Most Updated Schengen Visa Application to Visit Belgium for Indonesian

Are you thinking about applying for Schengen visa to visit any of European countries? You can refer to the following steps and tips. Oh, it's particularly for you Indonesian applying the visa to visit Belgium from Indonesia. 

1. Book an appointment

Considering the packed schedule of the appointment, you better book an appointment at VFS Global Application Center as soon as possible here. There are three centers available, in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bali. Trust me, the slots in Jakarta and Surabaya are fully booked for the next two to three months. Even you need to pay for booking a slot there. Well, it makes sense due to the high demand. Therefore, I decided to book an appointment in Bali. It's free and I found a slot available at the earliest. In August, I received an invitation to be an interpreter at a congress on 2nd-5th of October in Belgium which means I needed a Schengen visa to go there. And, I could only apply for the visa on September 11th the earliest because I was in the UK for two months for a training there. So, more or less I had around 3 WEEKS ONLY for the whole process. Anyways, don't forget to printout the appointment letter that you've received in your mailbox. 

2. Prepare all required documents

I made a mistake here. Maybe because I was too busy, so I didn't spend some time to Google what documents required for the visa application. All that I had was the  documents that I received from the host organization there in Belgium such as 

- Invitation letter, where the organizer clearly mentioned my name to be invited for the purpose of doing an interpretation for Indonesian delegates at the congress. Here, it's also stated that all of my expenses, especially accommodation, transportation and meals are covered by the host organization. 

- Travel insurance, which states that during my visit in Belgium, I was covered by this insurance in case of any accidents or health problems. 

- Flight tickets, which indicates the flight I was going to take two ways, Indonesia <> Belgium. 

- Accommodation, that confirms where I was going to stay during the visit. Well, it's at the congress venue anyway, but still it requires a separate and direct letter of confirmation. 

3. Complete the application form

With those documents ready in hand, I started filling out the form online here. After completing the form, download it to print. It's mentioned on the page that we can apply for a Schengen visa for Belgium at the Netherlands' visa application locations in Indonesia. 

4. Attend the appointment

Get all documents printed on A4 paper, one sided and DO NOT STAPLE. Just leave them the way they are. Also, a physical PHOTO is NOT NECESSARRY, because it'll be taken there along with the our fingerprints. Oh, in Bali, the queue wasn't too long. 

After checking my documents, it turned out I missed some documents such as. 

- A copy of national identity card (KTP)

- A copy of family certificate

- Bank statements from last three months

Oh, I was asked about the employment contract, but I said that I didn't have any as I was a freelancer. If you have any, you better provide it to convince them. 

Because of the incomplete documents, I asked if I could come back later on the same day. Unfortunately, it's not possible. However, thank Goodness! The staff was really kind! He rescheduled my appointment to the next day. You know what? If he would, he could have just sent me home and let me book another appointment which I could not guarantee if any slot available was on the next day. 

I brought all required documents the next day. Interestingly in Bali, the payment for visa application (IDR 1.330.000,00 / EUR 80,00) is also with the SMS service (IDR 30.000,00) and courier (IDR 29.000,00) with the total of IDR 1.840.000,00 including 11% VAT. I asked if I could collect the passport  myself but the center highly recommends all applicants to have it delivered by their courier service instead. I was given numbers to track my application online as soon as my passport is being dispatched by the courier. Oh, you can make the payment in CASH, by QRIS, or via BANK TRANSFER, so don't worry!

We're going to leave our passport for the whole visa application process, so you better not travel abroad. 

5. Track your application online 

Before tracking the delivery of your passport here, what we can do is to track the application status online here,  and I did it almost everyday because I needed the passport as soon as possible and I wanted to make sure that there wasn't any problem in the application. Well, until the day it said it's being dispatched by courier on the page, no information at all anyway if it's approved or rejected. We're left hanging. 

6. Result

In the morning, the courier will let you know that your passport's going to be delivered on that day to make sure you're around to receive it. I couldn't wait to open it as soon as it arrived. This visa mattered a lot to me because it would take me to Europe for the first time. I found a  piece of paper saying that "You've been issued a visa ....", but I couldn't find the sticker. I panicked wondering if there's any problem. It turned out the sticker was put on a blank page at the first few pages of my passport instead of the back ones. Yeay! I got it. It's C category visa to reside in a Schengen Area for 15 days with a single entry only due to my business purpose. And guess what? When did I receive it? It's on 29th of Sept. Quickly, the organizer booked the flight for me to travel on the next day 30th of Sept. 

Applying for a visa can be daunting for some people. 

Take one step at a time. 

Make a list of what actions you need to take and what documents you need to provide. 

All the best! 

What You Need for UK Standard Visa Application

For anyone of you planning to go to the UK and need a visit visa, here is what you need to know. This information is based on my experience this year, January 2022.  

1. Prepare all required documents

Why is having all the required documents the first step? It's because when you fill out the form, there are some parts which need some information relevant to the required documents. The next question is, what are the required documents? Here are the categories. 

- Accommodation - Permanent/Temporary (I was planning to stay at a hotel, so I mentioned the hotel address. Or, maybe you can put your family/friend's address if you're staying there.)

- Financial Evidence (Actually, there's no specific information or guideline of how many previous months the bank statement must be provided. However, to be safe, I submitted the last six months of my bank statement. And again, to be more convincing, I uploaded my saving statement as well. Oh, I was working and staying in Malaysia at that time and I had saving in my Employees Provident Fund (KWSP).)

- Employment Evidence (For this one, I provided some documents. First, a letter verifying that I'm an employee and currently working at the company where I was working. Second, an acknowledgement from my company that my leave has been approved for the period of my planned visit to the UK. Luckily, my company has an online system to request for both documents. Last, the pay slips of course, of the last six months. Oh, I almost forgot. Since I hold Indonesian passport working in Malaysia and applying the visa there, I needed to show a copy of my active employment pass as a proof of my residence permit in Malaysia.)

- Consent Letters and Proof of Relationship (I was applying for this visa to visit my boyfriend and of course, we needed to prove our relationship. What  my boyfriend  did was to take some screenshots of our chats on WhatsApp chats. Well, not all of them. He took some parts from the first time we started talking in August 2020 until the moment before the visa application. I put all photos together into one PDF file to be submitted.)

- Educational Evidence (Just to make my application more convincing, I attached my master's degree certificate and IELTS result.)

- Sponsor Evidence (Luckily, my boyfriend is excellent in details, so he provided all required documents from him as my sponsor by himself such as an invitation letter, a copy of his passport, his bank statements in last six months, and his pay slips in last six months. My boyfriend created a folder in Google Drive named Siti Visa and put all those documents there for me to access. So, your sponsor better do the same thing.)

- Additional documents/ Others (My boyfriend wanted to make sure that this visa application would be successful, so he tried to provide more evidence of his support during my visit by giving a clear itinerary. Believe me, he wrote every single activity that we're going to to in every single day of my stay starting from my arrival to my departure leaving the UK. In addition to that, he ordered two together rail card and made details of the trip budget. For this, I went to a photo studio for a photograph and tried to get a dummy flight ticket. The funny thing was that I forgot to upload the dummy flight ticket, but still my visa application was approved. So, DUMMY FLIGHT TICKET does NOT GUARANTEE.)

Oh, please bear in mind that all documents must be in English. If any of your document is in any other language, you must have it translated to be submitted along with the original one. Also, you'll be advised to print out a Document Checklist for your own use to make sure that you have submitted all required documents. 

2. Fill out the form accordingly

As I said, it's easier to complete the form once you have all documents, even you can do it in one go. However, another alternative is to do both, filling out the form and preparing for the documents, at the same time. It's your choice. You can find the application here.

3. Booking an appointment

Interestingly, for this UK Standard Visitor Visa, you must have completed the application form before booking an appointment. As soon as you've completed the form, you'll be directed to the appointment page to book here. On this page, you'll offered some services such as courier, SMS, etc. You can find more details here. For me, I didn't take any service offered. It's all up to you though. If you think you need any of the service offered, you better take it. Oh during this appointment, because I uploaded all required documents in the application form, I didn't need to submit any printed documents anymore. All I had with me was my original passport. At the counter, the staff asked me the purpose of my visit and I simply answered "To have a short vacation there." That's all. After that, I waited for biometrics to be taken. Surprisingly, they took my photograph in the room, too. It turned out submitting a PHOTOGRAPH is NOT NECESSARY. 

4. Submit, sit back, and relax

After around 14 working days, you'll be notified by email if your passport is ready for collection. I didn't take any courier service, so I went to the VFS center to collect my passport myself. Oh, in the email, it's not mentioned if the application is approved or rejected. We can only find out once we've open the envelope given by the center. 

By the way, for this application, I hold Indonesian citizenship working and staying in Malaysia at that time, but I'm sure the overall requirements are more or less the same for across citizenships. 

Thank you for reading and all the best. 

CELTA Experience (Day 6)

 Yeay! I finished and submitted the FOL Assignment last Saturday, so I just chilled this morning. No rush. 

Next, we learned Teaching Writing with Erin. As always, we started it with a teaching demo where we, the trainees, are the students in a writing lesson. One time each of us was asked to write on our own, then to write in a group. Then, we discussed how different it was from students' point of view. One has more pressure than the other, of course. Anyways, there are some different opinions about teaching writing, some pros and cons. However, it turns out writing task can be in some different forms and it doesn't always have to be so serious with so much pressure to students. Some types are fluency writing, writing a lone, collaborative brainstorming, and collaborative writing. Another types of writing in terms of its purpose are such as personal writing, public writing, creative writing, social writing, study writing, and institutional writing. Each has its plus and minus to consider. In teaching writing, there might be some problems come up and that's why we discussed them and thought about how we could help our learners be more confident with writing. For examples

Lack of understanding of the task -> Model it/ demonstrate it/ provide examples
Lack of ideas -> Provide stimulus/ brainstorm ideas as a group
Lack of vocabulary -> Pre-teach some vocabulary/ use Thesaurus for synonyms
And so on. 

In planning a writing lesson, the stages would be: Lead-in, Analyze the model (gist/detail), Preparing to write, Writing, Peer editing, and Error correction. In peer-marking, a structured peer feedback can be used for learners, so the feedback is more directed and constructive without discouraging any learner. Overall, writing tasks should 

- have a clear communicative purpose
- aim to produce whole texts (not isolated sentences)
- imitate a real-life task (e.g. writing an email)
- have a clear readership in mind
- be adequate for students' level

After break, we had a review of LRT, particularly in Language Analysis Form and Meaning. We were given a list of advice when completing the LRT: Research, Focus on Meaning, Clarification of meaning, Focus on form, Focus on pronunciation, Appropriacy, Problems and Solutions, and Submitting the assignment. Guess what? Even in class, we all gave it a try to do an analysis on grammar and lexis and were given the answer key after that. Trust me, it helped me so much in understanding the expectations and requirements of the assignments. Again, crystal clear. Another great thing was that Nick gave us ways of checking meaning. It's not always CCQs all the time after all (Concept Checking Questions). Another simple way is using Timelines, especially to show a visual representation of (sometimes complicated) grammar points, such as tenses. I've become more confident now in doing the assignment. 

Then, I had my TP 3. I'm starting to get familiar with the lesson plan template used during this course and able to complete it before the lesson. Good job for me! This time was Vocabulary lesson. I had learners do a matching activity of the words and their definition, and showed them some pictures on the board to identify which one is which. As a controlled practice, learners filled in blanks of some sentences, and as a freer practice, I assigned one word for each number on the dice (1-12, 2 dice) for learners to roll and ask a question using the word. It went really well!

CELTA Experience (Day 5)

 It's the first Friday of my CELTA and I can't wait today to be over because I was going to see my boyfriend. Hehe. 

As a start of the day, we had an input session on Phonology: Word and sentence stress (and drilling). Honestly, stress is my biggest problems because I need to check the dictionary most of the time, especially in words. But, for me, word stress in a sentence is less difficult because somehow we can just feel how it sounds like which is right. Teaching stress is important because it impacts on how it sounds and how people listen to it. Nick introduced us to some techniques in teaching or pointing stress in words such as using big and small dots, or a facing up arrow for a stressed part. We also had a try to identify stresses in a sentence. Guess what? It turns out, even Trainees with English as their first language found it super tricky. And, what about me? Well, same. Different from stress in a word, stresses in a sentence may have an effect on its meaning and impression. Is it asking? clarifying? wondering? doubting? And so on. There are some activities for practicing stress, but I guess the most comfortable for me is clapping or using a pen to point ups and downs. And the other most common way is drilling. I'm sure you're familiar with it, too. It's when the learners get to practice saying new words or phrases, focusing particularly on pronunciation. 

After break, we reviewed the FOL Assignment with Manuel. Overall, I'd say that all the guidelines and examples provided by this course for the assignment are crystal clear. I know really well what's expected from the assignment from A to Z. We were given two example essays on learner's profile as part of assignment and asked to analyze the differences, especially which one is written better. See? It made things clear. We were guided in identifying errors of the learner step by step and classifying the type of errors. Further, we were provided with example answers in writing the analysis. Trust me, what more to ask? I'm planning to finish this assignment and submit it as soon as possible, so I can spend my weekend with my boyfriend. I still need to have some fun!

Next is my TP 2. This time is a reading lesson. I grouped students to read different texts glued on the wall. I should have had the text on their table, so they could be more comfortable in reading and writing their answers. After finishing reading their text and answering the questions, they went to visit the other groups and let the group ask them questions to complete their form. Anyways, it's a bit complicated to explain. If you're interested in having a look at the lesson in details, feel free to drop me a message and I'll share the lesson plan to you. 

CELTA Experience (Day 4)

To start the day, we learned An Introduction to Classroom Management in our input session with Erin. We brainstormed ideas to consider in manage a classroom such as grouping, timing, monitoring and so on. At the same time, building rapport with learners are as important and it can be done by doing some simple things like using learners' names when calling them and showing interest in what learners are saying. In terms of grouping students and interaction patterns, there are some to bear in mind, but here I'd share what I think the most basic ones. First, avoid using too many gestures because they are very distracting for learners, and second, demonstrating activities is sometimes better than explaining activities. About gestures, too many will confuse learners, but some of them can be used effectively as long as it's clear and consistent, for example for "Think about .....", "Look at me.", or "Past tense/ now/in the future." Interestingly, in giving instruction, the impact was totally different when it's unclear and complicated and when it's clear, simple and easy to understand. 

And, the next assignment was coming, Language Related Task (LRT). Unlike the previous assignment, trust me, it's a lot more challenging. We were instructed to read the assignment guideline and answer some questions based on the guideline to make sure that each of us understand the instructions thoroughly. We are given some sentences with highlighted grammar and lexis used. What we do is to find out why this specific grammar of lexis might be challenging for the particular language level of the learners. After analyzing the cause, of course we should come up with proposed solutions in the form of any worksheets or activities to help the learners. I'd say it's like a mini research. To get ourselves ready, Manuel had some activities for language analysis, in terms of grammar and lexis from a text. But, before that, we had a Grammar Quiz on Kahoot. I was in a group with George and Iori, and guess what? We won the quiz! We're the Grammar Master! Then, Manuel introduced us to using student and teacher resources to help with language analysis in doing LRT Assignment. What I did right away was to find any coursebooks with the grammar and/or lexical points that I have chosen. I took some photos of them and decided which ones are the most relevant when writing the analysis.

Here comes my TP 1. I taught Grammar Lesson: Present continuous for future plans. I struggled a bit in adapting to the Lesson Plan Template. I felt that too many things to put in there starting from the Grammar Analysis up to the Lesson Procedures in details. Honestly, I was overwhelmed. As a result, I didn't manage to finish completing the Lesson Plan before the lesson. But, I got all lesson materials ready. Well, hopefully I'll do better for my next TP in writing the lesson plan. Anyways, the class ran well for the first time of teaching in this class. I got to know better what went well and what didn't as well as the level of difficulty that I need to consider in future lessons. 

CELTA Experience (Day 3)

Today, the third day of CELTA, we had an input session with Nick on Teaching Grammar: Present, Practice and Produce. I heard of this method previously in the university, but the difference here is that how we establish a context of a specific grammar focus as the target of the lesson. It's in the Lead-in stage. Also, it's getting clearer how MFP(A) is implemented in a language class. In many years of my teaching experience, I have never been aware of this MFP(A). Next, it's really insightful in the way how we should provide controlled practice for learners to try what they have just learned in class with a guidance, and freer practice for them to explore more the use of the target language. 

In other words, the stages would be Establishing a context, Presenting the target language, Practicing the target language, and Producing the target language. 

I was really nervous today because we're going to have the first session with the learners. Well, it wasn't going to be observed by our Tutor, but still first time always makes me nervous. Carys, Ethan, George and I were given a lesson plan to teach the class today. There were four parts: Warmer and opening, Places, Recipe, and Boardgame. I picked Warmer and opening activity. I always feel that I'm good at energizing a classroom. Each of us had 20 minutes only. In my part, we talked about an important person. I picked a photo of Ibu Paulina Panen from Google and shared a little bit about her. Next, I let each student to share about someone who is important to her/him. Thank goodness it all went well and I enjoyed it so much. 

After this Unassessed/Unobserved TP, that's how we call it, we were given some time to interview any of learners for FOL Assignment purpose. I decided to interview Rasna from India. We had some guiding questions to collect information such as

1. What are their interest?
2. What do they do for a living?
3. How long have they been learning English?
4. Do they have any specific reasons for learning English? (e.g. travel, work ...)
5. Do they like learning English? Why?
6. In their previous learning experience, what kinds of methods were used?
7. What did they enjoy about their previous learning?
8. Which areas of their English do they feel they need to work on?

Instead of asking those questions exactly the way it is, I reworded them in my own ways and in my order so that the flow of the conversation would be more natural. I was glad that Rasna was open and answered all questions with a lot of information to be studied and analyzed in the FOL Assignment. 

Before leaving, we had a brief discussion with Erin to make sure that each of us was ready for our lesson to teach tomorrow. Actually, I had all the idea of the lesson in my head, but honestly, I struggled with the lesson plan template to be completed. I felt that it was too much. Anyways, I'll give it a try and do my best. 

CELTA Experience (Day 2)

Manuel started the session today on Teaching Vocabulary 1. Before reflecting and talking about the lesson, he demonstrated the lesson with all trainees as students. It's interesting to find out that in teaching vocabulary, 'eliciting' a word works so much better that presenting it. It was the first time for me to learn MFP(A) which means Meaning, Form, Pronunciation, and Appropriacy (if necessary) in language teaching. Also, another new term for me was Concept Checking Questions (CCQs) that we can use to clarify the meaning of vocabulary instead of just giving the definition of the vocabulary right away to learners. Different from the listening lesson yesterday, in teaching vocabulary, it consists of Lead-in, Contextualization of language, Clarification of MFP(A), Controlled Practice, and Freer Practice. 

Meaning - What does the word mean in a given context? Does it have positive or negative associations? 

Form - spelling, word form, word families, useful collocation, lexical grammar (e.g. countable/uncountable, irregular verb, transitive/intransitive verb, etc.)

Pronunciation - word stress, silent letters, special sounds, etc.

Appropriacy - Is the word more appropriate for formal or informal contexts? Or, does it have a neutral meaning?

After break, we continued the session with Writing a Lesson Plan. This lesson plan template is going to be used throughout this course. It consists of

Name

Date

Tutor

Level

Length of Lesson

Lesson Number

Lesson Type

Personal TP Aim(s)

Main Lesson Aim(s)

Secondary Aim(s)

Materials and Resources

Lesson Procedure

In this lesson plan, Lesson Procedure covers the activities during the lesson with the description of 'What are the learners doing?' and 'What is the teacher doing?' along with what kind of interaction is being implemented (teacher to whole class, students to teacher, pair-work, individual work, group work, or melee).

Next, we had our first live observation of experienced teacher, Erin, in Pre-Intermediate class. While observing, we were expected to prepare for FOL assignment by paying attention to Learner Name, Nationality, Grammar Knowledge, Vocabulary Knowledge, Pronunciation Knowledge, and Type of Student. From the observation, I haven't decided yet whom I'm going to interview. I was thinking about letting my peers to pick first, then I will find mine. 

CELTA Experience (Day 1)

I've been waiting for today, the first day of CELTA. I can't wait to see new faces in class and to get to know them. I'm really grateful for having my boyfriend who took a day off specially  for me today to take me to English Language Teaching Center (ELTC) of University of Sheffield. Oh, but before that, he took me to the Student Union first to have myself registered and to get a student card. 

I went to the 6th floor and I saw a girl there, but she's not one of trainees who had introduced on Padlet. And, it turned she's actually one of the trainees. My first friend of CELTA, Sama from Egypt. I decided to go downstairs to have a banana because I was really hungry. After some time, I said goodbye to my boyfriend and went to the 6th floor myself. Oh, my boyfriend spent the whole day at Peak District. 

At the registration, I met a few people, CELTA Trainees. I tried to guess which one is which according to the photo on Padlet. 

After the registration, Sama and I walked to ELTC together, and started the day. 

We briefly introduced ourselves. There're 12 of us including me. They're Colin, Simon, Kirsty, Charlotte, Ethan, George, Carys, Michael, Isha, Iori, and of course Sama. 

This first meeting talked more about the administration such as shared folders 'Trainee's Folder', and my own folder 'Siti Fitriah' with a portfolio in it. Also, the trainer told us about how to use the printer. Oh, we have three trainers, Erin, Manuel, and Nick. We had a quick chit chat with each of them to get to know them and of course to ask for their advice to make this CELTA. I took some notes of the advice from each of them. 

Nick suggested that we save the handouts, and with the diversity in trainees' background and ability, it be great to share and practice it. 

Erin told us that there's going to be a lot of information during CELTA

Right away, an assignment came, Focus on the Learner (FOL). I found this assignment interesting though, to interview and analyze a learner's challenge in learning English. But, before going further, we were introduced to language levels: Beginner, Elementary (A1), Pre-Intermediate (A2), Intermediate (B1), Upper-Intermediate (B2), Advanced (C1), and Proficient (C2), to better understand each description. This assignment consists of 3 parts: interview and summary, language and skill analysis, and interventions. In analyzing the learner's language, we are expected to identify 2 mistakes in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, with the total of 6 mistakes. When talking about skills, we should focus on both strengths and weaknesses of the learner. In the last part of the assignment, we should find any activities to help the learner improve his/her language. For me, all these details are really helpful to do it as well as I can. 

After lunch, the input session was given by Nick. Here I reviewed the terms listening for gist and listening for detail after a long time ago talking about it in university. The most interesting part from this session is the stages in planning a lesson: Lead-in/Orientation, Pre-teach, Listening for gist, Listening for detail, and Follow-up. I'm not sure if I have ever learned or been taught these stages before, but I found these stages are clear and helpful in lesson planning. 

As we have been told, this CELTA course is going to be packed. Next, we were briefed on observation and reflection as part of our portfolio. Throughout the course, I will be observing experienced teachers, which means the tutors, and my peers in their teaching and expected to give my peers some feedback.  They'll do the same thing to me as well. Also, we were given Teaching Practice Points (TP Points), what we're going to teach and in which class for the first half of the course. I've got a Pre-Intermediate class together with Carys, Ethan, and George, and Erin is our Tutor. Hopefully, I'll do well in every TP. 

Here's my Student Card. Yeay!