Passports, Visas, and Flights, Oh My!

The main three things I needed to make sure I had while preparing for my trip to Hull was:

1. A passport

2. A visa

3. A flight

I already had a passport from when I was 15, but it was set to expire halfway through my stay in the United Kingdom. Because I had previously gotten my passport when I was a minor, I had to go through the whole application process over again.

I found a place approximately 45 minutes away from where I was living in Greensboro and took my completed passport paperwork, my old passport, and a $214 cashiers check to a walk in appointment. You can bring a photo with you, but I took mine at the passport center. Within four weeks, my new passport (and the old one) arrived at the house. Even though I did a walk in appointment, I had no wait and the process was easy, quick, and painless.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the visa. To fully apply for a student visa, you need a CAS number from your host university - basically a confirmation code that you're an incoming student at your university abroad. Due to a system crash, I received my CAS number the first week of September and I was set to fly out September 13th. However, once you get your CAS number that's just the beginning.

Your next step is filling out a visa application with the UK government and getting your biometrics done. It's important to get everything in your application correct, or else you can be denied your visa. After your application is submitted, you can schedule an appointment at one of the UK's partner centers to get your biometrics done. My dad and I took a trip from Greenville, NC to Alexandria, VA for photos and fingerprinting.

After that, you send off your passport, biometrics receipt, and required application materials to where all of it will be processed. The place where I did my biometrics gave us an address in New York that we sent it to, and then you play the waiting game. My materials arrived at the New York center on September 8th and is arriving in Greenville, NC on September 19th. This, of course, meant there was a bit or rearranging of the flight that I was taking. Instead of flying out on the 13th, I'll be flying out on the 19th.

When it came to flights, there were a couple of different options on how to get from Greenville, NC to Kingston Upon Hull, UK. Ultimately, I'll be flying from Washington, DC to London, UK where a shuttle service from the University of Hull is coming to pick up international students. After arriving in London, it'll be a three hour bus ride to Hull.

Even though getting a passport, visa, and flight booked is stressful, it's all worth it to get to study abroad. There's lots of information online that makes learning about the different processes that makes it much more manageable. Don't stress - you can definitely do this! And once you get abroad, you'll realize that all of the stress was worth it.