Gimme a V – I – S – A!

Part of living in another country for a year usually includes getting a visa for said country. Now I realize that I’ve been spoiled in Europe because within the EU you can just go anywhere you want anytime you want for as long as you want to. Not as easy with a country overseas.

At the moment I am applying for a visa. Yay to yet another painful application process. Naïve person that I seem to be, I really expected this to be easier that the last year-long application process for the exchange year. Boy, was I wrong – again! (Does anyone see a pattern here?) 

Okay, so the first step was to check out the website of a certain country’s embassy. So far so good. And that was where the easy part ended. When I first glimpsed at the required documents and fees I wasn’t worried. As soon as I dug deeper, though, I found out that a) you have to pay a lot for your visa; b) instructions for the required passport picture are simply ridiculous (have you ever heard of a passport picture that was 5x5 cm?); c) it takes forever to fill out the online application form and the form contains some seriously grotesque questions. For example, if you had taken, say, a political prisoner at some point in your life, would you admit that when filling out this form? d) Apart from paying a crazy amount of money for the visa itself, you have to make a very expensive phone call (€ 2.16/min), which lasted eight minutes in my case, just to make an appointment to apply for the visa. NB: The phone call was the only way to make an appointment. 

I have been able to gather together all the necessary documents (I am still unsure about the picture, though) despite the quite busy last couple of weeks studying. I envy everyone who has already finished this semester – mine will last just a couple of more weeks. But after filling out yet another form, and paying a lot of money, again, I will hopefully get a very special birthday present this year: a visa. 

Things are coming to an end here. But for now I have other things to worry about, for example my birthday, my brother’s birthday, my mother’s birthday (no kidding), and an appointment at an embassy.

Yours truly,

Lemon