The One With Visa Struggles

Bonjour toute le monde!

So, you're thinking about studying abroad? Well I think that's a terrific idea. Studying abroad is a great way to see the world while also perusing your degree, not to mention experiencing things about different cultures that you wouldn't be able to do in the U.S. However, before you even get to your host country, you have to get a visa. Since I am attending a school in France, I am only able to speak on how that process went.

Each country has its own unique process, some harder than others. France is supposed to be a relatively easy country to get a visa from. The steps go as followed. First you have to apply and get accepted to the chosen university. Once you get the acceptance letter, you upload it to Etudes en France and pay the fee. You then receive permission to sign up for a visa appointment. Once it's the day of your appointment, you go into your chosen location, do the interview process, and hand in your passport. Finally, they'll send you back your passport where the visa will be located on one of the pages. Pretty simple, hence why France is known as being relatively easy.

The struggles of clueless girls trying to apply for visas.

My experience, as well as the others attending the same school, was a bit stressful. Being in the IB program, we get placed at a school mid-August, and early September we start the application process through USC. One of the steps for both USC and visa process is to acquire the letter of acceptance from the host university. You actually are supposed to upload the host school acceptance letter to the USC application by November 1st. Everyone that I knew who was studying abroad received the letter by mid-October, was able to get USC approval, and also get their visa appointment in November. ESSEC is different. The application for the school didn't open until early November. So, when all my friends had already set up their visa appointments, I was just starting the process. Luckily my semester at ESSEC doesn't start until March 9th, so realistically I had plenty of time. However, the students part of the RIL cohort, who are also attending ESSEC, weren't so lucky. They started their semester early January. As soon as the school application opened up, I applied immediately. It was stressful not knowing how long things would take to get approved. The acceptance letter took a week, much faster than I expected. As soon as I got that letter, I uploaded it to the Etudes en France website and paid the fee. Tips for those thinking about studying in France: 1) Set up your Etudes en France profile while you are waiting for the school acceptance letter. 2) The place where you pay the application fee isn't on the Etudes en France website, you have to go to the France visa website, create a profile, link your Etudes en France account, and then pay the fee. If you don't pay the fee, they WILL NOT process your application. For me, it took maybe 2 weeks to get the Etudes en France approval letter. As soon as I got that, I signed up for my visa appointment. Some locations are busier than others. Atlanta was pretty open and I was able to get an appointment after I finished my finals. After my interview, it took exactly a week for me to get my visa. However, I know someone who did her interview in January, at Atlanta, and didn't get her visa for 3-4 weeks. My friend who did the interview in New York got it 2 days later. So, the process time really depends on where you go and time of year. After I got my visa I was able to breathe a bit. I do definitely suggest not waiting to get the visa, just get it over with when you get the school acceptance.

A quick guide given by ESSEC on information for each of the tasks needed to be done before arriving at the school.

What part of the Etudes en France platform looks like. Sometimes it's in English, sometimes it's in French.

Okay, now what they don't tell you about the visa process, IT IS SO EXPENSIVE! They'll tell you to save up for it, but they don't tell you nearly how much. I was expecting like $200, maybe $300 max. It was nowhere near that. It was about $750. Yes, $750!!! The application for Etudes en France, $270. Visa appointment and fee for passport getting shipped back, $294. Fee after you complete your interview, $64. And for ESSEC, there's an online enrollment fee of around $130 (€115). I didn't even add in the USC application fee ($225). It's insane. And there's even some smaller fees associated with it. Like you need to get a passport photo to hand in for the application. And then gas (or other fees) for getting to the visa center. Which going from Columbia to Atlanta cost me about $40-$50 in gas (my car takes premium fyi). That $750 was a complete shock for me, I hadn't budgeted that much for visa fees, and I didn't even pay for express. I honestly felt so bad for the cohort people, they were so stressed out, AND they had to pay the extra $400 for getting express shipping for the applications. In the end, everything worked out and I was able to get to France when I wanted (which was mid-January. Way before my start date, I know, but I wanted to travel first).

So, when it comes to visas, I hope you take warning and save up. Seriously, save up. You'll be hit with plenty of things that all cost a pretty penny before you even step foot in the host country. I would suggest setting aside at least $1000 for fees and getting everything set up before you travel (not including housing deposits).

Well, I hope you learned a little bit from my experience with visas. Stay tuned for the next issue, which will be about all the other things you should plan for before you get on that airplane. Til then~

P.S. Please please pleaaassseeee don't make the same mistake I did when I went in for my appointment at the Atlanta location. Y'all my car got booted and I had to pay $75 for it to get taken off... Okay so story time. Me and my friend (she came for fun) were driving to the visa center when we couldn't find parking at the building (it was in the back). Luckily, we had passed a mall like 5 seconds earlier. So, we turned into the parking lot of this huge mall to find parking. The first lot we turned into was full and so we drove across the road (which was still in the mall area mind you) to this other parking lot with shopping centers around it. There was more parking for the mall further down the street so I just naturally assumed that the place we had parked was good and that the shops I had parked in front of was like an outdoors part of the mall. So, we went into the bigger mall because it had a store we wanted to look at (I had a bit of time before my appointment). After I competed my appointment, I met back up with my friend in the bigger mall and we got something to eat. When we were finally ready to go, we walked back to my car. And to my horror, it had been booted. The lady in the car next to us explained that the area that we parked in was separate from the bigger mall and that there were security officers posted up all over the parking lot waiting for people to leave the outdoor mall area. Because once you stepped foot outside of the area, they put a boot on your car. We got there around 1:00, she said that when she arrived at 1:15, my car already had a boot on it. It was really annoying because I had already been bleeding money over visa fees, and having to pay an extra $75 was not it. If my friend and these other helpful people weren't there, I wouldn't have a mental breakdown. So, all in all, if you go to the visa location in Atlanta, DO NOT park in the smaller mall parking lot.