My visa application is now at the UK Consulate in New York, and what a process this has been! Here’s the story so far:
If I was studying in the UK for only a semester, I wouldn’t need a visa. Unfortunately, students studying for a full year need to apply for one. The first step is filling out the lengthy application, which requires you to list fun stuff like:
- The date of issue, expiration, and number of every passport you have ever been issued (a total of four for me).
- All visas you have ever been issued by any nation.
- Every country you have ever visited for any reason and for any length of time. Thanks to a couple Caribbean cruises, I have trouble remembering all of these. Plus some are sovereign nations, others are territories and overseas dependencies.
Flight itinerary
Documents from City University showing that I’m going to be studying there
Luckily, I didn’t need bank statements. The third party provider handling my schooling arrangements submitted a financial guarantee letter. Ordinarily though, you need to show a very full bank account in order to be granted a visa.
I submitted all these documents to the visa processing service, who was supposed to enclose the documents from the third-party provider and a return mailing label before forwarding the items to the consulate. They called me to assure me everything was fine before mailing my documents. The next day, I received an email from the consulate saying that a return mailing label had not been included. A phone call to the visa service got one sent to the consulate that same day. If all goes well, my passport will be returned with a visa next week!
