China Visa application update

Dear all,

I have just received confirmation from the Travel Company with regards to the insurance information that you need to include on the application form;

Please read the following:

Fogg Travel insurance:
Master policy number SJUNS40097- 01 A&B
Insurance document info can be downloaded from NST website but if students have had pre-existing medical conditions they need to call 0845 1300198 to check this out.
Back in March we highlighted the need for you to contact the Insurance Company directly, if your child has any pre-existing medical conditions. Please do this if you haven't done so already!

I appreciate that you will now be eager to send off your application, but before you do so please wait for one more final document that I have been advised to share with you. In order to support your application you will need a letter from the school confirming that your child is A) going on the trip to China and B) is a pupil at James Gillespie's High School.
I have only been made aware of this today, so I have arranged for a letter to be drafted this morning and I will get it to you ASAP. Once you have received this document, together with the other paperwork that I issued on Tuesday, you should have everything you need in order to proceed with the VISA application.
I am still being told that it is taking approximately 4 days if you visit the Edinburgh Centre.

More information to follow shortly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding

Best Wishes

Mr. Irvine

China Meeting Tuesday 7th May 2013

Hello,
today we met at lunchtime and we discussed further the application process for visas.
I issued envelopes to each student which contain important information that is needed to support each individual application.
Please treat the contents of the envelope as confidential and do not make photocopies.
Once the application has been processed and the passport returned, if the support documents are also returned I would ask that they be brought back to the school and given to me.
It would appear that taking the documents along to the Edinburgh consulate is the quickest and cheapest way of applying. Please check the China Visa website for more precise details about the application process, although I believe you can apply online and then you will be given a date/time to go along to the centre. This is when you will take along the supporting documents that were issued today.
Today a question regarding insurance was raised and I am currently dealing with this. I will update the blog as soon as I find out about the insurance; e.g. if there is a policy number that you need on the application form.
If there are any more questions like this, please get in touch and I will do my very best to get you an answer as quickly as possible.
Some students did not attend the meeting today and I am out of school tomorrow. if your child did not attend my meeting today and therefore did not received the documents, he/she should report to me first thing on Thursday morning.


Thanks and best wishes

Ryan

China Trip - visa update

Hello everyone!
I have received documents from the Travel company, copies of which you will need to send along with the completed application form.
I have printed these this afternoon and arranged for copies to be made for each student. My plan is to issue these at the next meeting on Tuesday 7th May. I don't want to upload them here as they contain passport information.
I believe you can take the application and hand it in yourself, this might in fact be a slighter quicker and cheaper method than sending it by post. I think Mr. Warden mentioned this back in March as he has had the experience of applying for several visas in the past. I believe it only took him 4 days last year to get his.
I will confirm all of this on Tuesday. In the meantime, if you have any other questions that can't be answered on the visa website please email either myself, or Mr. Warden using the email address that he supplied on the letter that was sent out last Tuesday.

Best Wishes

Mr. Irvine

Feedback from the China Meeting on Tuesday 23rd April

VISA APPLICATIONS - UPDATE!!!

Please note there is a meeting EVERY Tuesday lunchtime for the foreseeable future. If a meeting is not going to take place, I will inform you the week before, or put a message on the blog. We also use the computer screens in the school to share information like. Yesterday we discussed visas and I became aware that a significant number of students who are going on the China trip are also going on other overseas trips in May.
For these reasons and others, many students cannot surrender their passports in May. This makes it very difficult for us to organise a group visa as all passports would have to be sent off together.
We have also done a bit of research into the process and we feel that it would be better if everyone made their own individual application as the process of making a group application is not as straightforward as we previously thought.
We will therefore be asking you to make your own visa application and I will update you later on how to go about this.
The form is available to download from China Visa Application Service Centre online. Once you are on the website, go to "visa instructions" and then you will see an option for downloading forms. The form that you will need is V.2011A
There are detailed instructions on the website about how to apply. I read that applications by post can take up to 10 days.
I will try to create a link to the website via this blog, but if it doesn't work please just search for "China visa Application Centre" and you will find it. I will organise a letter to be sent home to confirm this. Please get in touch if you have any questions/concerns.
China Visa Application Centre

China Meeting Tuesday 23rd April

1. Meeting Tomorrow

This is a reminder that there will be a meeting tomorrow at 1:15pm in W20 for all students going to China.
Attendance is essential!
Please ensure the following:

1. Are all of your payments up to date? If not we need the final payment immediately! (last week there were still several outstanding payments and this is causing problems as we need to pay the final instalment to the travel company.

2. If you have not yet returned a signed copy of the code of conduct, please do so immediately. You cannot go on the trip if you have not done this!

3. You will have to attend some of the Friday afternoon Mandarin sessions in order to practise some very useful, survival Mandarin for the trip to China. This will be taught over a block of 4 weeks.

There will be a sign up sheet for this being passed around tomorrow in the meeting.

2. Vaccinations (Important information for parents/guardians):

There are no particular vaccination requirements for China, but tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations should be up to date.
As mentioned at the information evening, it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to find out whether, or not their child requires vaccinations. It is therefore advisable that all parents seek the advice of their child's doctor. They will be in a better position to advise you whether, or not a child needs a particular vaccination. We are not able to give medical advice and your family doctor will have knowledge of your child's medical history..

3. Visas

We have made the decision to do a group visa for our trip, we will therefore be asking all students to bring in their passports to be sent away for the visa.
I will update you more on this shortly!

Mr. Irvine

Code of conduct - notice for students and parents

If you have not yet returned a signed copy of the code of conduct issued on the information evening on Thursday 14th of March, please can you do so immediately. This should be returned to your family leader.

Best wishes

Mr. Irvine

Next China meeting for students

The next meeting for students will take place on Tuesday 23rd of April at 13:15 in W20. Attendance is essential.

Mr. Irvine