Seriously people, unite already...

I am confused about European Union. Supposedly they are like one organization that has common foreign and economic policy, yet they can't even agree on one universal form that you have to fill out in order to get a Schengen visa, and they certainly don't have one universal process of obtaining a visa. The process and the set of documents needed to get a Spanish visa is quite a bit different from that for Germany visa. German visa application process is even different from the Austrian one. It's insane really.

Anyway, those of my friends who are American, be grateful that you can just get up and go to any country in Europe. This is certainly a luxury. This whole deal with acquiring visas and prove to every person that you just want to travel and see the world is getting old. Every time you go in you need 2 applications filed (note, all applications are different from each other), pictures of your self (pictures requirements are different for each embassy, some require color, some require black, let alone certain sizes, some need the picture to be surrounded by oval of white paint, some forbit that, etc, etc) all copies of your old and new passports, internation and foreign passport mind you, if you don't have your old passport you have to write where it is located and why, you have to list all the places you have visited in the last 5 years, and so on and so forth, reference letter from work stating how much you earn and how long you have been working, statements from the bank proving you can afford your visit, paid reservation of you airline ticket and paid reservation of the hotel where you will be staying (mind you, you are not even sure you will be granted a visa at that point, so you might lose quite a bit of money on air travel and hotel reservation if you have to cancel them, etc) All this just to obtain a visitors visa.

So, I am really amazed that a European Union, can't just come up with one universal form and way of applying for a visa. I mean, how hard can it be if the countries can agree on their foreign and economic policy, to agree on visa application process can't be that hard, right? Anyway, I am just getting a little fed up with all this paperwork, that is all.