Visa Application FAQs

All right, so now that my visa process is over and (almost) done with, a quick Q&A about the questions I got asked most often (and some of which I asked myself):

1. What are the general requirements for the visa application?
   I wrote a post on this a while back. Keep in mind, those instructions are specific to the MIami consulate!
2. Where can I find requirements for the other consulates?
   I compiled a list of instructions for the other consulates from other blogs. Any questions though should be directed at that particular blogger; I know nothing:
   
   Boston
   Chicago
   Houston
   Los Angeles
   New York
   San Francisco
   Washington, D.C.
3. Where can I find the visa application?
   Here!
4. Where can I request the Florida background check and the apostille?
   For the FL background check, you must mail a request to the office in Tallahassee. Make sure to note that you would like your check to be certified/notarized. Once you get it back, you can send it to the state for the apostille at this address.
5. How long does the background check take to come back? And the apostille?
   The FL state background check takes approximately a week. The apostille took me approximately two weeks total time (allow at least 5 business days). FBI checks are known to take between 6-8 weeks.
6. What does the medical certificate have to say?
   
   This medical certificate attests that Mr./Ms. ____________________ does not suffer from any illness that would pose a threat to public health according to the International Health Regulations of 2005.
   
   Signature                     Date
   
   Spanish version (your doctor can just write this on his/her letterhead and sign and stamp it)
   Este certificado médico acredita que el Sr./Srta. ________________ no padece ninguna de las enfermedades que pueden tener repercusiones de salud pública graves de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Reglamento Sanitario Internacional del 2005.
   
   Firma                          Fecha
7. Which forms need to be translated? Which need to be notarized?
   For Miami's consulate, the background check and the medical certificate will need to be translated. You may request a Spanish version of your background check from the state, and you may also request that your doctor write the medical certificate in both Spanish and English.
   The background check must be notarized in order to get the apostille. It is the only document that needs to be notarized/apostilled.
8. How do I provide proof of financial support?
   Your carta de nombramiento from the Spanish government will provide this information as well as insurance info. If you're in CIEE, you will receive a letter directly from them with proof of insurance and income.
9. Where is the Miami consulate located? 
   2655 S Le Jeune Rd Suite 203
   Coral Gables, FL 33134
10. Who do I make the money order out to?
    Consulate General of Spain
11. What is the actual appointment like?
    Read my post about my experience here!
12. What if I don't have all my documents ready by the time of the appointment?
    Depends on what documents you're missing. The most important thing is to have your carta de nombramiento from Spain. Background checks are flaky, so if you don't have it in time for your appointment, Miami will let you mail it to them once you receive it.
13. How long does it take to get your visa back?
    This varies by consulate, but in Miami it is usually within 4-6 weeks. My receipt tells me I can pick it up starting August 15th, so approximately 4 weeks from now. It may be less time if you are having yours mailed or are leaving earlier.

Visa-fied!

After two months of sending off random requests to the state capital, multiple trips to Kinkos, and a million questions on the auxiliares Facebook page, the day of my visa appointment finally arrived. For those who haven't had theirs yet, I will admit it is extremely pain-free as long as you have everything with you. Here's a basic rundown of how it all went:

• Get there early! Miami's consulate requires an appointment, but once you get there, they give you a number and you go in based on that rather than appointment time. I got there at 8:30 (the consulate opens at 9) and there were already 7 people ahead of me even though my appointment was at 9. I lucked out because all the people ahead of me had something missing (no photocopies, missing consent form, etc.).
• Make sure to have the following:
• two copies of the visa application with a passport picture attached to each
• original letter of acceptance from your communidad (extremely important!) and your CIEE letter (if applicable)
• your passport and a copy of the information page
• original and translated version of medical certificate, plus one copy of each
• original background check with Apostille and translation, plus a copy of the check and the translation
• driver's license and a copy
• money order
• The lady at the window asked for each of my documents in turn and then asked me to have a seat while she reviewed them and got me my receipt. When she called me up again, she gave me back:
• original background check with the Apostille and original translation
• original medical certificate with translation
• driver's license
• one visa application (with picture) stamped with the consulate's seal
• a receipt
• If you choose to pick up your visa in person rather than have it mailed to you, she wrote the date on which it will be available for pick up on my receipt. To pick it up, anyone can do it for me as long as they have the receipt and the visa application!
• The entire appointment took about 15 minutes. It's really not that bad, trust me.
• Check out this post on some questions I've gotten (and asked) about the process.

Buena suerte, chicos! :)

To Do List, Version 1.0

So with my visa appointment fast approaching (next week, ah!), here is Nic's ridiculous to-do list is looking:

1. Fill out visa application.
2. Request and receive background check.
3. Translate BGC using Rev Translation Services. Will take about 24 hours.
4. Request and receive Apostille from the State of Florida.
5. Medical certificate signed by doctor for both consulate and CIEE.
6. Translated medical certificate (thanks, doc!).
7. Two passport photos (but I'm going to Walgreens tomorrow or Wednesday).
8. Copies of: letters from Comunidad de Madrid and CIEE, passport info page, my license. Kinkos, I'm looking at you.
9. Money order from USPS.
10. Book flight!
11. Make money to take with me...work in progress. Anyone trying to give me a late graduation present?!?

Y'all. This is so legit now that my flight is booked. I was kind of iffy about purchasing one before getting my visa, but I did that before I studied abroad and didn't have an issue so I decided to go for it again. For those of you who are trying to book a flight, I definitely recommend STA Travel and Student Universe. They have the cheapest prices I've seen on international flights. I lucked out: I had enough miles on my frequent flier account to travel for free (minus taxes)! 

I will be posting about my visa appointment next week after it happens...hopefully it all goes smoothly!

Friday Five

1. I finally got my background check back from the state department! For those of you keeping tabs on this, it took approximately two weeks total to send the form, have them run it, and send it back. Not bad at all, I think. BUT OF COURSE, I forgot to request the certification of the document before they sent it back to me. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has done this and I'm certain I won't be the last. If you find yourself in the visa application process (in FL), here are some pointers:

• When you send your background check form into the FDLE in Tallahassee, include a sticky note saying that you would like to have your results certified. You will NOT be able to get the Apostille without a notary signing (certifying) the document, so save yourself the hassle!
• If you're like me and do forget to include the note, you have two options. The first is what I did: as soon as I got my background check back, I called FDLE and let them know that I actually needed a certified copy and had gotten one that was not. I asked "Larry" what my options were, and he told me he could send me a certified copy that very afternoon. Life saver. Once I have that in my hands (again), I'll be able to send the $10 fee and the document to Tallahassee to get the apostille.
• Other people on my program have said that you can just take the document and have it notarized at your bank. My bff Larry said that usually doesn't work, and if they're willing to send you a new copy for free, just do that and be safe.

2. I have officially received my placement letter from the Comunidad de Madrid! I am now legally employed by the Spanish Ministry of Education :) With that, I went ahead and moved my appointment date. I am now scheduled for mid July...omg.

3. I have also been in contact with my school! There was an info email on the school's website, so I emailed and got a response from the school's principal. He put me in touch with the bilingual program coordinator and the current auxiliar at the school. They have both been extremely helpful! The auxiliar has given me advice on good areas to live and what her life at the school is generally like. The bilingual director has told me that while they haven't yet finalized the schedule for next year, it is quite likely that I will be with either primer ciclo (ages 5-7) or segundo ciclo (ages 7-9). She also told me it is quite likely I will work at least once a week with the "cincos", or the equivalent of pre-k here (squeal!).

4. I've now received two info packets from my top-choice grad schools, and it only increased my liking for them. I won't list them here, in case grad schools are stalking me and they get offended they're not on my list.

5. On a completely unrelated note, any fellow So You Think You Can Dance fans out there?!? I am SO pumped for this new season, and I've already started picking favorites. If you didn't watch the top 20 episode, you can find a list of the dancers who made it here and my two favorite routines of the night here and here.

Also, if any elementary school teachers are looking to expand their students' cultural horizons (preferably grades 2-4), let me know! I have an idea I'd like to try out and work on.

Happy weekend, folks! Have a sangria or two :)

PS shout out to those of you who aren't from the States and are reading this!

Passport to Madrid

Hi!

Bonus points to people who can catch what I'm referencing in my blog title :)

So I promised that this blog would partly be dedicated to helping future auxiliares out on their own journeys. Part of that journey is, unfortunately, the visa process. Something perhaps even more tedious than a History of Magic lesson.

[Side note: I make A LOT of Harry Potter references, so please get off this and educate yourself I apologize in advance if you aren't a fan of the series.]

If you are not a future auxiliar, this post might be kind of boring for you. But maybe you're curious as to how much of a pain this is.

To apply for an EU visa, you have to visit the consulate of the specific country you're going to (in my case, Spain). For the EU in particular, you do not need a visa if you will be in Europe for less than 90 days; you can enter on a tourist visa. However, I will be staying for way over 90 days (too many to count!), so I actually need one.

I got lucky: I just applied for a visa last summer to go abroad last fall, so the process is still relatively fresh in my mind. Granted, I'm going for twice as long this time, so I need a couple of more forms, but in general it's basically the same thing.

For your visa, you have to apply to the consulate that serves your jurisdiction. I'm outrageously lucky that there's a Spanish consulate a mere 20-30 minute drive from my house. The Miami consulate serves everyone with a permanent address in either Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina. The process I'm going to outline applies specifically to the Miami consulate. Other consulates have generally the same process, but it may be slightly different.

The Miami consulate requires:

1. the visa application form 
2. two passport pictures
3. a valid passport 
4. ID
5. your program's acceptance letter (in my case, a letter from CIEE stating what I'll be doing in Spain. This letter will also outline program dates, location, payment, etc. So nosy.)
6. health insurance
7. a health certificate that essentially says I have no diseases and that I'm not mentally unstable
8. a background check 
9. money order to pay for the visa
10. a copy of everything listed. Miami asked for two last year and only ended up using and needing one, but it's beter to be safe than sorry.

For the most part, this is exactly what I had to do last year. Some of the things I obviously already have (#3, 4, 6, 9). The visa application form can be downloaded for free directly from the consulate's website (http://www.vfsglobal.com/Spain/usa/Miami/index.html)(other side note: auxiliares will need the Long-Stay 90 Day visa, so make sure you pick the right one!). Passport photos can be taken pretty much at any photo center (Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, etc). Item #5 requires a letter directly from Madrid and CIEE, so not much I can do there. However, both #7 and #8 have to be obtained on my own AND have to be translated. They don't ask for much, do they?

For the health certificate, all I have to do is go to my doctor. Since I have to go get CIEE's medical certificate signed anyway, it's no big whoop. Make sure your doctor writes the note on his letterhead and with his/her stamp. You may also request to have him/her write the certificate in Spanish (on letterhead and with a stamp) and save yourself the translation costs. The background check was a little trickier since I've never had to get one and therefore had no idea how to go about getting one. I did some Google searching ("background check in Florida") to see how I could go about getting one. Miami's consulate specifically mentions that they accept a Florida state background check OR an FBI one. Check your consulate requirements to see what's accepted there. Because the check then has to be sent to be apostilled (essentially verified as a true document), it is a much shorter process to get it done at the state level. Plus, while I went to school in another state, I never changed my permanent address from my FL one. Make sure that when you send the form to the FDLE, include a note saying you need the check certified, or you'll end up in the mess I had to fix. [*Note, you apparently may also request your background check in Spanish and save yourself the translation service. I did not do this and chose to go through an official translation and it worked as well.]

I've set my visa appointment for the end of June, and hopefully I'll be able to get it moved to early or mid July to allow more time for all my documents to get here (Miami allows one free appointment change). I am requesting my background check this week, and once I get it I'll have to send it back to Tallahassee to get it signed with the Apostille. However, to shorten the process even more, I am going to make a copy of it, so then I can get it translated AND apostilled at the same time. For translation, well, let's just say I'm lucky I live here, because there are seriously so many places that have official translation services. I stumbled upon one right by my house the other day while out to dinner with some friends.  But if you aren't as lucky, a quick Google search should do the trick! There are quite a lot of places that have offices, but there are also online services available. The background check and the medical certificate are the only things that require official translations; my acceptance letter, because it's coming directly from Madrid, should already be in Spanish. 

So of course, the ultimate question: how much does all this cost? Brief outline of the basics here:

• passport photos: $7.44 at Walmart (the cheapest I've seen so far unless you get them done yourself)
• translation of documents: so far, the cheapest I've heard is $30/page
• Florida background check: $24
• Apostille of Hague: $10
• visa: $160

Total: $236.44

*Note: I already have a current passport and I live near the consulate, so I didn't include that in my costs.

My wallet is actually crying y'all. And we haven't even gotten to airfare and bag fees.

I just keep telling myself it'll all be worth it. I've got so many ideas on how I can go about teaching English to these little ones, and I love daydreaming about how it'll be like to live in a foreign city for a year. This may not be the conventional postgrad path, but each day I'm getting more and more convinced it's right for me.

Toodles for now! - Nic

Oh, this is a really random P.S., but if anyone is an elementary school teacher in the states and you're looking to introduce your students to a new culture, please get in touch with me! I have an idea I've been fine tuning that I'd love to shoot your way! :)