It came to my attention around the beginning of the visa application process that, in fact, students never used to need to even bother with the visa process as recently as give or take five years ago and that this policy has been enacted by many (most?) member states of the EU/Schengen Area on a policy of reciprocity. This means that because the United States makes everyone else, even in Western, closely allied countries, fill out endless paperwork and jump through stringent hoops, well, so too are Americans going to have to do exactly the same if they want in those countries for longer than 90 days. This renders the visa process a little bit less serious, as evidenced by the terribly translated and proofread visa application form (among other documents), and a lot more tedious. I'm not saying I don't get it, but thanks for that one, America, all of us going to these countries are so terribly grateful.
Upon learning that a girl going on the program to Germany doesn't need the same kind of visa and can just show up and register herself, I threw in a joke about how this is really just Europe's geopolitical South's revenge for all of their duress. I'm not so sure that needs to be a joke.
I am still waiting for my background check to come back from the FBI so that I can submit all of my visa materials. Six weeks and counting.
The timeline for visa approval is apparently three to six weeks, but often shorter because the process isn't actually that strict for American citizens provided you aren't, say, a felon. That's great, at least in theory, except that there is ambiguity over whether or not we send in our passports from the get-go and then it's approved and mailed back to us, or whether we send in a copy, get the visa approved, and then send in our passports. In typical Latin style, no one really knows except for the contacts at the consulate that only our study abroad office seems to have contact with. You could otherwise be waiting approximately forever for clarification. This becomes problematic only when the lack of start and end dates for the semester in Lisbon is factored in, because Católica doesn't feel like it's necessary to let that information out except in officially signed and sealed documents. Add to that the necessity of this information for filling out the visa application form itself and being able to book travel, for which must be accounted as part of the documentation, and you have a nice, bigclusterfuck mess that doesn't get any better when you realize that the days and weeks are melting away, leaving the deadlines significantly tighter for getting the visa and getting the hell out of this country.
Our documentation from Católica, semester dates and all, came in finally, so we happily (joy!) no longer need to worry about that.
In related news, all of my hyperventilation over the course of this process over housing and the fact that I don't want to end up living in a suitcase on cobblestone sidewalks by a river because I can't afford housing and no one bothered to lend a helping hand in finding lodging arrangements and I'm going to starve because everything is expensive and what if the airline loses my luggage and I have no clothes, then I'll be really screwed and then what if ... where was I? Oh, right. So we had an orientation meeting to go over the various bureaucratic processes that getting there entails, from the university to the government and everything in between, and we also met with one of the students on exchange here from the same program. I can now rest assured that Portugal is nowhere near as expensive as Alpine France (or Paris, for that matter), I will not have to worry about living in a hovel 2 kilometers from a transit stop an hour and a half away from anything of interest, and plenty of other information that will no doubt come in handy. This is the point where normally I would be excited, but I can't get the background check out of my head, and so all of theelves and faeries shitting themselves joy will have to sit contained until I mail off my visa application, at which point I'm sure I will spend all of my time learning as much about Lisbon and Portugal (and Portuguese) as possible in my impatience to leave.
At least even the Germans had a difficult process with their visas.
Upon learning that a girl going on the program to Germany doesn't need the same kind of visa and can just show up and register herself, I threw in a joke about how this is really just Europe's geopolitical South's revenge for all of their duress. I'm not so sure that needs to be a joke.
I am still waiting for my background check to come back from the FBI so that I can submit all of my visa materials. Six weeks and counting.
The timeline for visa approval is apparently three to six weeks, but often shorter because the process isn't actually that strict for American citizens provided you aren't, say, a felon. That's great, at least in theory, except that there is ambiguity over whether or not we send in our passports from the get-go and then it's approved and mailed back to us, or whether we send in a copy, get the visa approved, and then send in our passports. In typical Latin style, no one really knows except for the contacts at the consulate that only our study abroad office seems to have contact with. You could otherwise be waiting approximately forever for clarification. This becomes problematic only when the lack of start and end dates for the semester in Lisbon is factored in, because Católica doesn't feel like it's necessary to let that information out except in officially signed and sealed documents. Add to that the necessity of this information for filling out the visa application form itself and being able to book travel, for which must be accounted as part of the documentation, and you have a nice, big
Our documentation from Católica, semester dates and all, came in finally, so we happily (joy!) no longer need to worry about that.
In related news, all of my hyperventilation over the course of this process over housing and the fact that I don't want to end up living in a suitcase on cobblestone sidewalks by a river because I can't afford housing and no one bothered to lend a helping hand in finding lodging arrangements and I'm going to starve because everything is expensive and what if the airline loses my luggage and I have no clothes, then I'll be really screwed and then what if ... where was I? Oh, right. So we had an orientation meeting to go over the various bureaucratic processes that getting there entails, from the university to the government and everything in between, and we also met with one of the students on exchange here from the same program. I can now rest assured that Portugal is nowhere near as expensive as Alpine France (or Paris, for that matter), I will not have to worry about living in a hovel 2 kilometers from a transit stop an hour and a half away from anything of interest, and plenty of other information that will no doubt come in handy. This is the point where normally I would be excited, but I can't get the background check out of my head, and so all of the
At least even the Germans had a difficult process with their visas.
No comments
Post a Comment