F-1 visa denied? Ex-Visa Officer shares 4 Tips that could make a difference at your next interview!

has your F1 student visa been denied my name is Mandy feierbacher and I'm a former U.S visa officer as well as a licensed U.S immigration attorney and today I'm going to share with you the top four things you need to know if you've had your F1 Visa denied but you haven't given up your dreams of studying in the United States and you shouldn't because the US has some of the best universities and the best programs in the world and if this is something that you've applied for clearly you have put a lot of thought and effort into it and I hope that you're not going to let a denied F1 Visa stand in your way of achieving your dreams okay so the first thing that you need to know about reapplying for your F1 visa after a denial is that you don't actually have to have the same officer that you had before okay so I know many International students worry about this what if I go back into the embassy or consulate and I end up getting the same officer who has already denied me actually the state department has an internal rule that says that every single Visa applicant who applies for a Visa should get a fresh look at their visa application and what this means practically speaking is that there should be another officer to interview you so that they're not bringing in their prior biases of having already denied your Visa okay so what should you do in this case if you are standing in line for your next interview and you get called up to the window and it's the same officer who has denied you before here's what you do you say hey I think you interviewed me last time because that's the truth right but what you're really saying to the officer is hey because you've already made a decision on my case you should probably give this case to another officer who can be neutral about my case and give me an opportunity to present myself again okay so that's all you need to say to the officer is I think you interviewed me last time now keep in mind that you absolutely have to be truthful this means that you can only say this if the officer has actually interviewed you before because if you lie about this or you just decide to pull this line out because you're nervous about the officer who's interviewing you and you think that they look extra strict even though they've never made a decision on your case you could get in huge trouble and I'm going to go into that a little bit later so you always want to be honest and you only want to say this if the officer who's about to interview you has already interviewed you before the second thing to know about the visa interview is that if you've been denied before sometimes the Visa officer's first question to you will be okay what in your situation has changed since your last interview and it's very important that you have something that you can share with a Visa officer that shows them that your situation has changed okay so again if the Visa officer asks has your situation changed since your last interview you want to make sure that you can say yes to this question because if you say no then it's very likely that the officer will immediately deny your Visa this gives them the opportunity to do that without even having to listen to you without having to re-interview you and so it's very important that you say yes to this question now this is a bit of a trick question because if your last visa interview was only two or three weeks ago and you were denied many students asked me what can possibly have changed in two to three weeks since my last interview that I can answer that question truthfully that is a great question and so the best way to handle this question is to find something from your situation that you were never able to tell the Visa officer at your last interview I'll give you an example many International students get great scholarships to universities in the US and that's a big reason for why they're choosing that school however these officers don't usually ask straight out hey did you get a scholarship to the school so oftentimes students don't know to bring it up and so if this is your situation where you actually received a very generous scholarship from your school but you were denied your visa and you were never able to bring it up at your next interview when the officer says hey has your situation changed since the last time someone interviewed you you can say yes last time I was not able to explain to the officer that I actually got a full ride scholarship to this University because you know studying astrophysics is my passion and I'm really looking forward to learning all that I can and making the most use of this you know very generous scholarship that would be a great answer in responding to has your situation changed since last time okay and so again do not say no to this question because then you will just be denied again immediately the third thing I want to share with you is that if your F1 Visa has been denied do not automatically assume that it's your University that caused you to get denied I don't know why so many students think this and I think it's a big misunderstanding but generally the school that you selected the I-20 that you brought into your interview it's actually just one small factor in your entire interview process usually just the school is not reason enough to deny somebody's Visa unless it's like a fake or fraudulent school or something like that but you know how often does that happen so please don't just change universities and get a new I-20 just because your F1 Visa was denied most likely It's a combination of factors It's a combination of not being prepared for the interview not answering questions directly you know other sort of unexpected factors like you're not looking your officer in the eye you don't look like you're well prepared you're not able to explain your situation in a way that the officer can understand it all of those can lead to Visa refusals not just because of the school that you selected so if you're one of the people that decide to change your schools after a previous F1 Visa denial keep in mind that that will look very suspicious to the Visa officer because that doesn't suggest that hey you know I decided to get into a better school and now I'm reapplying what that's really telling the Visa officer is I am willing to do anything to get this Visa even change in my school on a whim right so you don't want the Visa officer to think that and so it's probably not about your school it's probably about your presentation or other aspects of your interview strategy okay now the fourth thing that I want to share with you that you need to know about reapplying for an F1 Visa is to make sure that you are properly explaining your funding and also to not change your sponsor just because your F1 Visa was denied this is crucial to understand because like the misunderstanding about the school many International students who are having others sponsor them for the Visa seem to immediately assume that it has to do with who the sponsor is that got them denied and so before they apply for their next Visa you know they're changing it to a different person or they're changing their answer and saying oh you know so and so is not sponsoring anymore I am actually paying for it myself and not to the Visa officer seems very suspicious because how could such a big thing like who's funding your education change all of a sudden after a Visa denial and so usually what's happening is if your Visa is being denied and you were asked a lot of questions about your funding and Your sponsorship it may have something to do with the fact that the Visa officer does not understand the context for the relationship between yourself and your sponsor this is especially true sponsor is not an immediate family relative perhaps it's a distant uncle or perhaps it's somebody else in the United States all of these are I wouldn't say that their immediate cause for denials but they will cause the Visa officer to wonder exactly what that relationship is and so in cases like this it's really important to give context you know if it's an uncle or an aunt sponsoring you and paying for your tuition what makes your relationship so close that they would be willing to do that you should explain that you know why do they care so much about your education because if you can't explain that relationship then it's going to be very difficult for the Visa officer to understand why somebody would pay so much money to send you to the U.S to study okay and again you want to make sure that your answer is always a hundred percent honest that you're not just making up an answer and here's the reason why if you lie about anything on your visa application from who your sponsor is to what school you're going to to your actual motivations for going to the US not only will your Visa get denied but you can actually get a Visa in eligibility otherwise known as a Visa ban and what this means is that you could be permanently ineligible to get a Visa approved in any category not just for a student visa so this is something that is very serious and you never want to risk that by telling a lie or not telling the whole truth or not being completely honest about your situation okay and you may think that the Visa officer won't find out but guess what there are some very easy ways for these officers to check up on your story on what you're telling them to make sure that you're being honest they could be looking into your social media they get those handles from you on the visa application they could check in on previous applications that you've submitted so again never worth it to lie because you could end up permanently banned from the U.S and you don't want that because that just creates a whole other set of issues and it means that not only can you not study in the US you may not even be able to go in the future for business or for any other reason like tourism okay so again keep that in mind so a couple of other things I want to mention is that if you've been denied an F1 Visa before try not to apply for another Visa appointment until you can find out why you were denied because if you just go in doing exactly the same thing with the same answers then it's very likely that you'll get denied again okay but how can you find out why you were denied you know 99.9 percent of the time the Visa officer will never tell you why your Visa is denied okay and so the only reason you can find out is number one one option is to book a session with me a former Visa officer so I can help you analyze your case understand exactly what questions you were asked understand your unique circumstances and give you a fairly accurate assessment and answer on why your Visa was denied so that you can be laser focused the next time you go into your interview and just overcome the issue that caused doubt on your visa application in the first place okay so that's one option another option if you can't afford my services is try to think long and hard about what questions you were asked during the visa interview and there's probably some more information that the Visa officer would like from you more context about the questions that they were asking that you were not doing a good enough job of explaining so think about preparing for those specific questions that were asked but again this is a very um you know nuanced sort of situation you want to be very careful when you apply because every single time you apply for a Visa they're going to have a record of it in the government systems and extensive notes taken on why your Visa was denied so it's definitely worth it to get professional help to help you overcome this hurdle especially if you're not very good at presenting yourself you're nervous when it comes to Visa interviews you don't know how to be proactive about answering questions definitely get expert help it's just worth it so that you're not screwing up your Visa situation so so much so that you know by the time you've been denied five or six times even when you can get expert help sometimes it's not as effective okay I really hope that this video is helpful to you can help you understand a little bit more about the US Visa application process for F1 student visas especially if you've been denied and I wish you the very best on your US Visa journey I hope that I can be of assistance if you like this video please hit subscribe so that you can be notified of new videos I'm always coming out with new videos on the US Visa process for other types of Visa categories in addition to student visas and tell all your friends that now there's a former Visa officer who is sharing insights about the U.S visa process okay so hit subscribe and if you're interested in my services and getting my help for your case you can visit me at www.zfvisa.com that's Z as in zebra F ISM friendlyvisa.com and I will also put the website in the notes so that you can see it okay I wish you all the very best and for those of you that have already passed your student visas congratulations and welcome to the United States I'm very excited for this next chapter in your educational Journey thank you

Channel: ZF Visa & Immigration

Views: 66,574

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Id: m5TKmOyRqUs

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023