VISA REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURE

Congratulations!!! Now that you have got your I-20s and decided as to which university you will attend, the thing most students dread....THE VISA INTERVIEW. Chillax, it's not as bad as some students project it to be. The Visa Interview depends a lot on your luck and how the visa officer is feeling on that day. You can only hope and pray that he is in a good mood.
Once the visa is obtained you must leave India within a period of three months.

Visa Requirements

The most important question on ones mind is what are the documents that are to be taken along for the interview. Here is a very comprehensive list of the documents.


1) A Valid Passport

The passport need not be valid for the entire duration of the stay in US( usually 1 and 1/2 to 2 years). It has to be valid for at least 6 months after the day the student appears for visa interview.

2) A Demand Draft

The Application fee of Rs.1980/- i.e.. USD 45 (please check up with the consulate for the latest amount, as this keeps on changing. You may call up 3637407/8 for visa information if you are in Mumbai) MUST be a Demand Draft in favor of the "American Consulate General, Mumbai ". Write your name and address behind the DD.

3) The Visa Fee

If you get the visa, a visa fee of Rs.4400/- i.e.. USD 100, either in cash or a DD in favor of the 'American Consulate General, Mumbai', is required to be paid immediately.

4) The Visa Form

You can obtain a visa form from the US consulate few days before you plan to go for the visa interview. They are generally open between 8:00am and 11:00am (In Mumbai). See that you ask for a Non-Immigrant Visa Application Form. In the form you are asked what your place of residence will be in the US. You may have not decided where you will stay on reaching there. So, you can write "on campus ". The visa form requires a 37mm * 37mm colour photo with a white/light background.

5) The I-20 Form, Letter of Admission and Aid letter

Complete both (students copy and school copy) the I-20 forms and sign them. You may also carry along any correspondence with the University that you feel is significant.

6) Exam scores

You will have to take original copies of GRE and TOEFL scores. Keep them separately so that you can produce them immediately when asked for( They hate waiting!!). They usually ask for the GRE score report. Also carry along with you all your original semester mark sheets. Usually they do not ask for HSC & SSC marks, but if you want to be doubly sure take them too.

7) Financial Documentation
(Please read this section very carefully as this may decide whether you go to US or not)

If you have got aid then you can chill out. Usually, they will not ask you about your financial position. For those who haven't got any financial assistance see that you show sufficient funds for the duration of the course.

a) The most common document students take is a CA certificate. This is a certificate stating that your sponsor has the required funds to finance your entire educational, living and other expenses. It gives a summary of the funds of the sponsor. For an outline of the CA Certificate please go to the Download Section.

b) Just the CA certificate will not suffice. You may be asked to produce all the original documents that were used to evaluate the funds. Some of the documents used for evaluation are-
the Tax returns of parents, salary certificate, bank passbooks, bank FD receipts, company FD receipts, share certificates, property documents, gold evaluation and any other document that you may have used. It is very important that you carry along all these documents.

NOTE: It is very important that you avoid showing complete financial funds from US. Scores of students have been rejected because of this reason.

8) Sponsor's Letter

Obtain a letter from your sponsor (generally parents) stating that he/she/they will provide for the complete expenses for the entire course of study. For an outline of the Sponsor's Letter please go to the Download Section.

Visa Procedure

As far as the visa procedure is concerned, they may change it at their own whim and fancy. So please verify from the consulate office. If you are in Mumbai here is what you will go through : CAUTION: Do not take an electronic equipment with you. Also the documents that you carry should be in a folder so that you can easily remove when asked. Keep the folder in a plastic bag if you wish. Leather bags, suitcases are not allowed in the consulate.

1) The problem is that the line is common for all Non-Immigrant visas( Students F1, visitors B1, Business L1, Work H1B etc...). . So, the lines begin at 4:00am with people coming from out-station too. But don't worry you need not go so early. You may reach there at around 6:00am.
The advantage of going little early is to avoid the sun and to get some place to sit inside in the AC. 2) People are allowed inside at around 7:00am. After you get in you will be asked by the security to sit and wait for your turn to come. At this point keep your passport, I-20 and the completed form ready. You will be asked to go to a particular counter. Submit the above documents and collect a pink token given to you.

3) Now stand in another queue (ask the security) with this token and your DD (Rs.1980/-) ready. The cashier will give you a receipt. Take this and get yourself a place to sit and relax. The consulate has good facilities for water, snacks and washroom. 4) The interviews start at around 9:00am. Be very attentive as they call out the token numbers (or sometimes just your name). It is very difficult to hear the numbers in the din. You will be asked to report to a particular counter. Wait for your turn to come. Give the pink token and call out your name. Be ready now with your documents for the SHOWDOWN !!

The most important thing to remember is not to get nervous. Yeah, its easier said than done, but try to exude some confidence when you speak. If you want you can practice answering some questions in front of an audience at home. It may work wonders for some.

Yeah now the section you have been waiting for. What do the visa officers ask??? Well, it is not easy to say what they will ask. It also depends on whether they want to give you the visa or not. Yes, usually they may have decided that before the interview!!! But over the past years some of the common questions that have been asked are given for your reference.

Your first aim will be to convince the officer that you are not using the students F1 visa to enter the US, you are very 'sincere' about returning to India and you have 'no intention' of immigrating to the United States. There must be concrete arguments regarding this and what you want to do after coming here. You can prepare for some questions like :
a) Does the program make sense?
b) Why study abroad?
c) Why at this time?
d) what are your career goals?
e) What after this?
f) What does your father do?
After your interview is over the visa officer will tell you whether the visa is issued or not. If issued you have to go to the cashier and pay the visa fees. Your passport with visa and I-20 will be returned at 4'o clock. Then you can go party!!!

If visa is refused the officer will give a refusal letter and return the passport immediately. If such is the case you can apply again after 3 working days.

Many FAQs are available via FTP on the archive site rtfm.mit.edu in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers. The path for this faq is /pub/usenet/news.answers/us-visa-faq/part5. To get the FAQ by E-mail, you should send a message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with send usenet/news.answers/us-visa-faq/part5 in the body of the message. We highly recommend this FTP site. It should answer a lot of your queries.