Visas, Visas, Visas

Visas are never fun. Seriously. While I will be studying in Canada for one semester and am lucky enough not to need any sort of Visa to study there for that period, I will be needing a visa so that I may enter and exit the USA during my trip.

Through the process of research and talking to others, I realised that I was going to need a B1/B2 Visa, otherwise known as a 'Combined Visa for Business or Pleasure'. There are plenty of 'quizzes' you can take to figure out whether or not you will be needing a visa, however if you are unsure, get in contact with an Embassy near you.

<disclaimer> Please do not take any of the information below as gospel - I most certainly am not an immigration specialist. This post was just to give you a bit of background on what I personally have to go through to go on Exchange. </disclaimer>


The process of the application itself is quite time consuming; I believe I saw something that said 75 minutes on their website. It is very thorough, so make sure you put aside plenty of time to complete it. It does allow you to save what you have completed so far so that you can come back to it later, however I would recommend attempting to finish it in one sitting.

Firstly, I had to complete a DS-160 form (the aforementioned 75-minute process). This will ask for all of your personal information. At the end of this procedure, you will also be asked to upload a photo. I really should've looked at this more closely before I started, as their photo specifications are EXTREMELY DIFFERENT to Australian Passport-style photos.

Some of the photo specifications include the following:

• Digital photos must be a minimum of  600 x 600 px (max. of 1200 x 1200 px) - the photo must be square in shape
• Taken on a white or off-white background
• Must have a neutral expression
• Must have been taken in the last 6 months
• Your head must take up 50-70% of the photo (much further away than the standard passport photo in Australia)

The list goes on. For more information, please visit the applicable websites - for Australians, you can visit this link, which I believe is specifically for Non-Immigrant Visas (http://www.ustraveldocs.com/au/au-niv-photoinfo.asp). Fortunately, I called my local Camerahouse, and they straightaway knew exactly what the specifications were; one hour and $20 later, I walked away with my Visa photos (which I then had to scan and upload).

Once you have completed the DS-160, you will then need the Confirmation Number from this to book an appointment at a Consulate. In Australia, these are located in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. It just so happens that I will be taking a trip to Perth in the not-to-distant future, so that worked out well for me.

At the end of this process, you will have to pay a $160USD fee (the equivalent of $176AUD at present). You cannot use Safari or Mozilla Firefox to make the payment, you have to use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. Don't ask me why, but it is written in red writing under the payment detail boxes, so I thought I should probably follow their instructions.

Once you've painstakingly filled in all of these forms, you need to print out:

• Confirmation of payment (which will be sent to an email address you provide)
• Confirmation page from the DS-160 
• Confirmation of your appointment booking

These are all essentials for the day of your interview, along with some other paperwork, which I'll go into at a later date. I haven't attended my appointment yet, but I'll report back on the proceedings once I have - I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seat with anticipation.

If any of you actually made it this far into this post - congratulations! I know this isn't the most thrilling topic, but it is necessary. I hope I haven't left anything out - if you need any more information, I would be more than happy to have a chat to you about it. It can be a somewhat daunting process!

Anyway, that's all I've got for you today - stay tuned for more in the coming weeks. I'd love to hear from you, so leave me a comment below or send me an email at asemesterincanada@gmail.com.

B x