My Britain: part 1 - getting a visa
At first glance, the worst thing about traveling is getting a visa. Everyone is afraid of rejection, especially from such a country. I'm not an exception. The visa processing time was 14 days, which is 7 days more than our friends who traveled with us. Honestly, all sorts of thoughts climbed into my head, although the documents were submitted genuine, fully complying with the rules and minimums, there was also a used British visa and all that. But still, a shadow of doubt tormented....And so, I opened the orange TNT envelope, and there was a passport, and they stuck a visa into it (almost on the last page! )
To sign up for an interview, you need to fill out a questionnaire on the website of the visa center, which is large and complex. Print it out and schedule a time.
List of documents submitted by me:
- the passport
- invitation (visa C, business) and a copy
- a certificate from the bank (at that time 3 thousand dollars)
- certificate from the university
- certificates of income of both parents who were sponsors
- notary. a certified letter of sponsorship (as Schengen has always been applied for)
- a copy of the internal passport (all pages, just in case)
- a copy of a foreign passports
- copy of previous passport
- Hotel reservation
All documents were translated into English (with the exception of passports). When I saw the prices of our agencies for this translation, I was horrified. And she did it with ease, in two evenings. Note: translation is not enough, the sheets must be signed and certified by the seal of the translation agency (in our time, you can find acquaintances everywhere). When submitting the originals (in my case, an invitation and a letter of sponsorship), the visa center takes them for the period of consideration, then returns them along with the passport.
The filing procedure itself is well established, everyone is friendly, helpful, prompt. There was no big queue, we were let in before the appointed time. All in all it took about an hour, maybe less.
