web/france-visas/ma-demande-en-ligne

Prepare Documents

Printed Application Form
Two recently taken photos (Size: 35*45mm)
Copy of passport page
- Copy of passport renewal remarks page
Copy of U.S. visa
Copy of I-20
- Travel Signature in I-20 must be valid
Enrollment Verification
Bank account statement (no older than 3 months)
Travel insurance
- Deductible/copay MUST be 0/Zero
- Medical Expenses/Emergency Medical Repatriation minimum coverage of $35,000
Travel Itinerary
Booked round-trip tickets
Booked hotel reservation
Sponsor Letter (If you have a Sponsor)
- Sponsor's proof of financial means
Your original I-20, Passport, and U.S. VISA

You should be fine as long as you followed AIRTICKETNA's tutorial above. However, the agent in LA VFS only keeps one of my photos. And he did not keep my personally printed application form. Instead, he prints out a new one for me to sign after being reviewed all documents. (There are still some small changes compared to the tutorial.)

Make an appointment for VFS

Be careful, VISA Application System and the VFS appointment system are two different systems.

You can use the link below to find the nearest VFS location (Of course if you want to go a farther one):

https://france-visas.gouv.fr/web/us/a-qui-sadresser

You should print out the VFS appointment conformation, although nobody checked mine that day.

Los Angeles/VFS Visa Processing

I arrived in Los Angles a day before the appointment day, so I got pretty familiar with the local traffic. Yet, I arrived too early the next day, but the agent was friendly and allowed me to do it ahead of the appointment. There were not a lot of people in VFS, so I spent around 20 minutes.

Timeline：

| Oct. 12, 2022 Applied in LA VFS

| Oct. 14, 2022 Processed in Washington D.C

| Oct. 20, 2022 VFS website shows that your passport has been dispatched

| Oct. 21, 2022 FedEx website can track their shipment (They used Overnight Priority)

| Oct. 22, 2022 Arrived in my City (Nobody deliver the package because it is a weekend)

| Oct. 24, 2022 Received my passport

Here are some photos while I travel in LA on Oct. 11-12