Starting 15 July, Russians applying for a French Schengen visa will no longer be able to have their paperwork submitted by a third party, according to The Moscow Times.
Under the new rules, applications at France’s visa center in Russia must be filed either by the applicant personally, by a parent or guardian acting for a child under 18, or by a spouse, child, or parent who can present original proof of the family relationship.
VFS Global, the company that operates France’s visa centers in Russia, announced the change on 30 June, The Moscow Times reported. Applicants over 12 must still appear in person to provide biometric data.
France is now the fourth EU country to tighten its Russian visa regime in a matter of weeks.
Eleven Schengen nations wrote to the European Commission on 4 June calling for a full ban on Russian tourist entries, The Moscow Times reported.
EU Commission spokesperson Marcus Lammert has indicated Brussels is considering formal tightening as early as 2027.
The record France is walking back
The Élysée’s new restriction marks a shift from France’s previously permissive approach to Russian visa applicants. Earlier in 2026, France issued 23% more Schengen visas to Russian nationals than the year before, the steepest rise in the EU, even as Brussels was calling for tighter controls.
European diplomats told Euractiv that Paris was politically resistant to publishing those numbers.
France, Spain, and Italy together accounted for nearly three-quarters of the more than 620,000 Schengen visas EU governments issued to Russian citizens in 2025, up more than 10% from 2024.
Paris led in both volume and growth, even as the European Commission ended multiple-entry Schengen visas for Russians in November 2025, citing growing security risks.
The third-party ban does not cap France’s total visa issuance. Rather, it removes workarounds in the visa process, as many Russian applicants had relied on third-party visa services and travel agencies to handle their submissions.
Paris’ hardening line on Russia
France’s tightening of visa policy comes as it increasingly treats Russia as a direct security threat.
Paris has stepped up enforcement against Russia’s sanctions-evasion network, seizing suspected “shadow fleet” tankers used to keep Russian oil moving despite Western restrictions.
The French government’s latest strategic review, released in 2025, identifies Russia as France’s main security threat, citing its sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks, information operations, and nuclear intimidation as a long-term concern for the country and Europe at large
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