I felt like everybody has been to Europe but me (of course that isn’t true). But honestly, I haven’t stepped my feet on too many places outside of US and Indonesia (less Indonesia than US). So here’s my chance. I took a (small) leap of faith and decided to spend all my vacation days this year in Europe. Some most important prep activities: getting a Schengen visa, booking flights to Paris, and buying train/flight tickets between European countries I plan to visit, in this case France, Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium.
Booking Flights
Ideally you’d want to have a visa in your hand before purchasing your flight tickets. But of course I don’t live in an ideal world and I forgot that I need a visa (because all my travel companions are US citizens and they don’t need a visa to visit Europe).
If you book about 8-10 weeks ahead, you could get flights as cheap as $850 roundtrip from Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG). Cheapest flights sold on online travel agencies are dominated by Turkish Airlines, Polish Airlines, and Delta. Most of my friends went with Delta Airlines- talk about brand loyalty. I had my heart set on Turkish Airlines before I stumbled upon a cheaper direct flights offered by American Airlines about 15 minutes before my payment for the Turkish Airlines tix were due. So after some serious discussions with myself, I got the American Airlines tix (Chicago-London-Paris then Paris-Chicago direct flight).
Applying for a Schengen Visa
After I came to realization that I don’t have the perks of an US Citizen, and I’m probably not a “preferred” tourists for European people, I started preparing my visa application. I have to admit, living in US kind of made me a bit oblivious to non-headline issues in the rest of the world. There is no “French” visa anymore, there is only “Schengen” visa, which is good for 22 European Union countries BUT NOT United Kingdom. I was pissed of for exactly 2 days and considered ranting to my British Branch Manager.
I assembled my application according to instructions on the France Consulate General in Chicago website, http://www.consulfrance-chicago.org/spip.php?rubrique178. I chose the short stay visa and referenced the “vacation” classification instead of “student” classification, although I will be taking a class in France. I had to get a letter from ERM (my employer), a letter from University of Wisconsin describing my program, 3 last paystubs (“nota gaji”) to prove that I’m working and earning salary, 3 last bank statements to prove that I’m not a hobo, one passport picture, flight itinerary, and, the most burdensome, proof of hotel bookings in Europe. After I put together everything, the final document is about 1/3 inch thick (nowadays I only take a single sheet of paper when applying for US Visa, for comparison).
I scheduled my visa interview with the French Consulate in Chicago (just north of “the Bean” a.k.a. Millennium Park) via their online appointment system. Although the amount of documentation I had to provide beforehand intimidated me a bit, the actual interview process was nothing like in US Consulate. I managed through the whole interview speaking only French, which I learned 10 days before (because I only had to say “Bonjour”, “oui”, “oui”, “cette”, and “merci beaucoup”. The consulate only wants to send your visa by mail, using an USPS Priority Mail Express envelope that you prepaid for ($19.90, overnight service). But you could always beg, like a couple of Indians interviewed before me. Pleasant surprise: I didn’t have to pay a penny because they considered me a student! (otherwise I would have to pay about 80 euros).
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