I’m a fan of online forms… when they’re done properly. A well designed online form makes the application process easy, seamless, and smooth. Typically this would include being able to use the form on any kind of device. Documents and photos could be uploaded easily, sometimes even directly from the phone’s camera app.
This was not how my last experience went applying for a visa online. The whole process was fraught with frustration and annoyance at how poorly everything happened. First of all, I read through the documents to make sure I had all the right paperwork assembled. This required me to create some self-declarations and scan a whole bunch of documents. I had to pay for physical passport photos, then scan the printed copies to attach to the application.
Once I had everything ready, I started filling out the forms. The application erased the first page of information when I selected the “save and continue” option. Everytime I saved the application and returned to it later, one of the questions reverted from “no” to “yes”. Other questions I found blank, even though I had already entered in responses. When I finally reached the end, to upload the passport photo and passport scan, more trouble started. The application would only accept the photo in jpeg and the passport in PDF, but not more than 300kb. This is an extremely small file. Even compressed, my passport scan was around 500kbs. I eventually figured out how to make the file small enough. It was a complicated process of cropping, taking screenshots, pasting to a Word document, resizing the image, then exporting as a PDF. Basically, a LOT of effort.
The payment page also caused challenges requiring me to wait 13 minutes to try again. It was a very specific amount of time. In the end, the application never asked me to supply any documents beyond the photo and passport scan. This was also extremely frustrating as I had spent a lot of time creating, collecting, scanning, and saving all the other documents on the checklist.
At more than one point in the process, I seriously considered taking a vacation day to go to the consulate and submit everything personally, in paper. Though equally frustrating, it may have ended up being an easier submission process. Now there’s nothing left to do except wait and hope I submitted everything correctly.