Applying for University, living permit

I applied to the University of Iceland. At that time they didn't have an online application (although they do now) so I downloaded the PDF and filled it in. As I recall it was essentially two pages - asking your personal information, education history, and one paragraph on why you wanted to come to their school. There was no fee before submitting application, and all I did was mail my transcripts along with it. I got an Email a few months later saying they were missing something (a matriculation exam or equivalent) and all I had to do was send in a scan of my high school diploma and they accepted it.

Then in the middle of June I was Emailed notifying me of my acceptance. I had to:

- Bank wire $350 to the school (I was supposed to pay 300 Euros or pay in Icelandic Crowns but the bank couldn't do it, so I had to ask the school's permission about paying them in USD) and scan a copy of my receipt to Email back to the school.

- Get a background check. (I had to go to the police station and get fingerprints, pay a fee, sign a form saying I wanted a notarized background check and mail that).

- Renew my passport.

- Get proof of financial support (a bank or joint bank account with $7,000 in it, $1,000 for each month I'll be in Iceland with the +student permit. I'll have to have this again when I renew the permit for second semester).

- Sign up for housing and get proof of housing (used my friend's address until I got into student housing).

- Apply for Icelandic insurance (Email in a scan of my passport, fill out their form) and an Icelandic Social Security Number (also Email my University acceptance letter).

The information for the permit is here. It's best to call them directly with any questions and when asking about your permit status because they basically don't answer Emails and only contact your "representative" through regular mail.

All this had to be mailed to the Directorate of Immigration (ÚTL) in Iceland. Your local Icelandic embassy can't grant living permits.

My plane ticket is bought. I'm flying with IcelandAir again and I'm leaving the 22nd of August. The flight takes about eight hours.