At Last, A Visa

Jumping through hoops to get proper paperwork

I’ve been to Europe dozens of times with only a passport. You arrive at the airport, wait in line, hand your passport over, answer a few questions, and you’re on your way.

All well and good, as long as you’re not staying for more than 90 days.

For that, you need a visa, and I in particular needed a study visa. And while you might think it’s a simple matter, you’d be wrong — it requires at least 12 different documents, forms, letters, and a money order.

You need an official letter from the school, proof of lodging, confirmed flight reservations, the official form (notarized), postage-paid return envelope…you get the idea. Plus, you have to send them your passport, which is only slightly nerve-wracking.

It all makes sense when you think about it. They want to make sure you’re not just hanging out in Italy, that you have a purpose and a place to stay and enough money in the bank that you won’t become a burden on their society. So it also makes sense that you have to put in some effort. And maybe not surprisingly, even the “simple” task of finding an apartment — long-distance, in Italian — is no small feat.

As timelines go, I got the official letter of acceptance on June 28, and got to work collecting all the paperwork and looking for an apartment. At first I thought I needed an in-person appointment at the Chicago Consulate, and the soonest I could do that was four days before classes begin. But then I learned I could mail it all in, which I managed on July 17, three months before I leave. That’s lots of time, right?

I should note here that in 2003 I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, for which I needed a tourist visa. It took less than two weeks to get my visa back after mailing my application to the embassy in D.C.

But this is Italy, so I gave it more time. I planned to check on it after four weeks, but a just before that they called me! One item was not to their liking — he tersely told me if I didn’t fix it they would deny the application — but with a little help — (thank you Amanda!) I crossed it off my list.

And voila!

So it wasn’t like I was checking the UPS tracking number for my return envelope every day, sometimes more than once. And I wasn’t stunned-but-excited when I saw it was out for delivery with UPS this morning. And I certainly didn’t go to the shop and hang out and (im)patiently wait for it to arrive.

But I did.