The France visa from Pakistan

The short answer. France is a Schengen country, so the visa is the standard short stay type C and the document list is the Schengen one. Most French applications from this office are family holidays, usually Paris with children, and a child's file needs papers an adult's does not. What every Schengen file needs

France is the Schengen country Pakistani families pick when the trip is for the children. Paris, and nearly always Disneyland with it. That makes the French file the one most likely to have a six year old in it, and children are where these applications go wrong.

A child in the file changes the file

A child does not simply get a smaller version of a parent's application. They get their own, with their own form, their own photographs and their own documents, and a few that only apply to them:

• The birth certificate, the NADRA one, attested. This is what proves the

adults travelling are the parents.

• The Family Registration Certificate, attested by the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs, which shows the household as a unit.

• Consent from the parent who is not travelling. If one parent takes the

children and the other stays behind, the one staying behind has to say in

writing that they agree. This is the single most forgotten document in a

family file, and it stops the whole application rather than just the child's.

• School papers, a letter confirming enrolment and that leave has been

granted for the dates. It answers the question of what the child is going

back to, which is the same question the parents' employment letters answer

for them.

The fee is lower for children: a child between six and twelve pays forty-five euros rather than ninety, and under six is free. The paperwork is not lower.

Paris, Disneyland and where the nights fall

Disneyland Paris sits outside the city and most families split the trip, a few nights in Paris and a few at the resort. Both are France, so this does not complicate the consulate question at all.

What does complicate it is the trip that adds London. The United Kingdom is not in the Schengen Area and never has been, so a London leg is a completely separate British visa with its own fee, its own appointment and its own refusal risk. Nights in London do not count towards the main destination rule for Schengen, because they are not Schengen nights.

The same is true of a trip that adds Turkey or Dubai on the way. Those are their own visas. Count only the Schengen nights when deciding which consulate the Schengen application belongs to.

What to allow, from Karachi

School holidays are the whole problem. Every family with children is applying in the same weeks, and the appointment calendar does not expand to meet them.

Three months for a summer or winter school holiday trip. Six to eight weeks otherwise. If the trip is pinned to the holidays, the date you should come to us is the day the school calendar is published, not the day you decide to go.

Q: Do my children need their own visas, or can they travel on mine?

Their own, and their own applications. A Pakistani child has their own passport and needs their own visa in it. The only thing that is smaller for a child is the fee: nothing for under six, forty-five euros between six and twelve, the full ninety after that.

Q: My husband is not coming. Is that a problem?

Not in itself, but it adds a document. The parent staying behind has to give written consent for the children to travel, and a file without it will be stopped. Bring it with you rather than being asked for it, and bring his passport copy with it.

Q: We want Paris and London in one trip. Is that one visa?

No. The United Kingdom left the European Union and was never in the Schengen Area, so it is two separate visas, two fees, two appointments and two decisions, and either can be refused without affecting the other. We file both, but plan the dates knowing that the British one has its own timetable.

Q: Is a tour booking enough proof of accommodation?

If it names the hotels and the dates, yes, and it is usually tidier than a stack of separate bookings. What it cannot do is be vague. "Hotel in Paris, 4 nights" is not an answer. The consulate wants the name and the dates, which is what a proper itinerary from this office gives you.

Before you pay anything

Requirements change, the arrangements for lodging an application change, and the rules around children are the ones embassies tighten most often. We confirm the current position before every submission rather than trusting any list, including this one.

Tell us who is travelling, their ages, and the dates. We will tell you exactly what each person in the family needs before you spend anything.