• F1 Visa Interview Approved for USC in Mumbai Consulate

    F1 Visa Interview experience of Natang Salgia in Mumbai US Consulate for USC. His F1 visa got rejcted first time and approved in second attempt.

    F1 Visa Interview in Mumbai Consulate

    VISA APPROVED | MUMBAI CONSULATE (both attempts) | 1st attempt:6th June | 2nd attempt:18th June | USC | MS CS

    DISCLAIMER: ANSWERS GIVEN HERE, FOR FIRST INTERVIEW, MAY NOT BE EXACTLY HOW I HAD ANSWERED. BUT RESEMBLES WHAT I HAD ANSWERED! Its a long post (4 pages pf MS Word) It has transcripts of 2 interviews,probable reasons for reject, why i included certain points in my answers, changes done for second interview, tips, it is for worst case scenario. not everyone is lucky so not prepare for the best! hope it's useful. ignore typos, spelling and grammatical mistakes.

    6th June:

    Me: Good morning ma'am.

    VO: Please pass me your passport.
    (Passed passport with i20 in it)

    VO: so tell me why US?

    ME: ma'am, curriculum in US is practical oriented. Most of the patents in the field of engineering are filed in US, which shows the level of research that takes place there. While in Indian institutes there's not much research done. Also in worldwide rankings, Indian institutes are nowhere near American schools, so why settle for substandard school in India if I can get top university like USC.

    VO: What was your GRE score?

    ME:1350.(she was staring at me, seemed was expecting breakup, so told her 800 in Q and 550 in verbal. gave a strange look when i said 550 in verbal and repeated it, "ok, 550 in verbal")

    VO: Why master in computer science?

    ME: sorry ma'am, can you please repeat the question.
    (she repeated the question)
    ME: Ma'am I recently gave my computer engineering final exam and would like to continue in the same field. Apart from that I have a startup company here in which I have developed few applications, all related to the field of computer science, so I would like to gain in depth knowledge in this field so as to fulfill my dream of having my own company.(i think i went overboard here, shouldn't have given additional details)

    VO: Tell me about your under graduate, what was your aggregate.

    ME: I recently gave my final exam for Computer Engineering and my aggregate is 72.18%.

    (She asked me something about GRE, i didn't get her so asked her to repeat. She didn't rep[eat question and asked for GRE score card, said I’ll see it by myself)

    VO: Any backlogs?

    ME: no.

    VO: Parents annual income.

    ME: Annual income is around XX lakh rupees.

    VO: what do they do?

    ME: (told)

    VO: How much saving do they have in bank?

    ME: $xx in bank, FD and cash (total more than i20 amount). And we also have other assets worth $xxx and properties worth $xxx.

    VO: What assets exactly?

    ME: Ma'am, nsc, kvp, shares, jewellery.

    VO: But your i20 says $51k for one year so you will need $100k. This will wipe off all your savings.

    ME: ma'am the savings is for one year, in fact more than what i will need for first year. But we have nsc, kvp, shares, jewellery worth $xxx which can be converted to liquid cash anytime we need. And we have properties which can again be liquidated. So ma'am, going to USC won’t affect my parents’ standard of living here.

    VO: just give me your assets summary.
    (Checks it properly. typed all details into her system)

    VO: i think going here will wipe off all your savings (i tried telling her again that how it won't be a problem but she didn't let me speak) and then you might not come back. So i cant issue your visa right now.

    Reasons for Visa Rejection

    Probable reasons for being rejected:
    1. Though confident, not concise and precise.
    2. Gave out unnecessary details.
    3. Complicated my financial report by showing sub-totals of liquid, other investments and properties.
    4. I talk very fast much have confused her further.
    5. She was not in a mood because I know financially my parents can sponsor my education at USC without any additional burden, okay, without any significant additional burden.

    Visa Interview experience in Mumbai Consulate - 2nd attempt

    18th June (have mentioned reason(s) in parenthesis for why I purposely included certain points in my answers):

    Me: Good morning ma’am!
    VO: Hi, good morning!

    VO: So tell me why USC?
    ME: My interest lies in data mining and web/mobile application designing. USC has 5 dedicated laboratories for database and related field, and one dedicated lab for data mining and machine learning. Also, rank wise USC is the highest ranked university from all admits that I have received. (Though I have only 7/13 admits I mentioned this because all 7 admits are from: USC, NCSU, NEU, SUNY SB, NYU, UFL with scholarship and one worthless GMU. 6 universities from where I got rejects are ranked between 1 to 13. So I could have said though I didn’t stand chance, I wanted to try because MS is once in a lifetime opportunity)

    VO: What after MS? (I went through many Vis and asked many people before finalizing on following answer, thanks to my couple of friends)
    ME: I would like to be part of a research team in my field on interest as a research analyst. (At least at Mumbai Consulate don’t keep repeating ‘IN INDIA’, ‘BACK HERE IN INDIA’, and ‘WILL COME BACK TO INDIA’. Who on earth would believe that after spending $100,000k you plan to come back to India immediately! They will ask you where if they really need to know)

    VO: Where? (As I said )
    ME: Ma’am, wherever my company asks me to. But I would PREFER INDIA. (Here I conveyed an important message: I haven’t pre-determined any country for my future job. It’s not me but my company that would take a call about it, but my preference is INDIA. If you say IN INDIA, they know/think you are being dishonest. You can’t even say US, so what to do? Well just let them know it’s not your choice! :P )

    VO: Who is going to sponsor you? (I had prepared all questions related to finance quite well because that was the APPARENT reason why my visa of denied previously)
    ME: my parents.

    VO: What do they do?
    ME: My dad by profession is a ZZZ and has his own firm HERE IN INDIA named YYY (interrupts, I think after saying firm in India she must be sure he’s not going to shift to USA)

    VO: You need a $100k for your course, how are they going to sponsor? (Most awaited question, highly unexpected reaction)
    ME: ma’am, my parents have total assets worth $xxx (I purposely started with grand total) out of which movable is (interrupts)

    VO: How much did you say? 0_o
    ME: ma’am, $xxx.

    VO: Did you just say $xxx? 0_o
    ME: yes ma’am, $xxx worth of total assets.

    VO: Are you sure?
    ME: Yes ma’am, would you like to see the summary?

    VO: oh yes, I would like see your summary.
    (Passed summary report that I had prepared for her quick review and didn’t get it attested or whatever the term is by a C.A. All assets in rupees and dollars @ 56)
    VO: who has made this? The bank?
    ME: no ma’am I have made this but i have all supporting documents.(immediately passed all originals. Saw the number of documents and returned it)

    VO: oh, it’s ok. (Kept passport aside, I knew I was done here and was all set to run outside :P)

    VO: your test score?
    ME: 1350 in GRE…800 in quant and 550 in verbal (if you have scored good why not give detailed info :P). TOEFL 106.

    VO: out of?
    ME: (seriously? After approving VISA!) 120 ma’am. Would you like to see the score card?

    VO: No. You visa has been approved. Enjoy your stay at US.
    ME: Thank you ma’am. Thanks a lot (in my mind: I deserved it you ……)

    Changes Done for 2nd Visa Attempt

    1. No sub totals in summary report.
    2. Tried speaking like normal people.
    3. Tried to restrict my answer.
    4. Believed in myself!
    5. Kept answering questions in my mind whenever I had nothing to do.
    6. Gave mock interviews to friends on phone.

    F1 Visa InterviewTips

    Many people said ‘be confident’, but not many said how? Well, you can be confident only if you know s**t coming out. Don’t mind, but it’s true. We all go and talk s**t there, nothing we say is true. What matters is how well you know what you are talking. So list points for all possible questions. 3-5 points depending on question. If you know what you are talking, you would be confident, 95% if not 100%.

    Have specific answer for why so and so university. But don't name any professor unless you have enough details about him/her. Just talk about your interest and courses. Ranking if its good.

    When it comes to finances, always start with larger number. Example:
    Dad’s income?-->Total family income is xyz out of which dad earns abc. If even total income is low, start with total assets worth pqr and total income xyz. Let them think you must have not understood the question properly, but you passed an important piece of information here, that you have good savings, or total income is more than sufficient. Why I’m suggesting this is that not everyone is asked further question, to explain savings or income and all. It might happen that they might simply reject you after listening to your father’s income which is low.

    Any question regarding Savings?--> Total assets(movable + immovable) worth $xxx thousand. Say this in dollar. I bet your total would be more than above average American family’s assets. This is what happened in my case, that’s what got me visa. Continue…out of which movable is so and so. Stop here. Give specific details like balance in bank and all only if asked. In my case bank balance was few hundreds lesser than i20 amount. If asked I would have said: ma’am, in India gold and FDs have higher return values and my parents were thoughtful enough to invest all their savings in it which is worth $xxx. I hope you got my point here.

    Also Read:

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    Comments 3 Comments
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    1. Unregistered's Avatar
      Unregistered -
      please pass your passport
      me:given
      vo:can u tell me some thing about university?
      mexxx university was charted in 1845by the republic of texas .making continously operating college in that state.In xxx student to faculty ratio is 16:1.it caltivates an envirnment where u can grow and thrive.in xx stupedts are prepared for quality of leadership services and faith informed of global society..............
      VO: when did you complete your graduation ?
      Me: 2011
      vO:what you have done from 2011
      me: i have been working as system administrator in geeeni computers from the couple of years
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