Consulate General of France in Bangalore

The Consulate General of France in Bangalore is the southern Indian career post for France, located at 21 Palace Road in the Vasanthnagar neighbourhood of central Bangalore. The post serves Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — the southern Indian IT, biotechnology, aerospace and innovation cluster — with a Bureau de France in Hyderabad providing additional reach. With approximately 30 staff the post houses the chancery, the consular section, the visa section, the Service Economique (economic department), the Institut Français en Inde Bangalore branch, the CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales — France's space agency, in support of the historic ISRO-CNES partnership that dates from 1964 and underpins major Indo-French satellite cooperation), and Business France. The post is one of the more substantial French consular operations in Asia given the scale of the southern Indian innovation cluster and the substantial Franco-Indian aerospace-and-space cooperation anchored on Bangalore. Bangalore is India's principal IT and innovation hub and the operational centre for several substantial French groups: Airbus India (substantial engineering, supplier-development and Final Assembly Line cooperation), Capgemini (major Indian delivery centre with substantial Bengaluru operations), Schneider Electric, Saint-Gobain Research India, Renault-Nissan (Chennai operations with substantial Bangalore engineering ties), the substantial French aerospace and defence supplier presence supporting the Rafale and Scorpène industrial cooperation chains, and the substantial French biotech and pharmaceutical operations in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI) Bangalore chapter is among the most active business networks in southern India.

The Consular Section serves the French national community in the southern Indian states — the French business and engineering community in Bangalore (concentrated around Airbus India, Capgemini, Schneider Electric, Saint-Gobain Research India and the broader French aerospace-and-defence industrial cluster), the smaller communities in Hyderabad (the Bureau de France) and Andhra Pradesh, and the French academic-research community at IISc Bangalore and the southern Indian university system. Standard French consular services include passport renewal and biometric passport issuance, Carte Nationale d'Identité issuance, civil-status notification to the Service Central de l'État Civil in Nantes, voter registration for French elections (the Consulate is a polling station), notarial certifications, apostille issuance and emergency consular assistance for French nationals across the catchment.

French foreign direct investment in southern India is substantial across aerospace (Airbus India's substantial Bengaluru engineering and supplier-development operations, the Rafale-related industrial cooperation supplier base, Safran's Indian aerospace operations), IT-services (Capgemini's major Bengaluru operations are among the largest Capgemini delivery centres globally), engineering and design services (Schneider Electric, Saint-Gobain Research India, the substantial French automotive supplier base in Chennai with Bangalore engineering ties), and the substantial French biotechnology and pharmaceutical operations in Hyderabad-Bengaluru. Indian outbound FDI to France from the southern Indian commercial cluster is led by the major IT-services groups expanding French delivery centres and the substantial Indian biotechnology and pharmaceutical groups establishing French regulatory operations.

The Institut Français en Inde Bangalore branch coordinates substantial Franco-Indian cultural and academic exchange — Alliance Française de Bangalore programming, French language teaching (Bangalore's substantial French-language learning community concentrated around the IT-services and aerospace sectors), French film programming, Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music exchanges with French conservatories, and the substantial Franco-Indian academic-research cooperation with IISc Bangalore, the IIITs and the southern Indian technical university system. The student-mobility programme is the single largest non-commercial flow — Indian engineering students from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are major contributors to the substantial Indian cohort at French grandes écoles and engineering schools.

Schengen and national visa appointments are booked through the VFS Global France India portal. Campus France student-mobility appointments are booked through the Études en France platform. Consular service appointments are booked through the Consulate General's online booking system. Phone enquiries route through the switchboard +91 80 2214 1200 during office hours. Out-of-hours emergencies route through the Centre de Crise et de Soutien in Paris on +33 1 53 59 11 00.