French Visa Denial for Moroccan Professional Sparks Controversy in Franche-Comté

Philippe Ghiles says he does not understand the decision of the French Consulate General in Morocco not to grant a visa to Fatna Assahal, this 43-year-old Moroccan, manager of a retirement home company, who wanted to train at the National Institute of Training and Application (INFA) in Dole. "There are reasonable doubts about your willingness to leave the territory of the Member States before the expiration of the visa," reads the letter of visa refusal signed by the deputy consul.

"This situation is absurd and unjustifiable! This visa refusal is outrageous!" protests Philippe Ghiles, who has known the entrepreneur for about fifteen years. The forty-year-old had a complete file: property titles, bank statements, statutes of her company, tax returns, etc. As a mediator, the elected official from Val de Gray has even "committed to ensuring her accommodation here and I was even asked for a letter of guarantee of her return to Morocco." "To say that there are ’reasonable doubts’ about her willingness to return to the country is totally bad faith! Not to mention that the consulate is pronouncing without ever having met her!" he denounces to L’Est républicain.

And to continue: "The French Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Morocco through which we went to present the application was also stunned. All this, in my opinion, because of the dispute between the French president and the King of Morocco... At the expense of flouting the rules of international trade. It’s really iniquitous!... She is not asking for any aid or subsidy from France, just a visa that falls within the framework of the right to international trade."

Philippe Ghiles could file an appeal with the deputy director of visas in Nantes, or refer the matter to the Minister of the Interior. The 297-hour training that the Moroccan woman wanted to take in France is only intended to solicit "Moroccan or Moroccan-origin subjects residing in France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland" in order to convince them to come and invest in her senior residences based in Temara, she indicated in her visa application.