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Port of Entry for F1 Visa Students
Update: POE questions for students from recent incidents are added.Port of entry is a place where you lawfully enter a Country. USA has lot of port of entry cities in which popular are Newark, Atlanta, SFO, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angels etc.
Your flight from India will arrive at one of the Port of Entry cities where you will have a short interview with an immigration officer.
F1 Visa student should be ready with Original form I-20, Passport(Visa), SEVIS fee receipt and any other documents he may ask. Immigration officer validate your entry with the information he has in his system with the documents you submit and confirm few things verbally.
Queue at port of entry looks like this:
Port of entry for F1 visa Students
1) Why are you coming to USA?2) Which University?
3) Do you have any address over here?
4) If you are travelling to a city where the university is not located(travelling to city where friends or relatives reside) immigration officer may ask you why you are heading to a new destination instead of the university location.
5) How long you are going to stay in the USA?
6) How much money you are carrying? - you are expected to carry few thousands of dollars for immediate expenses.
7) Are you carrying debit card or travel card? how are you going to pay college fee. - Better to have first sem tuition fee in travelers checks or debit cards.
8) Are you going to work in USA? - you are not allowed to work outside campus. And 20 hrs week allowed on campus.
9) how much each course cost at your university. Know the fundamentals of semester fees/tuition.
10) Are you going to earn extra income by working in gas stations, motels,restaurents? - You should not.
11) What is living cost in your city? For CA, NY, NJ it would be $1000+ a month. other places 750-1000$
12) How many are going to live in the apartment? Do you have accomodation? - 10 or 12 in single apartment is not allowed. Usually max of 2 in single bed, 4 in 2 bed.
13) In what city are you planning to apply for part-time jobs? - you should not do this on F1 visa.
14) How many courses are you enrolling in first sem? What are they?
SEVP check of University: Immigration officer will check whether your school is SEVP accredited or not. If you school is not in the SEVP database visa officer may reject your entry into USA.
Recommendations to Travel on F1 Visa
Don't travel in bigger groups.
Carry atleast 1000+ USD.
Know about university, tuition/fee, subjects, courses.
You should not work outside the university campus.
Carry financial support documents, debit cards loaded with money for alteast 1st sem tuition fee.
Don't apply to JUNK UNIVERSITIES - Especially the ones paying money to Consultancies.
Don't give STUPID answers.
You should remember that Port of Entry officer has the right to revoke your visa and send you back to home country.
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