Top 10 Visa Misconception and What we Need to Know

Lately, I have frequent day dreams of having a latte in a quaint cafe overlooking the Eiffel tower or walking along the cobbled streets of London. 

More than once, husby and I talked about celebrating our wedding anniversary in a European country. Preferably a place near the ocean because, as you can see in our travel destinations, we are beach people. Moreover, there are also talks of securing work abroad (this is more one-sided as husby is far from that throught, for now). 

Now comes the matter of going there, well, luckily for us we have family members who are already immigrants of London so it will be easier to take care of requirements. 

For some, in can be a hit and miss situation. Thankfully, now we have a lot of help from online researches and from institutions that assists those who are planning to work or live abroad. 

The article below hopes to enlighten those of us who wish to travel abroad either as a tourist,  work worce or as a student. It's a long read but it's worth the time. 

Top 10 Visa Misconception

The thought of working or studying away from your country of origin comes with tons of facts involving the processes, the laws or policies governing each country and certain misconceptions.

For certain visa application you can easily visit the embassy or a representative of the country you may want to visit or work to.  You may want to seek assistance from offices who does services of immigration or visa consultancy companies such as Global Visas.

 

Before you get scrupulous over some details in your visa application, let’s bust a few misconceptions about getting visas.

1.  All EU states are governed under the Schengen agreement.

The Schengen zone includes 22 EU member states and covers more than 400 million people. All the EU states are included except Great Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria. Four European non-EU members - Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway - have acceded to the agreement.  

This however is the prevailing truth, once someone enters the Schengen zone, he or she can travel freely without visas, and without having passports checked at borders.

2.  All nationality needs to get Schengen Visas if they want to work or tour Europe.

North Americans, most South Americans, Australians and Japanese are admitted without a visa for three months (90 days).

3.   You can apply to any embassy as long as they give Schengen Visas. 

You need to be certain on the countries you are getting your passport stamped on.  

That is why, visa applications must be lodged at the Embassy/Consulate of the country of intended visit. If your plan is to visit several countries, visa application must be made at the Embassy/Consulate of the main destination country—meaning the length of stay in this destination is the longest. If the length of stay in each country is almost the same, apply at the country of first entry.

4.  If you have a valid US Visa, you can  reside in the U.S. for that entire period. 

The terms “visa” and “status” are often used loosely and even interchangeably.  However, failure to clearly understand the differences between these words can lead to unintended immigration consequences.  

Visa is your point of entry to the country, but does not determine you admissibility.

An alien’s status is classified under the category of admission (such as visitor, student, intra-company worker) and the duration of stay permitted.   Thus, your stay permission is dependent on the kind of status you have.

5.   UK and Ireland  is in Europe, thus you can freely cross border  coming from other European countries.    Note that the UK and Ireland are not a part of the Schengen agreement.  Coming from other countries in Europe, you need to apply for Irish or UK Visa.

6.  Does that mean that UK and Ireland people need to get Schengen visa to go to other European countries?

While the UK and Ireland are not part of the Schengen area, their citizens can stay indefinitely in other EU countries, only needing paperwork if they want to work long-term or take up residency.

7.  What are the rules for working in France? I’ve heard that I have no hope of getting a work permit.
8.  It is legal to work in the U.S. on a visitor's visa.
9. Getting a valid airline ticket booked while applying for a certain visa can help with the approval of visas.
10.  Applying a Visa on your own is easy and cheaper.

European Union citizens can legally work in France. Foreigners outside of the EU must do the following, in this order : find a job, obtain a work permit, obtain a visa de long séjour, go to France, and  apply for a carte de séjour.

Visitor’s visas do not authorize employment in the U.S. In order to work, a person needs a working visa, called an H-1B visa or some other type of work authorization. H-1B working visas are for college graduates who will work in a job related to their college degree. This visa is valid for 3 years, with a 3-year extension, for a total of 6 years.

No agencies have advised that a visa applicant make any travel plans, including purchase of air tickets, unless their visa was cleared by the consulate.

Have you ever found dealing with the government easy? We bet not. All over the world citizens find government bureaucracies frustrating, annoying and insulting. It may have something to do with their virtual unaccountability, their lack of skill and experience or maybe, to be honest, they just do not care!

The processing is tedious and may require you to spend a lot of time waiting.  However, there are trusted agencies like Global Visas who can deal with this for you.  They can actually make them care for you having known the laws for that.  Global Visas can make applying Visas easy for you.

Global Visas has won for its clients the most difficult battles as far as visa facilitation is concerned, such as immigration to Australia. The expertise of the Global Visas team allows it to deliver the best quality service in the lodgment of spousal, fiancée, tourist and working visas. The company holds the distinct advantage of having personnel in destination countries as well as constant updating of visa regulations in these areas: the USA, Canada, UK and other parts of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asian territories. Visit http://www.globalvisas.com/ for more information.