C'est La Visa

Any South African living in the UK already knows all there is to know about getting THE visa. And while I am ever so grateful that I can explore every inch of this Island to my hearts content, sometimes it would be nice to experience the truly British phenomenon of booking a weekend break on lastminute.com, catching a ‘cheap’ flight at midnight and discovering a little bit of Europe one mini break at a time.

My first Schengen visa

Dear Moonpig.com
(I definitely think there is a market here, don’t steal my idea.)

Please will you add a new category of greeting cards to your already impressive range?

• Successfully applying for a Schengen visa

On such a joyous occasion it only seems right that you should be able to receive the appropriate card. 

      

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

All your English friends get to travel to Europe

And now you can too (for a limited period of time)

                        Or

There once was a girl from Johannesburg

Who submitted a mountain of paper work

Three days went by

And the final reply

Come pick up you passport on the way to the airport*

*Definitely needs work

Regards, K
xx

I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to go to France for a dear friend’s wedding. At first I thought it would be totally impossible for someone in my situation to get a visa. I am, as they say, currently between jobs! As it turns out the fact that I submitted my pay slips from my last job and simply answered “Yes!” when asked if I was looking for a job seemed to suffice regarding the issue of my employment.

On the morning of my visa interview I was armed with a mountain of additional paperwork. I had everything that was stipulated on the list and then some…

A copy of my English boyfriend’s passport (a very good reason to return to the UK)

A copy of my English boyfriend’s bank statements (in case they didn’t think I had enough money in the bank they could be sure my lovely boyfriend would be able to bail us out of a money related crisis)

Copies of the Gatwick Express tickets booked and paid for on our return to London (Wouldn’t want them to go to waste by illegally living in Gascony!)

Copies of the theatre tickets to Chicago that were booked and paid for (Clearly I had things to do, places to go, why would I want to hide out in France!)

I never needed my additional mountain of paper work in the end. But I did make sure I had EVERYTHING on the list (excepting a letter from my employer.)

I didn’t go through an agency when applying for my visa but I would recommend that you spend the extra money. 

A friend of mine uses Nexus Visas in Putney and she says they are excellent. I mailed them in a moment of panic some time on the Wednesday before I was due to leave on the Thursday and still hadn’t heard anything about my application.

I was looking for advice or reassurance. I was so impressed when I received a reply almost immediately. They were very honest in saying I couldn’t do much except wait.

Why the wait?

Usually you receive your visa on the day of your application. It takes a few hours but it is obviously worth the wait!

I considered every possible reason I may be given for my application being denied, hence the extra documentation. In the end it was a little black stamp in my passport from the Spanish Embassy dated 2008 that caused all the heart stopping drama.

I applied for a tourist visa to do a TEFL course in Barcelona for 4 weeks. Stupid. It should have been a student visa. I had only been living in the UK for about 4 months and was not actually considered a resident! I still had an international bank account and didn’t have original bank statements. The gentleman who processed my visa application told me I wasn’t likely to get a visa but it was up to me, I could try anyway. I had already accepted that I would lose out on the visa fee but I though that would be the biggest inconvenience. 

Had I know that a little black stamp indicating a failed visa application would cause such distress, I definitely wouldn’t have been so casual about the application process. 

As of 1 October 2010 the French Consulate will no longer be handling the visa application process. All applications will have to be made through an agency, TLSContact.

Nexus Visas will still be handling visa applications.

France was amazing, made even more amazing by the fact that friends from South Africa had also endured the process to make it there. We all had our stories. I’m sure it got a little boring for anyone without a Green Mamba, but hey, c’est la visa!