My Visa Interview

[James]

to whom it may concern :p , applicants,future applicants , anyone,

I am pretty late to be honest. I totally forgot that I wanted to write in detail how my interview went.
Nevertheless I still remember almost every minute of it because of how tense I was XD. If you are wondering, I did mine on the 12th of July in the german embassy of beirut :P

I originally booked the interview on the 14th but I was always afraid that the embassy would not accept my degree that I got from outside of lebanon since I don’t live in lebanon but am lebanese. I had a highschool diploma. So I told myself incase there was anything I would have a few days to certify papers if they wanted to if I booked on the 12th. BTW I was mostly afraid because the foreign office of saudi arabia wasn’t stamping certificates anymore so that is why I was afraid ( long story )
Anyways the place is far away like 2 hours away or so I thought. Me and my dad embarked on the journey at 11 or 12 I believe but my interview was on 4 pm but since I was afraid of traffic delaying me I went early.

The whole way I was just thinking about it. Mid way my father asked me to use google maps ,okay I said..not knowing what’s gonna happen I chose the location and this terrifying pop up appeared ” The embassy will close in 1 hour and 40 minutes , are you sure you want to go ?” OH SHIT WHAT HOW BUT BUT HOW I said .. Did not tell my father and just removed the pop up and kept going. We arrived but it was too early so we decided to go to some restaurant to wait. We waited about an hour or so. In that time I checked google and it said the embassy closes at 2 … HOW I told myself even though on the paper that you need to enter the embassy it says my interview is at 4 ! I told my father and he I suggested that we go and ask around about that. We went and we did do that and were told the embassy doesn’t close till 6 or so … well thanks google.

Anyways we went back again waited some more and came back finally at 3:05. The place is horrible to be honest..very crowded because of the refugee crisis. There are two lines outside of the embassy. One that is for questions and the other is for people who have interviews…it was empty thank god. I was told by the people that even if my interview is at 4 , they would let me enter early so I asked the guard he said yeah sure but only to be denied later by the guy who also has a window you have to go to and give your stuff.
It was like a cage XD literary. I saw this girl who also came in , I was very stressed so I thought hey let me extract some info from these people while I am at it. I asked her and she was also applying for a student visa too (this line is for everything, Schengen visa interviews , Family reunion …) .
She had a paper printed with possible questions XD so waw nice thankk god and I read them. Asked her some questions and then some more people came and it was a fun wait . They all had about the same interview time.
Even though we waited about 40 minutes standing in the heat , looking back at it it was very relieving this time.
Finally we can enter , the line was getting super crowded. So one by one you go to this window that is outside and he asks you if you have everything and then you give him your passport , he looks at it , returns it and then tells you to give him your phone and he gives you a key to give to him back when you leave to take your stuff. A door opens and you go inside for screening through a metal detector then you are told to go from the back and follow the yellow line to the other building and so I did and I entered this room with waiting chairs and lots of windows and two officials sitting on a desk.
He gives you two papers with declarations on them that you have to sign.
If you are applying for a student visa then you come to him and tell him so that he arranges your papers.(Remember, there are people for all sorts of interviews here)
I told him and he said give me your certificate and the copy of it and bla bla and the copy of it.
All in all this is what I took with me to the Interview and be ware that the embassy in beirut is very different with its ways and requirements.
1- Terminanfrage ( 1 copy)
2- Anfrag auf einer Erteilung eines nationalen Visums ( 2 copies with pictures on them of me)
3-Passport plus copies of it (2 copies)
4-Secondary school certificate ( Original plus two copies)
5-High school diploma ( Original plus 2 copies)
6-TU Illmenau Zulassung ( two copies )
7- Goethe B1 Zertifikat ( Original plus two copies)
8- F+U language academy course ( Original plus two copies)
9-Sperrkonto (2 copies)
10- Lebenslauf ( 2 copies )

One thing I noticed is that most embassies ask for a motivation letter but not lebanon. Even the guy who asked for the papers to order them did not ask for a motivation letter.
After he arranged them in a way he gave me a number and told me to wait for it.
While I was waiting , tensed as usual, I met another cool guy who asked me if one should put lebanon as a country that he had been in ( This is about the two declarations the guy gives you)
I was like wait lebanon is there ? Oh shit thanks for telling me and then he was like did you fill the other side ? And I was like what other side only to turn the paper and see another side of the paper XD with other declarations too XD waw I was so nervous man.
I thanked the guy a lot and we kept talking until finally my turn came and I went to the window in the back where no is there , so it is like you are alone which was good for me I felt. The girl that I met was there before me and she said this interviewer is awesome ! and left.
I entered and gave him the papers. He asked if I can give him a phone number as he was reviewing the papers.
I told him I already did write it on the application paper , he said sorry he didn’t notice. He said do I have the original bank paper I said no and asked if it is a problem he said no no.
He then asked what I was doing after I finished college , I said that I only graduated from high school and didn’t go to college , he apologized again. He looked at the papers for so long. It was just silence with him typing the data into his computer for most of the time really. Finally he stopped typing and said he will now ask me one question only and it will be in German and he wanted me to answer in german too. I said yes.
He asked why I chose germany and I said well because of the quality and price of the education that the country offers , he said yeah but why germany not spain or any other European country ? ( since they are all mostly free too) I said well germany is very known about engineering unlike other european countries.( I was nervous so I stayed silent for a bit and answered) And that a german degree gives you a better chance to work in other countries.
He said okay and typed again on his computer.
Finally he said he will give me a paper and I should sign it and put my phone number on it and then pay 60 euros in my country’s currency.
I did then he gave me a paper and said I should take a lot of care of this paper because without it I won’t be able to stamp my passport. He gave me back the passport and I was surprised and asked why won’t you keep it ? He said because it will take a while and maybe I wanted to travel somewhere and I said okay and went. There was this guy who went in before me and the window beside me and I left and he was still being asked a lot by the interviewer so I was like damn I was lucky for having this interviewer and left.

All in all it wasn’t as hard as I expected. Do not be so nervous.

Sorry for the long post but I hope this helps you guys out there and goodluck !

Ill make sure to inform you about how my visa went but by another account.

bye :D

[admin]

Thanks a dozen for sharing your experience :)

i hope you wont mind if i share your experience to our facebook page!

Cheers

[James]

Dear Admin,

Bad news ! I sent them an email asking what happened to my Antrag as it has taken a long time.
They replied saying they mislaid my file and recently started processing it and they would give me a decision on the 20th of October.
I was FURIOUS ! And emailed them back saying what they did is an Embarrassment and is inexcusable.
They called me that day and apologized to me and said it was an address issue.

So let’s just hope for the best :P !

Regards,
James

[James]

EDIT
I sent them the email on like the 28th and they replied on the first of October I think.

[James]

Good news guys ! finally got the visa after they lost my file and started again :D !

[Author]

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