<p>Now that application season is over and we all got our results back already, the next step is student's visa application stuff. :D So what are the usual questions? How do you show strong ties to your home country? Is it okay to just show the documents of your parents, and not your own? I'm a minor so I don't really have much money in my bank account, and properties are listed in my parents' names and not mine. I don't have a job offer yet, though my parents have stable jobs and we have a business. Will that be alright already?</p>
<p>I've read some threads about visa rejections, and I think usually students aren't asked outright to prove their ties to their country. So is it suggested to incorporate your intention to return home in at least some of the questions? Or should you just answer the question and that's it?</p>
<p>What happens after you are approved? Do they hand you your passport and other papers immediately?</p>
<p>We briefly touched on my past US visas, what drew me to the US for college, how I was going to finance it, what I intended to do after college. My interviewer was very friendly and we were done in 3 minutes. </p>
<p>I wasn’t asked for any documentation of my ties, financial resources or academic background, but I had them with me just in case. </p>
<p>
Your parents (and the rest of your family?) living in your home country is a strong tie all by itself! (I don’t see how your parents’ jobs would tie you to your home country though.) Ties are generally tricky to show, especially at a young age. If your interviewer wants to be mean, they can give you a really hard time about it and there isn’t much you can do about that.</p>
<p>But does the ‘strong ties’ clause refer to my own documents, meaning do the students applying for visas bring documents with their names on them … or is it okay to show my parents’ documents since I’m a minor? And their property/business/money is technically what’s tying me down to my country anyway, it’s just that the papers don’t have my name on them…</p>
<p>Not sure if that made sense haha! Hope you understand what I meant though.</p>
<p>You are looking for things that tie you to your home country. A family business that you will inherit one day is a strong tie, your parents’ bank accounts are not (it’s easy enough to transfer money to the US). I don’t think it matters whose names the documents are in, as long as the content is pertinent to you. </p>
<p>If you are unsure about the visa procedures, I encourage you to talk directly to the embassy. My opinion doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Offtopic: You’re going to College in the US and still a minor?</p>
<p>Ontopic: What I’ve heard is that student visas usually get granted if you can prove you can sustain yourself financially either from your own pocket or scholarships so I say don’t worry too much. I’ll be having my visa interview in a few weeks aswell.</p>
<p>No, it isn’t. I’m just not used to going to college as a minor I think. I’ll be like 19.5 when I start college and I’m among the youngest of my class. And no, I didn’t graduate late / are ■■■■■■■■ / anything else. :)</p>
<p>I think in Philippines people graduate at age 16, because they have no middle school. It varies from country to country. Romania just might have different rules, it’s okay, nobody’s going to ask you your age in college (i just don’t think it’s an everyday topic to make for small talk)!
Uh oh, I didn’t think of that.
Now what? I won’t be 18 until spring next year.</p>
Does your college have an international student office? The advisers their might have some valuable suggestions for you.</p>
<p>Here are the options that I can think of:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>For cell phone contracts, you could get a family line together with other international students. That’s actually pretty popular at my college because it cuts cost significantly. You could also look into pre-paid phones, though they are not as common in the US as elsewhere and the charges add up very quickly if you use your cell phone as your primary means of communication. </p></li>
<li><p>For bank accounts, if you have trusted family or friends in the US, you could open a joint account with them until you are 18. Otherwise… not sure. Your international student adviser might have better suggestions for you, or maybe you could even call a bank near your college and ask them.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Wow 16 is really early! I actually need only a few months before I turn 18 and same for most of my friends. I never thought it would be too much of a problem…</p>
<p>Question about passports, until when should it be valid when I apply for a student’s visa? All four years in college, or is it okay to expect I’ll have to renew soon?</p>
<p>b@r!um, AFAIK it doesn’t. You can go to the embassy with your renewed passport and they’ll put your visa on it too. Still, I’ll be renewing my passport just before I leave because I don’t want to make another trip to the embassy.</p>
<p>from the link you posted, a bit lower, at “Additional Info”:
“Unless previously canceled, a visa is valid until its expiration date. Therefore, if the traveler has a valid U.S. visa in an expired passport, do not remove the visa page from the expired passport. You may use it along with a new valid passport for travel and admission to the United States.”</p>
<p>I’m confused. I believe “intented period of stay” is not the same as visa validity.</p>
<p>There are definitely situations in which you can end up with a current visa in an expired passport. For example, the passport-validity rule does not apply to change-of-status applications which are filed in the US (rather than visa applications that are filed at an embassy abroad). </p>
<p>The requirement makes sense a lot of sense too. You wouldn’t want to be stuck in a foreign country without a valid passport if something comes up and you can’t renew your passport as expected.</p>
<p>barium can you please clarify your last post. I didn’t quite understand that. So I need to renew my passport so that it will be valid until after I graduate, and only then will the embassy grant me a visa?</p>
