TLS Contact (France Visa) - Missing Documents

[Harmonica]

My wife recently applied for a tourist visa to visit France with me (she is non-EU, I am a UK citizen). As we live a long way from London we did it by post and sent all the documents requested: her passport, my passport, her residence permit, our marriage certificate.

We have now received her passport back, with the visa. They also returned our marriage certificate but not my passport or her residence card.

I have spent the last two days speaking to an obviously incompetent person at TLS (the company that the French Embassy uses), who has tried to tell me that these items have been despatched separately, though he has no idea exactly when this happened and has no reference number (nor can he explain why a company would pay for two courier fees when only one was needed). I spoke with the courier firm that they use and they confirmed that they have nothing else for us.

I have emailed the consulate directly and am waiting for a response, but I wondered if anyone else has any experience of this? Or suggestions on what to do now?

[skele]

I haven't had the same experience as you but I have had to deal with the French authorities with regards to EU route visas and they will lie and lie and lie and mess you around for as long as possible til you give up. Sounds a bit odd what they've done to you butit's probably a delaying tactic. Good luck sorting it out because it's very difficult to get to speak to anyone and no one in France will give you a name to contact.

[skele]

Sorry I've just re read your post, so you did get the visa. But obviously you can't go anywhere without the missing documents. Ridiculous as it sounds, I wouldn't be surprised if they did on purpose to mess up your trip because they had to give you the visa!!

Hope you get your stuff back soon.

[ca.funke]

(post irrelevant, had a wrong thought, sorry)

[jack_daniel]

As you mentioned in the post that u r a UK citizen.So I guess you sent ur Uk passport solely for your spouse visa.
Bit surprising though in this case it is an offence of misplacing ur passport and her residence card..I won't be surprised if they've deliberately delayed this to mess up ur trip.
Even I've experienced the same with Spain visa.
3 Applied together only one got.

[Harmonica]

Thought I'd better update this in case this does happen to someone else.

I have now received all my documents back. Apparently it is relatively common for them to send the passport of the applicant back separately to some of the supporting documents (though I still don't understand why, as they have to pay two lots of courier fees).

If you do have problems with this, don't waste your time calling the TLS number as it appears to be staffed by a single person who is utterly powerless to help (and is not even based in the same city as the rest of TLS). What you need to do is email the consulate directly:
visas.londres-fslt@diplomatie.gouv.fr

When I did this I had a telephone call back within 3 hours and the lady was very helpful, tracking down my passport and calling me back with a tracking number once it had been despatched.

So for me, it has all ended well. We have all our documents and my wife has a multiple entry Schengen visa. Thanks for the good wishes on here, hope things work out for you too.