Visa panic time - any suggestions?

Discussion in 'Travel Tips & Advice' started by eab7716, May 10, 2010.

  1. eab7716

    eab7716 Member

    So I'm applying for a student visa to be in Prague from mid-September to late February this year. The problem is that the application requires me to send in my passport, but I'll be out of the US from early June through late August -- and I need my passport for that. I called and the processing time is 60 days... that is, they hold my passport for 60 days, no exceptions. Since I need to apply for the visa very soon, and because I'll be out of the US this summer, they suggested I apply from Europe, say, Bratislava.

    Here's the catch -- I won't be in Bratislava this summer, I'll be in Prague. Further, I don't think I can hop over to Slovakia, surrender my passport to them, and get back into the Czech Republic without ID!

    So if any of you have ideas, I would be really grateful to hear them, because right now it looks like the visa requirements are about to cost me the loss of a lot of financial and emotional investment. :(
     
  2. Alexx

    Alexx Well-Known Member

    Hi, I am not sure if this apply to student visa too, but there is nothing like "czech tourist visa". Once you get visa to any schengen country (say spain for example), you are entitled to travel to any other schengen country (say cz, sk, norway...).

    So visit any schengen member embassy in your area, and ask there.

    Btw., is there any objections for you to have two passports?
     
  3. eab7716

    eab7716 Member

    Thanks!! Yes, I just applied for a "second" or "limited" US passport and it looks like eveything will be ok. Great suggestion!:)
     
  4. fdrcompany

    fdrcompany New Member

    Hello!
    Actually, you can apply the as soon as you get to Prague. You will want to have your paperwork in order already when you arrive, or atleast Very close. Then, when you get to prague (and I can help you find a nice apartment if your interested, my friend is a landlord here), then you can hope on the train and go to Slovakia (or Dresden, or Vienna (I prefer Vienna, they are nicer there)), then they will simply stamp it, and not keep it. You don't have any problem traveling within the Shengin area anyway without your passport as long as you have a full color copy of it, but it won't matter since you will maintain your passport. Then, when it is completed, (short term visas about 4 days, long term visas about 2 months) you simply hop back on the train (about two hours or so) and go get it. I have done it three times, and I simply spend the day site seeing in the other country. (Be sure to make an appointment early though). You must have an appointment at these places and some can see you quickly (only a week or two, and others can be 2 months out on appointments during busy times). You have only 90 days to travel within the Shengin territory on a passport, before you must have a visa or leave. (You get 90 days out of the last 180 days). And you can not simply hope over a boarder, get a new stamp, come back and think that will solve your problem. Those days are dead.
    Hope some of that helps, Dwayne pragueproperties@gmail.com
     

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