Hello my faithful readers:
In yesterday's blog I started sharing a bit about the Visa application process. Upon first glance it seemed easy, but once I started to dig in applying for my visa seemed like peeling an onion, it made me want to cry for no good reason at all! Now that I can breathe a whole lot easier (ok not really!) I want to share some of my challenges with you as I prepare to make my big move on August 12th! The next issue to crop up for me was the financial declaration form which needed to be signed off by someone who would be willing to say that they would take care of me should some financial disaster happen once I'm living there in Leuven.
The financial declaration form (or the sponsor letter) was a surprise issue for me; my mom was to sign off as my financial sponsor (on paper), although I am taking loans and using my savings to pay for my education. On the website for the Belgium Embassy and Consulates here in the US they requirements for proof of solvency of the financial sponsor were as follows:
1)W2 form of the last fiscal year
2)Letter of employment stating type and length of contract
3) Pay slips of the last 3 months
4) Form 1040 'individual income tax return'
5) A letter from their bank stating when they became an account holder and that they have always been in good standing
The sponsor needed to sign the financial support declaration form in person (with a valid ID) at the Embassy or Consulate General (nearest to them). This meant my mom had to drive up to Atlanta (almost two hours from my hometown of Columbus, GA) to do this. I happened to be home for vacation during this time and we made that frantic drive up to Atlanta (they only do Visa applications from 9:30 AM- 12 Noon). We got there and as I was circling around in the car, the woman told my mom that they needed my letter of registration and proof that I was receiving loans from the school. The woman agreed to let my mom sign the form in front of her, so that she wouldn't have to make the drive up to Atlanta again.
Getting the paperwork and proof of my loans from my school was a much bigger challenge than I expected. I had finally talked to the overwhelmed Foreign Relations Officer on the phone prior to my trip home. He needed a little more information from me (my 8 page Student Aid Report from the US based FAFSA loan program). It took a week and a half of calling several times EVERY morning before I got a response from him that he was working on my loans again. From my perspective the phone system in Belgium seems to be decades behind the American system. Most mornings the phone would ring and ring and ring, with no answer. No voicemail. No anything. The few days that I did get through after multiple rings - the person on the other end would answer, I'd say "hello!" and they would hang-up after a few more frantic "hellos" from my end of the phone. How can you not have voicemail at work in this day and age? Or not respond to e-mails?
Once I finally got the letter I needed from the Foreign Relations Office, my Mom had to get all of the paperwork back up to the Belgian Consulate in Atlanta, GA so they could sign off on it. My mom sent it back almost immediately and once the woman received it she called me and told me that she needed the form notarized!?!?! WHAT????? She said that she'd told my mom this (although this woman had proven herself multiple times of poor communication skills), but that she wouldn't be able to get back to it until the following Wednesday. We spoke on a Thursday and she was out until the following WEDNESDAY? Sigh...
Needless to say my mom (THE SUPERSTAR) immediately got a new version of the financial declaration letter in the priority mail and I just received the letter I needed on this past Monday July 27th. FINALLY the blasted letter arrived! Now I just needed to submit my application, in person, at the Consulate General Office of Belgium in NYC. I'll share that adventure with you all tomorrow in part 3 of The Visa Application Challenge.
Thanks for reading and I hope you are all having a fantastic week. Thank goodness it's Thursday already... time is flying by for me!
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Visa Application challenge (pt. 1)
Hello my faithful readers:
After a couple of action packed days (a.k.a. me running around the city of Manhattan trying to get things together), I am happy to report that I will be picking my approved Belgium Visa up next Tuesday! :) If you have never gone through the Visa application process for any of the Schengen States then I should warn you it isn't for the faint of heart. For me it has been one of the most challenging and patience testing tasks I've had in a long time.
I started my visa application way back in mid-May. At that time I had every intention of heading over to Leuven on August 10th. Little did I know that the universe had other plans for me. The requirements for the visa for Belgium are as follows:
1) Passport, valid for 15 months
2) Two original visa application forms, duly completed, dated and signed.
3) Three recent passport pictures, signed on the back
4) For old people like me (students 21 and over) a nationwide criminal history record (aka FBI Identification Record)
5) Medical certificate (more on this later)
6) A financial support declaration (more on this later)
7) Certification from my school saying that I am accepted/registered as a student
8) Visa application fee (more on this later)
So this list seems relatively harmless right? That's exactly what I thought upon first glance "this is harmless, I can get this done in a couple of weeks." So I dutifully started to work on the things that would take the most time for me to complete like the criminal background check and the medical certificate. Suprisingly the background check was pretty easy - I went to a company called Fidelifacts they were quick, I didn't need an appointment. I sent my fingerprints and paperwork to the FBI the same day and my suggestion to you is if you ever need a background check please make sure you write on the outside of the envelope when you need it back. The FBI got it back nearly a week before I said I needed it (June 30th).
The medical certificate seemed like an easy task and because the Consulate provided a list of two doctors who are approved by their standards to provide medical sign-off. (NOTE: One of my American classmates mentioned that he had gone to his personal doctor and had to make a trip to his attorney general's office (as well as a notary) to get his medical certificate signed off on so I chose to go the route of the recommended doctors to avoid this issue) So I quickly make an appointment with the female doctor listed on the website for my region. On the phone the receptionist mentioned that there would be a $200 fee (gasp) and that they couldn't accept my insurance. I gulped and thought this $200 will mean convenience and saved time for me (JUST DO IT)! I didn't realize how WRONG I was until I got there.
The doctor's office was all the way across town on 47th between 2nd and 3rd Avenues (at the time I worked at 32nd and 7th across from Penn Station). I got there a few minutes early and the doctor wasn't there yet. I sit there for another 30 minutes and there and during this time another man in a suit comes in. We wait for another 15 minutes and a doctor (this one a man, talking on his cell phone) comes in. The receptionist then tells me that the male doctor (not listed on the consulate website, but the husband of the female doctor listed on the website) was examining me; apparently he does these certifications all the time. The doctor ushers me into the examination room and then asks me if it's ok for him to speak to the guy outside in the suit for a few minutes first (apparently he was from the bank and working out some loan scheme for the office).
I sat in the exam room for another 10 minutes waiting. Finally the doctor comes in, starts the exam and 5 minutes later answers his cell phone (in the MIDDLE of examining me)!!! At this point I'm super annoyed and by the end of his 5 minute conversation I was thinking why did I choose this doctor out of the two listed on the website??? (The reason is the other one was up in the Upper East Side (this one seemed more convenient). Once the brief exam was complete (consisted of a few questions, me breathing into his stethoscope and him asking me to take off my rain boot to make sure my foot wasn't swollen), he hands me a sheet and says that I needed to go to my own doctor to have these 4 tests done! I was PISSED because had I known this was going to happen, I probably would have taken my chances on going to the Attorney General's office to get what I needed. FYI -- it took almost another month to get in to my own doctor to get the necessary testing (and then I had to make two separate trips to get it all done).
It took a few weeks for the test results to be completed and faxed to the doctor recommended by the consulate. After a few follow-up calls to my personal doctor I got them to fax it over to the doctor recommended by the Belgian Consulate (thankfully I had signed the proper releases at the time of my appointment). The female doctor was in the office that particular day and reviewed my results and signed off on my release. It took a few days to receive it by mail, but by mid-July I had the medical release form ready to add to my visa application.
So for all of you thinking about getting a visa to another country, I suggest doing a lot more research about the doctors recommended. If you do use them ask them all the questions I did not ask, e.g. can you do all of the testing I need done? What exactly does this fee cover? The good news is yesterday when I submitted all of the paperwork they accepted it with no problems.
I'll share a little bit more about the visa application process tomorrow. Hope that you're having a great week! I have lots of packing, cleaning and selling to do in the next few weeks. I am flying out of NYC on August 12th.
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
After a couple of action packed days (a.k.a. me running around the city of Manhattan trying to get things together), I am happy to report that I will be picking my approved Belgium Visa up next Tuesday! :) If you have never gone through the Visa application process for any of the Schengen States then I should warn you it isn't for the faint of heart. For me it has been one of the most challenging and patience testing tasks I've had in a long time.
I started my visa application way back in mid-May. At that time I had every intention of heading over to Leuven on August 10th. Little did I know that the universe had other plans for me. The requirements for the visa for Belgium are as follows:
1) Passport, valid for 15 months
2) Two original visa application forms, duly completed, dated and signed.
3) Three recent passport pictures, signed on the back
4) For old people like me (students 21 and over) a nationwide criminal history record (aka FBI Identification Record)
5) Medical certificate (more on this later)
6) A financial support declaration (more on this later)
7) Certification from my school saying that I am accepted/registered as a student
8) Visa application fee (more on this later)
So this list seems relatively harmless right? That's exactly what I thought upon first glance "this is harmless, I can get this done in a couple of weeks." So I dutifully started to work on the things that would take the most time for me to complete like the criminal background check and the medical certificate. Suprisingly the background check was pretty easy - I went to a company called Fidelifacts they were quick, I didn't need an appointment. I sent my fingerprints and paperwork to the FBI the same day and my suggestion to you is if you ever need a background check please make sure you write on the outside of the envelope when you need it back. The FBI got it back nearly a week before I said I needed it (June 30th).
The medical certificate seemed like an easy task and because the Consulate provided a list of two doctors who are approved by their standards to provide medical sign-off. (NOTE: One of my American classmates mentioned that he had gone to his personal doctor and had to make a trip to his attorney general's office (as well as a notary) to get his medical certificate signed off on so I chose to go the route of the recommended doctors to avoid this issue) So I quickly make an appointment with the female doctor listed on the website for my region. On the phone the receptionist mentioned that there would be a $200 fee (gasp) and that they couldn't accept my insurance. I gulped and thought this $200 will mean convenience and saved time for me (JUST DO IT)! I didn't realize how WRONG I was until I got there.
The doctor's office was all the way across town on 47th between 2nd and 3rd Avenues (at the time I worked at 32nd and 7th across from Penn Station). I got there a few minutes early and the doctor wasn't there yet. I sit there for another 30 minutes and there and during this time another man in a suit comes in. We wait for another 15 minutes and a doctor (this one a man, talking on his cell phone) comes in. The receptionist then tells me that the male doctor (not listed on the consulate website, but the husband of the female doctor listed on the website) was examining me; apparently he does these certifications all the time. The doctor ushers me into the examination room and then asks me if it's ok for him to speak to the guy outside in the suit for a few minutes first (apparently he was from the bank and working out some loan scheme for the office).
I sat in the exam room for another 10 minutes waiting. Finally the doctor comes in, starts the exam and 5 minutes later answers his cell phone (in the MIDDLE of examining me)!!! At this point I'm super annoyed and by the end of his 5 minute conversation I was thinking why did I choose this doctor out of the two listed on the website??? (The reason is the other one was up in the Upper East Side (this one seemed more convenient). Once the brief exam was complete (consisted of a few questions, me breathing into his stethoscope and him asking me to take off my rain boot to make sure my foot wasn't swollen), he hands me a sheet and says that I needed to go to my own doctor to have these 4 tests done! I was PISSED because had I known this was going to happen, I probably would have taken my chances on going to the Attorney General's office to get what I needed. FYI -- it took almost another month to get in to my own doctor to get the necessary testing (and then I had to make two separate trips to get it all done).
It took a few weeks for the test results to be completed and faxed to the doctor recommended by the consulate. After a few follow-up calls to my personal doctor I got them to fax it over to the doctor recommended by the Belgian Consulate (thankfully I had signed the proper releases at the time of my appointment). The female doctor was in the office that particular day and reviewed my results and signed off on my release. It took a few days to receive it by mail, but by mid-July I had the medical release form ready to add to my visa application.
So for all of you thinking about getting a visa to another country, I suggest doing a lot more research about the doctors recommended. If you do use them ask them all the questions I did not ask, e.g. can you do all of the testing I need done? What exactly does this fee cover? The good news is yesterday when I submitted all of the paperwork they accepted it with no problems.
I'll share a little bit more about the visa application process tomorrow. Hope that you're having a great week! I have lots of packing, cleaning and selling to do in the next few weeks. I am flying out of NYC on August 12th.
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Today is the first day of the rest of my life
Hello my faithful readers:
I know that the title sounds a little cheesy, but that's exactly how I feel today! Yesterday was my last day at work (YEAH) and now I can focus fully on my preparations to move to Leuven for my impending MBA studies. I am super excited about this move because it's something I have dreamt of, but never really expected to actually act upon.
So the main things I need to do are
1) Submit my visa application (I have been working on this for nearly 2 months now)
2) Buy my plane ticket once my visa is approved
3) Sell off/give away everything in my apartment except my clothing
4) Shut down all the utilities and unnecessary bills from this side of the pond
5) Start & complete all my pre-course work as assigned by the school
6) Pack up and fly away
This list needs to be accomplished by August 12, 2009 because that's the day that I have in my head that I want to head over to Belgium. Now this doesn't seem all that bad in writing, but each of those tasks has a bunch of different sub-tasks. Plus the list doesn't take into account all of the saying goodbye to all of my friends I need to do in between. I have a few more doctor appointments to squeeze in as well. SIGH...
This is indeed the first day of the rest of my life. I'll keep you posted on how things are progressing and once I'm in Belgium I'll try to blog as much as I can.
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
PS - I think I should acknowledge that some of you read my other blog (that dating one) Unrequired Love...maybe I'll have some stories for that one once I land in Belgium. Who knows...?
I know that the title sounds a little cheesy, but that's exactly how I feel today! Yesterday was my last day at work (YEAH) and now I can focus fully on my preparations to move to Leuven for my impending MBA studies. I am super excited about this move because it's something I have dreamt of, but never really expected to actually act upon.
So the main things I need to do are
1) Submit my visa application (I have been working on this for nearly 2 months now)
2) Buy my plane ticket once my visa is approved
3) Sell off/give away everything in my apartment except my clothing
4) Shut down all the utilities and unnecessary bills from this side of the pond
5) Start & complete all my pre-course work as assigned by the school
6) Pack up and fly away
This list needs to be accomplished by August 12, 2009 because that's the day that I have in my head that I want to head over to Belgium. Now this doesn't seem all that bad in writing, but each of those tasks has a bunch of different sub-tasks. Plus the list doesn't take into account all of the saying goodbye to all of my friends I need to do in between. I have a few more doctor appointments to squeeze in as well. SIGH...
This is indeed the first day of the rest of my life. I'll keep you posted on how things are progressing and once I'm in Belgium I'll try to blog as much as I can.
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
PS - I think I should acknowledge that some of you read my other blog (that dating one) Unrequired Love...maybe I'll have some stories for that one once I land in Belgium. Who knows...?
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