Huzza, I can finally share the details of my upcoming trip! My visa application got approved and my friend A and I will be going to…drum roll please…Europe!!!

I’ve probably mentioned it before but this trip will be the single most-expensive trip I’ve ever planned and honestly speaking I wouldn’t have been able to afford this trip if it weren’t for my Mama, who’s been kind enough to sponsor huge chunks of the expenses. First we had to sort out the flights, our travel insurance, then the tours and accommodations and finally we had to sort out the visa applications. It probably wasn’t the smartest way to go about it because even the French Embassy itself discourages people from booking all of that stuff until you get your visa approved.

In our case though, we paid for everything in advance because a.) cheap airfares are very rare and are difficult to come by and b.) we intend to join a tour that covers multiple countries and slots do get filled up easily. A had been a travel buddy of mine for five years (she was actually one of the people I travelled to Singapore with in 2012 – our first trips abroad by ourselves!) and together we’ve been to Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. Of course we’ve been to other places with other groups of friends and we figured that between the two of us, we’ve built a pretty decent travel history.

Since our port of entry and exit to and from Europe was France, we figured that it’d be safer if we applied for our Schengen visa via the Manila French Embassy. By the way, a Schengen visa covers the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. Our tour covers five of those countries and we’d like to sneak in one more country before we go back home.

You can apply for a Schengen Visa via the French Embassy in two ways: you either schedule an appointment for an interview in the French Embassy OR you can submit your application through VFS Global. We opted for the second option because both A and I are working gals and I personally did not relish the thought of spending a whole day queuing up somewhere for an interview. With VFS Global, there was no interview required – you just have to go in and submit your biometric details along with your documents and you’re good to go.

Here’s the list of documents that you need for your visa application via the French Embassy in Manila:

1. Cover letter explaining the purpose of your trip
2. A completed and signed Schengen Application form – you can download it here or you can fill up a form at the Visa Application Center since they have a lot of copies lying around
3. A print out of the appointment letter
4. Valid passport – must not expire within 6 months from your date of travel – and photocopies of the bio page (the page with the picture) and all pages with immigration stamps and previous visas
5. Recent passport sized photograph – white background (35mm x 45mm)
6. Proof of Accommodation – we sent in email print outs of our hostel reservations and payment confirmation of our tour. They would need to see accommodation reservations for all the days you’ll be in Europe.
7. Round trip airline reservation – we submitted the email confirmation from EVA Air.
8. Proof of Employment – I submitted a Certificate of Employment and copies of my pay slips
9. Bank certificates + bank statements detailing transactions of the past three months – these should have been issued within the same month of your visa application
10. Proof of Identity – we submitted photocopies of our birth certificates
11. Travel Insurance – we just printed out the PDF copy of our BPI M/S insurance
12. Visa fee – 60EU

Here are the steps we took:

*NOTE: You CANNOT submit your visa application if your intended travel date is more than 3 months from your date of application. (ex: if you submit your application on April 1, the latest date the consulate can grant your leave to enter is on July 1).

1. Complete the visa requirements
2. Schedule an appointment in VFS Global
3. Drive up to the VFS Global office 15 minutes before the schedule and submit the application. They’re registered in Waze and there’s ample parking space for a 100php fee.

France Visa Application Centre,

Mezzanine Floor, Ecoplaza Bldg.,

Don Chino Roces Ave. Extension, Makati City

1231 Philippines

4. Submit your documents for verification
5. Pay for your application – total of 4,940php – break down below:

   

6. Wait for the passport to be delivered via courier

All in all, the visa application process was a breeze. Here were my thoughts:

• Our appointment was at 13:15 and we were only allowed to go in 15 minutes before that time.
• No bags allowed inside so leave your stuff in the car or rent a locker from VFS. I’m not sure how much they’ll charge but I’m sure it’ll be pretty expensive
• The lady at the verifications counter counted the number of nights we’ll stay in at each country. I actually forgot to book a hostel for one of the nights during our trip and initially the plan was to stay in Amsterdam but the verifications lady told us that if we were going to stay in Amsterdam on that particular night, we should apply at the Netherlands consulate since we’d be staying one day longer in Amsterdam than in Paris. Luckily, we were able to book a hostel in Paris and get the print out in one of VFS’ partner companies outside the application center. Be warned though, they charge an arm and a leg: photocopies were at 10php per page and print outs were at 20php/page.
• I honestly did not look too closely at the list of fees and was shocked that VFS was charging almost 50% of the actual Visa Fee. But I suppose that is the price one literally has to pay to avoid the hassle of showing up for an interview. I wonder how it would have worked out had we applied directly at the French Embassy, considering our boo-boo of missing to reserve one night’s accommodations?
• I was also slightly annoyed that the SMS and the Courier fees were automatically added onto the bill. I was expecting to be offered at least since the SMS thing was listed as an optional service. Ugh.
• There had also been a slight delay of about 20 minutes before we got to submit our biometric details. I dunno what happened, maybe they all went on break or something, but no one got to submit their bios for almost half an hour.

Of course the most nerve-wracking thing was the waiting for the passport to be delivered. The VFS dude advised 2-5 working days. We applied on Thursday afternoon and the passport with the visa was delivered Wednesday morning via 2GO. I was so nervous and excited that I literally tore the packaging open.

Hooray! The only caveat is that A and I have to report back to the French Embassy when we get back to Manila; I suppose from an immigration stand point, two girls traveling alone into Europe is a pretty sketchy thing.

Well, whatever. We’ll just have to schedule that when we get back. As for now, I’m still riding that freshly-approved visa high.