MOSUL – France has inaugurated a new visa application center in Mosul, Iraq becoming the first European facility of its kind in the city battered by years of war and violence.
Mosul is currently being rebuilt after it was retaken from the Islamic State armed group that occupied the town between 2014-17 and the international groups are returning to the city with the visa centre being considered a positive development by experts.
“The Consul General of France in Mosul, with the support of the French Embassy in Iraq, is pleased to announce that it is now possible (from April 26, 2023) for the inhabitants of Mosul and the entire governorate from Nineveh to file their visa application for France and the Schengen area directly in Mosul, as part of a system set up with TLS Contact,” the statement of the Embassy reads.
The French Consul General in Mosul, Jean-Christophe Augé commented on the development that the opening of the center concretely reflects France’s commitment to Mosul and the province of Nineveh.
“This center will facilitate visa applications for residents, notably students, academics, businessmen, and tourists,” he highlighted.
The opening of the visa centre solves the problem of around 1.5 million residents in the city who had to travel about 500 km to apply for visas in Baghdad. Another visa center in the nearby city of Erbil only serves residents of the autonomous Kurdistan region.
Mosul boats a Turkish consulate, UN and international NGO offices, but Niniveh Governor Nejm al-Joubouri pointed out that France was “the first European country” to have appointed a consul general in the city.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, was in Mosul during the inauguration of the centre that is being hailed widely as a step towards rebuilding the city which fell under the control of extremists in 2014, who made it their “capital”.
The city was recaptured in 2017 when Iraqi forces supported by an international coalition led by Washington launched an operation leading to normalcy in the city as shops have reopened and traffic jams have returned.
Though the visa centre has been opened, Iraq has not inked any agreement on visa-free travel with the EU/Schengen Area countries and all of its citizens require a Schengen visa to be allowed entry to France and the rest of the bloc.
