Visa Application Tips: Rules of Thumb for Education Abroad Programs and Participants

Updated November 20, 2007

Communicating with staff in foreign consulates requires great efforts to establish relationships based on understanding of the nature of the processes and rules involved. Key to this endeavor is establishing a professional relationship with the foreign consulate serving your state or region and specifically getting to know their visa office.

Below you will find some tips on how to make this relationship work as smoothly as possible while managing the expectations of students and their parents. Be aware that all advice and suggestions offered are not fixed in stone and that these are offered as "talking" points for colleagues to develop their working relationships with the local foreign consular affairs officials.

• Always make it clear to students and parents that neither you nor consulate staffers can ever guarantee that the visa will be granted from a foreign government in any circumstance or in any timeframe.
• Always emphasize that the visa is granted through a foreign government over which neither the United States nor your institution has any ultimate power.
• Check all consulate Web sites and fax each one a list of the requirements to confirm students have the most up-to-date requirements.
• Have students confirm requirements on their own, even though you have already done so.
• Address conflicting requirement information in faxes and e-mails to consulate staffers.
• Incorporate information about country-specific visa timelines in e-mails and letters upon receipt of applications and in written notice of acceptance—online applications, for example, can have an automatic e-mail set up to acknowledge the application—incorporating visa information and consulate Web links and suggested deadline for student visa applications.            
  
• Examine your institution’s published due dates for applications and group flight deadlines to ensure early submission to foreign consulates that require flight itineraries as part of the visa application documentation.
  • Example: The Italian Consulate of Boston's travel requirements can be difficult. Advisers and directors can consider requesting travel information for students in that jurisdiction earlier than the published due dates for students in other consulate areas.
  • Example: The Boston Consulate of Italy requires a return flight within a two-week period following the last date of the program. Anticipate and prepare for other consular offices to follow suit.
  • Example: Many Spanish consulates recommend that visa applications be submitted four—not the usual three—months prior to departure.
    
• Include clear instructions, consulate Web sites, and tips for visa application when you send students application and post-acceptance program materials and consulate-specific visa letters.
• Follow up by e-mail and telephone with students frequently to ensure they are going to be prepared to apply as soon as possible and that students have planned for the consulate visit and will go as early as possible.
• Remind students that consulates will accept only original documents and official passport photos.
• Some consulates require a bank letter. This letter should confirm the account balance (and/or other information as required by the individual consulate) and should be signed by bank personnel. The affidavit of support that accompanies the bank letter needs to be notarized.
• Blackening out the account number on bank documents may or may not be acceptable to a particular consulate. For parents or students who worry about their account numbers being included in the financial support documentation can be advised to contact the consulate to determine if it would be acceptable for them to include a notarized letter from the bank on bank letterhead certifying that the applicant, who has held an account at the bank for the past [X number of] months/years has maintained an active balance of at least $[the amount the consulate requires] or more with this bank.
• When students do not have the required funds in their bank, they should ask the financial aid office to confirm their award and their refund. This letter plus confirmation of bank funds should equal the required amount. HEOP and highly aided, low-income students will need to follow this procedure.
• Follow up repeatedly with students who apply late.
• In extreme emergencies, parents have contacted the Foreign Affairs section of their congressman’s office to bear pressure on particular consulates. This has been somewhat successful in the past, but recently such U.S. government intervention has antagonized consulate staffers and threatened to create more problems for the general student population down the line.
•   Understand and share with students and parents that governments have developed student visa regulations in an effort to keep violent individuals out of their countries.  As much as the visa application process is tedious, inconvenient, and frustrating, students are safer from terrorist actions while abroad.
•   Some countries (e.g. Chile, Greece) even require that a student submit a criminal background check with a visa application. Students need to be aware of the additional time in obtaining an FBI Identification Record. The FBI recommends that individuals allow 16-18 weeks after submitting an application online.
• Be patient and understanding with parents and students and with consulate staffers.

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