Hidden costs and Getting Temporary Study Residence

I started writing this on 18/09/2020 at 2237; I returned to it on 21/10/2022 at 2330. Thank God I wrote some of this down, because I can barely remember it now, even though it was all-encompassing worry at the time!

Hidden costs:

When I applied to UVMP back in 2020, I had to fill out; an application form, a personal data processing form, and a GDPR form. I also had to pay a 50€ application fee. The study office were fine with me scanning the documents and emailing them. 

I had to contact my previous education institutes (University and college), and ask them to send an email to the study office, confirming I had gone there, and got the academic qualifications I claimed I had. That was all fine, although I was waiting on my university for a little while. 

Once I got my acceptance letter, I had to figure out what "apostille" meant, and where I could get it done. 

I still remember exactly where I was when I got my acceptance letter - I was in the ultrasound room at work, in the dark, with the ultrasonographer and one of the senior RVNs. I saw the email pop up on my phone screen, and had to excuse myself to jump around in the bathroom.

I emailed some solicitors near where I lived, asking for help and got a response from a very nice man. He did all of it for me, all the apostille-ing and notarising. In total, that cost about £250 - I think it was worth it to know that it was being done right, and it didn't take too long. I gave him copies, not my original documents, and that was fine.

On the day of registration, it was pretty chaotic. This is where the hidden costs really came in - we were told our documents needed to be translated into Slovak (fair enough), and they had the translators there to take our documents. Because I had multiple pages, it cost around 200€ to translate all of it. In cash! We also had to pay 34€ to give the university Power of Attorney. This is so they can go to the education ministers and prove that we've completed education in the UK to a similar level as Slovakian students. It might be worth getting your documents translated back in your home country, but this wasn't something I looked at, so I couldn't say. 

In total it cost ~£505 for the registration.

 

Getting residency: 

All the people I spoke to before going to UVMP never bothered getting residency, but because of Brexit, it was something I unfortunately had to deal with! I think it's a similar process for people from other countries, but this was my experience with it as a UK student.

To start with, getting an appointment with the Foreign Police is almost impossible. The website crashes randomly, it doesn't always display in English even if you choose English, and they have weird opening hours, plus the appointments get snapped up so quickly.

The university sent us a list of things we had to sort to get temporary residency;

1. Official application form, printed out and written on  
• It's the same as what you fill out when you make an appointment. Sometimes it would give you a pdf version, and sometimes it did not. Best to fill out the paper copy, as they do love that
2. Valid identity card or passport
3. Two colour photographs, 3x3.5cm 
• I did this before I left, so that was £5 in a photobooth. 
4. Study confirmation, confirming the purpose of residence in Slovak, not older than 90 days at time of submission 
• The uni gave us this on the registration day 
5. Confirmation of having sufficient financial resources 
• This has to be an original document. As in, a paper statement directly from the bank. I had to specially request one because who still gets paper statements? I had to get mine translated twice, and make a second appointment because I used a printout the first time. Expensive and annoying mistake to make.
6. Document confirming accommodation
• You can request one of these if you're living in dorms. When I got my card, I had moved into a flat with my friend, so I could use my contract. They didn't take it, they just scanned it.
• Someone has mentioned something about the card expiring each year if you live in dorms? I'm not sure on this, but it's something to be aware of. I don't think it's as hard to renew as it is to get in the first place. 
  
7. An ACRO certificate
• This was the one thing that changed, and tripped a lot of us up. Before brexit, a DBS check was enough, but my friend got hers before me, and told me it had to be an ACRO certificate. This also had to be translated and apostilled. At this point, I'd already paid for a DBS check!
  
• I paid for the fast-track, so it was more expensive, and they double charged me, so it doesn't have to cost as much as it cost me!
  

Not a huge list of things to prepare, but my god was it hard to prepare them to what the police wanted. The process was immensely frustrating, as they would not communicate in English, and I don't know Slovak! At my first appointment, they told me some of my documents were wrong. 

After my first appointment, my ACRO certificate was almost expired (older than 90 days), and it was going to take a while for my bank statement to get to me. Fortunately, the police said that the certificate would stay valid, as long as I didn't leave the country after it expired (or commit a crime). 

At the second appointment, when everything was accepted, I sat for about 3 hours waiting for my number to be called so they could take a photo of me and take my fingerprints. Then they gave me the letter confirming that I had applied and been approved for residency, and I had to rush back to campus.

When you have the letter of confirmation of residency, you have to get a health check. This is just regular stuff like a blood test, a urine and stool sample, and a chest X-ray. The doctor writes a summary of the findings, and then I had to collect that, and bring it to the police. It took about a month for my card to arrive. I didn't pay for the fast track option, because I didn't understand the payment machine in the police office. 

In total it cost £581.24 to get the residency card.

To top it off, the only times I need to use my residency card is when I'm entering and leaving the country. Literal weeks of stress and worry, and now I never think about it. At least I'm getting stamps in my passport.