France’s outsourced visa-processing partner Capago has issued an urgent alert to applicants: the France-Visas portal will be completely offline on Wednesday 3 December (15:30-19:30 Alger time) and again on Tuesday 9 December (06:00-09:00). During each four-hour window nobody—tourists, students, posted workers or HR providers—will be able to create a file, pay fees, book a biometric slot or track a pending case.
Although four hours sounds modest, early December is peak season for Algerian tourists, international students returning for the January term and corporates planning Q1 assignments. Every applicant must generate a France-Visas confirmation before showing up at Capago’s Algiers, Oran, Annaba or Constantine centres; when that first step is blocked, the entire appointment chain shifts to the right, producing knock-on effects that can last weeks. Capago is warning French employers with rotational staff in Algeria to pull forward any time-sensitive travel or visa renewals and to download partially completed applications before the outage.
![France-Visas website to shut down twice next week, risking holiday backlog]()
The episode underscores a broader vulnerability in France’s digitised visa supply chain. Since the system became mandatory in 2019, even short outages have triggered missed flights, lost tuition deposits and suspended service contracts. Consular officials told Global Mobility News that contingency planning now includes printing emergency laissez-passer documents for critical workers if the portal suffers an unplanned crash.
Practical advice for global-mobility teams: brief travellers to expect slower turnaround times in the second half of December; budget extra lead time for January start dates; and remind executives that multi-entry Schengen visas can be renewed up to six months before expiry. Capago has ruled out any walk-in option during the outage windows, making advance mitigation essential.
Although four hours sounds modest, early December is peak season for Algerian tourists, international students returning for the January term and corporates planning Q1 assignments. Every applicant must generate a France-Visas confirmation before showing up at Capago’s Algiers, Oran, Annaba or Constantine centres; when that first step is blocked, the entire appointment chain shifts to the right, producing knock-on effects that can last weeks. Capago is warning French employers with rotational staff in Algeria to pull forward any time-sensitive travel or visa renewals and to download partially completed applications before the outage.
The episode underscores a broader vulnerability in France’s digitised visa supply chain. Since the system became mandatory in 2019, even short outages have triggered missed flights, lost tuition deposits and suspended service contracts. Consular officials told Global Mobility News that contingency planning now includes printing emergency laissez-passer documents for critical workers if the portal suffers an unplanned crash.
Practical advice for global-mobility teams: brief travellers to expect slower turnaround times in the second half of December; budget extra lead time for January start dates; and remind executives that multi-entry Schengen visas can be renewed up to six months before expiry. Capago has ruled out any walk-in option during the outage windows, making advance mitigation essential.
