Schengen sorting December 5, 2007
Posted by faranaaz in Travel.Tags: planning, Schengen, visa
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Well, after a long spell in which we didn’t do anything, we’re finally back on the ball. We decided to go ahead and book a trip somewhere in Europe so that we could get our 90 day Schengen visas. This will allow us to go on random trips around Europe as long as we have time and money.
So anyway, we decided to go to Paris because it’s romantic, close to England, and we haven’t been there before. 
Finding accommodation was a major schlep! We didn’t want to spend much money on accommodation and as we can only really afford a few days, we didn’t want to have a long commute to the outskirts of the city each day. So that means dodgy lodging in the center. We found a few nice looking places on the internet but most of them got terrible online reviews from other travelers. It was really scary stuff! For others, our friend Zulaigha had reservations, and so we nixed them too. With all the horror stories we were getting from review sites and with all the time we were wasting looking for places to stay we eventually got fed up (we’re that kind of tourist ) and decided to go for a chain of hotels. My argument was that they’d have standards at least. Probably very low standards, but standards all the same! Anyway, we booked three nights at the 2* Ibis Hotel near Gare du Nord so hopefully we’ll spend very little time commuting. And then Sameer booked our flights on Easy Jet. We’re leaving for Paris early on the morning of Friday the 18th January, and arriving back at Luton airport the same time the next Monday morning. I wanted to get an afternoon flight back but Sameer is keen to get to Cambridge at roughly the same time that the rest of his class does.
And then today we called the French embassy’s visa hotline (so funny!) and booked an appointment for January 7th. We’ll sort the Schengen visas out then. Apparently it only takes 24 hours to do! So yay. 
Approved! November 15, 2007
Posted by faranaaz in Life, Travel.Tags: HSMP, visa
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Sameer and I received identical SMSes this morning at twenty past twelve. “Your processed application for UK Visa is ready for collection at Cape Town Application Center.” Sameer went to fetch the passports (while I went to look at wedding dresses with the sisters) and after 1:00 he called to say that we’d been approved. We each have a little stamp in our passports. Sameer’s says “Highly Skilled Migrant Program, No recourse to public funds” and mine says “Highly Skilled Migrant Program, dependent(S. Parker). No recourse to public funds”.
Yay! I’m ecstatic! Overjoyed! And generally exclamatory!!!
Visa Facilitation Service November 12, 2007
Posted by faranaaz in Travel.Tags: VFS, visa
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We’ve just got back from the VFS offices in Strand Street after sorting out quite a big hitch. I meant to pop out of the office for a mere 40 or so (ie lunch) just to drop of the forms and sign stuff. But when we got to the offices and started handing in our documents they stopped at the deposit slips and said “Wait, you’ve paid the wrong fee…” It turns out that as of last week Thursday, the admin fee has gone down by R100. So we told them “It’s fine. Just keep it.” But they said no, they couldn’t do that. So we had to pack up all our documents, go find a Standard Bank, draw money for the cash deposit, go to Nedbank, pay the deposit, and then go back to the VFS office. When we got there, we had to fill in some forms to get a refund on our original payment. Needless to say, we were a bit miffed by the whole incident.
Anyway, after that it went smoothly. We both handed in our documents and had our biometrics taken. And then we left – two hours after we’d started. I started to get a bit panicky over things like Sameer and I only having one bank account and my transcripts all being in my maiden name (Ismail) but I made a note of the first in my application form and I’m hoping they will look at our marriage certificate and figure out that my transcripts are in my maiden name.
Before we left, they told us that most likely we would know what the result is by the end of this week or, for the lastest, the end of next week.
Fingers crossed!
Anyway, I’m back at work now and have lots of edits to do.
Documents and evidence November 8, 2007
Posted by faranaaz in Travel.Tags: visa
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We’re in a state of mild panic. We’re addled. Generally, we’re in a panic about the forms that we have to fill in for both our UK and US visas.
The forms themselves are not that hard except that they want names and addresses and contact numbers for every place you ever worked. This is not hard for Sameer who’s had one job but pretty hard for my constantly-job-hopping self. In addition to this, we need evidence of everything. That means marriage certificates, degrees, transcripts, letters from campus and work, bank statements, proof of other income etc etc. And we keep second guessing ourselves. Is this enough money? Is this enough proof? Have we lived here long enough?
It’s all costing us a pretty penny but we’re hoping it will be worth it. If we don’t get our entry clearances and permits, it will be a whole lot of money wasted and probably lots of anger and disappointment.
So, this afternoon we’re tracking down the last of the contact details and taking passport photos. Hopefully we can sneak a trip to Vida e Caffe into this as well.
And then on Monday, we’ll send our VAF2 forms off to the British Consulate. And then there’ll be quite a bit of a wait until our appointment at the American Consulate on December 10.
Tick tock, tick tock! October 23, 2007
Posted by faranaaz in Travel.Tags: Chicago GSB, exchange, Home Office, visa, work
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Things are moving along swiftly now! This morning, Sameer called the British Home Office and they confirmed that our HSMP had been approved! We now need to get FedEx to fetch all the documentation and bring it down to us. We don’t want another mix-up like the last time. Hopefully, Sameer’s degrees and certificates haven’t been lost and are still at the Home Office. We’re really not too clear on what went on there. At any rate, we still need to get our entry permits.
Also, the Chicago GSB sent us the documents that we need to apply for our US student-and-spouse visas. (The J1? Or is it F1?) He received those today as well and now we just need to download and fill in the relevant forms, get a PIN number from Pick ‘n Pay, call the US embassy, and book a visa interview. Fingers crossed!
Oh, and just now, Sameer finally managed to get by BA’s restriction on South African credit cards and has booked our tickets to Chicago.
I didn’t post about the United Airlines fiasco did I? Well, basically United Airlines pulled all the flights for the day that we’d provisionally booked for and Flight Center said there wasn’t anything they could do about it. So basically, we had to book our own flights online because the alternatives offered by the travel agency were so ridiculously expensive! And we decided to go through BA but then there was a problem with the online booking. Apparently the Reserve Bank or whatever doesn’t allow you to book flights online if they don’t originate in South Africa! We had to call the local BA offices and get them to book it for us, and then arrange to pay them directly. Only we did have to pay an additional fee but it wasn’t much so, we went ahead with it.
Anyway, hopefully that’s all sorted out.
