"I hope that despite the UKBA’s best efforts you are all still excited about studying in the UK this fall!"


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Published: July 15th 2011
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Said my advisor in a recent email.

Yes, I'm spamming your inboxes (or your location pages) and I'm not even there yet. Shame.

It's come to my attention that a few people wanted updates on the pre-move-to-the-UK process. Well I'm happy to report that it's a simple and straightforward procedure: there is very little for me to do, and all instructions are detailed, helpful and consistent.

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HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

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Okay no.

Basically I'm in the middle of selling everything I own (thank you, Craig's List) and using the money to pay the UK Border Agency to put a sticker in my passport.

To hugely oversimplify the student visa process: I need two application forms (one online, one paper "self-assessment"), a letter from Newcastle University saying "YES SHE GOES HERE WE PROMISE", my passport, possibly a copy of my passport? (different sections of the UKBA website say different things on the matter), an indeterminate number of "passport-sized"* photos of me, and a form certifying that I had my fingerprints taken and my face scanned by a special "application support center".

I send these to New York City, because the UK Consulate in Boston (which, p.s., I could walk to from my apartment in about 15 minutes) is mainly there to be buddies with MIT, and has nothing to do with visas or the like. Because that would be too easy.

*"Passport-sized" by UK standards does not mean 2in x 2in, because that would also be too easy. It means 35mm x 45mm and conforming to a set of standards that is 2 pages long. After calling several places (one guy said "No, that's about 3 inches by 4 inches and we don't take them that big," and here's why that's funny), I eventually gave up, had regular passport photos taken and painstakingly trimmed them to the correct size using the paper cutter at work.

The sad and/or funny part is, this process is much more "streamlined" (UKBA choice of words) from what it was last year. Students from certain countries (including ours) who are going to "highly trusted" schools (including Newcastle University) do not have to send in their supporting documents: mostly a series of financial and undergrad degree related paperwork.

I still have to have these documents in my possession, just in case the UKBA decides something is sketchy about my application and demands paperwork to prove my worth. But it's nice, for the time being, not to have to figure out how to mail my diploma, because they do not make manila folders large enough to fit it. Also, it's in Latin, and the UKBA has reserved the right to demand an official translation of anything not in English or Welsh.

(Thanks a lot, Hamilton.)

Anyway. Fingerprints/facial scan this Tuesday, then I send everything (at least, the first round) and then... we see. Theoretically, at some point I'll get my passport mailed back to me, with the visa in it if I'm lucky.

Questions? Comments? "Shut-up-until-you-get-there-and-have-something-useful-to-write"?

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