₦airaland Forum

Mille:
He is not comparing London to "many cities in Nigeria". I believe he specifically mentioned 5 places in Nigeria and a parameter, the crime rate (security) of which he is 100% correct.

The killings and Moped attacks may not be "usually like that" but it still shows London is less safe than Ikoyi or Victoria Island. I could also argue based on your defense that Maiduguri is a safe city since terror attacks were also "usually not like that" and the killings are high for a fact.

I haven't lived in Maitama while I have only been to Asokoro thrice. But I schooled in VI, Worked at Ikoyi and yes, Lekki is my hometown (Yes, hometown. Don't be surprised ). So I can speak for these places.

I live in Germany and I have been to London a couple of times, and I can boldly say that in terms of Security (crime), these 3 areas are much better than London, Paris and Frankfurt.

BigBashiru:
I don't have self esteem issue and i don't get personal on public forums....
Anyway those wishing to go to London and UK by all means go ahead all im saying is it's not paradise. Assume ur in oshodi/ Ajegunle and watch ur back. Stay woke.

BigBashiru:

That's wat they told you so u keep looking down on urself. Go to Google and type Vincent burgler UK.

What I agree with is all these crimes are committed by MEN due to toxic masculinity. I've not seen any woman involved in perpetrating London's violence.

BigBashiru:
They are still blinded by white superiority conditioning.

monchat:
Since, they can not invite y mum, ps I will advice her to just apply as a tourist with the intention to visit the UK for summer holiday.

There is no place in the application she is asked to write reason of visiting. What is asked is purpose of visiting, she picks the purpose from the options in dialog box. My advice again is that she should book hotel reservation as where she will stay, bc if she mentions she will stay in y sister's house, your sister has to provide all her details, which I guess, she might not have all, bc the ECO will like to see that y sister is capable of accomodating her during her stay in the uk and also if she state y sister address as where she will staying, y sister phone number will be included in the address of the place she will stay and the ECO might wish to call her to verify if she is expecting some one, who is the person to her etc, and the ECO will also wonder why letter of invitation is not included in d application, so to avoid all these complications, she should just book hotel or hostel in booking.com, as soon as she gets the visa, she cancel it. When she is ready to travel, she can book again bc, of when she gets to POE, she might be asked where she will staying, when she finally gets to y sisters house, she cancel d reservation.

Also when filling the application, she will come across the place that is asked if she knows anybody in the UK, will she be visiting? The person status in the UK, so it is left for y mum and sister to decide what she will answer there . But, I do advice pple if u are not very sure of the person status in the UK and if the person is not ready to provide relevant documents about his/her self, ps just click NO and avoid any complications and denial. All the best to y mum

travelland:
Iceland is extremely safe country. Getting sick will not wipe you out, living there is expensive but a lot of things you consider expensive are very cheap, like heating and electricity.

Due to weather, our houses are built like Fort Knox, and I am not joking.

Ok, lets take the bad things first.

Number one, numero uno, is the weather. It is so bad there that you can walk up to any stranger and say “damn this weather” and you just made a friend and you can talk about the weather to anyone. It rains sideways, forget about umbrella, it will just break to pieces and hurt someone. There is always wind, what you call storm, we call tuesday. It can snow in the summer, that is quite normal. When I was a kid, houses used to snow in, meaning you had to dig yourself out of your house. Today, it snows, then almost melts, then snows, so get used to either wearing serious boots or being wet on your toes. Being thrown down by the wind is not a youtube video moment, it is so common to see people rolling like tumbleweed it isn’t funny. I am not making this up, but driving 300 meters to fetch something is something people do, even less than 300 meters.

Then living. Like I said, houses are built like a Fort, they cost a fortune, not a small fortune, a large fortune. You have to borrow to pay for it. Here is a huge reason why I don’t live there. You can today choose between paying 8% interest rate on a huge loan, or have inflation guarantee on the loan. This means that everytime you think you pay down the loan, the capital increases, and so does your interest payment. This is completely effed up.

The currency. We have a small currency, called Krona. It isn’t very well managed and hasn’t been. So in the years back, you not only had huge inflation which meant that if you did not spend your salary before lunch the same day you got it, you could not afford what you wanted. Today, stores take a huge fluctuation of the krona as a license to add a buffer on everything. So TV’s and computers and pretty much everything not made in Iceland, is expensive. Food is also expensive.

The country is small, we are about 330 thousand, including 10–20 thousand eastern europeans, numbers vary a lot between quarters. This means you know someone who knows the prime minister, chances are you will meet him in the swimming pool, no lifeguards.

Being such a small country has thousands of benefits, it also has down sides. Work is quite limited. Get an education and it is pretty much only Lawyers, Priests, Business and to some extent computer science, everything else is pretty useless unless you want to become a teacher, which gets crappy salary but needs 5 years of university education to have. You can work in service which is quite varied, food industry and the most basic industry work, carpentry, mechanic and electricians. That almost sums it up. You also don’t have many employers to pick from, even in Reykjavik and neighboring towns, which have about 2/3 of everyone living on the country.

The economy is VERY small. If one large company goes bankrupt, that usually has noticeable effects throughout the economy. We have huge upswings and then abrupt downswings. The downswings usually are there for longer time.

Healthcare has seen better days. It is very underfunded as it is now, goes back to the size of economy, and the fact that it is very usual that people get to be 100 years old.

Enough about the downsides, all countries have similar downsides except for the loans and the extreme economy.

The good sides.

Iceland is open for you. Almost free hospitals, free schools, free universities. You can take a jeep and drive on the highlands, stay on the roads, driving offroad is forbidden but you can drive on glaciers, valleys and just about everywhere. Take care though, dress well, and keep food with you, because of weather anything can happen, you can get snowed in quickly.

We have swimming halls everywhere. Even small towns of a few hundred people have a huge swimming pool with everything. We have steam baths, warm pots and excellent service. It isn’t very expensive either, so people go there after work.

We don’t have much variations in food. If you want some food, you can get it, but most restaurants sell similar foods. We have too much Lamb meat, and that meat is absolutely the best Lamb you can get.

You won’t get bored in Iceland. There are so many things to do, so many places to visit, see and enjoy. We have have weekend celebrations to just go out, tent and have fun. You can’t live on the rock without going out and party.

Overall, Iceland is a great place to grow up in. We have extremely high education level. Very tough immigration. The size of the economy sure hurts us. But the freedom you have in Iceland I would say far exceeds anything you are used to. Being able to walk in the highlands, drive there, sleep there, that is worth a ton of money, and we know that as we get close to 10x as many tourists as people live in the country, probably more. They pay us a ton of money and smile. You see things you can’t see anywhere else, get to go places and be around very nice people.

I forgot to say, Icelandic people are very open, very friendly and all around nice to a fault.

It is tough to live there, and ever since the year 800 (eight hundred), it has been tough. We don’t know anything else. We are so used to this you would have a very hard time learning that.

I would probably not recommend anyone moving to Iceland honestly. But for your unborn kids, it is the best place to grow up in. It is normal for a kid to leave home at 9 in the morning and come in at 7 in the evening, that was the norm anyway. It is very safe place. But I would whole heartily recommend visiting Iceland, even if it is 2 weeks or 4 years during university, work program, research.

CassieV:
This is for the NEWBIES

Most of the schools in Germany are tuition free even for international students, you only get to pay a certain amount as semester fees say between 100-400 euros and most times the semester fee comes with a semester ticket to aid in transportation in your city or town.
However, before you're granted a student visa, you have to prove that you can take care of your living expenses with one of the following means ;
1. Block account: The estimated living expenses for a student in a month is 720euros, when you multiply that by 12 months, you get 8640euros. This is the amount you're required to block in an already opened account with either Deutsch bank, Fintiba or Xpatrio. It is called a block account because you will not be able to withdraw everything at once, only 720euros will be released to you every month.
2. Sponsorship letter: If you have a relative living and working legally in Germany, they can get you this letter. They'll have to visit the alien office in their city and will be required to provide some documents and pay a certain fee. The letter will be sent to you when they receive it so that you can go with it for your visa interview.
3. Scholarship: This is usually the best if you have the scholarship, your visa will be granted in under 2 weeks after interview. So try and look for scholarships you can apply to.

Now that you understand the financial situation, let's go into the application process.
To search for schools, click on this link
https://www.daad.de/deutschland/studienangebote/international-programmes/en/?p=l&q=&fos=0&lang[]=2&fee[]=0&sortBy=1&page=1&display=list
filter your search to make it easier, there are English taught courses there.
Generally, the very important documents needed to apply to schools in Germany are;
1. Transcript
2. English Proficiency
3. School Certificates (Degree, Waec, etc)
However, depending on the school, some other documents needed are as follows.
4. Curriculum Vitae
5. Motivation letter
6. Reference letters
7. GRE test
8. Etcetera.. Visit your prospective school website and find out the documents they need from you.
Note: You don't apply with your original documents, you have to make photocopies of them and Certify them in High court or a Notary public. If you stay in Lagos, you can certify at the German Embassy too. You'll have to book appointment for that.
For those planning to go for a Bachelors course, you need a 100level transcript from a university to apply for a BSc program in germany. WAEC alone will not be enough and No, OND will not do, you need a HND.

For the application proper, it is always important to go through the website of the schools you want to apply to, you'll get a lot of information form there concerning how to apply. Some schools do only online applications, some requires that you send your application documents to them by post after applying online, some you send your documents as pdf to their email address and then you get the uni assist crew.
Like I said earlier, it is important to go visit and read the websites.

When you get your admission letter, open a block account immediately(that is if you don't already have a sponsorship letter) and as soon as you get your account details, send an email to the embassy requesting for a visa interview date.
You need these to get an interview date:
1. Admission letter
2. Block account/sponsorship letter/scholarship letter
3. International passport data page(scanned)
Then your Full name and Resident address.

Prepare for your interview
Go for your interview
Wait for your Approval mail(AM)
Get your AM
Congratulations and Welcome to Deutschland.

Hints:
- Please try and read previous posts, there are a lot of information in the previous threads. It'll do you a lot of good if you read a least one thread say part 3..
- If you have a specific question, you can always use Google to search for it. Use the key words "nairaland" and "German thread" after you've typed in your question on Google. For example, "where can I notify my documents, nairaland, German thread". This has helped me a lot too.
- Please while you're doing all the waiting, try and learn the language. You can use apps like Duolingo or you can learn on YouTube. But it is best to register in a German language school, I believe you'll learn faster that way.
- Do no hesitate to send an email to your school regarding any questions you might have, you'll be surprised how willing they are to help.

If there's any mistake in this right up, please bring my attention to it so that I can modify.

Justwise, could you please paste this information on the first page of the new thread. Thank you.

nellaluv:
Surname: Okonkwo, First name : Ifeoma

deji2009:
Could you send me the link please. The address is different from the one I have.

nellaluv:
Hi guys, I'm planning to do my masters in the UK and about registering for the Ielts. I noticed the name on my WAEC is for example : Okonkwo Stella Ifeoma, while my intl passport is written as Okonkwo Ifeoma Stella. Please is this a problem and what name will I use to register for the exams, WAEC or intl passport.
Cc: justwise, OlowoB

deji2009:
I take it this is the Sheffield address for spouse visa supporting document,
I will be using Royal mail special delivery when the time comes? Would
they display their address to send docs at the end of the application?


UK Visas and Immigration, International
PO Box 3468
Sheffield
United Kingdom
S3 8WA

Thanks to both of you and everyone else

Extremebeau:
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I recently applied in April...pls send all your supporting docs to sheffield from the UK its safer that way...the only docs ull need for biometrics are your recent passport (photocopies of old passport should be sent to sheffield), proof of payment, proof of appointment and first page of online application

Nolongthang:
Hello fam! One quick question. Is it really compulsory I book my flight or accommodation before I apply for my visa. Thanks

eniolaalab:
Hello, pls can you forward an email I can use to contact you. I am pregnant and want to give birth in Canada. I am confused on what to choose btw tourism or other (and input childbirth) under the purpose of travel. Although in my purpose of travel letter and invitation letter, I already mentioned that I am going for tourism and will also use the opportunity to give birth)

Emmaastone:
Hi @justwise thanks for your help on this forum...I intend to study for a masters at university of Sunderland by september....I took the tb test and for some reason i cant even place put my sister's address as my Uk address instead of my intended school...would that be a problem??if yes?please how can I resolve this...Also i've worked for bout 4years after graduation ....Nysc and internship inclusive....do i need to submit employment letters at my interview and can 4 years be termed as a long gap....

travelland:
I've made my points and I gave reasons, UK govt doesn't pay Oxford lecturers, they are not civil servants, check facts I don't argue without knowledge, thanks

travelland:
I have explained why it's not public, you can read up on my explanations. UK govt doesn't pay it's lecturers they only regulate their affairs to some extent, read up on my explanation.

travelland:
Hahaha Oxford university is not a public university, about 85% of revenue is gotten from private sources. What makes you assume I don't have first hand experience, have we met before?
No free universities in UK even for citizens

Most of our reknown leaders went to public schools but the standards have changed just like in UK.