After I made the decision to attend Tel Aviv University, my next step was to apply for a student visa. The description on the Israeli Consular department's website reads, "This visa is granted to those who want to study in Israel in elementary and high schools, academic institutions, yeshivot and youth institutions of the Jewish Agency. The visa is valid for up to one year and for multiple entrances and exits. Recipients of this visa are not permitted to work in Israel."
The Israeli Embassy is located in D.C. and there are Consulates located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco. Since I travelled around this summer, I looked into a couple of different Consulate department's procedures for getting a visa and they vary. For instance, some Consulates require that you show proof of housing arrangements in Israel, while others do not. Furthermore, the D.C. embassy requires that you come in to apply for a visa in person. I ended up going to SF where they allow you to either apply in person or mail in your paperwork. I opted to go in person because who doesn't love a trip to SF? My mom, a family friend, and I walked in a beautiful building in the Financial district of SF where we were greeted by a security guard. We arrived ten minutes before they opened and the security guard had us wait outside until they were ready. At exactly 10am, the guard let us in and asked for my passport. After several questions, he said I could go up, but my mom and family friend had to wait behind. It was a very easy process with little waiting. After going through security, I sat down with a woman who looked over my documents. There was a happy surprise when the woman told me, since I'm a Masa student (an Israeli government and privately-funded organization that offers students all over the world grants to study in Israel), I don't have to pay the visa fee. And then she sent me away (keeping my passport!) with the option to pick up my passport and visa in person or pay $15 to have them FedEx it to my house. Since I will never give up an opportunity to go into the beautiful city, I opted to pick it up in person. The SF Consulate website said it could take up to three weeks to get my visa, but I got the call that it was ready in only two days. |
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