F-1 Student Visa : Tips, No Tricks

Getting U.S. Visa is the final part after long wait to get admission in Graduate School. Every student have to go through the U.S. Visa interview process, I have put together few tips that will help students prepare for the interview and staying informed gives students edge when facing the interview.

3 important things needed for Visa

• Proper Documentation
• How you present yourself during the interview
• How you answer the questions and more finer details.

In this article I’m going to go behind and into the visa process. You could have read lots of student visa experience but things techniques and tips listed below will give different insight about Visa interview process.

Behind the Scene – U.S. Visa Interview Process

Visa interview officers are well trained persons. Their job is to find

• Who you are?
• Do you have academic capability to complete the studies in U.S.
• Do you have enough financial resources to cover the cost of education in U.S.

Students could have done mistakes in documents, or they could carry fake documents related to finance, degree certificates, property documents. VO job is to make a decision about the student in few minutes. They have to make that decision in average 3 minutes or so. For some students it might be more.

Student might have all the right credentials, but he/she might not get Visa, and someone with fake documents might get Visa, so its that few minutes, you have to present yourself to impress them and get student visa.

Now, lets assume you are in the queue waiting to be called for the interview.

Visa Interview Tips

• When you walk to the window, have a big smile and wish them. You could say Hi, Hello, Good Morning, Good Evening, anything is fine.
• Eye Contact is must all the times. From the moment you walk-in towards the window, look deep into their eyes and smile and wish them “Hello”.
• If you don’t make good eye contact, then you are reducing your Visa chances. Now, you made good eye contact, then its about how to present your answers.

• Next big thing – “DON’T LIE”
• If you lie, then your entry into U.S.A is not possible for lifetime. So, don’t even think about lying to get Visa.
• Some have mastered the art and the lie they speak will be convincing. If you belong to that category, don’t mess it up( again I wouldn’t recommend that in first place).
• If you are not sure and not comfortable to make up an answer, then DON’T LIE
• Now, you will be convinced and made a decision, not to lie. Then VO asks this question ” What’s your plan after Graduation?”

Majority of student will say answers like this..

+ “My field is growing in India, I will good job opportunities, when I come back”

+ “I will work for 1 year in OPT period, gain the experience and come back”

• Let me ask you this, do you really think answers like I will return back to India will suffice them? They know how many student go to U.S. every year, how many return back.

• VO know, why would you have to spend $40,000 for 2 years and come back to India get Rs40,000 per month. They know for sure students returning back to home country is very less. It will be very few percentage of students return.

• So, for the question, I would answer ” After Graduation, I will party hard, and then will look for job” that’s simple and straight forward answer. Other way is to say, I plan to work for few years, get U.S. corporate life experience and then plan to come back.

• I know the above answer is much different from what you have on your list. But, the above answer should work.

• Next, for the question related to finance documents, make sure you know the source of each funds in the bank statement. VO will ask about transactions, only if they feel something might be wrong in the finance documents.

In general, it will be like

+ Who is your sponsor?

+ What does sponsor do?

+ How much is his/her income?

• Make sure you have bank statement to show the proof of funds availability.

In coming posts, I will write about bank documents tailored for Student F1 Visa, how much bank balance to show, how to create a fund flow chart for student visa interview. Few of my friends have got F1 student visa after getting rejected for 3-4 times. Some students prefer to use the same bank statement that was used for college admission. Those statements used for college admission will be old and probably funds showed during college admission will be less. For student visa, you would need to show more bank balance.

If any of your friend are appearing for student visa, and if you feel this information would help them, pass this link to them.

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