Hi All,
I am a student and I am going to Paris for three weeks for a mini-term conducted by my college. After three weeks of study, I will travel by myself to Italy and Greece. Because of my citizenship, I need to apply a visa.

I have several question, could you please help me ?Thank you so much for your help!

1. Concerning student Visa, should I apply for a student visa or a tourist visa? I am concerned because my mini-term is totally conducted by a US College, without any association with any French School, can I still apply for student visa?


2. If I can be issued an student visa, can I travel to Italy AND Greece?


3. How many entry time should I choose? Does single entry allow me to go to all of these three countries?


if I cannot apply to Student Short stay visa, then for Schengen tourist visa,
1. Do I need all hotel information Faxed? Or printing them out will be ok?

Thank you sooo much, I really appreciate your answer!

You need to call the French embassy or consulate. They are the only people who can give authorized answers to your questions. You will have to contact them sometime to apply for a visa.

Why aren't the people at your college helping/directing you?

I think for what you are doing, a simple visitor visa is all you need.
For visa nationals, the Schengen visa (that's what you need) is usually issued for a fixed length of time, and it's governed by the number of days you have confirmed accommodation for, details of which you must enclose, together with medical insurance cover.
You can travel to all Schengen countries (which include Greece and Italy) but you must have booked accommodation for every night you spend. It can be just a bed in a hostel dormitory. Either a faxed confirmation from the accommodation provider or through websites like Hostelworld, with reservation details printed out. You also need to enclose details of how much money you have, usually by including your latest bank statement. Get a letter from your school/college about the details of the course and its duration, and any accommodation provided.

Trouble with contacting French consulate is rarely you can speak to a real person. Even if you can (usually on premium phone line to a commercial call centre), all they tell you is to look at the cosulate and French government websites for details. They don't want to give an answer to visa questions for fear they give the wrong advice by misunderstanding you or not getting the full facts. They will just tell you to apply and they will look at it.

>>>Because of my citizenship, I need to apply a visa.<<<

If you are a US citizen, you don't need a visa for three weeks in Europe. You can travel for three months without a visa.

Thank you guys so much, my school officials suggested me to apply for a student visa but I somehow just think it's kind of weird when I am only enrolled in an US school.

I am prepared for both visa, does anyone know if I can just bring all the materials into my appointment and let the officer decide which type of visa to issue?

I will call tomorrow and see if they can give me any answer.
Thank you all again!!!

btw, I called the consulate, and Alec you are right, you cannot get anything from them by calling... the woman answering the phone was annoy and irritate.

What nationality are you? If American, you don't need any kind of special visa - you can stay in Europe for up to three months. If you're not American, call YOUR consulate, not the French one and see if they can be more helpful.

I have never heard of a "mini-term" so have no idea what it is but you say you will be studying there. It sounds like some trip abroad for a few weeks with people from your school and they will claim they are teaching you something there. I don't really think that qualifies you for a French student visa, I agree with you, if you really need one. I think to qualify for a French student visa, you need to be studying in a program or institution that is actually located there permanently, even if it is run by someone non-French (ie, the AUP). But just some folks traveling over there? I don't think so.

But some schools could have permanent offices and programs established abroad, who knows, you have given so little information for anyone to know what you might need. And you don't need a student visa if you are an American citizen, you should give people the details necessary to answer your question, your citizenship is crucial to understanding what you need.

Hi ALL,
I do need one since I am not American, I am Chinese.
Christina, I think you have the point. The program is led by one of the professor from my school and since it is an art mini-term, we are going to a lot of museums and therefore not register with any institutes, we do have a agreement with a French studio.

I have prepared every document I need for applying both visa, Is there anyone knows if it is possible to just bring everything to the consulate officer, and let him/her to decide which type of visa to issue?

The appointment is next Tuesday, so I am kind of nervous. Thank you all for helping.

Gook luck on your application! There are many Chinese travelling around Europe these days, so I'm sure you won't have a problem. Are you attending an American university? If the other students are travelling as tourists you will probably only need a tourist visa yourself.

Yep I made up my mind to apply for a tourist visa. I am attending an American University yes. All my friends don't need to apply for one because they are American Citizen, and the school didn't seems to have anyone needed such visa in the past, therefore I kind of have to work my way through by myself.
But anyway, thank you so much for your help, and I really appreciate it.

got my visa, student visa. I explained my situation to the officers and they didn't immediately give me a definite answer neither. As soon as they saw the USA school enrollment letter they insisted on issue a student visa regardless what I really do in the program.And they after started to blame me not explaining things clearly.

the France Consulate is indeed nasty. Especially one woman who is in charge of checking materials, is super annoy and just hate to be there, and I guess therefore she is trying to make everyone as miserable as she is. A lot of people waiting there and couldn't get their problem solved because the officers there are just treat people with such nasty attitude. A lot of people, including me, were asked to make additional copies，since apparently what they listed on the internet (one copy for each document) is not enough.

The question they asked was annoy too. She expect you to memorize everything, the woman was asking every hotels name and date while holding all of my confirmation. I mean, you have every thing, every date, every address in your hand, why do you still need to ask me? Since I do not remember every name out of the twenty ish hotels, she give me this angry look and said 'you don't know?? how could you not know!'

They made me wait for a long time and come back at three thirty with additional material. I was lucky that I get my visa, but the woman was annoy again and try to give me a verbal lesson about "next time, just answer what you were asked ", what the heck.

It wasn't a pleasant trip and for anyone who need to go there, good luck. For me, I am never going to go back to this stupid and nasty place. If I really need to get a visa, I would definitely choose other consulate who treat you like a person.