Cecilia Hsu

Review of Consulate General of Italy - N...

I'm a New Jersey resident and have made three sepa...

I'm a New Jersey resident and have made three separate trips to this office in order to secure a study visa.

The office itself, located around the corner from the main consulate entrance, is small and gated with barbed wire, and it's only open from 9am to 12:30pm Monday through Thursday. The document requirements are posted on the door; this is quite inconvenient because they're not available in full on their website. All three times I went, the same lady was working the door. In order to enter, you must wait until your appointment time when she calls your name, or you can attempt talking to her through the buzzer. The lady is not polite and can be extremely dismissive of visa applicants who are confused or have questions. The only things she is willing to do are: check people in at their exact appointment time, and (for people who already have had appointments and were missing documents) take your documents/envelopes to pass to the visa officers.

For my first appointment, some delays with public transportation caused me to be running late. I called the consulate and got redirected to the lady, who told me she would wait for me until 12 for my appointment at 11:30. I arrived at 12:05, and she refused to see me. She also did not acknowledge that she ever talked on the phone with me.

I tried again a few weeks later and made sure to arrive early for my appointment. The lady checked my passport against my appointment reservation and then put my phone in a locker. I only had to wait a couple minutes before being seen by a visa officer, and I was out in about 15 minutes. The officer did not ask me any real questions and mainly flipped through my documents to check that they were all there.

The visa officers claim that visas should be processed in four days, but after a week I checked my envelope's tracking number and saw that my passport had not been sent yet, so I made another trip to the consulate. I explained that I urgently needed my passport back for an upcoming flight. The lady took my ID and came back about a half hour later with my passport already fitted with the visa.

The dates on my visa are rather restrictive and cover exactly the duration of my study abroad program, so I will not be able to remain in Italy afterwards for any tourist or research purposes.

The only way to make an appointment is through their outdated online booking system. I had no problem getting a time for my first appointment in April, when you could easily get appointments one or two days in advance, but for my second appointment in May I had to reserve a spot about a month in advance. By now (late May) all the spots for June, July, and August are already taken. It is also useless to try to communicate with the visa office other than in person. They do not have a listed phone number, and I never received replies to the emails I sent them.

I brought a pre-paid USPS envelope with a tracking number, as well as $62 cash for the visa fee. The other documents needed for a student visa are: the Schengen visa application, a passport-sized photo, a photocopy of your passport, an acceptance letter from the university in Italy, verification of enrollment at your home university, proof of lodging, a bank statement or proof that you have substantial financial aid from your school, proof of Schengen medical insurance, and flight reservations. You'll also need a second copy of: the acceptance letter, verification of enrollment at your home university, proof of lodging, the bank statement or financial aid, and proof of Schengen medical insurance.

Best of luck to all those applying for study visas in the future!