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Schengen Visa Certified vs Original Documents Check (Europe Visa) - YouTube
Channel: Grant Thomas - Visas Association
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Hey, everyone, this is Grant Thomas
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from Visas Association, bringing you
another questions and answers session.
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This time the question is,
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do I need to submit original copies
of the documents for my Schengen visa?
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And the answer is no.
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In most scenarios, you don't.
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But instead of just saying that,
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I will dive into the exact examples
of where you should be applying your
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original copy and where you can go
and apply a certified copy.
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Because some of these items,
such as birth certificates,
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do cost us a little bit of money
and take us quite a long time.
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And so the embassies and consulates don't
require us to actually just give them
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the official copy, because that would
be quite unreasonable for them.
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So towards the end of the video,
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I will dive into some very key examples
that you should and shouldn't submit.
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But before that,
I'm going to talk a little bit about why
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the original copies or even
certified copies are so important.
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Now, when you submit a Schengen Visa,
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what they are looking to do is try
and understand if you are you.
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There have been so many situations
in the past where people have applied
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under fraudulent names and fraudulent
details in order to escape their current
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country and migrate permanently to another
region such as the Schengen region.
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And so the ways that the embassy
and consulates try and avoid this is
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by getting formal documentation
validated and verified.
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And so what this does is it means
that someone else has looked at your
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original document, such as your passport,
which, again, you don't want to send your
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passport to the embassy
unless explicitly required,
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or your birth certificate,
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which again, you might not want
to provide it to the embassy themselves.
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Before I continue:
Just know that if you are using
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someone like VFS Global or even
the embassy that's going to provide
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the stamps to them, they might
request the actual passport itself.
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But you will need to provide
a copy with that as well.
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So very different between submitting
the requirements and actually giving them
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something in order for them
to attach the visa to.
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So really important for you to know.
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But when we go through that,
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what they're looking for is they're
looking to make sure that you
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are who you say you are, as opposed
to being someone fraudulent.
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And so what they do is they increase
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the requirements that you have to provide
because it increases the complexity
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for someone who's trying to be someone
that they're not applying for a visa.
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And that's why in your requirements,
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you've got things such as your marriage
certificate, your birth certificate,
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your passport, your utility bills,
booked flights under your name,
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booked accommodation under your name,
travel insurance under your name,
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employment contracts with your details
on it,
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bank statements with your details
on it, Payslips & statements with your details
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on it, because, again,
it makes it so much more difficult
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for someone who's not
really themselves to apply.
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And so it's really important context
to understand why they are asking for all
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of this information and why they
then want to get it certified.
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So that's the very first important point.
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The second point is that once you have all
these documents, they then want someone
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formal to say, yes,
I've seen the original
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and this is an exact copy of the original.
So what does that mean?
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So that essentially means that's
what they're trying to avoid.
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Is someone creating a fake
photocopy of a passport?
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Where they go and replace
the photo or replace the name?
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Same with like a utility bill with a
replace the address or replace the name.
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And so what they're going to do
is they're actually going to get someone
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else to certify that this is
a direct copy of this document.
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And so the way to do this is: depending
on the country you're applying from,
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it might be a member of Government,
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it might be a lawyer,
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it could be a pharmacist.
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Essentially, it is someone that is
recognized by the country as a person
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who can authenticate
copies of formal documentation.
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The best way to do this
is to Google the answer?
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Again, every single country
calls and different things.
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Some countries call them
get justice of the peace.
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Just Google how to get documents
certified within your country.
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And it will help you
solve that exact point.
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So what it is,
for example, if we're talking about a copy
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of a passport or a copy of a birth
certificate, you go to this member
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of government or this lawyer or this
government representative
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with the actual passport
and the actual birth certificates.
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This is the formal documents that you
have received from the government.
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This isn't a copy.
It's not a colored photocopy.
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It's not even a certified copy.
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You can't certify a certified
copy.
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It has to be the original
and only the original.
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So what you do is you take that document
and you take the photocopy
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of that document and you take it down
to the person who's going to certify it
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with your I.D. So they know that you are
the person relevant to this document
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and that you relate to it
as well as your original and your copy.
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And they will just stamp
the copy document.
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They won't do anything to the original.
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And all they do is give it a big stamp,
put their details on it, says, yes,
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I have gone and checked this
document out and certified it.
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When you do that,
it might cost you a little fee,
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depending on your situation,
depending on your country, etc.
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And that is just a cost
of getting a Schengen visa.
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Unfortunately, you can't
really get around it.
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And so that is what a certified copy is.
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Now, the original is giving them
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the actual birth certificate,
which you can do, but just do not expect
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to get the documents you give
to the embassy or consulate back.
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Anything that you give to them: outside
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of your passport to get the Schengen visa
on attached to you will not get back.
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So if you go and pay a lot of money to go
get your formal birth certificate or
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a copy of your formal birth certificate
and give it to the consulate or
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embassy, just know that you will most
probably not get that document back.
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So make certified copies of them.
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And that brings us to the last and key
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point is, well, what do you typically
submit as an original document?
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And so what we usually get our customers
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to do is provide the original
bank certificate.
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So you go down to the bank and you say,
hey, can you give me a certificate?
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And the reason for this is
it's highly date driven.
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So it's got a date on there
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and it means that after your application
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for a Schengen visa,
it becomes expired (or out of date).
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If you apply to a second visa with a bank
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certificate that's three years old,
they're probably going to ignore it.
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Same with bank statements.
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Just give them the original
and you just keep a photocopy.
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There's no reason for you to go and pay
more or get more things certified.
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Your recent photos don't photocopy them.
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Just actually get a real
photo and give it to them.
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The cover letter.
There is no real copy of a cover letter.
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You write it.
You create it.
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And then you sign the formal and
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actual document and you give
them the copy you have signed.
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Do not give them the photocopy
of the document you have signed.
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That will be rejected or
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refuse. Same for the application form.
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Always submit two of them.
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So hand right
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to application forms and hand sign
two of them and submit both of them.
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You don't need another copy yourself
even after you've been approved.
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It becomes pointless.
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Another one is your employment
approve or leave approval form.
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So hopefully you get one from your line
manager that's got a "wet" signature on it.
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That's actually a pen on paper.
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That says this is done because that's
great to go and provide back to the embassy.
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Same with parent authorization.
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Essentially, they are duplicating and
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creating a document for you.
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It says, yes,
I authorized them to do this.
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Same with "No Objection.
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Certificates" (NOC) from an employer or from us,
a university or a school or parents.
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Same with sponsored letters.
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You can make a copy for yourself,
but give them the formal.
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And so when you look through a lot
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of these especially sponsored documents,
et cetera, with our clients,
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we always recommend them to get
two copies of everything.
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So do two copies of your application form
the two copies of your parental
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authorization, do two copies of your
NOC, two copies of your sponsor letter,
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even with your certificate of employment,
for example, do two copies.
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So that is really where you
want to do your originals.
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These documents are
not something you need day-to-day.
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It doesn't matter if you don't have
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the original,
but it does matter to the embassy
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and consulate because they actually want
to see the one that someone has signed.
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So to them, it's highly important.
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To you, it doesn't really matter.
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So what are some things that you want
to provide the certified copies of?
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So this is passport,
as a matter fact, is mandatory.
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Again, I would get duplicates,
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so I'd get to I'd get my passport
photocopied twice for passports.
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Do your profile page,
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do all of your internal pages with stamps
on it, as well as do all of your Visa
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pages and get two copies of them
and get two copies of them certified.
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Again, you just don't know
when you will need it.
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Most of the time you won't.
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But it is a time consuming activity to go
and get them certified and notarized.
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So just go and get two copies
of a birth certificate.
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Usually it's more expensive to get
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the copy of the birth certificate
than it is to certify it.
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So make photocopies, certify and submit
it. A marriage certificate is the same.
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They're just annoying to get another
copy of. Employment contract:
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You want to keep your own formal
copy of your employment contract.
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Just go and get a copy of it done or even
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your employment certificate
and submit the
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copy of that.
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Don't forget to get it certified and so
all of them are key things that you can
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actually copy or make a photocopy of and
get someone else to sign and certify.
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Now, if all of the items that you see
on the screen have not been certified,
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it does increase the possibility
of a refusal or a denial.
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So they really care about either getting
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the original document or documents
certified by someone of the public because
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they know that it means that you are
a real person and that someone else has
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validated that they've seen you
in the flesh, they've seen your I.D.
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and they've seen the documents
that match the person that they've seen.
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So hopefully this has really helped answer
the question around what documents do I
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need to provide the originals
versus the certified copies of?
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And if not, ask any questions below.
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And we're more than happy to help out.
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So please also do us a favor and click
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the like button below this video,
because what it does is it increases
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the awareness of this video to other
people who are applying for their Schengen
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Visa, just like you,
as well as click the subscribe button
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because they do update the requirements
throughout the year,
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which means that every time we inform our
audience of all of the different changes
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that the Schengen visa or Schengen region
does, you'll be notified first above
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everybody else, which means that you can
adjust your application appropriately.
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And I'll link to a couple of other videos
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as well that might help you further
in your Schengen visa journey, too.
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So hopefully this has been helpful.
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I look forward to hearing that you've got
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a successful Schengen visa from the
information that we've helped you with.
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And good luck on your travels to Europe.
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