Are You at Risk of Getting Your F-1 Visa Refused? Discussion with Former Visa Officers

hello everyone by watching our videos you agree and understand that the information provided by our experts and attorneys including comments and replies from users is not legal advice so use of information is at your own risk I am NASA pradan and welcome everyone to immigration and jobs talk show very happy to have you here wherever you have joined us from whether it's on Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Instagram even and YouTube of course so thank you so much and it's going to be a great show today as well because we are going to have a very very uh exciting Duo I would say you know from well let me just go one by one and we are here to discuss all things about immigration and delve into the nuances of you know navigating the complex Lex world of visas and immigration law so today it's going to be even more special because lined up for you we have two distinguished immigration attorneys from Argo Visa uh and they are Maggie ramse andati Patel Vasan so thank you so much both of you welcome to immigration and jobs talk show how are you doing doing great thank you neasa let me just clarify ify that um that I'm not an immigration attorney um at argov Visa we are former US Visa officers former American Consul officers who do have expertise in visas but we um are generally not qualified attorneys and we do not give legal advice um that's not not part of Argo Visa but we do give um advice on Visa interviews and um coaching to help people prepare for their visa interviews right my bad I'm sorry about that I was just going to go to that bit but uh well every time but we are definitely going to talk about visas and immigration and it's going to be a good conversation I hope looking forward and uh well okay let's go to that then uh let me just introduce a little bit and maybe let's go one by one maybe Maggie let's start with you well Maggie is a former Foreign Service Officer with us Department and you know she has been in embassies and consulates in Mumbai waro po Poland Toronto and tell us more about yourself please Maggie absolutely um so I worked for the US government for over 11 years as a Visa officer and during that time I lived and worked all over the world I worked at the American Consulate in Mumbai in India for two years where I did visas I also worked in uh Europe at the American Embassy in Poland uh I worked in Canada at the American Consulate in Toronto and also at State Department headquarters in Washington DC during my time with the US government I adjudicated or made decisions on over 25,000 uh US Visa applications and so now I do Consulting work for Argo Visa where we help people um prepare for their visa interviews um uncover their highlights and um help them build their confidence and uh give them a better chance of succeeding at their visa interview thank you for having me today I'm happy to be here thank you thank you so much and I'm sure your expertise is going to just make our show a very very enlightening one and let's go to Swati now um well SW Miss Swati Patel Vasan nearly 14 years of US Federal government service tell us more about yourself please sure thank you for having us um so I have 14 years of federal service of which I was an immigration officer first for Department of Justice and Homeland Security and then I moved over to State Department as a Foreign Service Officer where I served other additional 11 years I had assignments in Honduras in Mumbai at uh the Mexico desk in headquarters in Washington DC and at uh Mumbai again so out of my 14 years I have about seven years of specialty Consular work I've done close to 100,000 different kinds of Visa adjudications of all categories of non-immigrant visas immigrant visas citizenship and certain complicated cases I've been Consulting now for Argo for quite some time and uh we love helping people really navigate and understand um their situation in particular it's going to be awesome and I think without further Ado let's just dive into today's discussion you know where we'll be exploring you know some of the most pressing immigration issues and shedding light on key aspects of Visa applications and you know today's topic is on the screen well if you are at risk of getting your F1 Visa refused and you know you'll be getting important life update so stay with us because it's going to be very very interesting and um so you know before I go into the questions I just want to tell you there's a special contest we have running during today's show and uh yes it is a quiz we will be asking you a question I will tell you what the question is in no time you just have to stay with us all right and you can comment your answers and guess what the best thing is that there'll be prizes worth rupees sorry prizes worth $100 from higher ity People Inc and and they're up for grab so make sure you participate okay all right so without further Ado let's dive into our first question so we will be checking on the most common reasons of F1 visa refusals and let's go with Maggie first um how do GRE and TF scores influence the F1 Visa applic especially when they are just on the threshold of University requirements yeah so to start off um neasa I just want to address the more general question first which is what are the most common reasons for F1 visa refusals and I think when we think about that you know we think about um first of all you know the the Visa officer needs to convince um sorry the the applicant needs to convince the Visa officer that they are a genuine student that they have a genuine intent to study in the US and do well in their studies so that's the first thing that they need to do the second thing is the financial aspect do they have enough resources enough finan finances behind them to uh to support them during their studies do they have enough money to cover tuition room and board Etc so that's the second thing and the third thing that that the Visa officer is looking at is um does this person have ties to their home country do they plan to return and take up a job in their home country so they are looking at those three major things so those are the some of the most common reasons for F1 Visa refusals involve uh when an applicant is not able to articulate um good answers to those three points and so to go a little bit further into detail in this question about how the test scores such as the GRE and the TOEFL scores could influence the F1 visa application um you know to be honest with you you know when I was doing this work um you know worldwide in India and elsewhere I was not super focused on the details of people's test scores um you have to remember this is a very short interview this is two or three minutes that you have to convince the Visa officer that you are a genuine student and you you know genuinely want to study in the US and it makes sense for your life Journey so you know yes test scorts are good and you want to do well do as as well as you can but at the same time um you know I was not sort of making decisions based on test scores you know I would make decisions based on you know did this person get into a good un University are they telling me you know a genuine story about what they want to study do I think that they have um enough money they have the the requisite Financial backing for this so you know I think the test scores you know I wouldn't get too hung up on them you want to do well of course and of course that will help you get into a good University but at the same time I wouldn't you know I wouldn't you know get overly fixated on test scores um when it comes to the visa application I couldn't with Maggie more actually on that part I couldn't agree with you more because the applicants are totally thinking about their test scores why test scores are important for them is because it helps them determine which universities colleges they're going to get into that's why they take those tests to determine the proper fit of the university for them so for the Visa officer that's not the most important thing how well they scored on a test even rarely sometimes a Visa officer will ask what was your toal score for examp example so just um you know totally supporting what Maggie said it's exactly that way but how do you know it's a genuine story Are the officers trained yes I I think so I mean you know you're having a conversation here you're you're you're telling them you know why you applied to this University why this course is important to you what this means for your future what kind of job you'll be able to get afterwards and so you know if you're if you're speaking like you're having a conversation with the VISA officer and you're you're being clear and convincing with your story you know Visa officers are trained to interact with people and to see if they're telling the truth and if they're um being genuine so I think that's the most important thing to to think about do you go most of the time with your intuition then it's a combination of factors actually but yes well I would just say hi to everyone who have joined us you know there so many messages I can already see uh we will have to take them up for sure I will take them up in between as well so wherever you've joined us from if you could also tell us which city and state you've joined us from it would be very um great because we would be able to answer precisely all right so moving on let's let's go on to the next question I have for you you know how does the intent to immigrate affect an F1 visa application when the academic scores are barely meeting the criteria have you had cases where you know they've had less scores but then they still want to come so you know I'll take this one um neasa so you know the intent to immigrate that is something that you need to you know you need to convince the Visa off officer that you do not intend to immigrate on this Visa this is a student visa this is meant for study and then at the end of your studies you know you are meant to return to your home country that is the intention of the Visa so you know you need to be keeping that in mind you know during the interview um in terms of academic scores you know if they are on the lower side you know that will call into question um whether or not you know that person is suited for academic study in in America so if your scores are on theow side or maybe you got into a university that has lower admission standards you know that will require some explaining about why this is the right place for you and so you know there's a couple of different things going on there but you do need to convince the officer that you do not intend to immigrate that you intend to return to your home country and then you need to address academic scores if they are not not super high you need to say you know this is this is still the right school for me I plan to you know improve my English or or you know whatever it is and you know you need to need to convince them right right and you know uh Maggie and sadii we are actually having a lot of uh people asking score related to scores questions related to scores in our groups and I think I would just like to know you know what if Visa applicants come prepared with a story to fake how about that so I'll just jump in here I think uh see Visa officers not not only do we have training uh in what we're doing we actually have totally official training in what we do immersive training but after that Visa officers doing Consular tours get assigned to all sorts of different places where they get a lot of immersive experience as Maggie alluded to not only cultural trading but also they get a lot of experience of just actually doing the Visa interviews in most post before an officer starts interviewing themselves when they're new to that post they're usually doing some Shadow training with another senior more officer and then the roles get reversed where the office the new officer is adjudicating and a senior officer is still overseeing before the H Reigns are totally handed off so um it is a lot of experience that comes into play here and a lot of training I'm sure there's no doubt about that by the way all right let's let's move on you know maybe let's take up a question from the audience so that you know let's take up um okay hello hello to Hero S man Ali they're saying hi hello ma'am okay Jerry Jerry is saying I have been uh denight three times and I have an upcoming appointment is there a followup or okay and it's NF1 Visa yeah that's it any comments would you like to take it up sloy maybe sure so uh Jerry this depends a lot on your individual case for everybody it's a little different so it depends on what your situation is um why how many schools did you apply to why did you apply to those schools did in between between those three denials did in between did you switch uh schools thinking that would help you better um to get an approval so that can really depend um and then it it's more important about what are your real intentions if you just keep applying but nothing's really changing or you're not able to communicate why you really need the said degree or why you've decided to apply to this or how it's going to change your life then uh yes it can definitely um affect you and also the other thing is if you've been denied once it's always much harder to get approved so every time you rack up a denial it gets that much harder and most times the interview becomes shorter and shorter plus the officer has notes of all your previous interviews so they are reviewing that so it's more and more difficult and that's why we come into play here at Argo to help you understand how do you counterbalance that all right and Jerry I hope that's going to boost your confidence but he's wishing you good luck you know for the upcoming appointment I hope you crack it somehow all right so so let's move on to the question still talking about refusal Visa refusal for F1 so um let's take it up you know how critical is the visa interview assessing The credibility of the students academic and test core claims hi Maggie Ste want to take this one as part of you absolutely absolutely so I would say that you know the visa interview is is quite important it is it is very critical that is the time at which you can explain yourself you can explain why you chose this college why this course of study is important to you you know what this this degree is going to do for you in the future you know what your career plans are how you're going to return to your home country and you know what kind of job you could get all of that so you know definitely the visy interview is very important um so this is why preparation is so key and and that's why you know if I can just plug plug Argo here you know having preparation you know with you know with one of us from Argo we can really help boost your confidence we can run those mock interviews we can you know let you know some questions that might be coming your way we can help you you know find the right answers to explain your situation um because the ABA interview is very important that's um you know that is a hurdle that people have to overcome so uh definitely it it is important to assess The credibility there right right right and what about um you know let's take this one please uh it's from the audience and uh I have skin issue on my palm since childhood and my fingerprints are never clear I'm afraid about my Biometrics for Fon Visa can you tell me is there any alternative for this um let's go with Maggie maybe if you could take this please sure I I do remember we we sometimes we would see um this sort of issue with Biometrics and um you know there's other sort of I think that you would still have to give fingerprints to the best of your ability but then there also is you know the photo that you're giving and and and obviously other forms of ID so I think you know I think you just do the best you can and I think you you know can take the advice of of the embassy when you're there um I don't believe it would be a deal breaker but I think that you would have to um uh explain the situation and and why maybe your fingerprints are not as good quality um as as typical and I'm sure they'll be proof I mean maybe some dermatologist can even give you some certification about that right what do you say sure sure if you'd like to bring a medical note absolutely um sometimes people you know people who uh are doing you know manual labor or Farmers Etc you know sometimes their fingerprints are just not that that good you know and that's just you know that can't be helped and so you know they can still give just the best quality that they can in terms of fingerprints and then you know it's it's It generally works out yeah and we see that a lot in elderly applicants sometimes their fingerprints aren't great so um there is a it's the just because the biom metrics are not turning out 100% perfect is not a correlation to that because of that you're going to get your visa denied automatically so I want to make that clear um they will have some way to make sure you still get your interview and they will do whatever internal processes that they have to do to proceed right nothing to be afraid of all right all right let's let's move on let's get back to still talking about F1 Visa refusals so how critical um how does the intent to immigrate affect an fund visa application you know when the academic scores are barely meeting criteria I think we took this up already so what steps can applicants take if their F1 visas refused due to academic concerns then so I think we're still you know I'll I'll kind of you know address this one since it's all you know in the same vein here um you know if if the issue is academic scores you know they could they could sort of you know try to help explain again why this is the particular University that is the right one for them um you know it is it is about the story and you know certain colleges are right for certain people certain courses of study you know it is about you know why you want to study at this college and do this program and why this is the right thing for you and how this is going to affect your future so it is quite individual um yeah all right okay please don't forget to subscribe to our Channel this is immigration and jobs talk show and we will be very happy to have you and you know answer all of your questions also don't forget to comment your questions we can already see a lot of questions actually from so many folks out there thank you so much for joining us and uh yeah let's let's just be take this one up from LinkedIn this is from AE good morning uh I am AE having six plus years of experience as data scientist as I want to have my further career in artificial intelligence field I would like to do Masters in artificial intelligence and algorithms from uh Wayne State University uh since it's not complete I'll just read the rest from from my end but my F1 Visa got rejected twice during spring 24 with 21 with 214b regulation any suggestions from your side how to fulfill with 214b regulation Maggie you want me to take this yes sure yes sure please go so uh so it it is always case dependent okay so if an if a person if a student has done a bachelor's in something see in an F1 an officer as Maggie said wants to see were you a credible student before okay and are you going to be a credible student so if there is a change in subject H for example yours is data science to now you want to do artificial intelligence it still has to make sense is there some sort of connection what is the kind of work experience that you have in which field are they related have you done um something that merges the two or why do you need to switch now why do you want to switch now so all of that stuff will make a difference and basically when you are presenting yourself in the interview that's the most important thing it it is not just a blanket um denial or okay you're approved because you've done a data scientist and you've had this work experience and you're going to go for your Masters now and something else it is more about explaining to the officer why this makes sense for you um so that's you know that's what I can tell you here thank you thank you so much uh swti foring that up and I hope aay you've got your answer if there's more you want to know keep um commenting your question please and uh well I think we will get back to our questions then and this one is for spatti again you know can insufficient Financial proof you know combined with borderline academic scores lead to F1 Visa denial yes absolutely because one of the main criterias and it's not just the borderline academic scores even without that one of the main criterias for an F1 student is you should be able to fund your full first year comfortably and you should have funds accessible to be able to fund the duration of your studies okay so if your course is going take you your bachelor's program is going to take you four years or your master's program is going to take you two years you need to be able to demonstrate that yes the first year is covered it could be covered in a combination of ways scholarship loan parents are sponsoring or it could just be one source but then the second year whatever the amount is showing on your I20 plus any sort of living expenses and Extras that you would have there your family situation wherever the sponsorship is coming from which is usually the family but that situation should be strong enough that is able to make sure that you're not going you're going to actually study and you you're not going to need to seek um an a job for example to supplement your your expenses which or something you know do something which is not in line with your F1 Visa because that's where you start getting into trouble so that is where the um the officer is uh really you know that's the perspective they're coming from so it's yes it's really important okay thank you thank you so much Swati and um let me just take this opportunity to remind folks out there that we are actually running a contest you know and winners will receive goodies valued $100 from highy People Inc and well we will be announcing at the end of this show itself you know the winner so are you ready for the question well uh please ALS so make sure that you're participative throughout this throughout this whole show also all right so the question is can F1 students legally work in the US immediately upon their arrival reply with true or false okay let me repeat and you can already see it on the screen can F1 students legally work in the US immediately upon their arrival so true or false okay we'll be waiting for your answers and let's see what you say all right so my next question is for you Maggie and um you know in terms of securing securing an F1 Visa how important are strong ties to one's home country especially when academic scores are marginal ties to one's home country are very very important and the reason for this is that you know for this Visa category for the f one student visa um there is an assumption baked into US immigration law that a person applying for this wishes to immigrate to the United States so basically what they need to do at the interview with the VISA officer is convince the Visa officer that they do not wish to immigrate that they actually wish to return home and take up a job in their home country so having very strong ties to one's home country in the form of Family Ties social ties Financial economic ties Etc um that's very important so you know this is this is an important thing to be conveying to the Visa officer um yeah very important okay thank you thank you and I mean I don't I have no words I'm running out of words because there are so many too many in fact too many comments so many participants and I think we should just quickly scroll the screen to give you a look Kido I mean just look at the side of my screen and you yeah I mean that's so many actually well keep commenting I would say and we are going to take your questions up and yes also part participate in the contest we have $100 goodies for you from higher it Inc and let's move on let's move on to Swati this next question is for you well in are there any less common academic related issues that might lead to an F1 Visa refusal yeah sure you know what I've I've uh been able to realize is from a lot of the theme of the questions it seems that the concern for lot of your audience is that about academic scores so as Maggie you know said it's not really about just the academic scor so if you're thinking it's the academic scores then what else if that's not really it then what else is a Visa officer really looking for so here one of the big things is a gap okay now there's a lot of reasons that somebody can have a gap there's a plethora of reasons right but the point is you should be able to explain that Gap and in that Gap if you are a genuine student you would have likely still continued to do something that shows that this is definitely the career path I want to follow the Gap could have been because of covid and you had to do some online programming classes um it might have been some certification course to make sure you were still up on the latest industry um standards I think in your respective field so what did you do with that Gap and a lot of people people unfortunately students especially when they're going from a bachelor's they have a gap then they're going to Master's they they undervalue the importance of being able to have a productive Gap and be able to explain it so that is definitely an important thing you if you are going to need a gap year for whatever reason it may be whether it's personal or professional you still have and you then decide to pursue a um a further studies you have to be able to justify why that Gap is because it goes to the points of an F1 student the very first thing is were you a credible student second thing is the finances third thing is are you going to be a credible student that means what are you going to study why are you going to study that why do you need it so it that is a really important part that I think a lot of students Overlook right right and just like we were showing you there's too many too many comments and I know I feel like been going over and over about just scores so uh I'm sure you know we may have to sit here forever to answer our lovely audience but nevertheless I think we should definitely jump into some of their questions so let's let's take up uh this one uh this is on this is from um ibraim and hi oh sorry let's let's take the this one first okay uh on YouTube this is from munib hi my F1 Visa was refused under Section 221g in May 2022 as some additional documents related to my program were acquired which I submitted promptly however there have been no updates till now so what should munip do um Swati let's let's have this answer from you okay so uh okay so 221g is basically administrative processing right when you're checking in technically in the portal it will show you that you've been refused but it is not that so one of the main two reasons you have 221g is because either the officer needs to do something internally or the other reason which is in your case where they tell you we need X Y or Z in order to finish processing your case okay so now you've submitted that the thing that usually happens this is an internal process same kind of thing okay it depends on how busy the post is what their Staffing is like how their um schedule is lined up how many interviews do they have because all the 221 GS that come in later when you have to actually submit something then they are sometimes depending on the post it they are done when the off they're you know sent to the officer that adjudicate in the first place they're correlated that officer might have some afternoons to look at it after they're off the Visa line sometimes and post in in places like I served in Mumbai we had once a week where we were able to spend part of an afternoon to correlate all the pending 221 GS so you can only imagine so sometimes that time is not because you didn't submit what you needed to submit you are supposed to do the needful and then you kind of have to wait and watch and be patient okay they will respond to you um unfortunately I know the biggest fear with 221g is when unfortunately that nobody can tell you okay so you have to respond you have to wait you have to you can follow up after some time but they usually tell you you should wait XYZ number of days sometimes it's 90 sometimes it's 180 it depends on what their internal processing is as well so you should um kind of abide by that and it should be okay okay all right so M just stay patient and he has a followup I have a new I20 in different program should I should and can I reapply then M Magie do you want to jump in sure absolutely yeah um yeah money would say yes go ahead and um you can and and should reapply you know if it has been you know going on two years now since the 221g refusal you know pending case then absolutely if you have a new program new I20 go ahead and reapply and um you know see if if you get similar um additional processing or if this time you know maybe it's different so I would I would go ahead and reapply okay M you can definitely go ahead then all right let's let's take this one up now this is from ibraim he's asking hello from Pakistan hello um my F1 Visa is next week and I'm confused my MFA program is three years long but my I20 has an end date that is 8 months earlier than the actual duration so what should he do okay so F1 is a duration of status okay so when he's at the interview one there has to be it has to make sense why if especially if the Visa officer is asking why is your I20 say your program is going to end within this much period but you are saying it's going to take three years okay so if it's genuinely going to take three years you need to be explained that be able to explain that and if it is really three years ideally you should get an I updated I20 from your school that reflects the actual duration of your program because that is going to be very very important if the I20 is saying no no no you need to be able to complete this MFA in only this much time then your plan your course of study Etc should be able to also meet that okay um the F1 certain f1s will allow you CPT opt stem opt XYZ but um you know obviously that's another whole Topic in itself but um yeah you should try to get an updated I20 if your actual program is indeed longer than what your I20 says right and he has a followup so let's take that up at one go so Ibrahim is asking control please display that please okay there are too many chats I'm so sorry like we are actually bombarded you know and it's going on but I hope ibraim you've got your answer and all right let's let's just go on let's let's go on then let's go to the next one now I think this one should be for Maggie Parisa is asking I refused for three time I was refused for three times under Section 214b off B officers said to me change the acceptance and now I can change it and I20 and I want to go Embassy again can you recommend how should I do to get an F1 Visa okay I hope you can get what he means yeah I think so so for this case um paresa so after you know a number of refusals three times and if you're going to try again you really have to demonstrate what has changed in your situation so maybe there's something that you didn't get a chance to tell the officer at your previous interviews or you felt they didn't understand about your situation or maybe you know you didn't feel that they understood your financial situation or your reason for study Etc whatever it was you need to be telling them about what's different because if nothing's different in your case then potentially if you go for your fourth interview the outcome will be the same it will be a denial so you really need to think about this and this is this is a way that Argo Visa can really help you because you know we can during the course of the consultation we can help you figure out you know what your weaknesses are what your strengths are and then help you to bring out those strengths and really um share those with the officer uh you know in an early and and clear way and so they understand um about why you want to be a student so I would say think about the changes in your situation think about what's different this time around that they didn't understand before and consider having a consultation with us at Argo to help you uh really convey your strengths to the Visa officer you know for your next interview all right Maggie thank you so much for taking that up and I'm sure Argo Visa experts you are famous and I can say that because there are so many folks who have joined us and maybe you could tell us a little bit about Argo Visa before we just go off for a break let's hear it from Maggie sure absolutely so argov Visa is a company that started a few years ago we're very unique um I think we're the only um company in the world that brings together former American visa officers former American diplomats who have made decisions on visas across a whole range of categories all around the world um you know we have many of us speak different languages you know we have served in uh so many different American embassies and consulates worldwide and so we came together because we thought that um when we did work for the US government that there were so many cases where Visa applicants were not prepared and not ready for their visa interview and they had um maybe been you know reading a lot of misinformation online maybe they had heard a lot of myths about the the Visa process and about what to say at the interview and so we saw that so many people were refused visas and it was you know in so many cases it it was you know because they they weren't prepared and they didn't have enough information about the right way to go about their visa interview and how to prepare for it so now you know now that we're out of the US government you know we're doing this this Consulting we can now offer um offer Insight in behind the curtain into the US Visa process help people uncover their strengths help them um know about their weaknesses and how to you know present them or how to how to mitigate those but really help to you know tell their story and give give them the best possible chance of success during the US Visa interview absolutely and friends out there you can contact Argo Visa experts directly you know the link is on the description below so go check them out and uh let me remind you once again that we are actually running a contest so participate so before we go for the break I'm just going to put up the question once again and if you have an answer don't forget to comment we are going to select the winners today itself and announce the winner at the end of the show we're going to have just one winner actually and the winner is going to get $100 of goodies from higher ity Inc so the question is can F1 students legally work in the us immediately upon their arrival true or false can F1 students legally work in the US immediately upon their arrival reply with true or false all right so we'll look up for your answers keep commenting and let's just go for a short break now we'll be right back so stay tuned to immigration and jobs talk show this is neasa with Argo Visa experts none other than swatti and Maggie you an IT consultant seeking a new opportunity we offer job placement services for US citizens green cards eeds and Visa holders we also sponsor various work visas like H1B E3 TN and green cards 20 plus years of experience in the industry exceptional employee benefits highly rated by our employees Global presence with 200 plus recruiters and direct clients connect with us call us in the number 408 33564 44 or mail us at NEPA highy people.com or visit our website www.hit people.com welcome back everyone I hope you enjoyed the break and we are here with Maggie ramse and Swati Patel Vasan from Argo Visa you know continuing our Deep dive into immigration and Visa process today we're talking about F1 Visa are particularly and before we proceed I want to remind you yes we are running a quiz a contest actually and the winner is going to get $100 worth of goodies from highiy people.in so yes don't forget to participate okay before we went off the break I already asked you the question but here it is once again can F1 students legally work in the US immediately upon their arrival reply with true or false you can leave your answers in the comments and we'll be very happy to take them up all right so well my next question is for you Maggie and this one is you know can you tell me how long will it take for a Pakistani student to complete administrative uh processing if they receive a pink slip 221g after their F1 visa interview for a PhD program but before that what is a pink slip sure so I'll just I'll touch on this one briefly because I know that swatti covered administrative processing quite well in her previous answer but basically the 221g is the pending slip you know it's a pink slip it means that there's something else additional needed for processing the case and how long this could take um you know it's really you know there's not a there's not a fixed time frame for it it could be be several weeks it could be several months it it really depends on like Swati was saying you know how long the processing is taking at post and and elsewhere so um I think a good a good course of action is to check in every few weeks check in with the embassy or consulate see if there's anything additional that they need but um basically you do have to be patient and just wait it out okay so I have someone actually messaging me right now and this one I think we should um should I think Swati should take this up so being a Pakistani National I got a fully funded position and appeared as family with husband and two kids but at Abu Dhabi Embassy husband will go for one month to support in settlement and return back to continue his job while I manage kids with the support of daycare petition was filled for was filed for husband as beneficiary um to derivative which was approved in 2010 but his parents refused to pursue it further as they are settled in Home Country what is your advice in our case is there a way I can kind of see it on the screen it's quite a long question sure sure I'm just going to ask the controller please just give me a moment yeah sure if I is this a f is this a the principal person is an F1 F1 and her husband and kids are f4s is that correct right I'll just have it on the screen for you just please so as a family with husband and two kids at Abu Dhabi Embassy husband will go for a month to support in settlement and return back to continous job so so yes that is correct what you just said yeah okay and then there was something uh there was it seemed like there was a Part B something about the parents petition was filed for husband as beneficiary derivative which was approved in 2010 but his parents so the husband's parents refused to pursue it further as they were settled in their home country so this sounds like this basically sounds like so the the person is going for an F1 they want their husband and kids to go as an F4 but the husband had an immigrant Visa petition pending through his parents is what it sounds like um Maggie is that your same read before I answer this I so this this is an immigrant Visa question is that is that is that right yeah it seems like there's a applicant that's an F1 that H wants to take her husband and kids as F4 but the husband had uh his parents file an IV that they didn't pursue is what it sounds like um is is that your read on it I think so yeah I think so too okay okay so in that case there's two things you have to qualify for the F1 anyways has to qualify okay because the f4s will not get approved until anyways the F1 does so assuming the F1 is getting approved then the the f4s why is the husband need to go it's it's one it's several factors on an F4 the Bonafide of the relationship is one of the most important things and then also support well does this story sense one is even why is this F1 leaving the kids that are XYZ ages behind and how would they manage it that's where the F4 story potentially comes in that I have a good job for the last X number of years I get one month of leave I'm GNA help my wife and kids kind of settle into daycare and then I'm coming back to work but regardless when that shows up for his interview if he has had an immigrant Visa petition that was filed for whatever uh reason rescinded he still has to make his cases his case on his own Merit um about why he will not abuse that F4 while he will return why he won't just convert status Etc so I hope I've answered that kind of a bit of a complicated question without knowing more information thank you thank you so much Swati for taking that up and I hope you got your answer um so sorry I don't have the name yet but if you could tell me I'm sure you're listening where are you from and what is your name it'll be very nice of VI thank you all right so it was Anonymous so far let's let's take up some more questions please from the from the audience because it's really really blowing up and I think we should just go with this one yazan is asking the Visa officer informed me in the end of the interview that my application will be under the administrative process and you will receive an update within a week however he took my passport and this is an F1 question so let's let's hear it from Maggie so the the question is um administrative processing again 221g and the passport has stayed at the consulate that's that's the that's the situation okay okay thank you thank you for taking that up um yaan U tell me about tell me more please if you need to know but is there anything to worry about that his passport was taken so generally if the passport is kept that means that you know hopefully you know hopefully the Visa approval is is coming shortly so you know maybe there's just a short process that needs to be completed something like that I would encourage the applicant to reach out to the American Embassy and see what the current status is you know if if they need their passport for travel you know they can take it back maybe ask how long the time frame is um and see what the the current you know status of the cases okay okay so nothing to worry about I think it is good news in fact so yaan please do not worry okay and uh also so thank you so much for answering the previous question her name is zavia Shahid thank you so much from Dubai thank you for joining us stay with us please and let's move on to another question let's take this up from HDE hey from India hi I got rejected B2 Visa twice last year under 214b now I have applied for F1 Visa what should I do or how do I prepare for this interview or how should I answer officer uh let's hear it from swapy sure so the the premises of uh qualifying for a B1 B2 are different from an F1 so it will depend on why did you need that the officer will again will have the notes from your previous so they will already have an idea of what you said then so why did you need that B2 twice why did you apply for it and now why are you switching over to an F1 so it's got to make sense right um maybe you needed those b2s earlier when your whole family was applying and they all got rejected or maybe you were going um and you didn't have a clear plan but you were going to go with some friends but now you've had some years of work experience and you want to go pursue an MBA so it's really really case dependent um but it has to make sense um that is the most important part in this preparation is to understand why did you need those B1 b2s um and why do you now need that F1 and then the officer the us as AR Goofs can help you be able to pres uh prepare on how you present that in a clear concise manner okay thank you so much for taking that up SWA and I hope Hy you got your answer um let's let's take this one from prayas this is on YouTube I have fully funded PhD I20 with graduate assistantship will I get the expedited appointment if I apply 60 days before my class start date do PhD students get F1 Visa in most cases let's hear it from Maggie sure so you know the take the first the first question um there which is about uh you know an expedited appointment applying 60 days before my class start date so just so you know everyone in the audience is aware that um you can actually apply for and be approved your student visa your F1 Visa as you know 365 days prior to the start date of your program and that's something that has changed in recent months so again as as early as one year prior 365 days prior to the start date of your program on your I20 you can apply for and potentially be approved your student visa so if you want to plan way far ahead you can you can certainly do that so that's that's the first part of the question you know thinking about the expedited appointment you know if you have a start date that's coming up you certainly you know have grounds to email the US Embassy and say look can I please have an expedit expedited appointment because my start date is coming up my classes will start soon and see if they accept that reasoning so so that's the first part the second part about PhD students getting an F1 Vis in most cases I would say that if if it is a fully funded PhD that will certainly go a long way towards um removing any any doubts that the officer has about your financial situation if you have a great situation where you're going to do a PhD it's fully funded you know that's great because they're thinking well you know this person has the money to do their PHD that's great and certainly higher level studies like that you know that certainly looks great but at the same time you do have to have the entire package there you do have to show that you are a genuine student with you know good academics background going to be a genuine student in the US going to use that Visa appropriately and of course the financial piece has to be there if you've got a fully funded PhD that's excellent and then finally you do have to show those strong ties to your home country and have that cohesive plan for return to your home country so you yes PhD students you know have a good chance especially if they're fully funded but you know you do need to touch on all those aspects that I've talked about um for the best chance of getting your Visa approved uh the only other thing I want to add uh to what Maggie said about the new changes about you're able to apply even 360 days in advance which is is a totally new thing so it's actually really really helpful for a lot of students but the other thing is on expedite appointments if it isn't the case like um you had said about 60 days before and it's going to start uh then uh you should in your portal when you've actually done you fill out your ds160 and you have your login Etc usually in the left tab of your portal there's a place on the menu that says expedite request so you need to after you have your appointment date you need to go there you need to fill out that form and submit the reasoning for why you need an expedited appointment if you're not able to get it you get uh two chances basically for it so once they you submit it and then they will the the embassy or consulate respond that yes they will prepone your appointment or not if for whatever reason they reject your expedite request then you get one more chance on that same interview ds160 okay thank you for adding adding up swwa and that new update so I hope that was helpful for all you folks out there who are listening right now and well we're almost nearing the end and I really want to answer the uh I mean you know announce the winner of the contest so we are having this contest and we you know the winner we are going to just announce One winner and the winner is going to get $100 worth of goodies from higher ity People Inc and it's going to be really really exciting so uh the question was can F1 students legally work in the US immediately upon their arrival and well the answer to that is actually false uh right uh I mean do do you want to answer any one of you do you want to answer this before you know I announce the winner let's hear it from Swati yeah so it will depend on um see the key word here is uh immediately upon your rival so it will depend on what your I20 is sanctioning uh a lot of times I f1s are allowed to do part-time work um generally on campus so it will depend on as it is it part of the purview of your program and part of your F1 otherwise um this would be false okay and the winner is Manan Ali all right man Ali says US Visa officers do their decision on databases because us have strong databases am I all right is that the winner sorry I mean I'm just having a word with my team here sorry about that if I'm am I on the right path all right I sorry about that okay I think the winner is Devin bour and Devon Bonet said I'm really sorry because there are two many comments so the answer is false F1 students cannot legally work in the USA immediately upon arrival that is the answer from Devon Bon so Devon bour is the winner for this contest today congratulations Devin bour uh you are going to get $100 worth of goodies from highy people.inc and also me and Ali actually so there are two winners I was confused that is why so we have two winners and um we have me and and David Bon congratulations to both of you uh you're going to you are you are going to receive the goodies very very soon from highy People Inc all right so thank you so much for for that then thank you for making it clearer and congratulations once again to the winners so thank you so much to both of you Maggie and swadi I'm I'm sorry if I was all over the place today it is because we have too many participants and oh it was a little confusing in between a little bit because you know we were bombarded I mean in a second there were two many so I think you can already see in the screen but I'm sure it's going to get better and uh we are going to take our time to get to each and every one of you with our answers so uh be there and keep commenting I would say but we are here to answer to you so we are going to get to each one of you with an answer for sure so thank you so much uh both of you I mean Swati and Maggie for joining us today thank you thank you so much for having me and Maggie over here um from Argo we are here to help this is what we do we really believe in it and we give you genuine advice really trying to understand your circumstances and help you get that Visa that you need so um do reach out to us you check us out on argov visa.com send us an email on hello argov visa.com we're happy to set you up with the right kind of officer that meets your type of Visa situation thank you so much Maggie any end note from your end just to say you know thanks so much for having us neasa and this has been fun and I think we could be here all night you know uh answering these questions it's great to have this you know level of Engagement and it's always really fun to talk to prospective students and other Visa applicants so um just to reiterate what swatti said reach out to us at argov Visa we're a friendly bunch and um you know we uh look forward to you know helping you navigate this this process thank you thank you so much Maggie and Sai have a great day ahead and I hope to see you soon U probably next week maybe we can get on to answering many more questions from you folks out there wherever you've joined us from on Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Twitter well well the list goes on and thank you so much to both of you all right friends um also yes you can even contact me also at NE people.com I'll be very happy to take your answers uh your questions and forward them to the experts for sure and don't go anywhere because we have another show coming up with none other than my colleague and host regy perara so stay with us here on immigration and jobs talk show and have a great day ahead stay tuned you an IT consultant seeking a new opportunity we offer job placement services for US citizens green cards eeds and Visa holders we also sponsor various work visas like H1B E3 TN and green cards 20 plus years of experience in the industry exceptional employee benefits highly rated by our employees Global presence with 200 plus recruiters and direct clients connect with us call us in the number 4 408 33564 44 or mail us at neh highiy people.com or visit our website www.hit people.com

Channel: Argo Visa

Views: 8,627

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Id: UshtVRC3LjI

Length: 64min 0sec (3840 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024