A general point - I do find it strange the extent to which things need to be done either in person or via a form getting submitted and subject to review by an actual person in a government department. I struggle to understand why a raft of processes could not be more automated. (Note - this is a ...
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...general comment about govts everywhere and of every colur- they always seem to lag behind the private sector in using technology to make things easier for people!)
As an example, money laundering regulations everywhere have continually been beefed up over the last 15-20 years or so - and yet I think it was possible for me to open an N26 account in Spain within a couple of hours without speaking to anyone directly. I can't recall how I set up a Wise account but think that was equally painless and so was the set-up of a Starling Bank account however many moons ago.
Indeed, the only recent involvement I've had with a bank that has taken more than a couple of hours to get resolved is in respect of a non-standard account in a country that some would describe as a "tax haven" - which would seem much more understandable given the likely rigour needed by the bank to ensure all the requirements etc are met.
So I just find it odd that France hasn't created a more streamlined system to deal with such applications as they are receiving currently (the ones costing 99 Euros) - if anything, you'd think they'd be incentivised to do it so as to make a little bit more money from the applicants they are getting. Am sure some FinTech could build something from scratch fairly quickly with sufficient AI/parameters set to complete applications in the same time it takes (well, maybe a little bit longer) as an ESTA for North America.
You'd think all governments in this day and age would be pursing digitalisation of some degree - although I think the issue mainly is that governments always do IT projects badly and have done for years!
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