Happy Schools Blog

Comment from Harsha.

First of all Thank you so much for this helpful blog.

If possible can please post an article relating to the subject “People are confusing between F1 Visa and F1 Status”.

May be you may also know they both are different.

People don’t know that they can also be in US by maintaining F1 status with an expired F1 visa.

Only problem they are having is if they step out of US they have to go for F1 visa stamping to renter US.

Even if F1 visa expires then apply for OPT right before your graduation and be on OPT and apply for STEM OPT extension if you are eligible and then go and apply for H1B.

Through this whole process, that student is maintaining legal valid F1 status.

//

Harsha, you are absolutely right. I’m adding additional details below about F1 Visa vs maintaining F1 Status.

F1 Visa

Go to F1 Visa page to learn more about Student Visa.

How do I get a visa to enter the United States?

• Receive I-20
• Pay SEVIS Fees
• Apply for F1 Student Visa at American embassy or consulate before you leave for the United States
  • Exchange Visitors (J visa)
  • Department of State Visas (for F or M visas)

You must have a student visa to study in the United States. Your course of study and the type of school you plan to attend determine whether you need an F-1 visa or an M-1 visa.

Maintaining F1 Visa Status

As an F or M student, you will often hear the phrase “maintaining status” because it is very important! Maintaining status means that you are doing everything you are supposed to do to keep your records up-to-date in our SEVIS database.

While studying in the United States, it is important to maintain your F or M student status. Your visa says that you are coming to the United States to study. You should not consider any action that detracts from that purpose.

Upon Arrival

• Enter the United States no more than 30 days before your program of study begins.
• Immediately contact your designated school official (DSO) when you enter the United States. When you arrive at school, you need to contact your DSO again, no later than the program start date listed on your Form I-20, “Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Status”

Education

• Attend and pass all your classes. If school is too difficult, speak with your DSO immediately.
• If you believe that you will be unable to complete your program by the end date listed on your Form I-20, talk with your DSO about requesting a possible program extension.
• You must take a full course of study each term; if you cannot study full-time, contact your DSO immediately.
• Do not drop a class without speaking first with your DSO.

CPT

Curricular practical training (CPT) at either the undergraduate or the graduate level is only available if this employment is an integral part of an established curriculum and if the position directly relates to your major area of study. Your DSO can give you the school’s policy on this option.

Work

Do not work without authorization. An F or M student may work only when authorized.

If you want to work in the United States, talk with your DSO about your options. Your DSO may authorize certain work; other employment may require your DSO’s recommendation and authorization from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

If you choose to work without authorization, you will be forced to leave the United States immediately. You may not be able to re-enter the United States at a later date.

Upon Program Completion

Take action to maintain legal status after completing your program of study.

Once you complete your program of study and any authorized period of practical training, you may wish to learn about doing one of the following:

• Transfer to another school
• Change your education level (e.g. bachelor’s to master’s)
• Apply to change status to another visa status (e.g. H-1B-temporary worker; O-extraordinary ability in science, art or business; P-athlete)

You have 60 days after completion of your program (the program end date on your Form I-20) to leave the United States.

Talk with your DSO first

Your DSO should be the first person you talk with if you have any questions regarding the legal requirements of your stay in the United States.

Your DSO can assist in answering your questions or help you find someone who can help.

Talk with your DSO if you are planning to do any of the following:

• Change your major, program, or degree level
• Change your education level
• Transfer to a new school or take a leave of absence
• Take a break from school
• Travel outside the United States
• Move to a new address
• Request a program extension

Source/For more information, visit Study in the States.

Book Review : Visa Solutions for International Students, Scholars, and Sponsors: What You Need to Know

I received a Review Copy of this book from one of the contributors to this book Tahmina Watson – Seattle Based Immigration attorney.

She had informed me about a chapter she will be contributing to the book. After the book was published, she sent me a Kindle version of the book.

I read the book and here is my review of Visa Solutions for Students, Scholars and Sponsors: What You Need to Know.

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Thomson Reuters Westlaw (October 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• Date : October 12, 2012
• Author : Lisa N. Ellis

Visa Solutions for International Students, Scholars, and Sponsors

Following section is taken from Amazon book description.

Visa Solutions for Students, Scholars and Sponsors, collaboratively written with leading immigration professionals, contains tips, stories, and peer-to-peer advice, providing you with helpful information from reliable resources on different issues throughout your process.

This book is a must-have guide for any international student, scholar, or those considering sponsoring international students.

If you are looking to get one on one consultation with an Immigration attorney, you have to spend lot of money.

Information about F1 visa written by attorney’s are scarce around the web. You can find immigration attorney’s blog about H1B, Green Card, etc but you can’t find good, solid information for F1, F2, J1 Visa.

But, that’s not true any longer.

Visa Solutions for Students, Scholars and Sponsors is first of its kind.

Written by immigration attorneys and DSO. They have done an amazing job of clearly  explaining in plain 8th grade English about U.S. Student Visa rules and regulations.

Who should buy this book?

If you are a student planning to study in USA, then Visa Solutions for Students, Scholars and Sponsors is a MUST Read resource.

Here in Happy Schools Blog, you can read so many F1 Visa interview experiences, but its tough to get F1 Visa  approval, if you don’t have a clear understanding about rules of  U.S. student visa and the interview process at US consulates and Embassies around the world.

If those student who got their visa rejected, happened to read this book, they could have improved their chances to get visa to study in USA.

Question by Ben and Answer by Manish Sharma – F1 Visa Interview Experience, Questions and Answers

Ben – How can i prove them that i will back for sure. as in what should i tell or show them?

Answer – What After Masters?

Although I was not asked for this question. But, I was prepared for it. My plans were:

1. To tell him about the immovable property/assets in India.
2.  To drag him into my career plans. Which was to come back to India and become an IIT’s Professor (for that interview at-least ). (That makes sense because I am a pass out of IIT Kanpur and there exists a possibility in following my “words”).
3. To support my plans of coming back to India, I would have supported it by saying “The current percentage of Nuclear Energy in India is 2.9-3.2%. To sustain a “green” environment, we need to improve this value (as per the US Nuclear deal etc. etc.). And, to achieve this, our country needs an enough number of Nuclear Engineers and Scientists.

So, the essence is that:

• You must speak something that makes sense to him
• Something that is visible to him from your profile (related with your branch/college/economy/India)
• Be realistic. Don’t speak over-weighted words.
• And yes, as already pointed out, have confidence in yourself (my suggestion is to think that you will be definitely coming back to India after your studies. So as to develop a “virtual image” in your mind and then induce a prototype in his mind too ).

That’s my point of view. Collect a lot of answers from various internet sources. Then ask yourself “which one makes perfect sense to you, according to your profile”.

All the best!

> Following F1 Visa interview tips was shared by Chetan.

I got my visa today. It was a breeze and I feel there’s little use in sharing my experience but here are some tips to ease tensions a bit. (this is going to be one long post).

First things first, this is an overhyped interview. They issue you the visa if you are honest; look and sound confident. They want to know who you are, what you want to do and intentions while in U.S.A like HSB recently tweeted.

• F1 Visa Interview Tips Not Tricks

Prepare your own answers in 1 or 2 sentences for few common questions like –

1. Why U.S? why not India, Europe?
2. Why did you choose this univ among the other admits?
3. What do you want to do after M.S?
4. How do you plan to fund your education? (There is absolutely no need to show astronomical figures in bank. Liquid cash for 1st year and some plan like loan for second year. Sound confident. Do not be in a hurry and show your bank statements or CA statements unless asked for)
5. Will you return to India after Master’s?
6. A. YES. Just say yes I would. Cut it there. Do not go on telling him stories of how companies like XYZ are investing so much and it will help u etc etc…elaborate it only if asked. Don’t try too hard to convince him. Short confident answers will do the job. Remember they are like high level HRs taking the interviews. With their experience, they have the ability to read and assess you in a minute.
7.  etc//. Do your homework

Listen to the question properly and think for a second before answering. Don’t be in any sort of a hurry to start your answer the moment he ends the question.

If you take that little pause, you will know what exactly is being asked and will answer accordingly. Otherwise the answer may turn out to be vague or irrelevant.

F1 Visa Interview Tips

Consulates Doesn’t Matter

Don’t worry if you are attending interview at Mumbai consulate. It doesn’t matter which consulate.

All that matters is how well you answer. They have been rejecting quite a bit but don’t let that fear suck you in.

What happens at the most? They will reject you. Anything else? Apply again.

If it’s the second time already, still it’s okay.

There are plenty of opportunities in other countries and in India. When the fear of reject doesn’t come into the picture, there is no place for anxiety and you’d be calm and confident.

Luck is a factor but not the only factor.

99% of the factors are in our control and don’t mess it up there.

Keep Clam

Have a cool mind. I have seen people shivering literally.

How can one expect to answer properly in such a state of mind?

Remove the fear of a reject totally. When the univ gives us admission, when we want to study, when we have funds ready, there is no reason why we’d be rejected unless we mess it up ourselves by fumbling too much.

Will You Come Back

Will he believe when I say I want to come back? Answer is no.

He won’t. but sound confident about your plans if asked.

“There is absolutely nothing you can do to prove that you’d return”.

If a country is against immigrants, it will not believe people on word on the basis of a 1 minute interview.

This is all a trap and a good reason for them to reject applicants. If they want, they can kick us out soon after our graduation ceremony. They wouldn’t offer us OPT’s of 12 months (extended to 24 now) and give us options.

Basically what I want to convey is U.S needs us more than we need U.S. Let us look at it from a different perspective now. After providing world class infrastructure for research, will they willingly allow us to go back, work in home countries and become a competition to them inturn?

No. Surely not. They are looking to filter and take the best brains from all the countries.

This filtering is done from the visa stage as I see. Who is a potential immigrant and who is not? How can it be decided in a few seconds? Don’t try too hard to convince him here. If he has decided to give you that potential immigrant slip, no amount of explanation would convince him.

U.S. Visa Rejection Reasons

Now you may ask why and when he gives this slip. As per my understanding, he uses this tool to remove people who he thinks are false, people who lie, who can fabricate, who can cheat. Many good applicants fumble, confuse, shiver which should be avoided at all costs!

A little of that is expected and VOs understand it – they are humans too. But too much of it won’t help for sure.

I saw a guy today worrying about what he should say if the VO asks his name!

His worry was that his name on i20 is a little different than passport. How does it matter if I say Gudepu sai chetan or sai chetan gudepu!!

Too much worry will lead to nothing.

Conclusion is – Avoiding 214b is almost entirely in our hands.

Don’t try to be brilliant in that 3 minutes.

Don’t try to be brilliant in that 3 minutes.

Can we change our gre score? GPA? Univ?

Nothing! Take a deep breath and Just be yourself. Look into his eyes deeply and answer but don’t try to interpret his expressions.

Don’t start thinking that he’d issue the visa or reject you. HE should analyze YOU and not the other way round! Forget about the result and talk freely.

Be crisp with the answers

Be crisp with the answers. When he asks why this univ? don’t go on explaining with too many technical terms. He may be an arts grad or a psychology or a political science grad. Explain in words that he can understand!

Which University

To those going to not so good univs; VOs don’t care where we are going.

They are just there to make sure that we atleast know why we chose that univ.

I have come across terms like ‘visa rating for so and so univ’.

Trust me, there’s nothing like that! If it’s not a ranked univ, expect some grilling and prepare accordingly. Search for USPs of the univ or course there.

Did Consultant Fill Your DS160

If he asks whether consultant filled up DS160, blindly say NO (even if you went to one).

Don’t try to convince him by giving proofs.

I read that a guy memorized his IP address and told the VO to crosscheck with his DS160 IP address.

Will anyone ever by heart the IP add’?

Is it a part of interview preparation?

Such things will obviously lead to further questions.

Don’t complicate things. Just stick to a confident NO.

If he keeps repeating the same question, you could probably tell him you have nothing to hide and can answer any question from the DS 160.

Visa Interview Counter Numbers

There is nothing to worry about specific counter no’s or specific VOs in any consulate.

As soon as you walk to the counter, by looking at you, no one will decide whether or not to issue the visa.

They are not so unfair.

The initial impression you make will be the most important.

Face the interview confidently. The way you walk to the counter and greet him itself will speak volumes.

Black Listed Universities?

Consulate is not against RIT or UTA or NEU or SJSU. Don’t let all these things take a toll on your performance!

There are exceptions as always. Few of them with perfect answers also get rejects. But such cases will be through in the second attempt without doubt. It’s for our own good that we forget such cases. Take as little pressure as possible. Don’t bother about luck, officer’s mood etc which are not in our control.

To sum it up –

• Fact #1 : You want to study, you got admission, you have funds. There is no reason to worry about anything.
• Fact #2 : U.S needs you more than you need U.S A. We have an upper hand! So don’t go with a fear whether he’d find you good enough or not. Don’t underestimate yourself. Go confidently. Go like a brave soldier not like a wounded one.

We deserve visa.

The only reason we fumble and get tensed is because we feel something is lacking in us and try to convince him on that.

Do not do that.

This is not a professional job interview where you’d be tested on the subject matter. These are questions even a 10th standard guy can answer casually. So don’t lose your sleep over it. Let us break this hype.

When we do that, automatically the anxiety, tension, euphoria surrounding will vanish. ATB!

P.S: These are entirely my personal views. I’d be happy to know what you think!

I’m really going to hit hard on this person with my reply.

Photo Flick/rmeganschuirmann

Once in a while, we always have fear and scared about something.

I received this email from a prospective student, who is scared to attend visa interview.

I am very much confused . I did my mechanical engineering and from past 2 years iam working for software company . now im planning to do masters in computer science .

But the major problem is iam scared in interview the consulate will ask that …”why i want to do masters in cs when i did my bachelors in mechanical .

why iam applying after 2 year ” and he thinks iam going to settle there and so he will reject my visa… what amount of experience is good for applying ? do much experience causes hinderance in applying for masters and for visa ? what u think of this situation i read your blog but found answers for my question in bits and pieces but after that im a bit confused ? ur reply will be great help..

Scared for Visa Interview

Why are you scared?

If the visa interview is scaring you away, why did you decide to work as software engineer?

Why did you decide to study in USA?

It was your choice to work as software engineer.

Any decision you make always comes a package.

Pros and Cons all included in the package.

Maybe you got the job as software engineer and never tried to find a mechanical engineering job or you wanted to come into software engineering field from mechanical.

In either case, it was YOUR DECISION to work as software engineer.

It was YOUR DECISION to study Masters in Computer Science.

As I said, choices you make in life comes as package.

It was YOUR DECISION to study in USA.

That decision comes as  a package (pros and cons)

• Pros – Better education, better quality of life, higher salary
• Cons – Getting through visa interview process, having enough money to pay for education.

I’m not sure if you already have admission or just getting started with admission process.

Read the next few lines carefully.

It doesn’t matter if you plan to study MS in CS, MS in Mechanical Engineering or any other course.

If you are not willing to stand up and man-up to the decision you made in your life,  then you are going to be scared.

So, you better stand up to your decision.

Don’t complain like a kid.

If you have the habit of running away from tough decision or cannot make life changing tough decisions, then you have to run into similar situation in your life several times.

Get used to living up to the decisions you made.

If you want to study in USA, then move ahead with full pace.

Read the F1 Visa interview experiences to USA. Lear from others mistakes. You have several types of visa interview experience to learn from.

Students travel back to home country for short visit or for extended period of time.  Do you have to attend F1 Visa interview to re-enter USA?

You Don’t Need to Attend F1 Visa Stamping

• If you are making a short trip outside of the U.S
• Your F1 visa has not expired
• Your status is “active” in SEVIS

It is recommended that you contact your school’s international student advisor before the trip. You will get Travel signature on your I-20.

You need to Attend F1 Visa Stamping -

• According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) , students may leave the U.S. and be readmitted after absences of five months or less.
• If you have spent more than 5 months outside the U.S. you may have to attend F1 Visa interview again. Check with local US Embassy for more details