What You Need to Know About Visas and Immigration Forms for Your Erasmus+ or Turing Scheme Experience

Going on an Erasmus+ or Turing Scheme placement abroad takes a lot of planning! At TravelEdventures, we take a lot of the organisation away from you – and for many people, that means a stress-free preparation period before the big trip. Of course, you’ll need to organise your own packing and decide what you want to take with you (we have lots of information about this on our blog here), but what about the necessary documentation like visas and immigration forms? We’ve got everything you need to know in this useful article, just read on!

• Is Your Passport In Date and Valid?

Obviously, you’ll need a passport – and if you’re a UK or EU citizen, you won’t need a visa to travel or work in the EU, but many countries now insist on at least 6 months left on your passport. Look at the visa website of your destination country and check that your passport will be sufficiently in-date for when you travel (and when you return). Make a copy of your passport as well – just in case you lose the original, it’s better than nothing at all.

• Do You Need a Student Visa?

This varies depending on where you’re going an whether or not you’re going to study full-time in your destination country. Look at the university website of where you’re going and also the National Agency of the country you’re visiting, this will be a good start to finding out whether or not you need a student visa. Furthermore, some countries, like Germany, require a Residence Permit, check if the country you’re going to needs something similar.

• You Must Have Travel Insurance!

Ensure you have valid and sufficient travel insurance before you leave, this is mandatory and serves as protection against medical, war, terrorism, theft etc. Keep copies with you and leave spare copies at home as well.

• Have Proof of Identity With You

You may need to take these to the local authorities in your destination country to alert them that you are in the country. These items could be passport, proof of health insurance and you might need proof of your host course provider.

• Keep The Following Documents

Useful documents that you might need include admissions or offer letter, copies of your qualifications/certificates, language certificates.

• Get a European Health Card

If you travel to an EU country, you need an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card which is free of charge. You can apply for one by clicking here: apply for your EHIC online .

Things to Do Ref. Important Documents Before You Travel

Here are some useful tips to make sure you travel safely and with minimum fuss.

• Take a supply of ID photographs with you, you’ll probably apply for student cards and travel cards so these will be useful.
• Keep a list of your key contacts, including your course tutor and TravelEdventures’ representative, just in case you need someone to help you should a tricky situation arise.
• Have the details of your country’s embassy accessible.
• Know your banking passwords, you will need these to access your money abroad.
• Open up a local bank account, this makes life much easier and avoids unnecessary bank charges.
• Think about getting a currency card, which you can load up with money before you go in your destination country’s currency. This is a very useful item to have with you!
• Have a debit and credit card (the latter to be used only in the case of emergency).
• Make sure you have enough cash on your person to deal with delays or emergencies on your travelling day.

Final Thoughts

We hope the above information is useful but do get in touch with our team if you’d like to know more.