Em.'s In & Outs

I just spend a whole week running around town (and canoeing across the lake!) to try to get a student visa for taking summer courses on the huge campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I must admit I hardly ever had to do such a complicated administrative undertaking! I had to go dig all the way into my high school transcripts and ask the Caisse Desjardins in my home town for a bank draft in Hong Kong Dollars, which was an operation that is slightly less common over there than on Spadina street in Toronto where I usually do banking! The worst part is that before I got my offer of admission I was relaxing in the idea that I only needed a passport to enter the island (the Canadian government's website says students do not need a visa for studies under three months - I'm going 2 1/2 months).

Apparently Germany is more demanding than Hong Kong even and it is asking for applicants to furnish a proof of solvancy for 3000 CDN. I wonder how could Cuba be? Or mainland China?

Moral of the story : always double check with the partner institution before going on thinking you don't need a VISA :)