How I got my Italian study visa in Singapore

I was thrilled and grateful that after 2 years of trying to pursue my masters, I finally got awarded a full scholarship under the EU funding!

The Erasmus Mundus masters degree course is called WACOMA (Water and coastal management) and it is at 3 different European universities i.e. University of Bologna (Italy), University of Algarve (Portugal) and University of Cadiz (Spain). On top of that there will be a maximum of 3 months internship at an European institution/private companies. Keep reading on Erasmus Mundus and you will see a lot of other courses offered at full scholarship too, and an awesome mobility plan (moving around different EU universities).

• I sent my application by Jan 15, 2019.

• I received a reserved decision on Mar 15, 2019.

• I got advanced into the scholarship list on June 13, 2019.

• I needto be in Italy around 21-28 August and,

• The academic week will begin on the first week of September.

And so the many processes begin...

1. Receive an admission letter from the university.

2. Make your Declaration of Value (DV)/ Dichiarazioni di valore:

   • This includes first getting your bachelor's degree certificate certified by the university

   • Second, the certified copy is to be legalised by a lawyer - of the country where you obtained the certificate. In my case, this is by a lawyer in the UK.

   • Third, the certified and legalised copy is to be apostilled and in my case this is the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

   • After that, send this copy with your original transcript / Degree supplement and an Italian translation of your certificate (1-piece certificate only, not the others) to the Qualifications Office at the Italian Consulate London, UK (in my case my bachelor's degree is from the UK).

     • For further info on DV from the Italian Consulate in London please click here: https://conslondra.esteri.it/consolato_londra/en/i_servizi/per_i_cittadini/studi/dichiarazioni_di_valore/

     • For a study visa checklist through the Italian Consulate in Singapore please click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xysSQWR2aQF_Nk7fK1I99DXa3RYKvbYN/view

3. Pre-enrol at an Italian Consulate of your country by 24th July 2019; and in my case the Italian Consulate in Berlin, Germany actually allowed me to pre-enrol at their office. But I still couldn't do it, as the DV was taking way too long.

4. Prepare your accommodation in Italy; and in my case this is provided by the scholarship.

5. Prepare your insurance covering minimum 30,000 EUR; and in my case this is provided by the scholarship.

6. Prepare your financial statement / sponsorship on how you are going to support and fund your study in Italy; and in my case this is provided by the scholarship.

7. Prepare 2 visa photographs (white background).

8. Fill in the visa form.

9. Prepare 50 EUR / 78.30 SGD visa fee.

10. Your flight to Europe/Italy.

11. Additionally, I am told to make a "certificate of good conduct" which is a criminal record from the police department of your country. I will need this letter for the second semester in Spain and Portugal. You don't actually need one for Italy.

There seemed to be a lot of process to follow and unfortunately in my case, things are not happening according to plan and has costed me a huge amount of time, money and stress.

Challenge 1

• As I was in Germany at the time and I thought it would be easier to order the 'Award Pack' (bachelor's certificate, transcript/diploma supplement and cover letter) from the University of Southampton, UK. I want them to send it directly to the apostille service, Hague Apostille as its office is in the UK too. However, the university, as stated in their online shop that it will take a minimum of 10 days to get this order sorted. And they did. They only sent it out on the 10th day. And this waiting was truly a challenge as you know this is a sensitive matter.

Challenge 2

• The apostille service, Hague Apostille. Yes, their service is as advertised - 2 days to get your document legalised and apostilled. HOWEVER (a big however) and unbelievably, that the postal service was so bad that it took longer than anticipated considering that the address they need to send the document is to Germany! I was waiting for another 10 days from the day they shipped my document from the UK. Again, time is the essence here.

Challenge 5

• Although the full scholarship is covering travel, installation costs and others - they do not grant the fund in advance basis. I had to spend a lot of my personal money to cover all of these high expenses.

Here I have summarized the costs of all this mess:

1. 90 GBP / 98 EUR for the replacement certificate, Award pack and postal service from the University of Southampton, UK.

2. 78 GBP / 85 EUR for the legalised, apostilled and postal service for the Hague Apostille service, UK.

3. 50 EUR for 1-day express postal service with DHL for DV application addressed to the Italian Consulate in London, UK.

4. 12 GBP / 13 EUR for the postal of returned DV from the Italian Consulate in London, UK. Note that there is no fee for DV as the application is for a reason to study.

5. 740 EUR for a return flight Germany to Singapore (+180 EUR refund as I had to cancel the return to Germany due to my visa is not even done), total to 560 EUR.

6. 700 SGD / 455 EUR one way flight from Singapore to Germany.

7. 103 EUR one way flight to Bologna.

8. 50 EUR / 78.30 SGD study visa fee to the Italian Consulate in Singapore.

9. 225 SGD / 146 EUR an accommodation for 11 days in Singapore at Kampong @ Arab Hostel.

10. Approximately 230 SGD / 150 EUR spending on food, leisure and shopping while staying in Singapore for 11 days.

11. 50 BND / 32 EUR for the certificate of good conduct from the police department in Brunei.

This is how the visa looks (a sticker on passport) and the start/valid date is basically the date when you are entering Europe. I will need to make a residence permit within 8 days of arrival to Italy. This is a 1-year visa so I will have to come back to Singapore in 2020 to renew my visa as it is a 2-year masters.

And so, that is my account of getting an Italian study visa in Singapore. The Erasmus Mundus Scholarship has promised to cover up to 3,000 EUR for travel and 1,000 EUR installation costs.

I hope I will be able to refund all these spendings because this is a lot for me.

Lastly, I would like to appreciate all the help from friends and family. Highest appreciation especially to the Italian Consulate in Singapore for issuing the visa without further delay for the DV from London. After a week stranded in Singapore I called their office and pressed again on my situation. They told me to come the next day and they will try to get the visa done in 3 hours. The following day at their office and when they received my documents they said they will try to get my visa done in 1.5 hour. But in reality, I only had to wait 20 mins. It was incredible and I can't thank you guys enough! Thank you also to Sulia, Maj for sharing your experience obtaining an EU study visa and to Dr Nello for the translation of my bachelor's degree certificate (I would need to pay 70 GBP for that otherwise!!!).

I truly hope this blog post can help you with your visa application and I would like to answer any of your questions so please just send me a message at

my Facebook account: Mina Karin or you can email me at aminahfaizah@gmail.com

Thank you so much to the EU for this scholarship and the EMJMD WACOMA programme for selecting me.

I am so excited to start this amazing journey ahead of me! Gracie.