Visa requirement for connecting flight in CDG (Paris, FR)

score:3

Accepted answer

Timatic states:

Transit Countries

France

Visa

Visa required.

TWOV (Transit Without Visa):

Nationals of India with a normal passport transiting through Paris (CDG), arriving from a non-Schengen Member State with a confirmed onward ticket for a flight within 24 hours to a third country which is not a Schengen Member State. They must:

  • have a visa issued by Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland (Rep.), Japan, Romania or USA, and
  • stay in the international transit area of the airport, and
  • have documents required for their next destination.

Nationals of India with a normal passport transiting through Paris (CDG), arriving from a non-Schengen Member State with a confirmed onward ticket for a flight within 24 hours to a third country which is not a Schengen Member State. They must:

  • have a used, valid or expired visa issued by Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland (Rep.), Japan, Romania or USA, and
  • be returning from the country that issued the visa, and
  • stay in the international transit area of the airport, and
  • have documents required for their next destination.

(Emphasis mine)

So there are two cases:

  • A valid visa from one of those countries allows you to transit without visa whether you are travelling to/from that country or not (can be used from transits between two other countries)
  • An expired visa can be used only when you are returning from the country which issued it.

In your case, you don’t need a visa as you have an expired visa from the US and are returning from the US to your country of origin.

Note that all official French documentation I could find apparently completely ignores this case, but French official legislation (annex D, article 3 of the “Arrêté du 10 mai 2010 relatif aux documents et visas exigés pour l'entrée des étrangers sur le territoire européen de la France”) states that exceptions listed in article 3.5 of CE 810/2009 are valid.

Said article 3.5 of CE 810/2009 (the Schengen Visas Code) states:

(c) third-country nationals holding a valid visa for a Member State which does not take part in the adoption of this Regulation, or for a Member State which does not yet apply the provisions of the Schengen acquis in full, or for Canada, Japan or the United States of America, or holders of a valid visa for one or more of the overseas countries and territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba), when travelling to the issuing country or to any other third country, or when, having used the visa, returning from the issuing country;

(Emphasis mine)

Upvote:-3

https://france-visas.gouv.fr/en/web/france-visas/airport-transit-visa makes it clear that A holder of a valid visa for a Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area, Canada, the United States or Japan, by one or more countries or public bodies from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius), regardless of the airport of departure and regardless of the airport of arrival located outside the Schengen Area In the case of a return trip, the holder of a visa issued by one of the above-mentioned countries is exempt from the airport transit visa even if the visa has been used and is therefore no longer valid, provided that the return trip is made from an airport located in the country that issued the visa;

Upvote:5

Anybody with experience in a similar situation?

I don't, answering only based on my knowledge of the rules.

Is a visa needed for the layover in CDG? If so, which visa?

Indian citizens generally require an airport transit visa in this situation but there are exceptions designed to cover people who live in the US. Unfortunately, the way US visas work makes this a little difficult in practice, official advice for the French government is that you don't need one if you hold “a residence permit guaranteeing the right of return and issued by […] the United States“.

This should obviously cover a green card (“Permanent Resident Card”) but neither “work permit” nor “residence permit” are, as far as I know, the exact name of any US documents so I can't tell if it would cover the document you hold. One thing you could do to ascertain this is to check a database called TIMATIC (see Ordinary Traveller: How to use Timatic?). If you see your document listed, you should be fine since that's probably what the check-in personnel will use to decide if you should be allowed to board your flight.

If the exception doesn't cover you, then you would need to apply for an airport transit visa (ATV). You should apply to the nearest French consulate (in practice, in the US, you apply through VFS Global). You can apply between 6 months and 15 days before travel, the sooner the better. A Schengen visa (even an ATV) costs €80 plus a $35 service fee from VFS. It might indeed be required to present yourself physically to a VFS application center, especially if this is your first application and your biometrics haven't been enrolled in the relevant Schengen database.

If yes, what happens if you travel without the visa?

You would be stopped from boarding the first leg of travel and never reach CDG. Deputizing airlines to enforce restrictions and preventing you from traveling in this situation is the entire point of the airport transit visa system, nobody is checking whether you have one after landing.

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