Visa Officer Shares Top F1 Visa Interview Strategy For USA

did you guys know that more and more the F1 student visa interviews are being rejected I know before the pandemic it was about 25 percent currently now in the last year it's been about you know one-third about 33 now it's getting even more and more closer to maybe 40 of denials for F1 student Visas so in this webinar we're going to be doing a deep dive on F1 student visa interviews we've got an awesome expert Ben and so and then at the very end we're going to have live q a to answer your questions with the former ex Visa officer who served abroad in consulates and embassies so welcome my friends this webinar we're going to be talking about um oops this is not Visa struggles this is F1 student visa interview I'm sorry for the title there um but we're going to be talking about how to prepare for your F1 student visa interview welcome everyone I'm Rob with chime coaching and at Chine coaching we're all about helping you succeed and Thrive um in your abroad Journeys one of those biggest things is getting your Visa interviews I know it's a lot of pressure a lot of worry and our awesome guest today is Ben Ben welcome back we've done some great video collabs together so please go ahead and introduce yourself great thanks Rob it's good to be back here talking to your audience uh yeah my name is Ben I used to be a Visa officer I did that for many years with the US government I worked in Latin America I worked in Asia did over 60 000 Visa interviews in total and that includes everything I would say probably 15 to 20 000 of those were student visas but also tourist visas immigration visas everything that you can imagine uh during the course of that I saw that a lot of my colleagues and probably me too when I was still learning my job refuse applicants unnecessarily because we just don't know enough right and so then when I left the government what I wanted to do was start sharing that inside knowledge about what's going on to make sure that everybody can get their visa issued I hate to see somebody who's well qualified who's got a good plan who's got a good University that they've been admitted to not past their visa interview just because they're not prepared yeah yeah we love seeing the success I love all the messages that we get of people getting their vcu's but it also breaks my heart we have so many people that get rejections our goal of this session is to help you not get rejected to get that approval and start your dream abroad especially for study abroad a lot of you guys are going to be preparing and doing those F1 Visa interviews this summer so I want to know where are you guys watching from I'm here in the Dallas Texas area um love getting to help out the students at UT Dallas UT Arlington here in North Texas I know Ben lives in Texas but he's at the the HQ of Argo there in the east coast um but let us know in the comments where are you guys tuning in from would love to see which city which country where Autumn awesome audience is so we've got Nepal Pakistan um yeah Nigeria Welcome Friends Nepal I'm drinking some tasty tea here let me know if you guys are drinking some tea or coffee you know I feel like the best learning happens over a cup of something tasty like some chai all right we've got India Pakistan Cyprus Deli Uzbekistan this is incredible Nigeria India you guys this is so fun you're on Welcome Friends welcome um we're gonna have a great crowd um get ready for your q a as well but let's jump in um we got a lot of great content to cover Ben why are s F1 Visa interviews unique I know there's so many Visa types but what makes this one unique what do people need to know um that's special about this yeah well the F1 Visa it's Unique because it's got a very specific purpose right which is to go to a university in the U.S uh or or a high school or a postgrad or a language training school to go to school in the U.S uh a b1b2 Visa it's really open-ended you come in you say you're going to go to Disney you're going to go to business meetings you're going to go to a trade show you're going to go visit family it's really open-ended but the F1 visa interview is very targeted because you've got a specific purpose that helps us but it also kind of uh puts some boundaries on what we're going to be able to do in the interview it helps us because we know this is exactly what the Visa officer is interested in right you walk in you've got your I-20 form says the name of a university a program a duration right you're you're really clear about what you're going to be telling them and they're not going to be surprised about what you're telling them because it's yes I'm going to school I'm going to study this for this long this is how I'm going to pay for it right so they're expecting you to give them that information uh so you've kind of got these guard rails on that kind of really do let you Target in on what's important and for an F1 visa interview the two things that are the most important are your academics and your finances for 90 of people out there those are going to be the two important things if you've had a Visa interaction in the past and maybe you've gotten refused uh or you you have a family member that's immigrated that might be that 10 that's got a different thing that might be the important part of the interview but for most people it's going to be your academics and finances and the academics and finances could be you know one could be strong both could be strong the other could be strong and one's weak you need to identify okay where's your strong point there is it your academics have you been admitted to a school with a great reputation with strict Insurance standards um is it a higher level degree a Masters or PhD where you can really highlight your academics or if you're going to a school that might not be so well known uh do you have great financials to be able to support yourself is that what you want to focus on your personal financials your families you know you kind of got those two two things that you can balance out and decide how you're going to to present your best self in front of the Visa officer awesome and with academics does that mean like just the admit and the quality of the University that they're going to is that what you mean by academics yeah it can be so let's say um I'll give some examples some great academics would be if you've been admitted to Harvard right if you're going to Harvard for undergrad you've been admitted to you know the most famous most prestigious University in the U.S that's the thing that you want to say at the very beginning of the interview when they say okay hi what's your purpose of travel to the US you say Harvard I am going to Harvard right you want that to be the first thing that they that they hear but it could be okay you're going to go to University of Indiana for a PhD in linguistics okay University of Indiana it's a well-known state school it's not Harvard but it's a well-known state school but you want them to know you've reached that level of a PhD you've reached that high level you're you're a very qualified student um if you've got a fully funded program right that shows that the school has recognized your academic Excellence to the degree that they're going to fund your entire studies right so it could be it could be a number of things right it could be that if you're going for undergrad at a university that's you know we'll say mid-tier you want to highlight that you know how hard did you work to do that did you Excel uh in your in your studies up until then did you get any awards were you were you honored in any way right anything that you can do to show your Bona fides as a student is going to help you yeah all those credentials I love it and friends if you're going to be watching this replay later on after this live let us know also in the comments where you guys are tuned in from love to see where the chine coaching Community uh is is from where you guys are going to so super exciting another important thing to consider with F1 student visas is the busy time and the busy Seasons um when do the majority of these visa interview happen and uh when can people plan ahead so they don't get last minute or don't get a slot you know and miss their you know admit date the busy time it's begun we're in the busy season now from now until mid-september it's going to be really busy because most people go to school and that in the US on that fall fall semester start date schedule so most people are going for their visa interviews sometime before that now I don't know if your audience knows this yet previously there was a 120 day limit on applying for your student visa so if you're student visa program started in September you could only apply for that Visa up to 120 days beforehand if you came into the embassy see 140 days before your program start date they're not going to be able to give you a Visa right best case scenario they put you in 221g until it hits 120 days in the issue but worst case scenario the officer just says no you're too early and they refuse you that's what you yeah nowadays thankfully State Department making improvements uh They removed that restriction and now it's 365 days program in advance so if you're going to a program that starts in January of next year get your I-20 as soon as you can and schedule that interview early it doesn't help you to wait until the last minute it helps you to be to be early so from now until September it's not going to get less busy so you want to get your application in as soon as possible plan ahead but now you can do it even earlier so take advantage of that as soon as you get your admit in your I-20 and you commit go get that visa interview done that way you're not stuck fighting for the slots when it's Peak prime time later this summer so I love it that's a great new tip now another big um piece of advice I want to share with our audience is how to prepare well we think through the documents I know we get a lot of document questions you know just arriving the day of you know what can people do to be in a good you know just mindset how to dress and even just how do they function in an embassy in a consulate uh when they before even stepping up the counter so what are those preparation tips for a first-time Visa interviews well I think the first thing that I like to tell everybody is that you're going to be nervous everyone's nervous there's no way to not be nervous right you're going to go in there there might be thousands of people in line with you rest assured every single one of them is also nervous that's the normal State of Mind to be in when you go to a visa interview so don't don't beat yourself up about it don't feel mad at yourself for feeling nervous you know expect that you're going to be nervous and expect okay how should I prepare in order to do well even though I'm nervous right that's the way to think about it and when you go in it's also good to know what to expect because if you know what's going to happen uh when those things happen you think Yep this is exactly what I expected this is how the process is going to be if you have the opportunity walk by the embassy the day before and see okay well I see where the line is and how the people are filing in so you feel a little bit more a little bit more familiar with the process you're going to go in there's going to be local staff from your country that are outside routing people into different lines sorting you into different time slots then you enter the depending on your Embassy the format's different but you're going to enter the Interior Space you're going to go to an intake window where they're going to take your passport and your documents they're going to make sure that all the data is correct this is not your visa interview this is just where they're checking to make sure that your name and your passport matches the name in the system the passport number matches the date of birth is correct that you've got the I-20 form that you've got everything you've got your ds160 confirmation page they're making sure that you've got all the documents correct and everything's spelled right right uh next you're going to uh you might might be going to a window where they're just going to take your fingerprints to confirm your identity they're going to make sure that you're the person who's standing there with that passport sometimes that's combined into a single Step at some embassies so what you want to know is where's that final window see where people are having that final interaction and then they're leaving that's the area where the actual visa interview happens right those first two steps are just administrative it's that final window where you're talking to that American visa officer and that's where you're going to have the interview so knowing a little bit about the process I think helps people relax because it's not just to complete a black hole with no information you know that's what it's going to be like and that's when you get your chance right A lot of people and this is a a tip that I see that people need people think that you arrive at that window and then there might be some interactions and then the interview starts no that's not the way to think about it the interview starts before you even walk up to the window when the when the person in front of you walks away and the vs officer looks up and looks at you that's the beginning of your interview right they're going to say first impression to come up right yeah the first thing that they say what's your purpose of travel to the U.S right maybe they say it in English maybe they say it in your local language whatever that is that's not just some bureaucratic question to get it out of the way before the interview starts that's the interview right so many people say Oh I thought that you know I was going to get more opportunity to present my my credentials the opportunity is when they ask you that first question that's when the interview has begun got it got it okay friends uh we have a chai question for our audience I want to hear from you who are tuning in um is what colleges did you get admits at so let us know in the comments um I know you guys have applied to universities all across America all across the world where did you get admits at let's see where people are are going considering and tell us maybe which one you picked as well throw the degree program in there but yeah I would love to see where you guys are headed on your journey um maybe you guys will find some friends who are you know going to be attending the same College the same degree so go ahead and start throwing in the comments here all right we got Auburn University North Texas University of Minnesota Wichita State very cool um so all over the country Pace University um Buffalo Texas A M Western Illinois Houston oh man you guys these are great I.T Chicago Portland State Western England man you guys have some great admits um this is super cool yeah keep throwing those in the chat uh replay family again throw those in the comments want to see where everyone's getting those admits to uh for our chai question ooh Florida St Louis Regis University Ohio State North Texas NC State um and git man we've got some other great videos as well on a lot of these so make sure you guys check those out on our Channel reviewing those um if you guys didn't know uh myself and Argo were very active on social media as well um so you guys can follow us on Instagram LinkedIn to get more tips uh more advice I know argo's got a YouTube channel as well Ben's put some great videos there so make sure you guys are subscribed and following out side of this video to get great content more tips a lot of your questions can be answered in those places and again um for those of you who are tuning in later uh this is a fun webinar and Ben a former Visa officer is talking about F1 visa interview strategies we've talked about some great topics how to prepare well what to expect but now we're going to get more tangible we're going to be talking about the common questions uh red flags so we've got some more great content to cover about F1 Visa interviews along with doing your live q a at the end so get ready make sure when you guys type your questions that they're really clear and understandable and we're going to get to those in just a few minutes okay here's the big one that a lot of people want to know Ben is what are the common F1 Visa questions all right yeah I know everybody wants to to know whether the common F1 Visa questions and I'll tell you some of them that you definitely can expect but also I want you to think about this a little bit differently I don't want you to think okay what are the questions I'm going to be asked and then prepare answers to those specific questions because in most cases they're going to ask you a question that you didn't prepare for or they're going to ask you one question and it leads to more questions about the same thing right so if you just prepare memorized answers memorized answers never really establish Rapport do you memorize answers you're going to come off as a robotic what you should do is you should know in general okay what's my story what's my plan how do I tell that story and then make sure that when you're answering that Visa officer's questions you're telling him that story so that so that he or she feels like they know you feels like they understand what your plan is now what are the questions they're definitely going to ask you where you where are you studying what are you going to study right these are obviously questions that they can find the answer to just by looking at your I-24 they can look down and they can see okay let's see who do we have our Arizona State okay I see that you're studying at Arizona State and I see that you're going to study a PhD in Earth and environmental science right but why do they ask you that question anyway well they have to start somewhere right what they want through this interview is just to get you talking so that they can understand who you are what you plan to do and they can decide do I trust that you actually intend to do what you're saying what you say you're going to do so they ask that question what you can use that for you can use that opportunity not to just say Tulane environmental science no use that that opportunity to tell your story to introduce yourself right to give a brief summary of your resume well I'm going to Tulane to study environmental science because I already got my bachelor's degree in environmental science here in my home country and I've worked for a few years but now I want to take it to the next level so I've been accepted into Tulane I actually I got a partial scholarship uh so that's going to pay for half of it and then my parents uh because they've been very successful I'm very fortunate my parents can cover the rest of the expenses all of a sudden you've given them a whole vision of a legitimate student in response to their question rather than just saying Tulane environmental science and confirming definitely definitely and I love how you talked about you know um and interacting with you guys before with with Visa interviews it's not a test it's a conversation it's not about spitting out the right fact or answer it's about killer communication and it's more about telling your story and telling a story that makes sense and so obviously you can prepare for some of these common questions about funding admit you know future plans things like that um but I think another tricky thing is can you tell your story in a way that makes sense you know the basic three-part story is where have you been what are you doing now and where are you going um and I think if you can you know uh do that well um then the Visa officer is gonna you know have a better understanding and feel good about your situation so Ben one more um thing before we get to the red flags I want to talk about is the home ties now this is a a tricky thing because F1 student visas are non-immigrant visas you are not supposed to have the intent to immigrate to America you have that visa and work period um so what do people need to know about the importance of Home ties in the student visa interview so the home ties that's something that the Visa officers are are very intent on it's in their regulations it's in their training that the Visa applicant has to show ties to their home country these ties can be anything there's no there's no limits on what they could be they could be family professional Financial academic uh they could be be anything that that convinces the Visa officer that you're going to return to your country after staying in the U.S as a student as a J-1 trainee as a as a tourist as a as um any type of any type of worker any type of student any type of visitor to the US they want to see those ties that are going to bring you back abroad now if they're talking to you about the ties you it might be too late in the interview they if you hear them say oh you lack ties to the U.S that means that they've already told you you're refused and and they're just trying to get you to move on they're not going to ask you at the beginning of the interview what are your ties to your home country right uh that's the implicit question underneath all of the other questions that they're asking right so uh if they're going to ask you you know what are your plans for the future right that's an opportunity to demonstrate those ties uh I know that so many people have the the goal of going to the US and studying uh doing opt getting the work experience and the income from that and then getting an H1B after that you know hopefully winning the lottery uh that is a legitimate legal plan but that's not really the best version of your plan to tell at your visa interview a better version of the plan is talking about what you plan to do immediately on that F1 Visa right as a student do you plan to study okay and then are you going to go to a PhD afterwards if you're planning to do opt well sure it's a great opportunity uh but I don't know you know what companies I might be able to get an opportunity with focus on the opportunities that'll be back in your home country because you're going to have a lot more of those opportunities too those are the ones to focus on right in the visa interview that might be two three minutes long you don't have the opportunity to tell the Visa officer everything so you have to choose what you want to tell them then and that's the time when you have to condense it to talk about what are your opportunities back home getting this degree in electrical engineering is going to allow me to go back to India and I'm going to be able to get a lot better jobs there are multinational companies where the salaries are going to be three four times higher if I have a degree from the U.S these types of these types of of future plans that involve your home country are the best thing to focus on mm-hmm we had one interesting question just pop up here about the home ties for student F1 and F2 spouse visas is there any documents that would be helpful for them to show in regards to proof of Home ties is that something that these officers consider I'm glad that you brought up documents documents are always secondary right they're important to have if you're going to say I've I own this property you need to have some documents to back that up I have this much money in a bank account you need the documents to back that up but the Visa officer is never just going to say well please hand me all your documents I'll sit here and review them for 15 minutes and and then make a decision that's never going to happen they're only going to repeat your documents if you've convinced them to be interested in them through what you tell them you've got to tell the Visa officer first the information that you've got in those documents and then maybe the Visa officer will want to review those documents and see okay I'm going to confirm if that's correct let me confirm that your parents actually own this this business let me confirm that uh you did get this scholarship let me see that confirmation letter about that scholarship right but you're going to sell them first so don't go into the visa interview thinking you can just come in hand them the documents and then they're going to come to the right conclusion flipping through all those documents you've got to be ready to tell them it's kind of like sales right if you walked into a um anywhere to buy something let's say that you're going to go buy a new cell phone and you you walk into the to the shop and you say I'd like to buy a new cell phone and the sales person just says here's some documents you can read about the cell phones um that's not a very good sales person right yeah here let me show you this phone actually this phone has you know this much memory and this type of camera and this ability and it's got this controls right then you might say oh well let me see the specs on that let me see this I'd like to see a little bit more but first that sales person has to convince you with what they're telling you in the same way when you go into the visa interview you're selling something you're selling yourself and you've got to do that in the same way definitely I know home ties is one of the big red flags that Visa officers are looking for but any other red flags that people need to know about for especially the F1 visa interview yeah these are these red flags I like to call them hurdles too because uh you've got highlights which are the things that are helping you get your visa issued uh your financials your academics uh whatever they may be your professional background but then there are these hurdles these red flags which are going to be things that at first glance are going to make the Visa officer suspect that they shouldn't give you the Visa hmm and what you need to do is know what these red flags are and know how to counter them when the Visa officer brings them up right the most common red flag would be if you've been refused previously if you've been refused before that's the first piece of information that the Visa officer will see especially if you apply in the same location so if you apply it in Mumbai and you got refused and then you apply Mumbai again when they scan your passport the first thing that they see is you were refused before gotcha explain a different post they won't see that immediately they'll see it about four or five seconds later it's still right at the very beginning of the of the interview so they're going to see this and they're going to have a negative thought you need to know okay they're going to think that I I should get refused because their colleague already refused me and you need to be ready to counter that how do you count that usually by bringing up whatever your most Stellar point on your resume is right so if you got admitted and you had a partial scholarship but you got refused before you walk into that interview and they say okay what's your purpose of travel to the US you say I'm going to Tulane to study environmental science I applied before and I was refused I'm not sure why because I got a half scholarship to to fund my studies it's an academic scholarship because I've you know done so well in my undergrad and my parents I'm fortunate they've been very successful and they can pay for the rest of it right putting it into that context there are a lot of times they're going to ask that question what's changed since your previous refusal answering that question directly is is usually not the best tactic to overcome that prior refusal because that question is a trap that question is actually the Visa officer trying to find the easiest way to end the interview because they're told by their managers if nothing's changed since a previous refusal you should just refuse them again that's a way to make their jobs easy right yeah so when they say this they're trying to to get applicants who are going to say well nothing's changed or they say something irrelevant like well last time I said my father was my sponsor this time I say my mother is my sponsor that's not a real change right yeah and so then they think okay wait they just gave me permission to refuse them again but what they can't ignore is if you give them information that makes them think that you should get issue your Visa so if you've got something like a scholarship right or the University where you've been admitted right uh or or a grant or a graduate assistantship or uh if your your family has funds and they're able to to pay for your studies whatever that Stellar point on your resume is bring that up at the beginning because if they get that thought in their head they want to make the right decision Visa officers want to make the right decision in fact in fact they believe that they are making the right decision every single time so I told them something that makes them think oh wait why would this person be refused if that's true they're going to investigate it to see if it's credible and if it changes their mind and if they're going to issue that Visa so first thing very beginning counter those red flags bring up that thing that information another red flag would be if you've got a family member who is in the U.S if if you just say on your resume you know there's part uh on your ds160 there's a question that asks if you have any relatives in the U.S you can put their names and their relation to you so if you just say yes my brother's in the U.S they ask you oh your brother's in the U.S yes know that the Visa officer is always trying to think what's the most negative possible scenario here So when you say that you've got a sibling in the U.S the first thought that that Visa officer has is oh did they did they somehow stay in the US illegally that's the first thought right they're they're thinking ooh if it's illegal then I'm going to refuse them right or if it's an overstay or if it's a a change of status right so if somebody goes on on an F visa and then gets married and gets a green card the Visa officers despite that being completely legal might interpret that as negative you've got to add context you've got to add the story uh if it's to an H1B definitely add add more details to let them know hey this was a prestigious transfer oh yeah my brother went to the US and he studied at University of Minnesota and now he's working at Intel as an engineer okay that's a whole different path than oh my brother went on a tourist visa and then applied for Asylum and that was refused and then he got a temporary protected status and then he went out of status and then he got married to a U.S citizen right that's a completely different story so if you get that good story definitely highlight the good parts and show yeah I've got a family member that did things the right way on the other hand if you've got a family member that did things in a way that the Visa officers are going to interpret negatively you need to draw a differentiation yes my sister did this but I've got a different situation I've got a different plan right you have to you have to acknowledge those negatives and then give the information that counters it yeah speaking of what you just mentioned shot is asking is winning a lottery before I'm guessing a DV Lottery beforehand would that be a red flag when applying for a different Visa well if it's a d if it's a H-1B Lottery then no but if it's the DV Lottery uh it could be yes if you if you actually uh get selected in the DV Lottery and put in an application for it uh and especially if you've appeared for an interview for that DV that that DV Visa that's going to show up in their system and applying for a DV Visa shows immigrant intent right you showed up for an interview to get a green card Visa to go to the US so then if you go in the next year and say no I have no immigrant intent at all it's it's going to be much harder for you to prove that too right because they're going to say what well I've got immigrants intent right here in my record right you you submitted the documents yeah usually though if you just uh apply for the DV that's not something that they're considering in the interview gotcha thanks for clarifying that all right and before we jump into the live q a which we I know we've got lots of awesome questions here in the chat I want Ben just to tell us a little bit more about Argo Visa coaching um this the Argo is an approved China coaching partner we love working together um seeing this incredible success we have they have a really cool technology tool I'm going to show you in just a second after Ben tells you a little bit more about Argo and then we'll jump into live q a great thanks Rob yeah Argo Visa is a network of over 25 former Visa officers who worked in 35 countries speak 14 different languages and collectively we've done over a million Visa interviews we were all the officers sitting behind those windows making those decisions reviewing Visa applications all over the world we know through our experience all of the regulations related to any Visa type that you can think of and also we know what's going on inside the minds of Visa officers we know collectively what the culture is what influences their decision what are their priorities what are their their their values what are their stressors what are their incentives so that you know how to go in in a super short window of time get them the information they need to make the right decision and issue you your Visa so you can go to our website argovisa.com that's where you can you can book a meeting with uh one of our our team members of Visa officers we're going to pair you up with the VISA officer that worked in your country that knows your type of Visa situation if you've got something um that's really complicating perhaps like an opt problem with a different employer we've got officers that are specialized in that we're able to help a lot of our clients overcome super difficult situations multiple prior refusals and get back on their Journey get back into their their studies in the U.S awesome so yeah let me remove this all right I'm going to do some fancy technology stuff here okay Argo is just uh recently started an awesome new virtual visa interview checkup bot and it's really cool I want to give a quick demo um and show you guys how it works so what's your full name let's do uh Bob Adams here um email address we'll do try and coaching gmail.com and what's really cool about this is it's going to give you a score and a ranking um Ben do you want to tell us how this was created and kind of the purpose for it while I'm filling this out and showing people so the our team of former Visa officers and I put this together using our knowledge of how we did these interviews all over the world so uh we've got all the different Visa types in here and then we added all the considerations all the important factors that we take into account when we're making these decisions um we had to shorten it down because then it would have been a 30 minute quiz right so we shortened it down to the most important factors which are going to be your nationality where you're going to apply uh if it's an F Visa the school you're applying to your major how you're going to pay for it and then we waited all of these um and we actually used some some Ai and we've got some great Engineers that helped us with this um to to to fix a distribution for these results where we're able to give our clients an idea of how well prepared they are to go into their visa interview right uh so hopefully with this we're able to identify some things some things that maybe you're not too sure about or maybe you don't know that it's going to affect your visa interview and then when you go through our process you're going to see oh actually you know what one of these answers that you gave us really from our experience we know that this causes a problem in a visa interview and we'll highlight that yeah so we've just real quick you know it kind of asks about previous travel history um if you've done visas before yes or no occupation so I'm just doing kind of your typical Indian student because then a lot of our friends are watching from India software developer bachelor's degree yes getting nervous um let's say yeah we've got a relative you know I've got that Uncle and aunt and gujar are in New Jersey which a lot of Indian friends do um has anyone filed an immigrant position for you no did you just call New Jersey new Gujarat yeah a little Gujarat is a New Jersey so uh yeah a lot of people have relatives in New Jersey Bay Area you know those are some of the big hubs but yeah New Jersey is like Gujarat 2.0 amazing food there if you go there like Jersey City so let's do um a pretty common one let's say um let's do um University of Southern California USC that's a good one uh let's do master's degree let's do computer science did you receive scholarship um yeah let's do some scholarship good English um it's been less than one year since you know we've been working maybe two three years some work experience total cost of your program let's see this would be a hundred thousand dollars right here Ben correct yeah that's right let's see what do you think is a good estimate so that's about that's about it maybe for two years of a computer science masters Maybe 120. 120 okay let's put that there all right let's submit and then what is the primary source of funding let's say loans that's pretty common and then how much funding what is typical here for banks with students do you think this is going to be it's going to vary you know some people some people are going to have a whole lot of resources some people are going to have less so show in your bank account belonging to your parents oh man that's tough um maybe twenty thousand okay let's do that okay so I'm getting a good idea of where we're gonna come out here with our assessment maybe you know your parent uh let's say they don't any own any real estate yep that's exactly where I would have put this and so we're over 50 percent because yeah give us why this breaks down like this let's see right we're going to a good University uh we're going for a stem major um so these are pluses right we've got some good academics but uh we're going on a loan right alone tells a Visa officer okay your family might not have the resources to pay for it on your own so you had to go to a loan which isn't as good as getting a scholarship or your family basically having you know an excess of funds and being able to pay for it so it's going to be harder to explain the finances uh I also noticed that we said that uh this person had never traveled outside of their home country before right and so no prior travel is also something that makes the Visa officers a little bit hesitant because what they're trying to guess is if you travel abroad will you come back right and if you've never traveled abroad they're just having to guess so in this case we're over 50 you've got the good basis Here for a Good visa interview you got those those good academics but we've also got some things that we know the Visa officer is going to be concerned about and if you don't prepare correctly for it at 60 you know you're almost rolling the dice and hoping that it's gonna that it's gonna come out right okay this is this tool you know and I also want to add rub that it's free it's a free tool you can go in there and if anybody is wondering you know how this works on the back end or if it's really doing something on the back end if you did this and we won't do this again right now because it takes a little bit of time but if you do this again you change those answers you're going to get a different result yes it is custom it's not just preset yeah so I'm putting the link here um in the chat the link is also in the video description you guys can go to the Argo website go to the top here where it says Visa checkup plug in your scenario and see what answer you get you know and see are you looking good do you have those red flags um yeah so it's a great just self-evaluation free tool that Argo has created to help you guys out so check that out we're going to do some live q a now I'm really excited we've got some time couple things one is don't keep repeating your same question over and over and over again if you keep asking the question a hundred times in the comments we're gonna skip it because that's annoying also super chats are going to be prioritized so if you do a super chat question we'll try and prioritize as well and the more clear and concise you know just don't make a statement saying hey this happened to me you know ask a specific question the better questions you ask the more likely I'm going to pull them up and answer them so okay Ben you ready for our uh fun q a I love q a this is okay most fun part okay I'm gonna scroll back here and um let's get some good ones Usman can I apply for a third country I'm studying after two rejections last year so third company country you know application after some reductions they're from Gambia studying in China on full scholarship Masters there and now they've got a scholarship to study at OU I'm guessing Oklahoma um so yeah very unique situation what are your thoughts on this one okay so oh sorry it's Ohio University yeah there's a couple issues here and I think the first one we want to deal with is the Third Country National a third country National vet term in the Visa World it means that when you're applying for your Visa outside of your home country so as a uh someone from the from the Gambia and you're applying in China you're going to be considered a third country National usually the rule of thumb is that that's going to lower your chances to get your visa issued it's because in China they don't know anything about the Gambia they don't know anything about where you might be in society what what situation you might have what your your prospects for for work or what your family's financial situation might be like in The Gambia and so they're more likely to be not confident and when they're not confident their refusal rate goes up so in general in a situation like that you do have less of a chance and you're gonna have a better chance in your home country and in this case I'm going to tell you why you're gonna have a better chance in your home country the the officers in China I'm gonna say uh because I also worked in China the officer is there uh usually you know have some background in East Asia and China they speak Chinese uh maybe they have some familiarity with West Africa but most likely not uh and so they're going to think okay well I don't know anything about this country their confidence is going to be lowered even though you're in China and you're studying on a full scholarship their confidence is going to be lowered but let's think about this if you go to The Gambia in The Gambia you go there and who are you compared to the other vsac applicants there well you're from The Gambia you've been in China abroad number one you see oh well this is someone that's been studying abroad on a full Masters you look way more impressive compared to the other Visa applicants in The Gambia than you do in China a lot of a lot of students are in China studying right except you're the student whose country they don't know in The Gambia they know you right you can tell them about your family what your family does um what what the financial situation is they're going to understand that because it's in the right context and they're going to think it's more impressive that you were studying abroad had a full scholarship in China so you're probably going to have a much better chance applying in The Gambia than you are applying in China that's great very practical question um does do they need to be clean shaven or are beards allowed when coming for a visa interview beards are loud beards are allowed uh I had a beard as a Visa officer I have a short beard now perfectly okay you do need to be clean um what I would say people want to know what what you should wear to the visa interview you should wear whatever you would normally wear when you're trying to present your best self if you're a student where would what a student would wear on a day when they're going to school and maybe they're going to give a presentation right if you've never worn a suit a three-piece suit with a tie in your life don't go out and buy a new one don't borrow one you're not gonna feel comfortable uh you should wear what you feel comfortable in right uh you shouldn't wear a tuxedo you're not going to your marriage uh you just need to to look smart clean and representative of who you are which is if it's a student you can look like a student I like it all right Bob the Builder's asking is it considered bad to take a gap year so you know they finished their bachelor's undergrad they want a year to prepare to do all these exams and tests and stuff before going to Masters um just from an academic standpoint I don't think it's a bad thing um you know if you can do some work experience or internships in there that definitely helps um but I think more importantly is just communicating your situation on what you did during that Gap year so it makes sense to the Visa officer anything to add to that that you're exactly right Rob uh the thing to not do is just say I was unemployed okay then you give them the no information they need a story right they need a story they need a narrative they need to know who you are that's the only way that they're going to feel confident especially if you've got a gap those are those potential red flags a gap in your studies makes you a non-traditional student they need to know okay what's this Gap all about Gap year that term uh if if it's a gap year uh that you can talk about in the in the sense of you know taking time off experiencing some things trying some different things you know same Gap year that's something that that kind of relates to some a concept they have in their mind of oh a gap year right I know about that that's different from there's a gap on the resume and someone was unemployed completely different images that they're getting in their mind so yeah you can do that but don't assume the vs officer knows that you are preparing for your GRE in TOEFL let them know I was doing this I was full-time preparing to take my tests to get the best admit that I could awesome all right ansar thanks for the Super Chat uh he's asking I was deported from Saudi Arabia to India on an emergency certificate my passport was confiscated by my sponsor uh can I get the F1 Visa approval to study in the US or what kind of impacts will that have from their kind of immigration and travel history uh well you know countries uh most countries in the world are not sharing information about immigration issues so in this case I I can't say with certainty but I'm going to guess that uh Saudi Arabia's immigration information is not being shared with the us or with any other countries they're not they're not they're not sending that information out so uh if it's just a purely an immigration matter I don't think that's going to be information that they're going to consider in your USBS interview if there was something criminal associated with it and it's put into a criminal database then there is the possibility that they're going to know about it anything that goes into you know an Interpol database that that information does get shared between countries way more often for law enforcement and so that stuff might pop up and they'll and they'll be able to look into that but with something like this without more information I wouldn't be able to say gotcha gotcha all right okay so this one I think relates to a lot of people um people having multiple rejections so this person was refused two times next is their third attempt you know going to University of North Texas you know for people who have two three rejections um you know what what would you suggest all right well then the number one thing I can tell you is don't do the same thing you did the last time yes that's the first thing and expect something different to happen yeah if you do the same thing you should expect the same result right same inputs same outputs uh it's possible some people have gone in for an interview gotten refused came come in again with the exact same plan given the exact same answers and then they've been issued the reason is because we all knew when we were Visa officers there's always somebody let's say you know the the rare one percent of of our colleagues who's making really bad decisions and when we would see that okay well you know Joe Schmo over here refused someone last week I'm not considering that a negative against them they're going to get a fair hearing again right so that can't happen but don't roll the dice don't think oh maybe that will be me right take control of the situation know that you can be an active participant in your interview and you can change the way that they're going to think about it in your case what I would do working with you is I would want to know everything that happened in those first two interviews the first interview especially because that's when the tone was set that's when that initial decision was made I would want to know everything that was on your ds160 uh and every question that they asked you and what your answers were not just the questions but what your answers were right then we have all the inputs that went into that Visa officer's decision right all your ds-160 and all of your answers to their questions from that I can know from my experience what was going on in their mind right why did they refuse what information would they have recorded to tell future officers this is why I've made this decision and why this might happen again then we can start to strategize why did they refuse and now how can we change their their mind for the next time uh what you need to do if you're if you're gonna do this you know in the next few hours and you don't have time to get help you need to think okay what is the reason that I got refused and it's not the reason that they wrote on that they gave you on that piece of paper lack of ties you're gonna have to Intuit it by thinking about what were they asking about what were they concerned about what was their what was their major doubt about my application when you go into the next interview that's the first thing you need to address and talk about when they ask that first question yeah yeah and new strategy on the time if you're if you've been refused once twice three times you know getting on a coaching call with Argo Visa they're going to help you break down decipher and see you know really you know with a good idea of where those refusals are coming from and how to Pivot and have a better strategy um Frank this is a good one um they want to learn how to kind of reconstructure communicate that their uncle is sponsoring you know a lot of people might have an uncle um in the country out of country you know so how can you communicate to a Visa officer that their Uncle you know not their parents but another relative is sponsoring their education what's a good way to talk about that in in a lot of countries having somebody like an uncle sponsor education is really common right in the U.S it's not so common I think that most of the officers in countries where this might be more common probably know that it's more common but still in intuitively it doesn't feel so natural as parents sponsoring right so don't just say my uncle is sponsoring me and leave it at that right because for the first question is going to be well is it your real uncle or is it just some person that you call Uncle right that's gonna be their first thought right is this just some some some non non-relative benefactor who's going to pay uh but then you also want to give the context of how this uh this Uncle is is able to sponsor you right where does their their funding come from and why they would be willing to sponsor you right so if it's okay well my uncle is going to sponsor me because uh you know it's my mother's brother there you're saying okay it's my actual blood relative it's my mother's brother and he's been really successful in real estate uh so he's actually helped a couple of uh my cousins go to college as well and he wants to help me too because he's kind of the uh you know the person in the family who's who's been the most successful um and I have always been a good student and so he wants to sponsor my my education a simple explanation like that is going to do way more for you than just saying oh my uncle right that's great all right thanks for the Super Chat uh his brother is in the US on H1B now and uh applying to the same University where his older brother passed out from uh graduated from uh what impact uh I know this can be common we're siblings go to the same University um as before you know with that familiarity um especially you know one like text you know UT Arlington very common with International students from India so yeah how can people talk about that with family there already graduated working now um in the same University yeah well this is one where you'd have family in the U.S right so just saying I have family in the U.S is gonna is gonna lead to a negative thought you need to make sure the Visa officer knows that your brother's on an H1B right which is a good thing that's a good thing because it shows oh this family is doing things right they're applying for the change of status they're they're doing something that it takes High a high level of qualifications to get into uh also graduated from the University in the U.S so when I go to this interview and I'm going to say I'm going to go to this University I would actually say this is one of my highlights right maybe you've also got financial highlights maybe you've also got some academic highlights this is another highlight that I would want to bring to the Forefront and I would do it at the very beginning when they say uh what's your purpose of travel to the U.S I would say well I'm going to go to the University of Texas at Arlington it's actually the same University that my brother graduated from and he's in the US now on an H-1B visa as a software engineer working for company X right letting them know that entire story so one they don't ever start thinking negative things when they see that you've got a family member in the U.S they already know the story and two they already see oh this family does things the right way that's great here's an interesting one someone's got their interview coming up but because of a non-disclosure agreement they can't talk about their specific work um with a kind of a tech ed company working for five years so how can they talk about this in a way that is helpful for a Visa officer have you faced this before doing these interviews uh the the Visa officer I can tell you this right now will 100 not accept if you tell them that you can't talk about your work because of a non-disclosure agreement uh it's kind of like uh I don't know talking to your your attorney right your your attorney's not really able to help you if you don't tell them what's up or if you're in court right you I actually don't I don't know what would happen in court if you said that but uh yeah we'll stick to the visa interview example they're not going to accept if you say this uh you'll have to make the decision about whether you're going to talk about your work or not if you can talk about your work in a way that doesn't violate that agreement then you should do that but if you're if this agreement says you can't talk about it at all that's really going to hurt you uh I don't I'm not going to tell you to break this agreement but you need to be able to talk about your work in the visa interview yeah maybe talk to your company the leadership the legal team there and see what they can approve you to talk about that can help you in this visa interview I I can 100 say you if if you go into the interview and say I can't talk about my work because of a non-disclosure agreement you're not going to get your visa issued yeah communication is important is some nefarious stuff going on or at least maybe there's sensitive work going on yeah all right from Rahul um they have their graduation in December a huge issue a lot of our student friends is parents not be able to get those uh travel visas the b1b2 because the backlogs um you know even though Trucking regularly I know at one point was like a year wait just to get a slot so what are tips for people to get dates you know even just trying to you know several months in advance um you know what would you say to people who are trying to help their family with this all right so the first step is you've got to get a visa interview scheduled right so if you look and you see that there's none scheduled during the time that you want it you've still got to schedule the appointment because that's the only way to request an expedited appointment so you've got to get that appointment scheduled in on the books that first one whenever it is exactly exactly and for your parents if your parents have been World Travelers I've been all around the world then sure let's say there's no appointments available in New Delhi and so you're going to say well they can fly to Dubai and get an appointment okay then that's going to work for them if they've already been all around the world traveling if they've never traveled anywhere before going as a third country National to another country where there are Visa appointments available it's not going to be the best idea right so you kind of have to you're gonna have to weigh those uh those different situations we can help you do that you're going to find out okay is it a good idea to go to a third country or do I need to try in my own country once you decide that if that visa interview is too far in the future you're going to have to request an expedite the expedite is it's you submit it there's a limited number of words you can't attach documents it's in the the appointment system and really all they're looking for is what's the date of the and the purpose of travel and uh when's the date of your interview to see if you you can't arrive on time without the expedite you can't write a lot they're not really taking a lot of humanitarian concerns into account if it's not Oh there's uh there's a funeral that's happening or there's this medical treatment that has to happen just oh I would really like to oh my parents would be so sad if they didn't get it they're not taking that into account it's just I'm graduating from University of North Texas on May 5th uh my parents uh don't have a visa interview until June 14th can you please give them an expedite so that they can attend my graduation the shorter and sweeter the more chances are of being approved because if it's too long and it's kind of rude and you're not direct they're just gonna say I don't know refuse yeah we have a couple videos on the channel on the YouTube channel as well that talk about um expedited or emergency Visa slot booking so check that out for more instructions and details uh all right from Arash um so going for PhD had done Bachelor's in polymer engineering and Masters and a lot of research and papers um so I mean sounds like a really good situation but how can they continue to convince uh the Visa officer for now going to this PhD abroad in America yeah so if you got a PhD um and and you're going to be fully funded most phds are fully funded uh you've got a good chance of getting your Visa issued uh what you need to make sure is that the vs officer knows that it's fully funded saying that always helps not just I'm going for my PhD but I'm going for my fully funded PhD right it's just another you know you're just gilding the Lily when you do that so saying that is key in this particular situation being from Iran um and and having a high a high level degree in a stem field there are a lot of regulations that are related to that and we won't get into all those specifics you can look them up and you can see you know these regulations are are public and you can see what the the Visa regulations related to Iranians are um one of uh the officers that works with Argo he was the the Iranian Visa expert in turkey and so he interviewed every single Iranian that came in through turkey he speaks Persian he's our expert in-house on those regulations and we helped a lot of Iranians be able to get through their interviews get their visas issued but even better get them issued more smoothly than otherwise because there are a lot of a lot of pitfalls that can cause an Iranian visa application to take six months got it okay um thanks again ansar um so another unique situation here they were kind of maybe attacked and beaten up the other day and reported a local police so maybe this would kind of put them in the category of you know a police report or you know something in relationship with the police uh you know and then surrender themselves in the Consulate General in India in Saudi Arabia and this is what led to them getting deported you know I think we had mentioned this before um but you know will this have an impact on their F-1 visa interview uh so the details here are still a little bit unclear perhaps you know being reported to local police but then you know you were deported um you surrendered yourself it seems like a really complex situation if if you were arrested I think you should assume that there's a good chance that there's a criminal record uh even if charges are dropped later you know that once that record starts it stays there so if you were arrested if they took your fingerprints uh then I think you should count on there being a criminal record in your background that could probably be seen by any any immigration official for for any country that's using computers for their for their immigration purposes U.S UK Australia uh anywhere uh so in this case you know these details it sounds like there you know there was an interaction with the police um then there was a problem you were deported I'm gonna I'm gonna say that you should you should assume that this is going to be a negative it's your interview be ready to talk about it when it's brought up right don't just be like a you know caught in the headlights with nothing to say when they bring it up expect they're going to bring it up and know how to talk about it in a concise way don't give them a long yarn that's going to take 10 minutes to tell tell them something in in 20 seconds that sums up the entire story in a way that lets them feel confident they know everything and two makes them feel assured that there's nothing to worry about yeah yeah ruckshit's got a great question here um what documents will my brother need to provide me if I'm adding him as my sponsor he's working or residing in Germany so I've got a relative in Germany sponsoring I'm guessing maybe someone come to the U.S how can they have good documents and communication for their visa interview and application there so uh choosing one person as a sponsor you do have to choose one name in your in your ds160 but in the visa interview when you're asked about finances don't limit yourself to just talking about one person talk about the entire scope of your your Financial Funding uh a brother paying for something also in the American context is less common right so you're going to have to explain this more if you're putting your brother as a sponsor right uh when they say okay who's sponsoring you I think a better answer here would be well it's going to be my family my parents and my my brother are going to be sponsoring me my parents do this and my brother does this he's he's working in Germany and does this right if you just say my brother will pay okay you're leaving open a lot of questions why how how does your brother have the money to pay right uh oh he's in Germany what's he doing in Germany what status is he is he on in Germany right if if you're if your brother is in Germany in on a status that would be a bad status for in the U.S let's say you know an asylum Asylum while I it's fully necessary the Visa officers unfortunately interpret it as a negative so if your brother's in Germany has an acai Lee saying that he's going to sponsor you is actually going to be a negative because you're going to have to explain what he's doing in Germany why is he in Germany and then it comes up that he's an asylee they're going to think well this family claims Asylum when they get to uh another country so it's not going to go well so in that case you would want to change it and have your parents as your sponsor yeah yeah that's good Ben we've crossed the hour do you have a few more minutes for some more questions okay all right so um to receive thanks for the the Super Chat they've got a two-part question here um as my husband has a green card I also applied for an i-130 last month with the i-130 effect my education Visa which I already have one is this a good approach to apply for a student visa and then continued or should I not apply for one um what are the chances of getting a student visa in this case how should I show my husband or father the sponsor okay can we go back to the part one of that so yeah I can go back and forth yeah read that again real quick okay so this is somebody in so everyone knows what the context is here on this this is somebody who wants to apply for a student visa but they've also got an immigrant petition in for a green card so the conflict we have here is applying for a non-immigrant Visa but you've got immigrant intent because you're applying for that green card in these cases uh the Visa officers technically are supposed to say well you have immigrant intent and so you know you can't be eligible for an immigrant Visa because I know you have immigrants intent but in practice they can they can think that you have dual intent which is you intend to use that immigrant Visa in the future when it becomes active and you're and you're able to get it legally in due time but they expect that you're going to use that non-immigrant Visa that student visa in a legal lawful way before that immigrant Visa comes around and so what you have to do is go in and know they're going to see that i-130 petition for an immigrant visa and you're going to need to explain it so I wouldn't even wait for them to find that and ask you about it I would lead off with that and say I'm applying for an F1 student visa but I also want you to know I've got a green card petition because my husband is a citizen or an LPR in the U.S uh I'm planning to to use that when it becomes available but until then I'm going to abide by the regulations and just use my f Visa as an on immigrant Visa they're going to be a lot more details in your case that are going to support this because we don't know what's the actual you know the husband's status but that's the general format that you're going to need to use yeah I want to address this one really quick too just because this is one I've seen a lot I've gotten this question a lot recently um on messaging and stuff um and so I think this is kind of common for international students shoob says I've been rejected before for a B2 so uh kind of tourist business travel visa but now they're trying to go for their International F1 visa to Arizona State good University you know what kind of impact is a previous tourist visa denial going to have on now going for a student visa interview all right this is a good question so what we have here are is a prior refusal but it was four years in the past so that prior refusal is going to have an effect because when they open up your case they're going to see oh you were refused twice they're going to look and see what happened in that interview what did that previous officer say about why he or she refused you now though we're three or four years in the future so you've got the opportunity to present a different story right when the Vsauce a lot has happened between now and then exactly the Visa officers will always say oh you need to wait longer what they what they're meaning is maybe with time your situation will change and you'll have more credentials right more ties that will help me feel confident to issue you your Visa so you've got these refusals but with this four year Gap you're able you're going to get the the opportunity to tell them some more information so first of all analyzing what happened in in 2019 right figuring out what happened in those interviews and what might be the concern because that happened four years ago for you but for that new Visa officer they're going to open it up and read it today and it's happening like it's today for them right so you're going to have to address whatever those previous concerns were and then talking about what the plan is right yeah I applied for a B1 B2 in 2019 to go as a tourist I don't know I was why I was refused I had this job I had this these studies I was doing this uh and now my plan is to go and get an F1 at ASU I'm going to be studying whatever it may be for a master's right explaining that situation showing the change right addressing what happened in 2019 and then showing that change that's great everyone this has been awesome um again I highly recommend you guys go check out uh that Visa checkup bot where you can put your situation in get the score we've put the links there um and yeah if you need more help to figure out why you've been rejected how to prepare how to communicate how to tell that story that makes sense to a Visa officer reach out to Ben and his other colleagues at Argo Visa um because they're going to really help you guys out and get that success we've seen so many amazing success stories because visa interview season he said is upon us it is happening right now over these next few months and we want to make sure it's one and done one visa interview and the approval uh Ben thank you so much for your time your expertise I learned a lot um yeah thanks for hanging out and serving our China coaching Community thanks Rob it's always a pleasure to talk to your audience they've always got great questions yeah and I know we couldn't get to all the questions um but we're gonna definitely keep doing this again to help you guys out thanks for the questions thanks for hanging out and put some more in the comments after this video and we'll see if we can get to there thanks everyone good luck let us know how those Visa interviews go cheers everybody cheers foreign

Channel: Chai & Coaching

Views: 104,423

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Id: m3nbixezQ6M

Length: 67min 45sec (4065 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023