The Study Abroad Office cannot process visas for students.
Students must be prepared to apply for a visa on their own.

A visa is usually a stamp or slip of paper attached to a page in your passport. It is the official permission by a government for you to visit or study in that country. There are different types of visas; the most common are study, work, and tourist visas. Students should understand the types of visas available and only apply for that which is applicable to them. Be aware that the visa may require a student to leave the country after a specified date or forbid a student to work for money.

If the country requires a visa, a studentmust work with their program provider. However, during the program application process, it is good practice for a student to determine whether or not s/he will need a visa as not all countries require them.

The visa process can be quite lengthy as it requires you to gather supporting documentation including your actual passport (always required), your acceptance letter (always required), financial records and guarantees, proof of health insurance while abroad, an application fee, and even possibly proof that you have not contract certain communicable diseases suc has HIV. Student should apply early as most consulates generally require 4-6 weeks for processing. Each country outlines its own requirements, including the application fee. Students should not be surprised if a friend's visa requirements are different than their.

The following steps may be used as a general guide for obtaining a visa bearing in mind that the process can be very different from country to country.

• Check with the program representative or conduct independent research to determine if a visa is necessary. Many programs will aid students in obtaining a visa by supplying instructions and some of the supporting documentation; others may offer very little direction, requiring that a student obtain the visa themselves prior to departure. In all cases, students must wait to apply for a visa until after they have been accpeted to a program.
  
  
• If a program provider requires a student to obtain their own visa, that student should contact the Consulate or Embassy for the country in which they will be staying for details. One of the primary jobs of a consulate is the issuing of visas, and they see a large volume of visa applications each day. All consulates work on a per jurisdiction basis, meaning that they divide the United States into regions. A student must first figure out which consulate has jurisdiction over them. For instance, the French Consulate in Washington, DC is the consulate with jurisdiction over residents of Pennsylvania. A resident of California may not apply for a visa to the French Consulate in Washington. They must instead find the consulate that has jurisdiction over their region. All consulates and embassies have websites which list jurisdiction information.

  Note: Calling consulates can be very frustrating as they generally have an extremely large volume of requests per day. Because of the volume, most consulates have moved to automated-answering systems which may simply tell students to visit their website. Most consular websites are incredibly thorough and contain all of the information that a student will need to obtain and application, complete it, and send it with all of the necessary supporting documentation.

• Some consulates require that a student apply in person, others will allow them to apply by mail. If a student is permitted to apply by mail, it is always advisable to use some sort of Express Service (again, each consulate will outline their policies on which services you may use. Some will allow you to use UPS, some will only permit Federal Express Mail). Follow the directions exactly or the visa application may be denied.
  
  Below is a list of consular websites for select countries. Students should contact their program providers for countries not listed.
  
  Australia: http://australia.visahq.com/
  Austria: www.austria-ny.org
  Brazil: http://en.brazilny.org/index.php
  China: www.china-embassy.org
  Costa Rica: http://costarica-embassy.org
  Czech Republic: www.mzv.cz/washington
  Ecuador: www.ecaudor.org
  France: www.info.france-usa.org
  Germany: www.germany-info.org
  Great Britain: www.britainusa.com
  Greece: www.greekembassy.org
  India: www.indiagov.org
  Ireland: www.irelandemb.org
  Israel: www.israelemb.org
  Italy: www.italyemb.org
  Japan: www.embjapan.org
  Mexico: www.consulmexny.org/eng/english.htm
  New Zealand: www.nzembassy.com
  Russia: www.russianembassy.org
  South Africa: www.southafrica.net
  Spain: www.spainemb.org