A lot of things are going to be different in the visa interview when you actually go ahead and attend it this year because some of you may not have taken the GRE at all. Some of you, you know, could not take the test due to the TOEFL—sorry, due to the COVID restrictions—and there’s other things going on all the time. That’s when they first time they get a slot. So yes, it can be time-consuming, it can be hectic, but don’t worry. Everything will be covered in this video: what documents should you take, how should you dress, and really, what kind of answers you should have, okay?
So we’re gonna go over that quickly in this video. So let’s begin. So the first thing, guys, all of you guys should already know this, but still, you know, for those of you who don’t know, um, the visa interview process—the F1 visa process—is actually a two-step process, okay.
Mention Your Savings
Number one is your biometrics process where you have to go ahead and you have to give your biometrics, that basically your fingerprint. And, you know, number two is the actual visa interview which happens at the consulate, okay.
So number one, it’s the biometrics—what happens, by the way, these two are usually separated in a gap of two or three days, four or five days depending on when you book them. Again, you are responsible for booking both of these dates, so it’s completely up to you. But usually, I would say, you know, don’t make it, you know, any farther than two or three days, four days at max. That’s more than enough in most cases, okay.
You don’t really need to do some sort of preparation for any visa interview, by the way, okay? So, um, number one, you go for the biometrics process. Really, you know, no one will be asking you any questions on this day. No one will be asking you why this university, no one will be asking you, you know, how you’re gonna prove your finances. It’s not worth it. Don’t be prepared for all these questions for this interview because they’re just gonna take your fingerprint. All you need to do is take your DS-160 with you. Remember, your DS-160 document is important. Next, your appointment confirmation should be with you—yes, I have booked an appointment for so and so date. And on the same date, you should reach.
Mention Student Loan (If Applicable)
Next comes the important day—the doomsday, you can say—when you actually go to the embassy or the consulate to actually appear for your visa interview. And this is the process people are scared about the most. They’re not really sure what’s going on, you know. They mess up, and I know a lot of people get rejected because they’re not confident. Guys, confidence is key over here. Number one thing you should remember: confidence is key.
Now, the number one thing you should remember is that there are 15-minute slots. So, you know, some people may have a time of 7:30 in the morning, another person may have a time of 7:45 in the morning. Each of these slots, there will be separate lines when you actually reach the consulate. Uh, near the consulate, there will probably be some foot patch, you know, depending on where you go. They will basically create separate lines, and due to COVID-19, you know, earlier it used to be different. You know, people would be basically very, very closer together, but right now, due to COVID-19, those lines are going to be awfully long because they’re basically taking some precautions. There’s a six-feet gap maintained between every two people, so that’s important to note, guys.
Different Cases for Different People
Um, don’t be scared of the line, but at the same time, you know, be sure to join the right kind of line for your time slot. Just find the line for that and join in. If you don’t know where to join, just go ahead and ask someone over there. You know, there are a lot of representatives who will be very happy to help you—it’s their job to, you know, redirect you to the right kind of line, okay?
People will start going in slowly and slowly, okay. And, you know, the one thing I want to tell you is to arrive 10-15 minutes early, at least. And the second thing is that you should have a few documents. Now, these documents, I’m just going to name them right now, and I want you to make a note of these, you know, make a note of these because these are important documents, guys, and you need these on the day of the interview. You don’t need any last-minute blunders, so make sure to note these.
Post-Program Plans
Number one, of course, your passport. Very important document. I think the most important on this list—it’s the number one thing. Second thing, your DS-160 is very important, again, guys. Same DS-160 that you took with you on the day of the biometrics. Keep that in your hands, okay? Again, maintain these all in a file, okay? The next thing, service fee receipt—you paid a service fee. You need to have that receipt with you. It is important. It will be checked for, and they definitely need it, okay? At times I’ve seen that they don’t check for it; they don’t look for it, but still, I would say keep it in your hands, keep it in the file. It’s important.
The next thing is your I-20. Most important document. Again, after the passport, this is the most important thing. I-20 is required because it has all the information—what university you’re going to, when you do you start, when does your course end, uh, is it a STEM program, what happens when you know, uh, like what kind of duration that the course has. So all these things are already listed on the I-20, and you actually need to have that with you. It’s a very important document, guys, okay. The next thing, is appointment confirmation—yes, you have booked an appointment for today, and that’s why you’re appearing for the interview. And, you know, the final thing that, you know, you may not always need this, but I would say definitely keep this in your hands—it’s an important thing: financial proof.
Okay, you need to have proof of finances. You need to know that, alright, this is the amount shown on the I-20 for the first year, and you need to have about 1.2 to 1.5 times that amount. But, you know, taking documents such as property—you know, the value of your property, valuation of your property, all that—that’s not really very liquid, you know. So don’t try to do that. Um, keep it simple. Keep it liquid as much as possible, okay? And apart from that, you know, I think you’re good to go. All these documents should be in your hand in the file. And again, be confident. You don’t need to worry about anything. You’re gonna get your visa interview, uh, so you’re gonna even get your visa today, okay.
Show Interest in Research or Employment
The next thing: reach early and dress well. You need to dress well, but at the same time, remember you do not need to wear formal. It’s okay to wear, you know, semi-formals or, you know, maybe just like this T-shirt. It will work perfectly well for the interview. I would definitely, 100-90 days out of 10, I would wear this t-shirt on the visa interview. You don’t need anything more than this, okay? And, uh, you know, apart from that, you can wear pants or jeans or anything, you know, anything casual works. You do not have to be in a suit. I know people who were, you know, dressed very uncomfortably on the actual day of the visa interview when I went in—it doesn’t help you. Do not, because you know you will be frisked in everything. There will be things that you have to take off. Don’t wear a belt, by the way, if possible. Don’t wear a belt because they’re going to make you take it off, and, you know, so all these things happen. But, apart from that, it’s simple. Keep it simple, man. Don’t, don’t keep, you know, adding on unnecessary things. It’s not important, okay?
The next thing, again, I am reminding you again, guys—third time I’m reminding you—be confident. It’s important to have confidence. I know I’ve said this a lot, but if you lose your confidence in front of the interviewer, you’re going to face some real issues over there. Alright, there’s a line. Remember you’re in that line, six feet distance, remember. The line moves on—you keep following that, okay. If you’re wearing a belt, they’ll ask you to remove it. They’ll basically check everything, and they’ll give it back to you. You put it back on, you go ahead into a room—probably 40 or 50 chairs over there in a room, just like a normal classroom. And all of you guys sit down. You go ahead, try to sit down near the door, near the place where they start calling people from. If not, it’s all right. Don’t worry about it. Just go ahead and sit down, okay?
Um, you sit down at one of these seats, and row by row, one by one, an officer will tell you, “Alright, you guys can go in now.” Let’s say you’re in that row. You start going in, you start moving in towards the embassy, inside of the embassy, now. And, um, now all you have to do is you have to keep your documents in your hand, you know, your passport should be in your hand. First, they’ll check your passport. They’ll make sure you’re the same person, and you know, they’ll make sure that you have, you know, your biometrics are done. They’ll basically verify your biometrics. You have to place your finger again, and they’ll check, alright, the same person appeared for the biometrics. Great. Done. Dusted. You move on, you move on.
And you start seeing there’s basically a long, long list of counters, you know, 10 counters or 12 counters. Um, a counter is basically just, you know, where the visa officer is sitting. So 10 or 12 visa officers over there, and all these counters are essentially occupied. You know, people will already be interviewing unless you’re the first, of course, okay. So every single counter there will be a student who’s interviewing or, you know, someone else. You know, it doesn’t have to be a student, of course, because other visa types are also being processed over there. But, uh, someone over there that’s, you know, basically interviewing someone else. Both of these people are just separated by a glass wall, you know. The wall has some sort of mechanism that you can, you know, uh, interact. You know, your voices can reach each other, but that’s about it. All right, I’m keeping it simple, guys. It’s a simple, simple mechanism. I’m trying to be as visual as possible so you can visualize it in your mind. And, you know, when you actually go over there, you should have a pretty good idea of it, okay. So hopefully this is going well. All right, stick with me, okay?
So now you’re actually in that final line where you have to basically stand in front of the counter. You basically stand and join one of the lines of the counters. One by one, you will start going in one by one. You will start going in, and you know, an officer will redirect you, “Alright, go to this counter, go to that counter,” and you go ahead and you stand at the back of it. When the student in front of you is done with the interview, you will move forward. You move towards the counter, and the next thing you do is you say, “Good morning, officer. How are you doing today?” Important, all right, right. So you do that, and the officer will ask you, you know, he’ll say, “I’m good. Please pass me your visa.” Uh, so you’re not your visa, of course, you’re yet to get that, but, um, “Please pass me your passport.” Give them your passport. Give them your I-20, okay? And then it starts. That’s the visa interview. Remember, it’s gonna last, optimally, it’s gonna last one to two minutes, not more than that. I’ve seen interviews finish off within one minute as well. I’ve seen them last five minutes as well. It can happen—different people, different experiences. I’ve talked to a lot of people. It happens depending on your situation, but on average, it should not cross two minutes.
Okay, two minutes are important, guys. You need to be focused. You need to be confident. You’re dressed well. Don’t worry about anything. They’ll take a look at your university. They’ll ask you, “Why this university?” You’re going to tell them, “Hey, I personally like the research at this university, and I like Professor XYZ. In fact, two months back, I connected with Professor XYZ, and I sent him my resume, he is very interested in working with me as a part of his research group as well. So I am genuinely 100% interested in this university. I want to consider, you know, the cutting-edge research that Professor XYZ is doing, and I want to work with him. That’s why I’m going for this program.”
Remember, no one can separate a professor from a university. It’s almost as if, you know, you want to go to that university for a professor—you cannot, you know, otherwise you can. People say great things like, “The location is good, there are plenty of job opportunities.” Stay away from all of that. Don’t do that. You’re killing yourself over there, okay? So just mention that you know, a professor at this university—that’s why I’m going. Keep it simple, keep it short. I’m not giving you any alternatives because I know this will work. It worked in my case. It worked on a lot of clients that I’ve worked with, okay? In all of their cases, it worked. So you can rest assured. The information that I’m giving you—it’s tested. You don’t need to worry about anything.
Okay, the next thing they’ll ask you, “Okay, that’s great. How many other universities did you apply to?” You’re gonna say, “Hey, I applied to eight universities. Be honest with them. Don’t give them a small number as well. Don’t give them a very large number as well. Be honest.” Um, you know, don’t need to lie unless you’ve applied to 20-25 universities. In that case, I would definitely say, you know, like you mentioned, 10 or something. But otherwise, seven to twelve universities. That’s pretty typical. That’s very average. You know, “I applied to ten universities, officer, and one of them was University X that I really like that I’m going for, um.” All right, the officer will ask you, “How many admits did you get, man? Uh, how many rejects? How many admits?” Mention your admits, mention your rejects, you know, if possible. I mean, if the number is large, though, you know, if it’s ten universities that you apply to, of course, you know, you cannot list them down, but just try your best. You know, give them three or four names. “I also got admits from X, Y, Z,” you know, whatever, but I still chose University X because you know, of the reason I mentioned earlier.” Great, up till now it’s great.
All right, how do you prefer to—how will you be financing your degree? Okay, now comes the big question: how will you finance it?
Here’s the same script you shared, exactly as you provided:
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**The Officer Asks You**
Okay, now it’s important, guys—this part of the process I don’t think I can explain in the video because it’s different for everyone. But remember a few tips: if you have some savings, mention them. Say, “I have savings of [this amount].” You know, in the form of bank balance, in the form of funds. My sponsors will be my father and my mother, and they also have savings of [so and so]. If that’s covering more than the first-year amount, that’s good, that’s good enough, you don’t need to say anymore. But still, just to be really, really sure, you can say, “I also have a student loan of [xyz] amount that I will be using during my time at the university.” Remember, not only do you have to cover tuition expenses, but also living expenses. So please keep that in mind—whatever total amount you’re giving them should cover both for more than one year.
Still, if you need more, like I said, it can be different for different people. You can work directly with me, I can help you in this process, and help you with financial documentation, and mock interviews. We can do that one-on-one on Skype or Zoom, of course. Now that the technologies are changing, it’s very possible to do that. We have a service—I’ll link it at the bottom, in the video description. You can check out the visa interview financial documentation service; it’s not very costly either compared to the fees you’ll be paying for the visa process. But at the same time, you’ll get to work directly with me.
Sorry, I just got carried away! Anyway, once you get all of this done and the officer says, “Okay, that’s good enough,” in most cases, that will be the interview—you won’t need more than that. Still, there can be cases where the officer will ask about your plans after the program. You’re going to give them a simple plan, guys—again, tried and tested. You’re going to say, “I am particularly interested in research or working for this company.” You can say, “I already have an offer from this company in India,” or whichever country you’re in, of course. At the same time, “I’ve connected with my manager.” If you’re already working, you can say, “My manager said if I complete this degree, I’ll be bumped up to position [xyz]. I will become the R&D consultant at the company,” or something like that.
Remember, you can show strong ties to your company. Other ways to show strong ties: If you’re a student, again, I can’t get into details, but when you’re working directly with me, I can help with your case and how to make strong ties. Other ways include having dependents back home, such as family members. You can say, “I’m going over there to complete my degree, but in the end, my father is dependent on me heavily—there are medical expenses, and I have to take care of those.” You can explain that at present, you’ve kept a caretaker, but eventually, you’ll come back and assist.
There are a lot of things you can say, but remember, it has to show strong ties to your country. You can’t just say, “I want to work for Google”—that doesn’t bode well because, to be honest, most of Google’s offices are in the U.S., and that doesn’t show you’re coming back.
So this is the interview for you guys. There can be other questions, but I’ve covered the most important four or five here and given you a brief overview of the process. The officer will likely say, “Good enough, Mr. [Your Name],” and give you a blue slip saying, “You’re done.” You’ll either collect your passport later or get premium processing where your passport reaches your house within two or three days. That’s it—you get your visa, just like that!
Congratulations, guys, you just got your visa! Thank you so much for watching. I hope this helps you. Again, if you need my help directly, or one-on-one, I can work with you, but this is a general overview of the process. There’s a lot more involved—filling out the DS-160, online forms on the visa website. Make no mistake, if you make errors on those forms, things can go wrong. Every part of the process is important, but I know the interview is the part that scares you the most.
That’s why I made this video. Especially during COVID-19, with special considerations in place, things can be uncertain. If you haven’t taken the GRE, for example, the officer might ask why. You can simply say, “One of my family members had COVID, and it was difficult for me to go.” You can even say you were affected—no one’s going to ask for proof. Tell them you didn’t feel comfortable taking the test at home because you weren’t well. They’ll sympathize.
I hope this video helps you! Thank you so much for watching. For more genuine content, consider subscribing to the channel. I make a lot of effort making these videos every day. Thank you so much, guys, and have a good day! Take care!