Tourist Visas for Europe - UK & Schengen

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

This post is for those who are not US citizens as it will share information on how to apply for a tourist visa to visit the United Kingdom (England) and countries in the European Union. Note what I am going to provide as information is if you are applying within the United States but holding a non US passport. For instance, Neeraj is a US Permanent Resident and holds an Indian passport. US citizens are exempt and do not need a visa to visit the UK or countries within the European Union.

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UK Tourist Visa

Apply online by completing the UK tourist visa application here.

At the end of the application, you will be told, based on your location, to go to the nearest USCIS location for your biometrics appointment.

Complete biometrics appointment.

Create a package to send to UK consulate. Your online application will tell you where you need to mail the documentation. You can go back to the website where you applied to get that information otherwise an email will also be sent to you that should have that information in there.

Your package should include the following: biometrics stamped document, passport, Permanent Resident or other visa that lets you legally live in the US, 3 months of bank statements, travel itinerary, letter from employer, 3 months payslips, etc…

Send your package via Fedex or UPS. We sent ours overnight so that they would receive immediately. Use a service that is quick and trackable like Fedex or UPS.

Now wait. You will not receive any information/status about your visa. Usually it takes 5 business days.

Finally you will receive an email saying that they are processing your application.

After that you will receive one more email saying that they have sent your documents back to you via UPS with a tracking number. Note that you will need to make sure someone is home to receive the documents because a signature is required.

It should be that easy. Great part is that you don’t have to go anywhere in person, other than the biometric, to turn in your papers. That was the best part of the UK tourist visa process. The worst part is getting status of your application. You can’t call them, you can’t email, you can’t do anything other than wait. That sucks because sometimes you are in a time crunch and need to get your documents back soon. I would do this atleast a month ahead of your trip to make sure that you have enough time, and make sure that you send all the proper support documentation - the more the better.

Schengen Visa
Note this is based on experience with the German Consulate only.

Complete the application form and print out.

Prepare all supporting documentation to take along with you to the German Consulate. This would include but not limited to the following: 3 months bank statements, travel initnerary (including hotel confirmation number), health insurance card, letter from employer, passport, US Permanent Resident or other visa that will let you legally stay in the US, etc…

When ready, go to your nearest German Consulate office. Provide all documentation and pay fee (money order or cash only).

Write down USPS tracking number, if supporting documents will be mailed back to you while at the German Consulate office.

Processing at the Chicago German Consulate usually takes 2-3 business days. Unfortunately that has not been the case for us.

So…the waiting game begins again!

The best part of the German Consulate is that you can email them to ask any questions. They respond very quickly and are very helpful. The other good thing is that you can also call them in regards to any questions or status of your application. We have spoken to them a few times and everytime they have been very nice and courteous to us. The biggest problem for us has been that they did mention that they would be sending our documents back to us via USPS overnight delivery this past Tuesday. It is now Friday and we still have not received our documents. It was this morning that we found out that it was mailed actually Thursday, not Tuesday. We cannot track our package either because on the USPS website it says that this tracking number does not exist. The other thing that is a bit tricky and not well known is that USPS Express Mail does not deliver overnight to all locations. Ours is one of those locations, and we found that out on their website just a few minutes ago. It takes 2 business days to get it to our place, so now we are waiting. Hopefully at the latest on Monday we should receive it otherwise we will call them again (I have already sent the consulate another email stating my dissatisfcation).

Hope this is helpful others that maybe going through the same that we have recently experienced. Share your thoughts if you have had any experiences of the same by commenting on this post below.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

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