TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. I would recommend traveling t...

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. I would recommend traveling to Boston or DC and going the consulate or embassy there.

I was horrified about how rude the people are who work in the French Consulate of New York. From the aggressive and ill mannered security guard to the hot headed and vile consulate woman, the experience was shocking.

The security guard was very short with me and refused to allow my mother to stand in the building at all. He closed the door in her face as I was saying goodbye to her. He touched all of my belongings and even pressed buttons on my phone to make sure it was off. He demanded to see my paper work and even though I had everything said I was missing a page and should come back another day. I insisted that I wasn't missing a page after which he let me through, but said he was confident that the French consulate workers would turn me away.

When I finally got to the room where I could get my visa it was packed. A small stuffy room with 35 or so chairs was totally full. It was completely madness. Even before I went up to the counter I could hear one woman in particular screaming at several different people for a misaligned staple or a photo that was too small. There was one American woman there was applying for something or other that required her to pay 89 USD. The woman had 90 USD but the french consulate worker refused to accept her payment unless it was exact change. She would have to book another appointment to do this even though she already had her documents in place. Luckily, every one in the waiting room had her the nasty woman yell at her and offered her money so she could pay the exact amount.

When it was my turn I got yelled out for having a small mark on one of the papers from where the staple had been, missing a copy of one paper, and looking at the camera the wrong way.

There is no sense of discretion or confidentiality at the Consulate. They seem to yell at everyone so the people in the waiting room can pretty easily understand everything being said to every person.

In reading other posts the common thread seems to be the aggressive security guard and (although all of the staff is pretty rude) that one woman in particular who is absolutely wretched. I hope (but highly doubt) that this will one day be taken into consideration by the french government and both will be fired.