Franco-German visa center opens

The French and German embassies jointly celebrated the opening of their new Franco-German Visa Center Tuesday, which will promote the efficiency of visa applications, Marget Uebber, the First Counselor of the German embassy told the Global Times.

TLScontact, the visa service provider, has been working as a partner of the French embassy in Beijing, and now they have entered into joint cooperation with the German embassy at the center, which is in Dongdaqiao, Chaoyang district.

"From now on, all visa applicants can have an appointment within 48 hours, which means no more waiting period for visa applications," said Uebber.

"Also it's no longer a must for people to come to the embassy personally. They can commission other people do it with an authorizing letter, or even send their application through the mail," she said.

The French ambassador to China, Sylvie Bermann, speaking at the ceremony, said that the founding of the center marks the close cooperation between Germany and France, and will help meet the demands of Chinese people who want to travel in both nations.　

A visa officer from the German embassy confirmed the application process will now be much quicker.　

"Our busiest season lasts from April to September, during which time applicants would have to wait at least four weeks to know the result after they submitted their files. But through the center you only need to wait about a week to get the feedback," said the officer.

The center also provides an online tracking service, allowing applicants to see the progress of their application.

"We can also help applicants check if they have all the required files, to avoid the loss caused by missing necessary information," said the officer.

But although the application procedure has been simplified, the German embassy said it has not adopted a looser position on applicants' supporting documents.

As TLScontact is a commercial company, there will be an additional service fee of 20 to 25 Euros ($26-32), although the visa application fee of 60 Euros remains unchanged.

Some citizens said the increase in cost is acceptable if it helps them get a visa quickly.

Jiang Chu, 23, who works at a mobile service provider, said she has always been planning to travel to Germany.

"Time is money. I think it's worth it if the extra cost saves three weeks' time," she said.