My visa interview was on 21st May, 2007 in New Delhi at 12:45 PM. Advice is take your visa date as early as possible to get the morning slot, otherwise rush keeps on added up towards the end. My visa was in the month when there are very few numbers of student visa and rush is acceptable. Reach around an hour before your visa time as they allow you to pass an hour before your interview start.
I reached an hour and 5 mins before the visa interview. Don’t forget to sign your DS-156 form and right your name in your native language in one of those forms. I join the Queue outside the embassy at 11:40 AM and slowly moved ahead. Upon entering embassy your thumb impression of left and right index finger would be taken. Since it was lunch time less no. of counters were operating. I would advise to talk around the fellow members (in English) to cool down tension, know more about fellow US travelers. I was in Queue for two and half hours and learnt a lot about visa rules of business, tourist and J-1 travelers. Carry cash with you as you can buy snacks and other food items inside.
Visa Interview: My interview was taken by a young American lady
I pass her my I-20 and she reads “CASE Western “. Her Response, “WOW”.
She was about to ask my financial but cut herself short and says that, ”you must have got Grades, Show me your grade card”
I passed it to her. Nods in between and smiles. Then she asks for my GRE and TOEFEL score and I say them blah blah.
She reads the course that I am pursuing in CASE Western; it was Engineering Management and asks some questions about it.
What is this course about?
Why you want to do it?
She reads that some amount has been reduced in I-20 and asks about that. I tell her that I have 25% fellowship. She says,”WOW and asks for my admit letter”. Given reads it.
VO: CASE Western is a good college, but not cheap. So how are you going to pay for your college? What does your father do?
Me: My father is an Executive Engg in Municipal Corporation Delhi(She writes this down and lots of other thing parallel on her computer)
VO: How much he earns?
Me: I said ___. Before she asks me anything, I said, ”My father has worked for more than 25 years and over this period he has made lots of investments. He purchased four properties long back and their net value has increased several times. I have the CA statement for that and original property papers (This I did to put upfront our financial strength and to take her into confidence before waiting for questions).”
VO: Show me
CA Statement given, she turns to second page where property values were mentioned. She looked at that and says”WOW, and says your father is a smart man”.
VO: Ok, Mr. Arpit you are eligible for VISA.
It was a cool experience and I would say Visa interview is all about confidence. One thing I would seriously recommend is a CA statement that lists assets of family serially. Keep that letter in the front and arrange all the other documents according to that. An Important thing is that, just a bank statement is from your bank that you have xyz lakhs in your account is not sufficient. You should have Pass book or Bank statements to confirm that.
Just go out there confidently and trust me you would get your visa. Wish you all, Good Luck.
Arpit Gupta
