Visa Application submitted

[Kismu]

Hi all,

I have now successfully submitted my visa application form along with
the required documents. Thanks for all you guys and this forum for
keeping my updated in the complete process invovlved with tht visa. I
thought of sharing the information and the detailed description of the
events that happened with you guys.

I had received the mail from ETH on Wednesday (18 Jun 2008) evening
with the scanned copy of the registration and the confirmation. So I
planned to visit the Mumbai Consulate the immidiate Tuesday (24 Jun
2008).

I reached the cosulate by around 12 noon on 24th Jun. Well there was
slight difficutly in tracing the floor in which the cosulate was
located though finding the building, maker Chamber IV, did not pose
any problem. I was made to visit almost all the floors before finding
the correct floor in which the consulate was located. The Cosulate is
located in 10th floor for those who dont know.

There were in total 4-5 students waiting inside and I guess almost all
of them came through some agent and the the students were messing
things up. The lady in the counter was not happy with the agent
completely.

On reaching the consulate, I went to the counter 1 directly(There are
in total 3 counters in Mumbai) and the lady in there asked me to wait.
After some time she called me, asked for my passport and asked me
which college I was going to in Swiss. I gave my passport and When I
said I was going to ETH Zurich, she asked to me to get in touch with
one of the students there and get the sample copy for arranging the
documents and she returned my passport back. I was not able to get the
sample copy as each of them was pointing to the other. Then after
around 15 minutes, I got the sample copy and arranged the documents in
the order the sample copy documents where arranged. Once arranged I
again went to the lady at the counter. Again she recollected that I
was going for ETH and said I was supposed to arrange it in the order
the ETH check list says. She informed that I will also need to fill
the blank columns as Not Applicable in my application. I started
rearranging again and started filling the empty columns. By then the
time was 1 pm and the person in the counter said me to complete the
arrangement and wait for her as she would be going for lunch.

At 1.30 pm she came back and again called me and I submited the form.
She made a remark saying that I had done the same mistake as other
students who had come with the agent and asked if I had any connection
with them and I explained her that I followed the guidelines put up in
the College and consulate website. She did not mention what the
mistake was but she collected the visa fee and endrosed my Passport
indicating that I had submitted my application and informed me that
they will get in touch with me in 6 weeks.

I was then about to leave the office when another man from inside
asked me about my financial status and how I would bear the cost. I
informed that my total expenses would come around 22000 CHF and my dad
had agreed to sponsor me and said his current account balance is
around 34K CHF. They were happy with that reply and informed I could
leave.

I am happy that I was able to submit the application in one day. Now
the only problem is that the Zurich Canton office should not return
my application for any missing documents.

Here is the list of documents that I submitted to them in.

ETH check list
The Visa Application form typed and printed front and back with my
Photo attached.
Registration and conformation notice print out
My Tabular CV(Format from ETH website)
Btech degree certificate, 10th and 12th degree certificate (Mark
sheets are not required)
Motivation and further plan (Used the same format as the declaration
below)
Declaration to leave Swiss after studies (Format from the ETH website)
Signed Letter from my father indicating he would sponsor me for my
higher education with the detailed note of the account balance
Bank Letters (From Union Bank of India, which is my fathers Bankers
and is also a nationalised bank.) (The lady at the counter also
noticed that I had submitted the financial statements from Union bank
and did not give any comments)
Non blank passport pages (This was not there in the checklist of ETH
but i still attached in the end)

I hope this I havent missed any information and also hope it is useful
for others. In case any one will need any additional info do let me
know.

Krishna

[Parit Bansal]

I have the following questions:

1. Did you take a previous appointment with the consulate or just walked in on one of the days mentioned on the website?
2. You submitted a hardcopy of the registration form send to you by ETH did they ask for an original copy of the registration letter from ETH? Coz they have emailed me a scanned softcopy and original will reach in a week or so.
3. Is XII certificate mandatory or submitting a marksheet would do?
4. Do you have a copy of the visa form that you have submitted? Can you scan it and post it here?
5. What was the attitude in general at the consulate?

- Parit

--
Parit Bansal
Graduate Student
DhiruBhai Ambani Institute Of Information and Communication Technology
Gandhinagar- 382007 India
Email: parit....@gmail.com
Web: http://www.guptalab.org/paritbansal/

[divay bansal]

Hi Kismu,

 

You have made a mistake by giving the bank account statement of Union Bank OF India. Its is clearly mentioned in visa application form the bank should have a branch in Switzerland. I think you haven't gone through the document for visa application process thoroughly..If some body else is applying please keep in my mind this particular condition. The bank they recognize are HSBC, ABN AMRO, UBS, CITIBANK, Deutsche Bank,Barclays. Open an account these banks and submit the bank statement of that account and ask them to write on the statement corresponding conversion in CHF.

Regards

Divay

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:32 PM, Kismu <sures...@gmail.com> wrote:

Bank Letters (From of Union Bank India, which is my fathers Bankers

and is also a nationalised bank.) (The lady at the counter also
noticed that I had submitted the financial statements from Union bank
and did not give any comments)
Non blank passport pages (This was not there in the checklist of ETH
but i still attached in the end)

I hope this I havent missed any information and also hope it is useful
for others. In case any one will need any additional info do let me
know.

Krishna

B-34/1, Sector 59,
Noida, UP, 201301
Phone: +91 -120-4342559
Fax: +91-120-2585721
Mobile: +91-9990393901

www.globallogic.com
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[Sri Krishna Suresh Kumar]

@ Parit,
1. I did not take any appointment. I just walked in on one of the day
mentioned in the website.
2. I took the print out of the scanned copy that we received from ETH
last week. I did not wait for the originals.
3. I think Mark sheet would do in case there is no concept of
certificate. For CBSE, there was this concept of both Mark sheet and
Certificate. So I submitted the copy of the certificate.
4. I will do that as soon as I reach back Chennai.
5. There mood was between normal and friendly.

@Divay,
I did know that as per the ETH website I will need to maintain an
account in a bank in a branch mentioned that has a branch in Swiss.
But as per the cosulate any Nationalised Bank would do.
I did not intend to withdraw all the money from one bank and deposit
in a new bank for this purpose and I know I have taken a risk. But no
bank would give a bank statement for a new account and was also not
feasible. Hence I will wait for the decision now from the Zurich Caton
office.

Kismu

[Ashish Anand]

Hey Krishna, congrats for getting the application submission work done
and all the best too :)

I have a few queries regarding the application form. Please help me
out.

What do I need to fill in the following sections ?

Section 18 : Number of entries or transits

Section 19 : Other valid entry visas for the following countries (I
just have an incomplete (pending rather) Swedish Visa page)

Section 21 : Address in Switzerland for notification of a formal
decision. (Do I need to fill this part, or should I just write NA
here)


Also will the embassy keep the passport with itself or will I be
allowed to take my passport with me once the application gets
submitted ?

Did you use the "financial grant" letter anywhere to show your
financial backing ? (as you haven't mentioned it anywhere in your
earlier post)

Another issue : What is the fee ? In the Swiss embassy at Mumbai
there's a provision for paying through DD , but in the embassy at
Delhi
there's no such provision but I am supposed to hand over cash, right ?
( Someone who has submitted docs with the Swiss Embassy at Delhi,
please reply to this one)

Thanks

~ Ashish

[Ashish Kumar]

Hey
Submitted visa documents in vfs delhi today. As expected they didn't know that ETH students don't have any visa interviews so they have given me interview date on 3rd july. I know there will be no interview as happened in divay's case. I guess I will go and clarify on the date.

What do I need to fill in the following sections ?
Section 18 : Number of entries or transits

*****ONE

Section 19 : Other valid entry visas for the following countries (I
just have an  incomplete (pending rather) Swedish Visa page)

******Dont know about incomplete thing but I had none so NA

Section 21 : Address in Switzerland for notification of a formal
decision. (Do I need to fill this part, or should I just write NA
here) 

******NA

Also will the embassy keep the passport with itself or will I be
allowed to take my passport with me once the application gets
submitted ? 

*******They have taken my passport. As written somewhere in mumbai consulate checklist, the general procedure is that they will return back passport after interview. So, I guess on 3rd when I will show up they will realize their mistake and will hand over my passport.

Did you use the "financial grant" letter anywhere to show your
financial backing ? (as you haven't mentioned it anywhere in your
earlier post)

********In my case my finances were shown through the excellence scholarship letter which covers the whole living and study expenses so their was no issue.

 

Another issue : What is the fee ? In the Swiss embassy at Mumbai
there's a provision for paying through DD , but in the embassy at
Delhi
there's no such provision but I am supposed to hand over cash, right ?

  *******Yes you have to hand over cash. The fee was 5910, I guess this includes the visa fee of 3000 which they will refund once the find out that I dont have to attend interview as in divay's case.

 

In all the experience was not that bad. I went very early around 8:30 am. Very few people were there, waited for 5 min and then handed over the documents. No issues just that I had a little argument over the interview thing I mentioned that there will be no interview for ETH students but she insisted on it as I had no previous visas. Anyways I am glad I dont have to deal with vfs guys anymore....:).
I guess one can submit the documents straight at embassy but the time allotted is only half hour in the morning. May be it would be better, then there will be no confusion on this interview matter.

 

[Kapil Barve]

Hi All,

I along with Prateek Agarwal submitted the Visa application on 24th June in Mumbai Consulate. Suresh it was me who was pointing you to that red shirt guy, but that checklist was not for you as that was not for ETH guys. Anyways, I have also submitted my application but it was not that smooth process.

First of all the lady at counter one was for some reason looking frustrated or may be its her habit. At 11:00 she was shouting as if counter is going to be closed in 5 minutes. From the past experience of you guys I have arranged documents in the format mentioned in Website of mumbai consulate.

Lady: Ok arrange in that order only.
Me: fine I will do that. And visa fee is 2500 right ?
Lady: What ????? (as if I am robbing the consulate)
Me: ETH !?!?
Lady: Hold on (then she consulted her colleagues and told me ok its fine)
Me: Thank you (I went back to my seat)

Then she called prateek and told him to arrange documents as per ETH Checklist. I was surprised, I went to her.

Lady: yes
Me: Mam documents should be arranged in which format. I am going for ETH
Lady: oh yeah... arrange as per that checklist which I have given to your friend.
Me: fine, thank you

I arranged every thing and went again to ask her somethings like entries/transit etc. She told me to write NA there. When I asked her about address in Switzerland for notification of Student Visa she told both of us to write ETH Address !?!?
For visa duration she asked me to fill in 17th September as session is starting from that date.

Please do not staple a single document. and fill the complete form before submitting they are not very much helpful probably because even they don't know some of the things.

About work experience certificate:
Please bring them with you they will ask you to submit it.

About finance:
I have written personal resources as Savings and Other resources as University Scholarship. You can submit Sponsorship letter but that is not applicable to non-european parents (I have clarified this doubt with Ms. Annina Wanner).

Originals:
Do not worry, no one asks you to submit the originals. I have confirmed that once by calling mumbai consulate before going there. No appointment etc. But reach there by 10:30 so that if you have something missing (like xerox, order mismatch) you can make correction.

@Suresh: I think start the procedure of opening an account in HSBC or any other bank which has branch in Zurich. Transfer money there and send the new statement directly to canton zurich. Because annina have told me in earlier communication that they won't accept letter from even SBI.
or
Contact Zurich canton or annina and explain the situation. They can guide you well. Since your application is perfectly allright so I don't think sending a letter directly to Zurich canton office won't be a big issue.

@all: You have any doubt or any thing related to visa application I can tell you things in further detail. just shoot me a mail.

One thing I felt in consulate is that ETH has reputation! No interviews

All the best guys!

Kapil

--
Regards,
Kapil Barve

[Kapil Barve]

Also I have not submitted any time table... since it is not in the ETH check list... but guys please take course catalogue printout of your course. You never know in what mood embassy people are so don't give them chances to call you next day.

--
Regards,
Kapil Barve

[Atul Sethi]

Hello,

@Suresh: I dont know what your problem is, was too busy to read emails
last few days, but if its just bank statement, then visit the Zurich
Migration office website, call them, talk to them, they even have an
application number for ur applications to track (embassy/consulate
doesnt give that). For sending a new bank statement, or missing
document, you can send it to them (Zurich Migration office) by fax or
even scanned copies by email. I did the same (email) to resend my
financial documents last year. There should not be any trouble (given
that I reached here last year :) ).

Good luck.

@kapil, prateek: congratulations for app submisssion. I am glad that
you were bugged by the lady at Consulate. I would like to believe that
it was the same lady who bugged me last year. Anyways, quaralling with
consulate guys is always a bad thing :)

regards,
Atul

--
Atul Sethi
MSc. in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
ETH-UZH, Zurich

-----------------------
Treat people as they were what they should be, and help them become
what they are capable of becoming.
Johan von Goethe

[kshitiz tyagi]

hello all,
I am too preparing to apply for the visa, i need to have this info. In the ETH checklist they have mentioned a need for Letter of motivation / future plans that include 1) Reasons why for study in Switzerland.  2) Description of future plans after having completed studies at ETH Zurich.

What should i write in for this purpose, is anything specific needed to be addressed. Can i give the same SOP that i have submitted for application.

Looking for some quick help.

Cheers!

Kshitiz

--
Kshitiz Tyagi
4th Year, Btech. Biotech
SBCBE, VIT University

[Parit Bansal]

I guess you can submit the same SOP. Just add the promise that u'll come back to India for sure :P.

- Parit

[Kapil Barve]

use same SoP and add the paragraph that after studies what you want to do...
be honest but be diplomatic don't write that you want to settle there etc...

--
Regards,
Kapil Barve