Working Holiday Visa for Germany 2015

Usually at the beginning of the year I write a blog post about the previous year and all that I am thankful for. This year I think I am going to tell you about what my future entails instead. (plus if you have been following along you already have an idea of the events that I am grateful for.) 

Jenny wants to go to Europe. 

Anyone who has talked to me in the past couple of months knows that this is my goal for 2015, this whole idea came to life when I was traveling in Taiwan the first time in October last year. After talking to so many travelers I became entranced with the infamous 'Euro-trip' (Come'on you've seen the 90s movie!') How can I not? I have always wanted to and when it came down to the deciding factor a guy asked me, ''Why don't you do it now?'' I was thinking can I do it right now or soon? Well, I had to handle my finances and settle my life in Tokyo then I would have to figure out the minor details. But heck, what am I waiting for?!

So there you have it, spring 2015! Jenny goes to Europe!! Waaaaaaaaaaa? No seriously. 

I want to travel through Europe visiting as many countries and friends along the way, as a Canadian I came across the problem that I must leave for 90 days before I can return. (180 days out of a year) So I thought to myself how can I solve this problem. A work visa in an European country!! That means that I would have a year in Europe and the possibility to work when I run out of money. 

As I looked into it, a working holiday or should I say (link) Youth Mobility in Germany is available for Canadians until the age of 35. As you can see from the previous post I made about visas for Canadians. I very funnily sent out an email in regards to more information on the application process and emailed the Switzerland office and found out that I am very eligible for a work visa there. :P (Sweden too, since I looked into a bit more extensively last year).

Here we have it, I am going through the steps to get my paperwork in order today and hopefully come spring I will be moving to Europe for a backpacking adventure before settling down in Berlin. 

Thanks for reading, stay tuned, Same bat time, same bat channel. More information.

Working Holiday Visa for Canadians!

Here is a lovely chart that I have been using over the years, I have been lucky to take advantage of some of these and I realized that I have 7 more years of travel left in before I have to actually think about settling down. This is perfect, 7 years is enough time for me to sort out what I really want to do with my life and where I might want to situate myself.

If you are Canadian and are bored of the winter, take advantage of this! I always teach my students about working holiday visa.

Cheers. Happy Monday.

Japanese Holiday Working Visa

As for myself I needed to be home to get this application done, printing off all the proper paper work took quite some time.

• Doctor's Note (bill of health) - For myself I got it simply going to my family doctor, in the UK the doctor wanted to charge me £99 for this piece of paper.
• A cover letter stating why you want to go and what you want to do there. (this has to be one page long)
• Passport photo 
• Resume/CV - this one is hard I didn't know what to write but I kept it as simple as possible, google translate did most of the work.
• Application form
• Hotel booking for the initial entry into the country
• Valid ID: my expired drivers licence wasn't acceptable, luckily for me I went to renew mine soon after so when they called me I was able to send them the copy of my temporary divers licence. 
• The Itinerary- This process took me the longest, since I had to research all the places I wanted to go do, since this is something that I wanted to actually know I spent a lot time  working on this project. From there I got a little overwhelmed with how much I wanted to see verses the time frame they allow you. :::: So with the visa you can stay for an automatic 6 month working your way around, with that you can renew it for another 6 months in the country. Yay.
• A print off of your flight itinerary, for mine I sent it in with a confirmation number. I don't know how thorough they are about checking everything, so I added a theoretical flight that I would buy when granted the visa.
• Bank Statement: Stating how much money you have available to you, signed, dated and with the logo somewhere on it.
• Self addressed envelope.
• Oh yeah, YOUR PASSPORT must have more than 1 year before the expiry date.

I hope I covered everything..I am sure that it will change he future. As for myself I had to travel to the Calgary office in order to apply for the visa itself. I needed to toss all these papers to a physical person. In the end I got there waited for my turn got asked a couple questions and was sent to finish my application process. 

1. I had to make a copy at Grandin Toy of my drivers licence.

2. Run to the bank to get an official stamp and a signature. 

A huff and a puff I raced back to the consulate, from there I was able to walk away and make the wait. It was Friday when I went and I got it in the mail Wednesday after. I did have to email them my new drivers but that wasn't so hard.

Don't let this deter you, at least it is a free visa and with this you can work and travel through Japan as long as you are between the ages 18-30.

You get this card at the airport when you arrive! Yay!

Visa Process

This is in regards to the UK Visa, so after meeting up with the WorldBridge Personel downtown hidden away in a building (which use to be my high school). They took visa pictures for me since mine were to small making me look like a serious terrorist.

I hate photos on the spot :(

There is an upside to future applicatants that I didn't know about that I will share with you. That this particular company will do your biometrics for you, instead of doing what I did. (I went down to the RCMP of Alberta and got biometrics done for $90 when I didn't have to, also wasting an entire day doing this and having to take time off work when I should have been working.)

Dear Applicant,
Please be advised that an Entry Clearance Officer has reviewed your application.  The Entry Clearance Officer has assessed that your application must be referred to the Home Office in the UK in order to make further checks.
This process can take up to 15 workings days for most non-settlement applications.  Settlement applications may take longer.
Please note a decision will be taken based on the documents you have submitted.
Sincerely,
BG
VISA SERVICES - OTTAWA
UK BORDER AGENCY

 I'm pretty sure it was terrorist photos that are hindering my application process. : / It says on the website that it might take up to 50 days! *tear*

Visa Applications

As you all know my journey lead me home to finalize my decision about working in the UK and enjoy the company of my long lost friends and summer in Edmonton. After Danny's stay in Edmonton I whole heartily stand by my conviction that it is time to travel to Europe.

In the following posts are some of my experiences with visa applications that I have faced over the years.

UK TIER 5 WORK MOBILITY VISA: Level of difficulty 4/5
An immense amount of work went into gathering all the information and paper work together to even be qualified to apply. It took me months. Then funds and reading pages upon pages of 'how to/what you should know' off of the UK boarder Agency website.

Requirements: Application, Self Assessment Forms, Biometrics (90CAD), Official Bank Statement, Photos, Fee (190 Pounds = Approx 340 CAD, Maintenance (1600 Pounds= Approx 2550CAD), Passport, Appointment with a Visa application personnel

Now I wait for two weeks.....if approved and granted a working visa for the UK, I would get 24 months working visa but I can only work for 12 months of it. Lucky for me I have some travel plans placed in the middle of the 2 years.

In comparison to all the other visas that I have ever had to apply for this one was the more headache inducing one I have ever come across.

CHINA WORKING VISA: Level of difficulty 2/5
This is different than the usual working visa a normal traveler would apply for since I was going to teach English, I had a sponser. The school sends their sponsorship paper work to you then you take them to the visa office. Since I wasn't located in Edmonton at the time (where you would have to send them or drop off the application in Calgary) I was lucky enough to have been in Vancouver where they have a visa application centre right in the city.

Requirements: Application, Sponsorship papers (Orginials), Passport, Fee (30CAD), Photos

It took 4 working days, you could drop in anytime and pick up but the hours at this particular visa office was a bit unheard of. Something like you could only apply from 9am-noon and pick up is from noon-2pm....and if I recall correctly they are closed one of the working days during Mon-Fri.

CHINA TOURIST VISA: Level of difficulty 1/5
This visa is what I would have assumed the standard for all visa applications should be like so I didn't run into any big surprises.

Reqirements: Application, Passport, Fee (30-120CAD-depending on the duration of your stay) Photos

As for myself doing this in China from HK is really quick about 4 days 220HKD. In Canada it took awhile longer I cannot even remeber the turn around time anymore I believe without the rush fee it would take 7-14 days.

THAILAND TOURIST VISA: Level of difficulty 1/5
First off you don't need to pay if you are from Canada for a visa, if you fly in you automatically get a 29 day visa into Thailand. If coming into the country from land you get 14 days no problem-O.

Requirements: Photos, Passport, Application

When I wanted to get a new visa we traveled through into Laos straight the Thai Consulate(remember kids you have to leave the country to apply for a visa)  from there I photocopied my paper work and my passport. After standing in a line for awhile your application gets checked, filed with a bunch of other applications and you get a tiny little receipt for your next day pick up. The next day you just show up with your ticket and you wait luckly this room had someone of what we woulc call AC.

Done and Done I got a double entry for 3 months at a time = 6 months travel time for free.

LAOS, VIETNAM & CAMBODIA TOURIST VISA: Level of difficulty 1/5
Each visa listed only takes a couple days to get whilst traveling abroad so you can be backpacking/partying while you are waiting for your visa to come back around. Mind you the locations 'visa application centres/travel agencies' in South East Asia are very questionable. Espeically if you are someone who doesn't like handing your passport (your most impoartant documentation while traveling) to someone who runs off one computer and a sign on the wall stating the prices with sufficent but not the best English skills while playing WOW [most likely] with their shandles kicked off.

Requirements: Photos, Passport, Application, Fee (approx 30CAD)

All of them took about 3-4 days each. I do need to mention that for the Cambodia and the Laos visa if I remember correctly you have about 3 month gap to use these visas. For Vietnam on the other hand you only have a month before your visa expires.

If you have any questions, message me.