I'm a simple emigrant and I received a visa to the United Kingdom

A German residence permit (temporary or permanent) allows you to travel within the Schengen area and provides some additional conveniences for entering other European countries, but the UK has always been a separate topic. Germans now need a passport to enter there, and I also need a visa. Honestly, I've already forgotten what it's like to gather documents and wait in the uncertainty of whether the visa will be granted, but I do know how much all this costs regardless of the decision. To my surprise, there is no UK consulate or service center in Frankfurt, although Frankfurt–London is a hugely popular business destination. I had to go to Berlin, just like before I used to travel from Tyumen to Yekaterinburg. How much all this costs: visa fee – £115 (~13.5k rubles), service fee – €66 (~6.5k rubles), travel to Berlin and back – €40 or four thousand rubles. I stayed at a friend's place – priceless 🥰 I also paid for return courier delivery €33 (~3,000 ₽) so I wouldn’t have to go to the center a second time. The standard process is the same everywhere: you fill out a form, you submit biometrics, you leave your passport and wait. You don’t even need an interview, and the consulate doesn’t require any bookings: you can simply state the proposed dates and place of residence. I got my passport back after 5 weeks with a visa valid for six months. They say that when applying here they rarely refuse, and with the visa they gave me an English SIM card as a gift with internet! It turned out that my German number there already worked with the regular tariff. And I’ll tell you about the trip itself some other time. Tell us about your visa experiences in the comments! #useful #money