The result came!
I got this exciting email on 15 Sep. As I am pretty sure that I will get admitted anyway (because I have heard that they prefer people with work experience, especially with labour organization), the thing I really want to know is “do I get a scholarship or not”. My country is in “upper middle income countries by ODA” (my income is definitely not upper middle at all), I have a very low chance to get one but fortunately the committee grant me a free accommodation on site and I would only pay full tuition fee. For me €7000 is hurting my saving badly but investing in education now seems to be the right moment. They give me 2 options to pay, bank transfer and credit card! Yes, credit card! Awesome!
Paying by credit card can save you a ton of hassle and money. First you don’t have to pay hefty transfer fee however you card may charge a foreign transaction fee (if applicable). Second, you don’t have to go to bank, fill a ton of form. Swift transfer can take several day, sometime the correspondence bank (the middle man) deduct a fee from your transfer amount even you tell your bank that you will pay all fee (payee receive in full). It did happen with my friend whose amount was deducted a few €10, it made him had to transfer the missing amount again and of course with fee. They even split the bill for you by requested. As my card has a limit of €1500, I ask them to split into 3 amount so I can pay with multiple card, very helpful!
After paying a partial tuition fee then I have to produce a declaration of value, DoV (dichiarazione di valore). It is a document saying that your foreign bachelor degree is legit and equivalence to the Italian one. The process is long and involve many documents and institutions and it is vary from country to country, so you better check with Italian embassy near you. If you have a foreign degree (study abroad) like me, unfortunately the chaotic is double. I have to contact Italian embassy in the country that issue the degree 🙁 fortunately I have a friend who can run the document for me so I don’t have to fly there myself.
Basically the procedure and required documents are almost the same for all:
- Get a fresh graduation certificate and transcript (any language)
- Legalize those documents by your ministry of foreign affair
- Translate them into Italian with Italian embassy’s approved translator only!
- Apply for DoV and pray that they process it within a month
- For study reason, the DoV should be free
While processing DoV (my process took 3 months), I got another email with supporting letter for applying D visa. The document required is again vary from country to country but for my case it was hassle free. I got a visa within a week and duration of stay is a bit restricted. I got almost exact length of stay on my visa. Oh common, why you can’t just give me a week holiday after the course 🙁