The first application for a visa

On Wednesday 25th.
I went to UK visa application centre in Osaka city
to apply for a voluntary work visa.


I can't apply for it unless the departure day is fixed,
So I hadn't be able to apply until now though I had hoped
to do so as early as possible.
But the day was finally fixed at the beginning of last week.
Soon I began to make a appointment of my application schedule
over the website of the visa centre.

I had been thinking: ''I will be able to go there by the weekend''...
After all I was available for only 25th day this month.
The day have kept me waiting for more than a week.

・　・　・　・　・　・　・　・　・　・

I got to the visa center 15 minutes before my appointment time(a.m.9)
on this Wednesday. It was in an office building in a business district,
and it didn't look so large.
The reason the visa centre didn't put up the signboard on the building
is likely to be for clime prevention.

Before I entered the center, I had a security check.
It is natural for me to do it because I was going into the UK then.

Now, into the room.
There were already several applicants before me.
It was quiet and a little oppressive as I had expected.
Then the man next to me talked to me.
He said he went to the visa centre with high school students
who go abroad to study. I was glad to talk with him this way.

After all I begun the procedure for the application around 9:50.
I submitted the necessary papers, told to the clerk,
was taken my fingerprints and photoes, and my procedure was over soon.
There wasn't other applicants when I went out of the room.
I wondered it was really too crowded to wait shorter than a week...

　・　・　・　・　・　・　・　・　・　・

The place to apply for a visa, we think of an Embassy and a consulate.
The UK set up a visa application centre at Tokyo and Osaka several years ago.

Until then we couldn't apply for a visa at other than the Tokyo embassy,
so it had been more convenient for people living in Kansai area to do it.
But it is inconvenient that we can't apply by mail like before
and have to make an appointment for the application.
It is hard for people who live in the country and rush to issue a visa.


The application has ten and several pages
and I had to fill out the form in English.
I made copies of it and drafted the copies twice several months ago,
I got checks from staffs of CEC, the agent I applyed for my volunteer work to.

The documents I submit include also the evidence of my savings
(e.g. bankbook) and the evidence of my qualitifications.
All evidences need the copies, and I have to submit
both the originals and the copies to the visa centre.

Most of my savings are in the account of the internet banking,
and I don't have a bankbook issued.
Therefore, it was trouble to print out the statement on my computer's screen!
Because I couldn't find an icon 'printing out' on the screen of the statement,
The statement the bank made on excel software was unsuitable
for the public evidence...


Anyway, I'm due to have my visa issued before and after next Tuesday.
If my application isn't accepted, the departure day for U.K. will be postponed.
I'm still unsettled as like tightrope walking.

The volunteering project and the departure date

When I applyed to the volunteering work, I was due to go to U.K. during June. However, For a while I hadn't heard from CSV, a organizasion that accept volunteers in U.K. and I had a little anxiety about it・・・

I was informed finally at the end of last week that my volunteering project had been fixed.


The place is Somerton, Somerset that is located in the southwest of the UK. It lies about 40 kilometres to the south of Bristol and Bath, but we can seldom find the name on a guidebook.

(Click for the detailed information about Somerset
→http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%9E%E3%82%BB%E3%83%83%E3%83%88）

My guidebook says that Somerset leaves traditional rural landscape of England and is quiet. This area may be to my taste.


My role is to provide support of life to a man in his twenties with learning disabilities and autism in Somerton. My purpose is that he lives independently.

It isn't very familiar in Japan that they support one person in his charge, but the community welfare service in U.K. seems to make an advance in the form like this.


The departure date from Japan has also been fixed practically. It is likely to be around July 5th. I use the Cathay Pacific Airline, so I'm flying to London by way of HongKong.

After I go to the language school in London for two weeks, I will come to Somerset and start my volunteering work. Though I was scheduled to go for a month, the period of class has been short. I wish I can enjoy my life in London longer.

Even so, Somerset is near London and I don't mind.
Because Prices is lower in Somerton.


In the circumstances, I have gotten busy the moment it was at the end of last week.

Welcome to my blog !!

Dear readers,

Welcome to my blog.

I have started my blog at last.
Though this is the first time, recklessly I'm thinking of writing
not only in Japanese but also in English.

I sometimes feel it's trouble to write
and I spend a lot of time to do so...
I don't know how often I can use a computer in U.K. ...

I write a web log at a slow pace.
I wonder how long I can continue it.


I'm going to U.K. in order to do full-time volunteering work
of social care. I take part in the volunteer programme 'Voluntary Holidays', which is provided by CEC.

(Click for detailed information;http://www.cecj.net/)

CEC is the agent for this programme in Japan.
Arranging it acthally is CSV(Community Service Volunteers) ,
a charity registered by the UK goverment.

(Click for detailed infoamation; http://www.csv.org.uk/ )

In fact, I shoule be sent to local communities or institutions in the UK by CSV and I will take personal care of elderly people, the disabled and the young, support their life.


In my blog, I write about my volunteering work and my life in the UK. Before I go to U.K., I write about the preparation for living there.