F1 USA VISA Interview Questions and Answers

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Through this Blog, we help students planning for F1 Visa interview at US consulates. If you know the reason behind conducting the interview, categories of questions, what questions will be asked and what they are intended for, then you can prepare your answers accordingly suitable to your situation.

Instead of just going through the questions asked for others, try to figure out what your weak points are, put yourself in the officer’s position and then prepare the answers accordingly then, you can come up with right answers.

F1 USA VISA gives privileges to students to post VISA Interview Experiences of various students so that, you get to know what to say and what not to. To view all the Visa Experiences Click here à F1 USA VISA Interview Experiences

F1 USA Visa Interview Questions

F1 Visa Interview is mainly to see how good you present yourself. During the interview the officer looks for:

i) How better is you English communication(you are going to live in a English speaking country, so you got to speak fluently).

ii) How good are you academically (since the US education system is different from rest of the world, they want make sure that you are fit).

iii) See if you are financially sound (you can afford the costly education and don't have to drop out in between due to the lack of money) - very imp, you should understand it yourself. They don't want to see how much money you have. But they are looking if you are able to support yourself in case the worst thing happens i.e. not finding any sort of funding.

The F1 student Visa Interview Questions can be separated into 4 parts.

Part 1: Questions on Colleges / Universities

Part 2: Academics

Part 3: Finance

Part 4: Returning to India.

F1 Visa Questions and Answers on Universities/Colleges

Here the officer is trying to see how confident you are and where you stand according to their system of education. Here the officer will ask you things like 

i) How many colleges you applied to - He is trying to see how eager you are to study in US.

ii) How many admits or rejects - This tells him where you stand according to their sys. If you have a lot of admits compared to rejects and that too form good colleges, then he is pretty sure that you are capable to cope with their sys. If you have a lot of reject from big schools, say so. This will show that you really care about your education and want nothing but the best for yourself.

iii) Which are the colleges you applied and what the result was - This will show what you think of yourself. If you had applied to all the big ones, then it shows that you really care about your education.

iv) Which college you are going to?

v) Why that college - Wants to see how much you know about the college. He is trying to see if you really searched for the colleges or had just applied following somebody's suggestions. He is also looking for how confident you are about yourself and are you able to take your own decision (after all you are going to live here all by yourself).

Be prepared with a good intro of the college. Know a few of your profs names, the labs, the research group, a little about the place where the college is.

F1 Visa Interview Questions and Answers on Academics

Here the officer is trying to see if you are academically strong enough to cope up with their sys. The questions would be like 

i) what your score is (GRE, TOEFL, GPA/Percentage).

ii) How many backlogs.

iii) How do I know that u won’t waste your time and study well

If, you have good scores then no need to worry. If your scores are not that good or you have backlogs, then take extra care. 50% of the F1 visa interviews will involve a question on backlogs. You will have to be prepared with answers like why you got those backlogs, why do you think you are suited for education in US. Stress the importance of research in graduate education in US and show that you are prepared by highlighting your projects, papers, research exp, internships etc. Also have good reasons why you got a specific backlog, say something like you had done a project and was too involved. Also show the proof by saying it got published later at this conference.

F1 Visa Questions and Answers on Finance:

The officer wants to make sure you have enough money to complete your education. They don’t want you to come here and then drop out in between due to the lack of money. They also don’t want you to work outside and put your life in jeopardy. 

Prepare a good CA statement. This has to be neat and should clearly show all your funds and their dollar equivalent. The officer has only a few minutes to evaluate your profile, so don’t make him look for stuff. Having gone through the statement he will want to see a few things to verify if all the things mentioned in the statement are true. Have your papers organized and hand them over quickly. 

They usually look for the first year in liquid cash (i.e. saving or FD), since you will be paying that money as soon as you join the college. The second and third year can be asset or other things. They consider asset for second year coz, this can be used as collateral to get loan in case required. 
A few things to note here is if you have a few siblings (brother/sisters) and are showing all your parents money = college tuition. Then the office will natural ask "if your parents are willing to spend all their money on you" and "what will your sibling do."

In cases like this, having a loan helps. It shows that you are not putting a burden on your family and are willing to take responsibility. 

If you can show loan + savings = college tuition * number of years. Plus you bring in your assets and your parent’s tax forms. This shows that you have all the means to fund your education.

Your finances should be equal to College tuition * number of years mentioned in the I20. Mostly the number of years is 2 but not always. In my I20 it was mentioned as 3 and my visa got denied because of that. So make sure before you go.
As for evaluating your assets, the agricultural land can be evaluated by the Tahsilldar and the house can be evaluated by the Municipal Corporation's Planning Engineers.

F1 Visa Interview Questions and Answers on plans to return to India

No American want you to stay here and work (even though that’s what we come for). So he wants to make sure that you will come back to India once your education is done. In order to show this, you can say that all your relatives are back there in India. How stable the Indian economy is. How the job market is improving every day. Give some concrete examples. Don’t pretend, mean it. It will show in your words.

In the end, be confident and yourself. If you have done your homework, nothing can go wrong. Best of luck!

 

VISA INTERVIEW TIPS

1. Be as NATURAL as you are.

2. DON’T talk with an accent. Just talk how you normally talk. The interviewer will understand.

3. The Following Q&A’s are only to give you an advice. DO NOT by-heart and repeat.

4. Dress Well. It’s an interview after all. Don’t over dress. Since you are a student, dress like one. Don’t go in a business suit! Don’t go in shorts and tee as well!

5. Be on time. Be early if possible.

6. Keep all your documents in order and neatly filed.

7. Read all about your university and your course. If the interviewer asks you something about it, it’s nice if you can answer instead of saying ‘Umm I’m not sure.’

8. EAT! Don’t go without eating. The process is going to take a while.

9. Eat well the previous night too. Don’t consume alcohol for at least 24 hours before the interview.

 

10. BE CONFIDENT! Don’t bite your nails or fidget around. Stay calm.