Getting a visa for study abroad

Start the process of applying at least two months before you will be going abroad to give you time to gather the necessary documents, notarize documents if necessary, and make any appointment. Also, it can't hurt to give yourself some breathing room just in case you need to go back to the embassy.

Each country has different requirements, so you will need to select your country from the drop-down menu or the map. However, the standard documents will be:

-Passport
-Letter of acceptance to a foreign university, in English and the language of the country
-Guarantee of sufficient funds

Make a copy or two of everything. Some documents they will keep, and they won't necessarily tell you before hand (I applied for a visa with a friend, and the embassy took different documents from each of us.) You might also need a guarantee of insurance, and additional letter guaranteeing sufficient funds from your parents and/or university. Furthermore, the French Embassy requires all students to register through a program called Campus France before applying for a visa. Some embassies have similar programs. So, prepare yourself to do some internet research.

Make sure that you have an empty page near the front of your passport. When I applied for my visa, I watched them turn away a girl leaving going abroad in a month because she did not have room in her passport for a visa. Visas take up an entire page of a passport, and it is illegal for them to cover any entry/exit stamps. If you do not have these pages, then you will need to send your passport to the department of state and have extra pages added. This takes anywhere between eight and six weeks.

Be sure to carefully check the list of requirements for the foreign embassies where you are applying. I had three different lists to compare when I applied for my visa to come to France; one from my school, one from the US embassy, and one from the French embassy. All three had different information, so I brought everything, and ended up needing it.

Once you have your documents, visit the foreign embassy's site to make an appointment for you visa. My motto is always that it can't hurt to dress nice for an appointment, and in fact the French embassy website indicates dress as a requirement. Be prepared to wait longer than your appointment will take, and get there early just in case they are running ahead of schedule.