Printt – Visa Applications: Top 5 Things to Remember
Visa applications: here are 5 things you need to remember before you travel
Whether you’re travelling for work, pleasure, or something else entirely, there’s (probably) a visa you will have to fill to do it.
It’s not the most exciting part of your trip, and if you come across unexpected obstacles that delay it or make it costlier, it can become stressful very quickly.
That’s why we’ve put together these 5 top tips to help make applying for your visa as easy and quick as printing and collecting your travel documents with Printt.
1 - Make sure you know your visa requirements for your destination
It may seem obvious, but if you’re travelling to a country for the first time, you need to research what visa you need depending on the purpose of your visit.
If you don’t, it can be a costly, time-consuming process to fix it – and that’s assuming it doesn’t throw your plans off entirely.
If you hold a British or EU passport, you can enjoy visa-free tourist travel in many common tourist destinations (often known as a ‘visa waiver’), but for long stays (over 30-90 days), education or work, it’s likely you’ll need a visa.
That being said, visas are emerging for more niche circumstances: working holiday visas are popular for short-term work in destinations such as Japan and New Zealand, whilst ‘digital nomad’ visas allow you to work remotely in some countries, such as Croatia, for extended periods.
Check for these, as you will potentially save time and money by selecting one of these over a more general ‘work’ visa.
2 - Always apply early
You might be able to leave packing or even printing your tickets to the morning of your departure, but when it comes to visas, you can’t afford to put yours off.
Whilst some tourist visas can take a day to process – such as an Australian eVisitor visa – longer-stay visas or those issued by countries with particularly stringent requirements (such as sponsorship, or even a detailed itinerary) can take several months to process.
This is the case in China, for example, where the necessary documents can take 2-3 months to obtain in a “tedious” process.
In some cases, if you have the flexibility you may even want to defer booking your flights and accommodation until after you’ve obtained the right visa.
3 - Research the visa process
Knowing the official visa requirements is one thing. However, what a government website says, and how the experience actually is, are two different things entirely.
This is why you’ll want to talk to other travellers who have gone through what you’re planning to go through.
If you don’t know anyone personally, travel sites such as Tripadvisor or Fodor’s have question-and-answer or message boards with responsive communities. If you can’t find an answer in a previous thread, you can post your own message and expect a response.
Just be sure to follow forum etiquette!
4 - Overdeliver
If you’ve suffered a visa hiccup before (such as one that has you spending half a day at the immigration office to exchange a tourist visa for a student visa), then you’ll know that it’s better to provide too much information than too little.
Whilst online visa applications will only process if you provide exactly what you need to, if you’re meeting an official at an embassy or consulate, you will never hurt your application by providing too much paperwork (and it’s always less expensive to print this than it is to repeat an entire application).
This is why printing copies of official documents such as passports, proof of residence, itinerary details and any required forms that you’ve filled is so useful – the official should be knowledgeable enough to sort through it, but they won’t be able to help you if you arrive empty-handed.
5 - Print everything
You might complete your entire visa application online – and in fact, it’s common that most of your travel documents will be digital too, from hotel bookings to your boarding passes.
However, printing all of your documents off and putting them in your rucksack is a sure-fire way to avoid any delays at your visa interview or at customs – and when you want travel to be as seamless as possible, don’t let a dead phone battery be the only thing between you and your destination.
Whether you’re short of a printer or short of time, you can use Printt to print all of your supporting documentation for your visa quicker, cheaper and easier than you think. With mobile ordering, click-and-collect within 2 hours of ordering, or tracked next-day delivery to your door, you can save yourself time and worry by relying on Printt (and if it’s your first time printing, you can get 30% off your next delivery order).