Despite being in the UK for close to 30 years my wife hasn't sorted her British passport. Not been a problem, minor inconvenience when organising holidays as she usually requires a visa.
Last year she decided we were going to Rome, fair enough but we discovered Italian visas aren't handled by the embassy/consulate, they're done through an agency. Applications have to be in person, you have to go online and book an appointment at the nearest visa centre, there's one in Edinburgh so that shouldn't be a problem . . . . or so we thought. Finding an available appointment slot turned out to be a major challenge. I was checking multiple times a day for weeks and the holiday time was approaching. Before you say we should have applied earlier, couldn't, appointments were only released a couple of weeks in advance.
We finally nailed one, went along with all the paperwork they wanted. Into the office, paid the (non returnable) fee, they went through everything then "do you have ...... and ...... and .....?", What! There's nothing on the website about that! "That's ok, you can use the computer terminals and printer in the foyer". Internet access at rip off cost per minute and printer at rip off cost per sheet of paper. Nobody will convince me that wasn't just a means of getting more money out of us
Enjoyed Rome but the whole visa application process left a bad taste in my mouth
