My
experience in applying for a Schengen visa was a breeze and I would like to
share it with you. I applied for a tourist visa, going mainly to Finland, and
as such I went through the embassy of Finland in the Philippines. My hosts are
3 of my good friends so the classification falls under: Visiting
relatives/friends.
First
of all, the Finnish Embassy in Manila may be contacted through the same office
of the Norwegian Embassy in Manila (NEM) which is at the 21st Floor, Petron
Mega Plaza Building, 358 Senator Gil Puyat Avenue 1209 Makati City, Metro
Manila. The street is formerly known as Buendia. As such, the website for the requirements also goes through the NEM
website.
At
first, the website (
http://www.norway.ph)
was quite intimidating; simply because I was scared I might land into a
different embassy. The NEM also handles the visa applications for all Nordic
countries (Iceland, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Denmark). But nothing to worry!
All you need to do is click on this link
http://www.norway.ph/embassy/visainfo/
and choose which country you are planning to apply a Schengen Visa for. Since
my main purpose for the travel is to visit friends in Finland and not to go on
a tour, I am sure that my main destination is Finland. If you are backpacking
or going to a cruise or a tour, this is not the visa application for you. Such
type falls under Tourism (Organized tours, or private tours) and the Schengen
visa will have to applied from the embassy of the country where you will have the
most number of days of stay. For this matter, I am only going to speak of my
experience in applying for a Schengen Visa with Finland as the main
destination, and “Visiting Friends” as the category.
To visit daughter/son
To visit mother/father
To visit sister/brother
To visit spouse
To visit fiance/boyfriend/girlfriend
To visit other relatives/friends
Business trip
Tourism
Seafarer who will be joining a
vessel/transit
Seafarer who will attend meetings/trainings
Upon
downloading the checklist, you will find all the documents you need to prepare
for the interview, filed in that list’s order, with 2 copies: The original and
the photocopy. The requirements are pretty much the same, but the questions at
the second page differ. Basically, it asks about your purpose for travelling to
Finland, who is going to shoulder your travel and accommodation, the name of
your sponsor(s) and how you met them, etc. This checklist has to be signed by
you.
Even
if you have two copies of the required documents, you only need to submit one picture.
Just go to any Kodak store or a studio that does visa photos and they will know
what to do when you tell them you need a photo for Schengen visa. I only paid
Kodak PhP75.00 for four copies of my Schengen Visa photo. As for all other documents, the embassy took
all originals except for my travel insurance certificate and my payslips for the
recent 3 months. I gave them photocopies of both travel insurance certificate
and payslips.
TRAVEL
INSURANCE & FLIGHT BOOKING
I
had this arranged for me by this travel agency:
St.
Raphael Travel & Tours (SRTT)
Unit
105 State Condominuim Bldg.
Ortigas
Avenue Greenhills
San
Juan City 1500
Tel:
724 8098 Telefax: 724 1629
Office
hours: 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 9am-12pm Sat
Website:
www.santraphael.com
SRTT
is very courteous and prompt in responding by email. You may also contact them
over the phone and they are very happy to assist you. I have purchased my
tickets to and from John F. Kennedy Airport from them and I did not hesitate to
try asking for their assistance for the Travel Insurance and my flight booking
reservation for Finland.
SRTT
bought my travel insurance from Blue Cross (
http://www.bluecross.com.ph/).
You have the option to contact Blue Cross
personally. However, SRTT responds faster.
In my email to SRTT, I need to give them the
following information:
Name
Date
of birth
Age
Home
address
Telephone
number
Benefiiciary
and relation w/ beneficiary
I
also indicated that I need coverage for a specific number of days, and the
specific dates of my travel. The requirement for insurance coverage when
travelling to any Schengen area is 30,000 Euros. I added 2 days for the travel
insurance to cover me (1) the moment I leave the country before I even reach
the Schengen Area and (2) just in case my flight gets delayed. All in all, I
paid PhP2,453.40 via BPI bank deposit (This amount may depend on the number of
days you wish to be covered with insurance worth 30,000 Euros). I emailed them
a picture of the bank deposit slip and in 2 days, my Travel Insurance
Certificate is at the address I told them to send it to. Just in case your visa
is disapproved, you can return the certificate to SRTT and they will return the
amount you paid, less PhP350 for assisting you with the insurance.
Now
for the flight booking, SRTT can give you 2-3 weeks of reservation. It is
impossible to do this online as those budget deals will ask you to purchase the
ticket on the spot. Even the embassy tells you not to buy the tickets but
simply to book them. So there was really no other choice but to get an agency
to do that for you. SRTT does not charge you for anything in making this
reservation, but be courteous enough to cancel or confirm – using it or not.
It
is important that you follow all the requirements of the checklist. It took me
a month to have everything completed leisurely. Actually it was 26 days in
total, and I even got an NBI Clearance just in case, but it is not needed. I
repeat: The Finnish embassy does not require you to submit NBI Clearance so you
can take away that hassle. I will post a separate blog about my experience in
getting my NBI clearance and you can get that from this link (http://bengmercado.blogspot.com/2013/03/faster-way-to-apply-for-nbi-clearance.html).
There
was one boo boo for me. I did the online visa application through the
Application Portal Norway link (link may be found in this page
http://www.norway.ph/embassy/visainfo/Visa-and-Res-permits/Schengen-Visa-Finland-Type-C/)
and accidentally submitted it to the Norwegian Embassy in Helsinki instead of
Manila. Luckily, an officer from the Helsinki embassy forwarded my application
to the NEM and also took the time to email me that he did it but I need to call
the NEM at once. I did call, and the NEM officers were very nice. They made a manual
booking for me, only because I can no longer edit my application to my desired
interview schedule. The mistake made it impossible for me to schedule my
interview, as I submitted it to a faraway embassy, what a boo boo!
You are
allowed to schedule your appointment at most 3 months prior to your travel
date. I applied exactly 3 months because I do not want to purchase expensive
flight tickets which usually happens just because your travel dates are fast approaching.
THE
ACTUAL INTERVIEW
My
appointment was for 10:15. I arrived at Petron Mega Plaza at 9:45am. You will
not go inside the building. First, you must go through the side, a security
guard can tell you were the NEM office is for Schengen Visa applicants. Here is
where they screen your documents and do the actual interview. I was 30 minutes
advanced but that is okay because they will ask you to take out all your
documents from your folder or envelope and file them in the checklist’s order.
The security asked me to turn off my cellphone, and made me leave both my
precious bag and cellphone in a pigeon hole near the entrance. A card with a
number was given to me that I may use to retrieve my stuff after the interview.
At
exactly 10:30 AM, my name was called and I was asked to go to one of the tables
occupied by an interview officer. The front desk lady, a very respectable one,
gave me the first name of the interviewer. The names of the interviewers are by
the way posted on their desks.
The
interviewers/consuls were all Filipinos. Mine was a very nice, no-nonsense Filipina. It was
not an intimidating experience at all. She was the same person who was kind
enough to make a manual booking appointment for me, because she recognized me
when I mentioned it. The atmosphere was very encouraging and not at all
judgmental. There was never a sign of prejudice on anything whether it be your clothing,
manner of speaking, relationship with the hosts. They were not nosy at all and
pretty much stuck with only what is necessary for me to share. I would say it
only took a maximum of 15 minutes for me. She also encoded my 2 other hosts’
names and details because the application portal only allows you to plug in one
name for your host. There was no need to show photos as proof of my relationship and time together with any of my hosts, however, I brought print outs just in case. I have read in some blogs that other embassies accept photos as proof. That was not the case for my application to Finland.
What
I find very odd is that the other applicants seem to not have any idea about
the checklist. The front desk lady even hands it to them and it seems like that
was the only time they saw the checklist. As a result, some had to leave the
embassy to take photocopies of the pages of their passports with stamps, and
pages that indicate they have visas to other countries. I was just surprised
because the checklist also requires that you submit the proof that your host
and you were together at some point (like stamps in the passport indicating an entry to the Philippines when your host
visited you, or stamps in other countries that you had a vacation together, or if you
visited your host some time in the past). How are you gonna get a copy of the used pages in your host's passport on the
same day you are being interviewed? However, I have heard from a friend whose parent
also applied for a visa to Finland that the embassy usually will tell you to
come back with the missing documents and will email you if your visa has been
approved. But who wants that hassle? Of course you want to do it right the first time! Try to be as complete in your documents as possible, sticking to the requirements stated in the checklist. If you do so, it is as easy as a few minutes and you are done with the interview.
The
consul stamped a page on my passport (a box frame using a rubber stamp with a date on it, which later I understood serves to indicate the page where they are sticking the Schengen visa on) and wrote something on my application
paper. She told me to proceed to the 21
st floor, handing me a card
which will serve as my proof that I have been to the interview. I went up, and
the embassy at the 21
st floor had two people: One security guard,
and another man in blue barong whom I later found out to be a local policeman –
a requirement for the NEM’s protection. I was told by the security to proceed
and take my seat because I will be the next to approach the window. After 7
minutes, I approached the window, I submitted all documents by sliding it through the hole below the window. The Filipino guy
in the window asked me my full name, which country I am headed, and if I am
visiting friends (to the last question, I only answered a short "Yes"). Then he told me to face the camera, took a click and informed
me that an email will be sent to the address I indicated in the application
form. This email will tell me how to proceed. I clearly asked the following:
1. Q: Am I picking up my passport or are they shipping it to my address?
A: The email you will receive will tell you how to proceed.
2. Q: Does this mean my visa has been approved?
A: This means we are processing your visa.
So I left and told myself, waiting is the only thing I can do now. Total time passed was an hour and 15 minutes including my early arrival to the interview area.
Fastest
processing time ever – Credits to the Norwegian Embassy in Manila! I applied on
a Friday morning, and at 10:56 AM Monday morning, almost the same time as I
went up the 21st floor last Friday, I got the email to pick up my
visa. That was fast! I quickly went to the embassy and showed the security
guard a print out of the letter. The only bad experience about this was that
the policeman was very rude. At first he will intimidate you by asking if you
have ever received a call from the embassy which was really odd because calls are
so retro. Why would the embassy bother to call me when it was mentioned to me
personally that I will receive an email. So next the policeman asked what time
I was asked to retrieve my passport. I said there wasn’t any specific time,
just that it was today. I recognized that the security guard is the right
person to talk to because he was expecting the letter print out, like he knows
what document to ask for, which I gladly handed over. The security guard joked and
told me “Ma’am, there is a time, it is 9am-3pm,” and he smiled, obviously just
kidding me. The policeman however took this seriously and told me “Huwag mong
sasabihing walang oras kung meron!” (Do not say there is no specified time when
there is). To which I replied that the time stated was their normal office
hours. And then he muttered to me “Suplada!” which means sarcastic/curt /
trying to be smart. I was bewildered that a policeman for the embassy had the
audacity to say that to me. He was not there to say those words. He was not
there to intimidate people. He was not there to raise issues about me, an
applicant who was just approved of a visa and has every right to retrieve my
own passport. He is simply there to ensure the safety and security of the
embassy, nothing more and nothing less. I raised this issue to the consul at
the window, she was the same person who interviewed me. She told me to submit
my concern to the chancery office. I was like never mind. I mentioned this to
the ground floor where I retrieved my ID and the security guard there took my
story and told me that he will relay the complaint to his supervisor. All in
all, who cares? This is just a warning for future applicants, if the policeman
there stays the same – both in person or in attitude.
The visa
indicated the exact date of departure in my flight, so it pretty strict. If you
want extra days, in the beginning you should have applied for a travel insurance
coverage for so and so days and flight booking for that period, and the
approved vacation leaves by your employer. These are the 3 major considerations
for me. They did add a 16 day grace period but I can only use this if I am
unable to take my return flight due to sickness or any flight delays. For
sickness, I am sure they will require me to hand over a medical certificate.
It
was an easy and efficient process, but the details should all match and your
documents must be complete. I am really impressed by the embassy’s efficiency.
Best ever! Now all I have to do is plan my itinerary because this girl is going
to Finland! :)
