For US citizens you might not require to have a visa while visiting most European countries especially if you are planning to spend a time period of less than 90 days. If you will be spending more, you have to go for a long term visa which allows you to legally remain in the specified country for certain periods of time depending on your initial reason for visiting. This will require you to apply and submit your documents both on at your country and on arrival. Here is how to obtain long term visa to European countries.
Determine visa type
Europe countries give long term visas depending on your individual reason for visiting their country so take your time and determine the visa type you will be applying for. Every Europe visa requires its own specific rules and applies to its own terms of eligibility, this calls for you to first evaluate your type of documents and the documents that you will be expected to avail. If you are applying to stay in the European countries for self employment reasons, for example, you will have to provide enough proof that you were earning in the United States. If you are applying for education needs, you will require proving satisfactorily that you will be able to fully support yourself while in Europe, this will call for you to defend yourself using your personal resources or a third party.
Find a consulate
For you to apply for a long term visa in any European country, you must find a European consulate that’s near you. After that, get to them and determine which consulate is deemed to provide visa services specifically from your geographical region. After this, contact and inquire from the consulate about the visa application process, depending on the type of visas you are applying for, you may be needed to apply in person which may mean you will have to travel to states away. For some special cases like those of student visas, you may be able to apply them from a honorary consulate which will notarize and mail your application, this will save you the time and money that would be incurred in otherwise getting to travel to the individual starts.(image by weimin liu).
Submit your application
You can make a personal appointment with your specific consulate and submit your application documents for them to recommend. These documents include your application form, application fees, passport size photo and any other material that might have been required by the visa form, it is important to note that these documents are subject to change any time depending on the visa type that one is applying for. This submission should be within a time frame of 90 days from the time you are intending to take the visa; consulate will take a maximum of three and a minimum of two weeks to get back to you.
Secure a residence permit
A visa alone will not secure a legal long term stay in Europe, after arriving to Europe you must apply for a residence permit within the first 8 days. The process is quite similar to that of the visa application; you will submit your documents and attach the relevant documents that indicate the long term reasons. Once you have the residence permit, you are free to live and stay in any part of Europe.
Long term visa application should not worry you much, you just ought to come up with really good and viable reasons that best explain why you want to be in the European countries, follow the application process and fulfill all the requirement, your visa will be coming in no time.
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