Overseas Research Horror Stories

My story isn't that bad, and I have heard much worse, but perhaps we can share these um... adventures to help out other PhD students and academics new to the travails of overseas research.

Anyway, here's my story. So when I was preparing to do my overseas research in London, I dutifully put together my application for a 1 year visa, and sent it out, only to find, to my horror, that I heard nothing back 6 weeks later, when I was supposed to leave, as a result of which I missed my initial flight and ended up living in the walk-in closet of our apartment for almost a week, as the person taking over my room had moved in. The visa website said you cannot apply more than 3 months in advance and that most applications were processed within about two weeks, so I had thought 6 weeks ahead of time was fine, but apparently not.

I am not sure if this time lag was because I applied under the wrong category, did something in the application wrong, or if it was because the UK consolidated various operations into the New York office that summer and this just slowed things down. But whatever the reason for the delay, in the end, I had to withdraw my application to get back my passport and documents, then took the risk of flying over with the plan to enter under the visa waiver program, which gives you up to 6 months of time if you are an American. (I wouldn't have risked it if it were a different country, but in my panic waiting for my passport, I had been researching the issue.)

On arrival, I was able to show all the relevant documents to the border agent, who was concerned because she could see that I had withdrawn a visa application. I gave her all the documents and mentioned that this reduced time was actually preferable since I had not gotten a hoped-for grant. She ended up letting me in under the newer 'student visitor' category. (I also had to take these with me when I went to Italy for a conference; coming back in I was questioned, although did not actually have to show the documents, but may have needed them.)

I should mention that UK customs officers were always very polite when I was able to talk to a real person, the problem was just not having any information on the status of my application or knowing when or if it might be approved. (There is no way to check your status- the info number provides application advice, but not information about the status of an application.) Furthermore, when I did request to withdraw my application and asked for my application packet and passport back, they were able to locate it very quickly using the FedEx tracking number and express mailed it back to me the next day.

My advice- always apply for visas well in advance and use a visa expediting service if there is one available for your country of interest, because although the move to putting visa applications online is supposed to speed up and simplify the process, it makes it much harder to know if you have done something wrong or left something out, as opposed to talking to a real person. Also remember that if we are doing academic research, we're typically in a weird visa category, that could have less good instructions. The additional cost is between $80 and $200, and considering that I lost out on the $450+ application fee, a trip up to Hartford from New York for my biometric scan ($75+), and missing my initial flight, the expediter fee is just money well spent.

Feel free to share your overseas research horror stories and suggestions for new researchers.