Students who plan to take are year abroad are struggling with the nightmare of visa delays in a post-Brexit Europe.
If you were a student at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, you’ll know first-hand how chaotic those first couple of years were, and no more so than for those going on their years abroad.
Students were stranded in foreign countries as they were plunged into lockdowns, with others shortening or even cancelling their plans due to the virus.
Now that Covid restrictions have been lifted, the UK year abroad students of 2022-2023 have been looking forward to organising trips abroad that, while most likely won’t run completely smoothly, will at least be a vast improvement on the years before.
Instead, they have found themselves to be guinea pigs for a new system that will ferry young people back and forth to Europe on a wide scale for the foreseeable future, following the end of the Brexit transition period.
Student visa delays
With many university staff still confused by the novel system and few support systems available, students have been left to fend for themselves in a process involving mountains of hidden fees, months-long waits for essential documents and uncommunicative consulates, leaving them feeling stressed and isolated. These conditions have meant that in extreme cases, students have been forced to cancel their trips abroad altogether.
Ava, a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, sadly found herself in this situation. Initially planning a year abroad in Barcelona, each time she visited the Spanish consulate, she was met with different people telling her that she needed different documents.
‘I went three times overall, and I don’t live in Manchester either, so it put costs up. I spent over a grand overall on documents on travel for them to tell me that I had ten days to gain more documents they hadn’t previously told me about,’ Ava explained.
‘I asked if after the ten days if I could apply again and pay and the women basically just shrugged at me.’
‘It was such a horrible experience. They didn’t answer emails and the phone number went to an EE voicemail, which was full up. The only information I got from anyone was me outsourcing it.’
‘I’ve had some support [from my university], they even tried to set up a Q and A with the Spanish consulate, but they cancelled on the uni last minute.’
A Mental Toll on Students
Ava says that she found the experience so stressful that she is not ‘mentally prepared’ for her final year and has decided to take a year out of university.
Her situation is not unique, with weeks of delays and uncertainty taking a mental toll on countless students.
Some from the University of Bristol have reported waiting up to two months for an essential document needed to undertake a work placement in France – every internship needs signed approval from the French administration.
The complicated application process for a French visa perhaps seems surprising, considering that it has led the way in boosting visa permits back to pre-pandemic levels, earning it the title of the most attractive destination in Europe for non-EU year abroad students. In 2019 Campus France, alongside the French government, launched an ambitious initiative to welcome 500,000 international students to the country by 2027.
The opportunity to study and work in such a popular country has meant that delays and restrictions have failed to put off thousands of students from travelling there each year. France has even seen an 18% increase in foreign student numbers over the past five years.
However, considering the efforts needed to navigate Europe’s labyrinthian bureaucracy and the pricing out of young people who are trying to obtain visas, it remains to be seen whether such a large volume of students, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, will continue to take advantage of the vast cultural, language and career opportunities that the year abroad can provide.