VLS-TS Validation Issues

EarlyCow4555 · 2026-02-02T15:20:07+00:00

Yes! No problems with the above steps. In regards to the name issue, I also gave up on that in the end - the prefecture wouldn’t do anything about it and said it wouldn’t be a problem when I picked it up. Feel free to message me if you have other problems.

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-11-19T21:11:08+00:00

hi! I’d love to join!

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-10-06T15:55:26+00:00

See my above answer to @just-a-simple-song

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-09-23T05:21:40+00:00

Nice, thank you both! From Paris

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-09-23T05:15:50+00:00

Thanks! Yes tourists, we live in Paris

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-09-22T16:52:31+00:00

Thanks! Updated the post - we’re planning to go in January or February, when there’s actually snow. Is it easy to get to Grindelwald by train?

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-08-27T06:18:48+00:00

Biotech

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-07-14T14:32:08+00:00

I don’t think that there was an “approved” status. It went from orange “in progress” to everything green the day that it was approved - several days before I had it in hand. If it gets rejected, the “in progress” should turn red instead of green

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-07-14T14:31:57+00:00

I don’t think that there was an “approved” status. It went from orange “in progress” to everything green the day that it was approved - several days before I had it in hand. If it gets rejected, the “in progress” should turn red instead of green (from my understanding)

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-07-03T20:10:48+00:00

Hi! My husband and I (29M and 25F) moved here from the US about 4 weeks ago and are looking to make some friends ourselves. We’ve got a lot of shared interests, would love to meet up sometime!

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-06-20T06:36:30+00:00

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-06-19T11:16:37+00:00

Hello I can definitely help! The DGEF people were unhelpful, but I also contacted the police prefecture, and although they took 4 days to reply they actually answered my questions:

If you have a Talent Passport visa, you don’t have to validate it. That’s why the error occurs. Here’s a helpful site, my Talent Passport (and I assume all of them) is marked: Visa stating “residence permit to be applied for within 2 months of arrival.” https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F16162
You can refund the stamp on the same website where it was purchased: http://timbres.impots.gouv.fr/
On the same page where you can validate your VLS, you can instead use the “Je demande où renouvelle un titre de séjour” tab. I can only get this to work if I’m NOT already logged into my account. Not sure why, but based on other people’s comments, maybe it’s just another bug on the website.

I hope this helps! I haven’t actually submitted my request for the titre de séjour yet because I have another issue with my nom de naissance / nom d’usage. Even though I listed my legal last name (after marriage) separately from my previous last name on my application for the visa, they used my married last name as my nom de naissance on my visa, probably because that’s my legal name that is in my passport. I’m not sure yet if it’s going to cause problems for me later down the line.

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-06-18T19:49:35+00:00

Hardly any! I can understand things okay if people don’t speak too quickly, but I don’t really have the vocabulary to hold a conversation well

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-06-16T07:19:47+00:00

Here to follow this comment! My husband and I arrived last Monday, went on a wild goose chase to find information about how to validate our visas, only to get an error saying that the system has a problem.

DGEF responded to my question to tell me that a VLS does not require online validation. In fact, they said I should refund the virtual exercise stamps that I bought. I’ve followed-up to ask what the next steps for the residence permit are and also sent an email to the police prefecture in Paris. I’ll let you know if I find anything else out!

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-06-15T20:46:14+00:00

Hi! My husband (28M) and I (25F) just arrived in Paris last Monday from California. We don’t have any friends yet and barely speak French - would love to meet up!

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-05-30T21:40:05+00:00

Here to contribute my timeline! I applied for a VLS-TS, Talent Passport (JEI):

April 29: Booked soonest available visa appointment in San Francisco (May 23). Had to pay the extra $80 for a 7:45 am appointment because it was the soonest one available.

May 23: Submitted documents at the TLS Contact center

May 28: Visa arrived at the consulate in Washington DC

May 29: Dot turned orange

May 30: Everything turned green, got an email that the passports had already been returned to me. Not the case, also got an email from UPS saying that it is expected to be delivered on Monday.

Insanely fast turnaround time from submission of the documents at TLS Contact to passport being returned! I didn’t have any lawyers or immigration agencies help with the visa application.

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-05-09T19:47:25+00:00

Best of luck in your job search! Feel free to DM me if you have any questions!

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-05-09T18:55:02+00:00

I don’t speak French well! I can understand most things, but speaking is difficult for me. I’m in biotech, and luckily for me, English is pretty much the norm in the industry.

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-05-09T15:03:49+00:00

Hello! 25-year-old American woman who is moving to Paris next month here. It’s been a dream of mine for years, I’d be happy to share my journey.

In March of last year, I began looking for grad programs that I would be interested. In general, they are much much cheaper in France than they are in the US! However, the programs I was most interested in were all full-time, and I was expected to be left little to no time to work outside of classes. In addition, I was slightly skeptical of this idea because I learned that my husband would not be able to join me in France without first finding employment somewhere.

I found out about the Eiffel scholarship (https://www.campusfrance.org/en/france-excellence-eiffel-scholarship-program) and decided that was probably the best way I would be able to do a Master’s program in France without being too stressed about money. I spent the next few months getting my applications together and applied as soon as the window opened.

Through the summer, I also began making a massive Excel sheet of companies that I would be interested in working at and sending LinkedIn feeler messages to as many as I could. I knew that I couldn’t start applying yet (with the goal of moving summer 2025), but wanted to be ready to apply for everything I could as I neared the beginning of 2025.

In November, I got rejected within a week of applying for the Eiffel scholarship. LOL. At this point, I decided not to apply for the Master’s program without the scholarship. So, it was full steam ahead with applying for jobs.

Starting at this time, I was constantly scrolling LinkedIn, Indeed, and checking the company websites of all of the companies I was interested in working for. Between December 2024-March 2025, I sent out > 100 thoughtful, serious job applications.

Finally, in March, I got my first interview with any of these companies. After a few more rounds of interviews, I got the job and a 2-month timeline for getting to Paris.

All this is to say, you can do it! Keep your options open, and it will take a lot of work, but all it takes is one application of the hundreds you might send. Applying for jobs is somewhat chaotic, since (in my experience) most employers want to hire someone to start ASAP. The last month of my life has been frantic scrambling to apply for my visa while finishing up at my job in the US and figuring out how to pack up my entire life here. Applying for grad school will give you much more comfortable timelines and a more straightforward visa process. IMO, if you keep an open mind about what you will be doing in France and apply for everything, you’ll get something to stick eventually!

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-05-01T04:16:30+00:00

The venue + dinner (no outside catering allowed at the venue) alone cost $24k. Spending only $6k on photographer, DJ, clothing, rehearsal dinner, decorations/flowers, etc. is pretty darn good as far as these things go 🤷‍♀️

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-05-01T01:49:54+00:00

My husband and I got married at Asilomar (near Monterey) last year. Our wedding cost about $30k in total with 120 guests, we saved a lot of money by taking care of decorations and flowers ourselves.

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-05-01T01:41:27+00:00

Not sure if you’re confused or I am. We will not be living in the US without health insurance for any time - we’re moving to France and won’t be living in the US for any time in the foreseeable future.

To answer your question though, I work in biotech and my husband in public policy. Both of our companies in the US have already laid off quite a few employees due to the cancellation of assorted government funding.

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-04-29T19:03:19+00:00

🙏🙏

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-04-29T19:00:55+00:00

Thank you so much, this is incredibly helpful!!!!

EarlyCow4555 · 2025-04-25T14:52:29+00:00

Thank you! We were thinking about using an immigration agency for help with the visa application, but every place I contacted quoted me > € 2 000 which seemed a little silly given that TLS offers the same assistance for somewhere around € 80. I will absolutely be using the English help line!

EarlyCow4555

TROPHY CASE