Applying for the Spanish visa was actually a very easy process. So easy that I was able to do it on my own without enlisting the help of a travel agent, like I have for other visas.

There is a two page form that you can download from the EU Visa website. Just from talking with others, many have said that Spain and Italy visa are the easiest to get from all the EU countries. Germany apparently is the most difficult one.

I filled out the forms for both and my mom. I also had to collect lots of supporting documents, like bank statements, photographs, flight bookings (we are going to fly from London to Madrid), train tickets from Madrid to Barcelona, letter from my company, my tax forms and my hotel bookings. For the sake of getting a visa, I made my bookings for hotels in Madrid and Barcelona on Booking.com, but once I got my visa, I actually changed my hotels because I was getting a better deal with the Accor group.

Once we complied all our forms and documents, we went to the TCS Center just off Main Boulevard in Gulberg. It’s a small center, and TCS does visa processing for several EU countries. We had to wait for our scheduled time which was 3pm. While waiting in the lobby, few people started asking me what country I am applying and what visa. It turns out that my mom and I were the only ones applying for the tourist visa.

Once we were called in, they took the forms, had a thorough check, took our picture from their camera and took our fingerprints. That was it. Now we had to wait for the visa. TCS Gerrys does a brilliant job of keeping us in the loop when our application has been dispatched to Islamabad and what the status is and when our passports come back to Lahore.

Funnily enough, my mom got her visa in two weeks and I didn’t get it. I had to wait another two weeks for my passport to come back. They had given my mom a visa for the entire year, but for me it was one month only (my trip was planned for 6 days only).

This is what the Spain visa looks like:”

I am totally excited about this trip. Had always wanted to explore Barcelona- plus one of most renowned architect of all times, Antonio Gaudi is from Spain!