<p>Hey guys, I just wanted to know a couple things</p>
<p>I have my interview in exactly 2 weeks. I want to make sure I can get approved of course, so I wanted to know exactly what is required to bring?</p>
<p>I have the following - I-20, acceptance letter, Receipts for Sevis,visa, and the Ds160 thing.</p>
<p>Is there anything else i'm going to need? And to prove that I have no intention of staying in the USA (which i really don't) I just plan on saying i'm only 17 and my entire family lives in my home country, i have no way of staying in a different country by myself.</p>
<p>I know a big part of the interview is also based on the interviewer, whether the person is nice or not, but anyone, by experience, know anything else that could help me out?</p>
<p>Also bring documentation of your financial resources, your transcripts and your admission test score reports (e.g. TOEFL, SAT). You probably won’t need them, but your interviewer is entitled to ask for them and you wouldn’t want to take a chance there. </p>
<p>Intention to leave the country is difficult to prove for young people because you are at the stage in your life where you really don’t have many ties yet. (Middle-aged adults can often claim a family with kids and a house and job as ties…) Some students’ parents have a family business that the student will take over. Some students have signed a binding contract to return to their home country and work for the sponsor who paid their college fees. But most students, like you, can really only emphasize how attached they are to their extended family, which all live outside of the US.</p>
<p>Will that be a problem? That depends mostly on where you are from and which college you are going to. The general rule of thumb is this: the less developed your home country and the less selective your college, the more likely your interviewer will give you a hard time. Students from Western Europe rarely have problems, for example, but I have heard many stories from Indian applicants getting denied visas. </p>
<p>One thing I would encourage you to do, both for visa purposes and for your own career planning, is to think through exactly how you would transition back to your home country. Would you go straight back after college, or maybe complete OPT or a graduate degree first? How would you apply for jobs in another country while you are still physically in the US? Would employers at home even recognize your US degree?</p>
<p>@B@r!um - I’m from Brazil, I don’t know if that would make things harder for me.
I think I heard the interview is usually only about 5 minutes long. Is it true that it also depends on the interview itself? Like if it’s someone nicer I have a higher chance of getting approved?</p>
<p>As for finances, we really only have a letter from my dad’s boss stating he gets paid a certain amount per year and I have an I-20. That’s about it for finances, is this really bad?</p>
Ideally it wouldn’t matter, but in practice yes - the mood of your interviewer might play a role since “intention to leave the US” is a rather subjective matter. Your country also matters because your interviewer will get internal guidelines on how strict they are supposed to be. </p>
<p>I am not sure how strict the embassies are with Brazilian students. Just be prepared to explain why you want to do your entire degree abroad, especially if it’s a financial stretch for your family or you are attending a university that might be unknown to your interviewer. (In other words, a university that’s not “reasonably prestigious.” Going abroad to study at Stanford takes much less justification than going to never-heard-of college that caters mostly to working adults living in the neighborhood.)</p>
<p>Hi, I am going to have my interview in a month so I am pretty interested in this thread too.</p>
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<p>How do you define “selective college”, I mean my school isn’t so well known (though to me it’s a really good school) so I am scared it might fall into that category.</p>
<p>Also about the attachment idea, how do you actually show it? </p>
<p>Anyway, I was hoping to get an answer about the financial document thing. I mean my family has blocked a specific amount of money for several months now to prove that I can pay for my college. Do I need to show other accounts of my sponsor too? any experience?</p>
You can’t. Unless you have documented ties to your home country, the best you can do is hope that your interviewer is not going to give you a hard time. </p>
<p>The reason that young adults struggle to show ties is that we really don’t have any non-emotional ties at this point in our life. In fact, if we were ever going to migrate to another country, this would be the single best time to do it! The older you get, the more commitments you’ll have: you might have a family with little kids that cannot easily be uprooted; a house that you are making mortgage payments on; and maybe even your own company!</p>
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Unknown to an American who spends her entire day interviewing college applicants? My interviewer knew Bryn Mawr; I wouldn’t be too concerned about your interviewer knowing Middlebury. And your financial aid offer is going to reflect well on you too.</p>
<p>I’m kinda nervous about the ‘what ties you to your home country’ part… Would family photos and maybe bank statements or something be okay? I don’t know if proof that I have a bank account in my country ties me to it though :(</p>
<p>Thanks for the help! (especially b@rium!). Oh, btw, do you think it will be a problem using an overdraft account to prove that I have the fund to support my studies? I mean does the councilor or whoever check the limit on that overdraft or do they just reject you outright?</p>
<p>In my opinion, I believed the most important question that matters to the interviewer is “how will you finance your education?”
This was the only question the interviewer ask my student, you are told to come 15 minutes before the interview time but we waited for 2 hours with just one question, then the F-1 visa was approved on the spot! You will know 'coz they will take your passport and payment for visa issuance.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, that was really a “silly” question 'coz in the first place the university will not issue the I-20 if they know that you can’t afford to finance your education!</p>
<p>But then again maybe it depends on which country you’re from!</p>
<p>It does depend on the country (and the circumstances of the interview) indeed. More than 1 million visa applications are denied every year because of “suspected intent to immigrate,” which particularly affects visa applicants from countries with high emigration rates to the US. </p>
<p>I am glad that everything worked out fine for your student!</p>
<p>Those of you on this thread who’ve had your interviews- how did they go?</p>
<p>I just have another quick question: which SAT score reports did you guys take to your interviews? I never signed up to receive the official ones by mail, so I only have print-outs of my score reports from my collegeboard account. At the top of the page it says “Not an Official Score Report” and a line on the bottom says “A printout of this page will not be accepted by colleges as an official score report”
So do you think this page is acceptable for my visa interview? Will the officer understand that its only called ‘unofficial’ because im not allowed to submit it to colleges without paying the collegeboard? Im afraid i wont be able to request my official report in the mail, because if i wanted it i had to sign up for it while registering for the sat.<br>
Anyone? Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey shrey. Umm, I was trying to search for the uni u got in but who cares, I’m pretty sure its awesome! Anyway, I went for the interview with the “unofficial copy” of both the SAT and Toefl (I’m green) and it was fine. </p>
<p>As for how it went:</p>
<p>Well mine was simply,
Why this school,
Why a gap year,
Is school funding alot of aid? (I didn’t even need to show my financial doc),
show me your high school transcript (A- levels).
Done and I was approved.
Lasted for 3-5 min i think… LOL, I guess as long as your school is good, you have a valid reason and articulate well, then your fine.</p>
<p>Ps. when they call to queue, rush for the first spot… else my god ull w8 for so long, hahaha! GL</p>
<p>Hey farkula, thanks a lot for the info! May i ask though, what did you mean by ‘Im green’?
And wow, i hope my interview goes as smoothly as yours. so they didnt even ask you about your intent to return home after college? Oh and the school i got into is the university of chicago…yours is middlebury, am i right?</p>
<p>LOL, i just meant that I like trees and hard copies aren’t so nice to them. ahhaha</p>
<p>Anyway, U chicago, wow congratz! </p>
<p>And yeah, hopefully I’ll be at Midd this fall. Don’t worry about the interview, I realise I wasted so much of my time stressing about sth that isn’t even remotely hard. As for the intent thing, no I didn’t get asked. Then again, I am pretty sure the typical “I have this, tat and them to look forward to bla bla bla” should work… (maybe?) Good luck.</p>
<p>I had the interview a few days ago, there was no problem at all and I got the visa approved right away =). Also, I plan on transfering to some other college after a year and I believe I would need to get another visa. Do you think it may be more difficult this time? I have spanish citizenship, maybe that is why the interview alsted only one minute.</p>
<p>You don’t need to apply for a new F-1 visa if you transfer, as long as your old school transfers your SEVIS record to your new school. Then your new school would give you a new I-20 and that’s it! (Your visa foil would carry the “wrong” college name but that’s fine! It’s your I-20 that counts, not the sticker in your passport.)</p>
<p>If your new school would open a new SEVIS record for you, then you’d have to apply for a new visa. Or if your old visa expires and you want to leave the country, of course.</p>
ahhaha</p>