It’s quite convenient in applying for a European student visa when you already studied in a European country. In my case, I studied my first year of the MCL program in Portugal and I will move to TUW – Austria for my second year. Although I am going back to my country now, I preferred to apply for the visa here because I thought it would be faster and more favorable here. And in fact it was :-) However, there are some experiences and I think that it will be better to know it so that you will have a perfect visa applying schedule. Let’s see how my application was.
I knew that I would study in TUW – Austria for the second year in May 2007. Then the first thing I did was sending an email to TUW. Immediately I received a reply with instructions from … After that, I needed to register online for my second year and wait for the letter of acceptance from TUW. I was expected to arrive in 1 week, but in my case, it took 1 month because the sender put an incorrect address, Spain instead of Portugal. So the experience is trying to register as soon as you can so that you will receive your letter of acceptance as soon as possible. Then I also received another kind of admission letter from TUD mentioning about the scholarship and the insurance as well.
Next thing to do is to book for my accommodation in Wien via OAD. It’s quite fast and easy to book online. After that, you need to transfer 550€ to their bank account for a deposit. Try to book for your accommodation as soon as possible. The later you book, the more difficult to get a cheap place, event a single room. The cost you have to pay per single room per month is from 270€ to 350€. In my case, I got a single room with 350€/month. The confirmation letter from OAD will arrive late, so don’t expect it to be on your table when you go to apply for the visa. Instead, you can keep the bill of the deposit for a proof of having accommodation in Wien.
What else? You need a statement from your university saying that you are staying and studying here. I was studying in UNL at that time. It’s not difficult to get this document, just go to GAM office (for students in UNL only) in their office hours and ask for it. You can get it in 1 hour if the staffs here are not busy.
Also you need your Criminal Record which took me quite a long time. If you can speak Portuguese, it will be much easier :-). Just go to … and ask for it. It cost only 3.5€ (if I record correctly), just go as soon as possible in the morning so that you don’t have to queue for an hour or more. But the Criminal Record is in Portuguese and the Austrian embassy only accepts the German version. So what I had to do was to ask for the translating and certifying service in Wien. They will translate it into German, certify it and send the certified version to you by mail. You don’t need to send the original Criminal Record to Wien. It will be more time consuming and not safe. An easier way to do it is to send an email to the service and attach a photo of your document. This translating and certifying service cost me around 50€. You need to transfer the money to their account. Use your internet bank account is my suggestion for this transfer.
Another document is your birth certificate translated and certified. It’s better bringing some of these papers when you study abroad because you will never know when you will need it, and it’s cheaper doing the translating and certifying at home :-)
Sounds enough… see my process in the second part of this entry.?