Going abroad to discover a foreign country is a fascinating experience. This displacement can be justified by different reasons: language stay, holidays, studies, work, etc. Here is an update on the visa application, an important step in preparing for your stay abroad.
What is a visa for?
The visa attests that its holder is well authorized to go to a foreign country. It is affixed to the passport in a form of a sticker or stamp. Its validity can range from a few days to several months. This usually depends on the duration requested by the incumbent but also on the legislation in force in the host country.
For a stay in Switzerland or in a country of the European Economic Area, the visa is not an indispensable part. On the other hand, we must prepare to ask well in advance for any trip outside these countries. It should be noted that the processing time of a visa application can take up to 3 days after the submission of the file.
The passport: an important part
To get a visa, it is essential to have a valid passport. Today, it refers to a community passport whose request is made to one of the 2,000 town halls equipped with a biometric station in France.
The required supporting documents to apply for a biometric passport depend on the situation of the applicant. These will not be the same for the case of a stolen or lost passport and for a first request. In some cases, authorities may issue a passport emergency. The delivery time of the latter does not often exceed 48 hours.
How to make a successful visa application?
In addition to the passport, other supporting documents may be required when applying for a visa. We can list for example a request from the person inviting you to the host country, a travel certificate with your return ticket or documents relating to your state of health. In this case, you should be sure to inform yourself very early on what to do to avoid unpleasant surprises.
You need to go to the consular service of the Embassy of the country of expatriation or the Consulate to obtain your visa. There are also different types that everyone can choose according to his objective: tourist visa, visa for short stay, business visa. The application can be refused for various reasons that are sometimes political. Therefore, you have to do it in advance.
To be on time, all travellers must focus on the application for a biometric passport. This is indeed adopted by many countries in the world and even those who are still in transition with biometric systems and striving to be on time. It would be a shame to deprive oneself of a visa because of an expired passport.
The popularization of biometric identity documents has been widely spread around the world in recent years. Many countries have favored collaboration with experts in biometric systems like Semlex in the design of various identity documents. This is the case of the Republic of Congo, which decided to retain the Semlex group led by Albert Karaziwan for the production of biometric passports in 2015. Albert Karaziwan and his team also worked on Chinese identification program with facial recognition
