Good morning from Bangalore. Today's video
is going to be a little bit different because we'll not talk about an international travel
destination, but we'll talk about what happens before that - the visa process. Today we'll talk
about the US Visa interview process. I'll tell you all about my own personal experience and
finally, at the end, I'll share a superpower with you. A superpower so powerful that this could
mean the difference between you getting the visa or getting a rejection. Before we proceed ahead
with this video, I just want to tell you that this is all about the interview process. I'm
not going to cover the application process, filling up the form and all those details.
If you do want me to make that video, let me know in the comments below and I'll
definitely make a video and take you through my entire journey of getting the visa. So without
further ado, let's start with my experience. So I started my Visa application process actually in
May of 2023. That's when I contacted an agent, filled up the form and did all of those things.
But it took quite some time to actually finally get the visa. I got my visa only in early January
2024. So took many many months. However from what I read on newspaper these days, this process
is getting shorter day by day and hopefully, you won't have to wait for months in future, very
soon, to get your visa interviews. I applied for and got the B1/B2 Visa which is a 10-year Visa. It
covers tourist visits, it covers business visits, but you're not allowed to work in US - that's very
very clear. So you can't work there and earn money from there. You can, of course, visit to meet your
relatives, you can visit to see places you could visit, for conferences, business meetings and
things like those. This is actually not my first US visa. My first US visa was back in 2011 when
I had gone to Stanford for my fellowship but that was not a long-term visa. That Visa was really
restricted to the duration of my course there. I never applied for a Visa again because I never
had the opportunity to go to the US again and yeah it just seemed like such a big task to do it
till last year. This is going to be a short video but I'll still divide this into two parts because
the process actually takes place in two parts. The first part is where your fingerprints are taken
and your photo is taken and the second part is when your interview is taken. Now these two steps
could actually happen at the same location over 2 days. However, for most people these are on two
different dates which might be far apart. These might also be at different locations like it was
for me. So the first stage is pretty simple and straightforward and there's nothing quite like
rejection at that stage. So I live in Bangalore but the appointment that I got was in Hyderabad so
I actually had to take a train go to Hyderabad a day before my appointment. So I stayed very close
to where this appointment was so I could just walk to that place. I knew that bags are not allowed,
laptops are not allowed, phones are not allowed, so very smartly I took a hotel which was very
close to the appointment place. So in the morning I actually had my breakfast, left everything back
at the hotel. Everything means everything I can't even take the Apple watch with me or my phone
or my laptop or any of these things with me no electronics. All you have to do is take your
documentation which is very little. You have to actually get your photos clicked. The
specifications are quite clear I'll mention them in the description below as well. So you
have to get your pictures clicked even though they will take your picture there again and
won't use your pictures. You still supposed to take your pictures with you. No idea why!
The other document that you need to take is your passport of course take - the current
passport and if you have older passports as well you can take them along. In my case,
nobody really checked it (old passports). Then you're supposed to take your confirmation page
which is the confirmation that you get from the website about your interview so interview
confirmation. Take the printout of that and then you have to take a DS160 confirmation
page as well along with you the first two pages of that. That's it! You don't need to take
anything more than that with you. In fact, you're not allowed to take anything more with you
as well when you go for this interview process. So I kept everything neatly, which is these
four documents, inside a folder - a plastic transparent folder - and I took it with me for
this process. However, what I learned after going there is that there is actually a small
Lounge like space where you can leave your bag and you can leave your mobile phone laptop etc.
as well. So in case you do bring it with you, especially in Hyderabad, there is a place where
you can leave these things so that's a good thing. So my appointment was at 11:00 in the
morning and I reached I think around 10:00 there. Already there was a lot of crowd there
were people standing up in the queue and I went and spoke to the guard who told me that 'don't
line up now, I'll tell you when you should line up'. So I just waited like in this big mass
of people who were just nervously waiting for their turn. So at 10:45 or so, they called
everybody all of us who were there for the 11:00 interview. I jumped in first and so I was the
first one in the queue but very quickly a very long line is made but they only allow people for
that 11:00 slot or for your time slot nobody else is allowed. They actually come and check your
documentation. If you're not from that slot, they will send you back twice my documents
were checked all my documents were checked once I was standing on the line somebody came and
checked my document and then later on just before I entered the gate they checked my documents. Once
you enter there's a metal detector so they scan everything. They ask you to take out everything
from your pocket, keep it in the bin and then you walk through the door. It's pretty much like an
airport screening process. And then they give you all these things back. Then you go and stand
in another line inside. This is the line where they will again check your documents and they'll
give you a token number. And then they will send you to another line where you'll wait with your
token number. It sounds pretty complicated when I say it, but it's a very simple process. It's
not crowded at all inside - there's no mayhem not noisy at all it's pretty calm
and relaxed atmosphere inside. There many many counters and basically your token number gets
displayed and also gets called out. And then you go to that specific counter. First they do your
fingerprint scanning. Again nothing much - they will say okay put your left hand in, scan, right hand,
scan, thumbs, scan and you're done! Unless there's a problem, you know in terms of getting the correct
scan, because the hands are too wet, or sweaty or oily, it should not take more than a minute or so
so. After the fingerprint scan is done you're picture is taken and pretty much that's all about it. You
don't have to do anything else - you just have to follow the instructions. I was maybe done in
10 minutes or so from the time I entered to the time I exited out, but that's also because I was
the first in line so there were not many people ahead of me. There were only some people from
the previous slot who were ahead of me so it was pretty fast. Very seamless process I would
say. I would say if your appointment is at 11: 00 by 12:00 you had definitely done, most likely
by 11:30 you will be definitely done and then you are free to go out. You have to do
nothing they actually give your document back to you. They kind of put a stamp on it
and they kind of tick-mark a few things that they have checked. So the stamp is actually of the
day of the interview - so my interview date was 22nd December 2023 so I was done that day. And then
that evening I took another train and came back to Bangalore. Alright so let me now talk about the
the second phase of the interview process. Now this is a part that actually scares most people. This
is a part where the decision about your visa application is taken by the visa officer and
it is a place where a lot of people are very stressed. This is a place where there are
a lot of acceptances but of course many hearts are also broken because the rejections are also
quite high. So I was checking the stats recently and it seems about one out of four applicants
have their visa applications rejected. That's 25 % that's really high. Now this interview was
on the 9th of January 2024 and it was in Chennai. So first one was on 22nd December in Hyderabad, part
two was in Chennai. Chennai is actually great for me because it's close to Bangalore and it's really
well connected. So I took a train and went to to Chennai the previous evening. I booked the hotel
very very close to where the appointment was somewhere that was actually walking distance. In
fact, that place was full of many many hotels. So on day two - which is the day of the interview -
my interview was actually for the first slot which is the 8:00 a.m. slot. I started from my
hotel at around 7:15 in the morning I thought I'll reach early so that you know I'm not the
last one in the line. But once I reached there I realized that there were so many people already
waiting in the queue - they like 50 60 people, maybe more than that already standing in the queue. So
I went again to the guard and asked him that I have an 8:00 interview where should I stand and he
asked me to stand in a very long line. In fact, the longer of the two lines that were there. So
it seems like there were two lines - one was 8:00 line the other one was 8:30 line - so I went and
stood far behind many different people. Now this was really interesting because even before it
was 8:00 like half an hour before that at 7:30 they said, 'Okay 8:00 line people come and show
their documents'. Again there was staff walking around checking everybody's documents and just
like in Hydebarad there were a lot of people here who didn't have the 8:00 slot but they were
still standing in the line. So they were taken out of the line and the line became much shorter.
So I was not really far away in the end. We are still not inside the embassy. In fact we are a little
bit away from the embassy and they come and check your documents one by one and as they check your
document they let you go ahead towards the embassy. So you walk towards the embassy you're still not
near the gate of the embassy, your documents are checked at multiple times to make sure that
you have the right documents, you have all the documents with you. And I'll talk about what
documents you need in a bit but let me just tell you how we enter first. You follow the person
who's ahead of you. Again just like Hyderabad, here also there is a metal detector. They ask
you to take out everything from your pockets, keep everything in a tray and you pass through
and reach inside. This must be around 7:40 or so and we were already inside the embassy. Now
inside there was no token given to us unlike Hyderabad - we just walked in and stood in a line.
So inside there were three lines. The first line was for English speakers - people who had selected
English as their language for the interview. Then there was a line for Hindi Udu speakers, and the
third line was for Tamil, Kannada and Telugu, and I may be mixing up a little bit of languages
here but three lines for three different groups of people standing there. English was, of course,
the longest line followed by the line for Tamil speakers. Everybody standing with a big stash of
documents with them and I was no different. I also had lots of documents with me. I had in
fact too many documents with me. Now that I think back I'm like wow I really worked hard
to get all documentations together and I'm pretty sure all of people who were there had
also done a lot of homework lot of hard work to put everything together into that file so
what documents did I have so I had uh all my educational certificates all the way from my
engineering to design to Stanford all of them then I had some documentations to prove that
I'm in Good Financial standing so I had home loan document I had document for um income tax
over the last 3 years I had last 3 months bank statements I had some documents around the mutual
fund Investments and those kind of things with the way things are right now this was not the
biggest chunk so I'm visiting us to meet my cousin brother and so I also had an invitation
letter from him that I had printed out what I did not have was the anary for my travel and my
travel plans I did not have any ticket bookings and you don't need all of those things to apply
for US Visa which is quite different from rest of the Visa especially if you look for shenen
visa and those where you have to have all of those things in advance when you apply for Visa
but how important are these documents now in my experience these documents may be important and
could come very handy if somebody asks you for these but nobody really asks you for documents
when you're there for your interview if you're applying for your student visa you might be
asked for your I20 but it's highly unlikely they will ever ask you for your bank statements
or your mutual fund statements or your home loan or those kind of details a they really don't
have enough time to go through those documents and check whether they are correct or incorrect
whether they should approve them or not approve them because documents can be forged somebody
could bring anybody's document you could Photoshop names you can Photoshop amounts how would that
Visa officer actually check the authenticity of these documents it's not possible similar is
the case with your uh School living certificates with your any certificates for your engineering
off for whatever educational qualifications you have there's no way she can authenticate his
signature or the details is mentioned about himself so I feel that documents even though they
may be important and you should definitely prepare a file because in case somebody asks you for
these you may have to show them but more likely than not you'll not be asked for any [Applause]
documentation for this visa interview they were two things that were not really in my favor and I
want to really share it with you upfront because this could be issue for some of us the first
thing is that I'm not married I'm an unmarried guy and I recently left my job also so I'm also
an unemployed guy this is not the best profile when it comes to a visa application process right
people think that if you are like this you have no ties back home with you you have no job that you
have to come back to you might want to immigrate to a country and that is definitely something not
very good in my profile as well but I did have a few strong points also the fact that I've been
to your years before I've studied there the fact that I travel a lot the fact that my passports are
full of entry and exit stamps from many different countries across the world lots and lots of
shenen visas Australia Visa New Zealand Visa Canada Visa like I've traveled a lot across the
world so that really I feel is a powerful point on my passport this was kind of a balance that
was there in my application process I didn't know if uh me being unmarried and unemployed would go
completely against me and would be a reason for my rejection I didn't really find a watch on the
wall but some people were wearing normal regular watches not electronic watches and I saw the
time was around 745 right now when it was my time almost my time to go for the visa interview
now people ahead of me were going really fast and as we were standing there I could see more and
more windows opening up and more Visa officers coming and sitting there taking their places and
you know a lot of us were the first ones to go for the interview for that Visa officer something
similar happened to me as well I was standing in a different Cube but then a Visa officer came
and she opened the window and the guard was like okay you go and speak to her and then after
me there were two more people so it was me at the window and then there were two more people
behind me and the windows are pretty close by so you know you can hear each other's conversation
but frankly you're are so thinking about your own interview that you're not bothered about what
others are asking what others are saying but as I was standing in the line you could observe
a lot of people and there's a lot to learn from the body language I could see so many people
walking back with their passports in hand and looking really sad and that is not the best thing
to see actually when you're going for an interview because this can stress you out so my tip here
would be not to think about others look at others but just be focused on your own visa application
process so it was time now for my interview as I mentioned my Visa officer was a lady an American
lady and I was the first one on her window so I approached my Visa officer with a big smile and
a hello good morning she replied back with the same and with that we kind of had a first smile
exchanged and we started the interview she asked me to give my passport so I kept it in the tray
and the tray then went inside she she picked the passport opened it looked inside and then she
did something on her Monitor and asked me the first question so immediately after the interview
I made a list of all the questions that was asked and so I'm going to use this as reference and
tell you about my questions the first question that I was asked and this is a question that's
asked of everyone who visits for whatever Visa type you're visiting which is what's the purpose
of your visit in my case I was visiting to meet my cousin brother so I mentioned that however
I made sure that I did not answer her in just one word I formed a proper sentence and answered
her it's like having a conversation with somebody you want to give a bit more detail in context the
Visa officer doesn't know you well at all so it's good to give a bit of context when you answer so
I answer that I'm going to meet my cousin brother he lives here and I'm meeting him after so many
years the next question was how long will I stay there and to answer this I just use my ds160 as a
reference I had mentioned 3 weeks there so that's exactly what I mentioned here as well I think it's
important to have the same information that you share that you have given earlier that shows uh
a that you know where you're going and why you're going and how long you're going to spend your time
there it's not like somebody has taught you these answers and it also kind of means that you're not
lying about anything in your interview if you if you make a mistake also it might come across as
an intentional lie so make sure you answer these questions correctly correctly in terms of how you
have shared them in advance also she actually did ask me a few questions about where he works he
works in the university and so I talked a little bit about it thankfully he's a cousin that I'm
quite fond of and we meet sometimes so I know a little bit about his life and his work so I could
answer these questions well and I have actually visited and stayed with them in the past as well
on my first US visit so I do know about where they live so I could talk a little bit more about
these questions when I was answering her and not just answering in one word She also asked me
have I been to us before again something that she knows from my past record and she asked me why did
I go there how long did I stay what did I study when I was in us and frankly my credentials of my
last visit to us are actually very good because I studied at Stanford I was actually on full
scholarship and I was also earning a stipend there so I think that's a positive thing again
on my previous visit to us and she asked me what did I do for a living I'm a photographer and a
content creator and I mentioned all these things to her I give a bit of description how I earn my
money as well how I work with tourism boards and Brands create content for them videos photos blah
blah blah and uh that's my source of income she specifically asked me how much I earn every month
and then came the big question which is about my single-hood or about the fact whether I'm married
or not married and frankly this is information that's available with her already because it's
there in my DS160 but she still asked me am I married and I said I'm not married and I shared
a few more details about my relationship status in life and at the end of it we were both laughing
about it and I felt that you know this is towards the end of the interview we broke the ice at that
point of time because she she could really relate to how I answered this question and U I think
it was a good answer I usually don't share much about my personal life but I thought this was
a place where I could and I did it seemed like a really long time when I was standing there for
the interview but I think it was not more than 5-6 minutes and that's it I said thank you and I
walked away from the counter. And as I came out I saw the time on the guard's watch and it
was 8:05. So just 5 minutes after my actual time for interview I was done and I was out and I
was walking back towards the hotel and that's it! Not even a week, just 3 days after my visa
interview, I received a career at my home by a Bluedart courier and I got my passport back. As
expected the visa is valid for 10 years so it's valid till 2034 which is pretty nice. Alright
so it's now time for me to share that powerful brahmastra - the most powerful weapon that we
have that we can use for this visa application. And I think that's the biggest differentiate
when it comes to getting your visa application approved or rejected. And it's a very simple
answer - it's the confidence that you have! You have to be very very very confident when
you go for your interview. Even if you're not confident inside you have to portray a level of
confidence that is really important. I think if you're not confident a visa officer is not going
to be confident about your answers even if you're saying everything correctly and you're not lying
and you're not making up anything. If you don't look confident about your answers you will not
pass on that confidence to the visa officer and that's really important to do. Go with a smile go
with a cheerful good happy mood. Talk confidently, talk with a good powerful voice, talk in a voice
that commands respect. This confidence is also seen in your body language when you walk walk
with your shoulder back don't slouch there and this confidence is not just in the way you speak
this confidence is also the way you dress up so dress up nicely I actually don't wear pant and
shirt that often but I made sure that I wore full sleeves shirt and I wore khakis and I wore
shoes you know these things are really important these things are life lessons not just visa
interview lessons but if you can utilize these here I can tell you and I can assure you that
your application is very likely to get approved anyway this is all for today's video I hope this
was useful for some of you out there if you have more questions about the experience of the visa
interview let me know in the comment below and I will answer that question if you want me to make
more such videos about Visa application process for other countries again let me know and I'll
do my best and finally if you like this video do like it here on YouTube as well and subscribe
to this channel in case you want to follow my travel Journeys across the world it's time for
me to say goodbye see you in the next video
