<p>My daughter heard today that she was accepted into her school's own study abroad program. While she is thrilled, she is also waiting to hear from a program through API. API should let her know in about 2 weeks.</p>
<p>The problem is her school wants an answer within 2 weeks and told her she needed to have her Visa with 3 weeks. They want a $500 non refundable deposit to hold her spot. When she applied for the program she was told decisions would not be made until mid to late October, making the decision time around the same time as API. My daughter said she will call API on Monday and see if a decision might arrive earlier.</p>
<p>The big question is, can she get her Visa before she knows for sure which program she is going on? Also, 3 weeks is not really enough time to get somewhere to get the Visa. Her school is in the Northeast and we live in the South; does it matter which Consulate she goes to, the one for the state of her school or the one for our home state? Either way it will require her to fly and most likely miss 2 days of school and work; I would assume the office is only opened Monday-Friday.</p>
<p>How do others handle getting a student visa? I hate that she will have to miss classes and spend a good bit of money to fly somewhere, although I guess she would have had to do this no matter which program she attended. I just thought she would have more than 3 week to take care of it.</p>
<p>Can't she mail her passport? I don't think anyone can help without knowing where she is going; call up a consulate general for that country and they should help you out.</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn't mean to leave out where she was going. She will be going to Spain, either Madrid or Granada. I check out the consulate in NY online and it looks like she can either go to the consulate office that covers either her home state or the state where her school is.</p>
<p>It looks like it does have to be in person and as best I can tell, she has to have all the paperwork for the program she is attending. That means she has to make a decision and pay before she can apply for her Visa. If she can get a Visa through the mail I have not seen that anywhere. I did see where a parent can get one for a minor, but I would assume I could not get one for a college student.</p>
<p>I not familiar with Spain, but usually for this type of situation you use a expediter who you mail your passport to and they go and do all of the work at the embassy/consulate. It's rather expensive but cheaper than flying out yourself and almost as fast.</p>
<p>My nephew will be going to Spain this spring and needs a visa. I was helping my sister and my nephew figure out what he had to do, since they are not at all familiar with travelling abroad. From the consulate websites, it appears that the traveler has to appear in person at the consulate and an expediter cannot be used, unlike for visas for many other countries.</p>
<p>Here is the info that I have gathered so far. (D is going to Barcelona in January). She has to go in person to the Spanish Consulate (someone said a parent can go for her but unsure if that is true). You need the study abroad documents from the program. You can't go before you have them. And you have to wait until at least 90 days before the program starts, can't go sooner then that. And the consulate is only open certain hours. If I am wrong please let me know. I'm waiting for my daughter to get the info...</p>
<p>Hi,
I have a question regarding the student visa. In the US can you work outside campus with that visa? I was wondering if there is any way of financing my own college.</p>
<p>I have made several calls to expediters and all have said that a student must apply in person for a student visa to Spain.</p>
<p>I have also emailed two consulates of Spain to get some verification and questions answers; I can not get a person on the phone at either one. I also tried to email, but have not gotten a reply that way either. The operator at the consulate in Spain told me he could not help me, that I would have to come there to ask my questions. I told him I was thousands of miles away and that my daughter had some questions before she arrived. He hung up on me, three different times!!</p>
<p>It is interesting that each consulate has different requirements; Chicago and Miami take appointments for visas, New York you have to stand it line all day and hope you get in before they close. Miami doesn't have any appointments available until the end of January, my daughter leaves January 8. Chicago you have to pick up your visa in person after they have approved the visa which means two trips if you don't live there. Both Miami and New York mail them back to you in the express mail envelope you provide.</p>
<p>The paper work for each consulate it just a bit different; proof of insurance, medical clearance, police reports, etc. vary from consulate to consulate. Make sure you know what your consulate requires!</p>
<p>My daughter is able to go to either of two different consulates as her home state's jurisdictions is in one locations and where she attends school is another. Either way she will have to fly and miss one maybe two days of classes due to the travel time. Of course it will not be cheap to fly her there either! She is stressing out about being able to get her visa in time, plus missing classes. If I could find out if I could go for her I would do so. The cost to fly would be the same for me, but that way she wouldn't have the stress of missing classes and taking all that time to travel.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that Spain is the only country that is this difficult. The people at API also warned me that the consulates have a habit of changing what they need for a visa at a moments notice. I have decided that my daughter will have with her any paperwork that any consulate of Spain wants in triplicate with her. Hopefully she will ne able to get her visa the first time without having to return.</p>
<p>The other issue is it takes at least 7 weeks to get your visa after you apply at some consulates, maybe longer. This does not leave much time for the kids that are just getting accepted to programs for the spring. Until she can gather all the paperwork together, get to the consulate, and wait for her passport to be mailed back, we will be luck if she can leave on time! Her program director said that the kids going to Spain in the spring always have this problem and that several kids a semester do not get to leave with the rest of the group.</p>
<p>I know for the French consulate in New York, appointments can be secured online. NYU has study abroad in Madrid, so they must have a way of assisting the students with getting the visa, because I haven't heard of anyone having any problems. Generally speaking, it does sound fairly complicated, but hopefully, it will all work out.</p>
<p>Snowball--Could you give us an update on how your daughter's Visa application process is going? I'm curious because we're starting the process ourselves. Our daughter will be doing an API program in Florence, Italy starting in late January. We had to drive 350 miles last week to get to the nearest "honorary" consul, so he could witness her signature. (He did this out of his home.) Already, this is turning into a headache!</p>
<p>We have been back and forth on the Visa. My daughter was going to fly to NYC to get her Visa next week, but we have since found an expediter that will do it for her. Every company we called said they did not handle student visa's for Spain except for the one that is going for her. It turns out one of my daughter's friends used the same expediter, so I feel better about using them. I also have a relative that deals with international adoptions and her passport/visa person said this company was the one to go to for student visa.</p>
<p>We will see how it works out as her appointment is next week. Good luck with the process. My daughter has a friend that is also going to Italy and I know she had to go somewhere to take care of her visa, but don't know the details.</p>
<p>I thought that only a parent can go for a student for the student visa for Spain, and thats only with a notarized statement from the student. My daughter went to NY and applied last week. They only take a limited amount of applications each day. She got there with her friends at 7:15 am, and there were already 10 people on line.</p>
<p>When I emailed the Miami consulate I did ask about a parent going for the student; it would be so much easier for me to go and my daughter not miss classes. The reply I got back was a bit vague, but said she should come herself. </p>
<p>The expediter I am going to use has done this before many times. I am thinking they have someone on the inside in Miami, but that is just my opinion! And yes, they will need a notarized statement from my daughter.</p>
<p>I am curious, if your daughter arrived at 7:15, how long did it take here to get through? I had instructed my daughter to arrive at 7:00 if she went, although I didn't know what time she would get done. We are still debating as to whether my daughter should go or send the expediter; my husband votes on the expediter!</p>
<p>Hindoo- my kid went to Florence last year (absolutely loved it) but she had to go through the visa hassle too. Luckily we're a train ride away from the NYC consulate, so we know we were very lucky in that regard. My d came home a day early for Thanksgiving break (Tuesday), so she could be at the Office by 7:00AM Wed. There was already a line when she got there- I'm sure there were lots of kids who too tried to take advantage of the Thanksgiving recess to get the visa. The Italian Office in NY, will only process a set amount of applicants a day, so you have to make sure you are there early enough to make "the cut". There were also other forms we needed to get
(it's a bit hazy now)- but I know we needed a letter from our bank as proof that she had enough funds to cover her expenses. and there may have been other documents that she needed too.
I heard several stories on line about kids having to make 2 or 3 trips to the Consulate until they got all the needed info.
I don't mean to "scare" anyone, especially those that have to travel a distance, but make sure you have ALL the needed documents- or you may have to go back a second time!
My kid went through Wells college, they sent us a lot of info, so we really did have a heads up on what we needed to bring along when d went for her Visa.
I would advise you to check with the study abroad program and get all the details as to what info is needed by the Consulate in order to get a Visa. Also get the hours for Visa applications. The Italian Office would only take Visa applicants in the AM.</p>
<p>My daughter got there at 7:15, they opened the consulate around 9. Then they start to que in the building. She said they seperate you into two lines, so you have to make sure noone gets in front of you. They took her about 10:30 and it was very fast. She said the guy didn't look at all at the schnegen visa application. He just kept asking for documents one by one. And he was taking other telephone calls as he was speaking with her. Make sure you have no white out on the application. One of her friends had to get out of line and go to the Starbucks and redo the application. She had extra blank applications with her just in case.</p>
<p>She was very prepared. I sent her with a notarized statement stating she has our permission and finances to go (didn't need that), also a copy of her bank account showing she had $5000 in it (didn't need that), and a copy and the original of our insurance card (also didn't need that). My D said last year someone from her school was denied because they didn't have a copy of the bank statement. But this time they didn't need it.</p>
<p>I think it all depends on the agent that you see at each consulate. I know that each consulate of Spain ask for something different and I understand from one study abroad company that some consulates ask for things not on their website. This is where I think it depends on the person you actually see at the consulate.</p>
<p>On the Miami website for Spain, it says the Schnegen application needs to be type written; who still has a typewritter anymore? My daughter said the blanks are so tiny as it is, she can't imagine trying to get the typewriter lined up. My husband does have a typewriter at the office so if we need to type it we can try.</p>
<p>My nephew went with my brother-in-law to the Spanish consulate in New York today to get his Visa for studying in Spain this spring. He goes to college about 6 hours away so he couldn't go to NY until he came home for Thanksgiving break. They got there before 6:30 AM but were turned away because there were too many people ahead of them. People who were turned away yesterday were given cards to be taken first today, and then they only took a few more people who came for the first time today. He got a card to be taken first tomorrow (#40), and they have to go back to NYC tomorrow (a several hour trip from his home). They met a girl who was turned away both yesterday and today - I guess she got there too late even though she had an appointment card. </p>
<p>I don't understand why the Spanish consulate makes this process so difficult. They obviously know that many students on break will be coming this week, but they apparently do not have extra staff or extended hours.</p>
<p>Members of my family have obtained visas for Brazil, India, Taiwan, and China. In all cases, a visa agent could be used or one could go in person and get waited on and get one-day pickup service (for an extra fee). Again, I do not understand why Spain makes this process so extraordinarily difficult (no Visa agents allowed, wait on very few people per day, no one-day service, etc.) </p>
<p>I am glad that when my kids went to Spain, they went for 4 weeks and 7 weeks, respectively, and therefore did not need a visa.</p>
<p>It sounds like the consulate doesn't have an on-line service to make appointments. I guess it's good that D was able to make an appointment on-line with the French consulate.</p>