Qatari nationals who want to visit France should be able to apply for and obtain a visa to the country within 48 hours, officials have announced.

To boost visitors to the country, France’s ambassador in Doha Eric Chevallier launched a new fast-track system for nationals.

Handled by agency Capago Mena, this also include “doorstep applications,” where an agent does visits to homes and offices to get the process underway.

Assuming all the paperwork is correctly filed, the French mission in Doha said Qatari nationals should received their visa within two days.

Previously, the turnaround time depended on the capacity of the office to process the applications, an embassy spokesperson told Doha News.

Applications for visit visas from other nationalities will take up to two weeks, the embassy added.

European tourism

Some 31,000 French visas were issued in Qatar last year, more than half of which were to Qataris, Gulf Times reported Chevallier as saying.

This total number was up 20 percent on the previous year, he added.

“We have set up a very efficient visa application system which is very comfortable, smooth and easy. We hope the number of visitors from Qatar will improve this year,” Chevallier continued.

You can find out more information about applying for a French visa here.

The UK has also been courting Qatari visitors in recent years, rolling out a visa waiver system in 2013 to make it faster and easier for locals to travel to the European country.

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