The UK VISA prep

VISA. When anyone says this four lettered word, mind conjures up a gut wrenching procedure of collecting all the documents and meeting a monstrous VISA officer waiting to crush all the dreams of the applicant! Well, my experience was completely oppposite to this. I do not know whether this is country specific or not, but my VISA prep process went on quite well. Maybe its because I had sought help from a lot of people on and had been preparing for it for some time.

The UK VISA process, especially the student visa is quite simplified and straight forward. The clear and consise information available on the UK VISA website is a major reason for this simplified process. It is important for us to understand that the VISA officer granting a VISA to us depends largely on the documents we provide. My interpretation of the requirements to get a VISA processed immediately are - Availability of funds to cover the entire expenses and 3-4 months more, confirmed admission offer from a institue on the DfES register, availability of a place to stay, availability of sufficient funds to come back to your home country.

Funding has always been and will always be a major aspect of the VISA decision in addition to the University / School one intends to join. For funding, I presume, the VISA officer looks at the applicants ability to pay for his expenses in full (tuition+living+books, etc) without recourse to public funds or part / full-time work that is not part of your admission offer. Liquidity is the name of the game, we need to show cash, you don't need to haul suitcases full of notes, but money that is 'readily' available for use. Other than the liquidity the other aspect of funding is the ability of the applicant to return to his home country on completion and not go bankrupt (Yes, the VISA officers too know that higher education abroad is quite costly as compared to India). For this, one needs to show some form of fixed assets or semi-liquid assets.

On the university front, its imperative for the school / university to be listed on the DfES register. This is is nothing but a list of universities in the UK that have registered with the british government, similiar to the affiliation process here in India. The student might not be granted a VISA if he / she wishes to study at a institute other than those listed in the register.

My view is that all this is done for the students (and his sponsor's) own good, so that you are not hoodwinked by the 'dream sellers' out there trying to woo everyone to Alices' wonderland.

VISA and scholarships

Husssssssssshhhhhhhhhh !!! A sigh of relief as my student VISA came through. Now, what stands between me and my MBA dream are another 8 weeks of uncertainty filled days & nights. Past few weeks have been very testing personally as well as professionally. But the news of me getting the KC Mahindra scholarship and the Sir Ratan Tata travel grant have somewhat helped mellow the impact. The amount received is not much but it does make me feel proud and more importanty I got to meet Mr. Anand Mahindra. Well, it was kind of a surprise to see Anand Mahindra himself taking my scholarship interview. I couldn't ever in my wildest of dreams think of meeting him, especially for a scholarship interview. But then thats what life has been these last few weeks, full of surprises, some good and others not so good. Anyways, every bit counts and I'm ready to take every paisa being offered as a scholarship. So would anyone else in my place!