Hello
again, everyone! As time passes and I am now less than 60 days away from
departure, I am getting more and more excited! It has certainly been a process
trying to get everything together for my visa appointment at the French
Consulate in Chicago, but the day finally has come and passed with my 10-minute
appointment, and, after almost four weeks, I have also received my visa in the
mail.
It
was a harrowing hour and a half, plus travel time. It wasn't really harrowing, but there certainly were some pains that could have been avoided. I'll tell you about my
experience with the French Consulate of Chicago, and how to avoid some hassles,
so that you might be able to have an easier time.
Parking/traffic:
First
of all, parking is ridiculously expensive in downtown Chicago (as you may have
guessed). My mom and I were parked for around 67 minutes, and it ended up
costing us $27. I highly recommend having someone drive you, and then just have
them drive around for an hour, or finding the rare free place to park. Oh, and
a word about Chicago traffic: if you’re coming from outside the city, make sure
you add at least an hour to account for it!
The
building:
Then,
we walked over to try to find the building, but the address number (205 N
Michigan Ave) was not clearly displayed, so at 8:54 (with my 9:00 appointment),
we finally walked into the building. The building is a very tall black
skyscraper on the corner of North Michigan Avenue and East Lake Street with a long bright red
awning on the entrance (see picture), so hopefully you will have more luck finding it than we
initially did.
Security:
Once
we got in, we realized that I needed to wait in line for security to get a pass
to go up to the 37th floor. That took at least four more minutes, and also at
that time we found out that only the person applying for the visa could go up,
for security reasons. So, once I got my pass, I headed up to the 37th floor,
and left my mom to wait in the lobby.
Checking
in:
Finally,
I was in the office, at 9:04. You have to drop off either your appointment
booking sheet (that you would have printed out at the time of scheduling the
appointment online), or the security pass that you got at the front desk when
you came in. Then you wait for the person to call your name. From what I had
read on the Consulate's website, it sounded like if you were even a minute
late to your appointment, they wouldn't see you. Apparently, since they're 10-minute appointments, being late just means missing it entirely, so I was okay.
Then
I waited for a while, as there had been some people already waiting there when
I got there. Note: the building itself opens at 7:00am, so if you're like me
and schedule a 9:00am appointment (first of the day), don't be afraid to get
there early - in fact, I highly encourage it, no matter how ridiculous it might
seem, especially if you're on a tight schedule for the day. I ended up having
my name called at around 9:35 (after watching TV5MONDE and trying not to
exchange awkward glances with the other people waiting in the small room).
The
appointment:
I
went up to the counter, presented all my documents (11 different pieces of
official documentation!), and waited as the receptionist looked through them.
After she okayed almost everything, I scanned my fingerprints, which is the
whole reason you have to go to the French Consulate in person in the first
place. The last stumbling block I encountered was that I needed to have an
actual passport photo on my visa application form (I had just scanned in a
passport photo that I had from getting my passport a year ago, and then printed
it out on regular printer paper). So, we had to run down to CVS on the first
floor of the building, get a passport photo taken (and pay $13), and then I
went all the way back up to floor 37 with my security pass and dropped off the
photo. Finally! So, a word of caution to you who will be applying for a student
visa in France: make sure the picture glued/stapled onto your application
form is an actual passport photo.
Afterward:
Finally,
we made it back to Waukesha, and the waiting games started. I waited for my
passport to return via a prepaid, self-addressed envelope that I brought with
me to the appointment with the visa affixed in it. This ended up taking close to four weeks (instead of two
or three as suggested on the website), and they only sent the envelope after I
sent the Consulate an email requesting its status. However, before I’m too
hasty to condemn the Consulate’s office practices, I will note here that
another student from my school going to France received her visa only four days
after her appointment. Interesting how French bureaucracy works… and I hear
it’s only going to get worse once I actually get there. I'll figure it out eventually.
Another
waiting game is waiting to buy my round-trip plane ticket. (The drags of
departing in August and wanting a round-trip ticket to return at the end of next
May...) I now officially have 9 days left to wait, since I’m buying a
round-trip ticket with the return flight on the very last day of May 2015.
Hopefully that all goes well too.
The
biggest waiting game of all, of course, will be passing these 57 days by with
work, family, and packing. I know it will fly by, but for now, it's still 57
more days to worry about packing and preparing to the best of my ability. (My
dad even set an arbitrary deadline of August 1 by which I'm supposed to be all
packed up!) So, with one full-time job, a search for at least one more
part-time job, and packing to fill up my summer, I will write again most likely
toward the end of July. (I will hopefully be writing more frequently - once a
week - once I get to Europe!)
I
hope this account of my stumblings and successes with the French Consulate can
help you in your study abroad process as well. If you have questions, please
leave a comment. Thanks!
Next up on my list of stuff to do for study abroad (in addition to lots packing) will be buying my plane ticket and filling out my application to study in Toledo, Spain for the spring semester, a program that is hosted by the University of Minnesota. I'll let you know how all these things go in July. In the meantime, I have listed some helpful links below for students preparing to study abroad in France. À bientôt! (See you soon!)
Next up on my list of stuff to do for study abroad (in addition to lots packing) will be buying my plane ticket and filling out my application to study in Toledo, Spain for the spring semester, a program that is hosted by the University of Minnesota. I'll let you know how all these things go in July. In the meantime, I have listed some helpful links below for students preparing to study abroad in France. À bientôt! (See you soon!)
**Helpful
links**
- French Consulate website (in English):
- CampusFrance website for Study Abroad or Exchange Students (in English):
- What you need for a Long-Stay Visa for Studies (Visa de long séjour d'études) for France:
(Links
current as of June 26, 2014.)
