okay so we are on hi everyone my name is Frederick and you're welcome to the TF YouTube channel today we are privileged to have a former Visa officer with us normally you get the perspective as an applicant it is good to hear from the people who are behind and issuing your visa to understand what they are expecting from you so we are collaborating with um ago visa to give you an exclusive insight into a Visa officer's mind and how they go about approving your F1 Visa you would don't want to miss any aspect of this interview so I will let you introduce so um quickly and then we get to their questions sure uh it's good to be here Frederick thanks for having us uh we're happy to uh uh to collaborate with you and to be able to speak to your audience uh I'm Ben I used to be a Visa officer myself I did that for the US government and embassies and consulates around the world for many years uh I did over 60,000 Visa interviews in total sitting there at the window making the decisions on every type of Visa that you can imagine uh tourist visas student visas marriage visas um Diversity Lottery visas everything that is out there I've done that and it's not only me at the Argo team uh at Argo we've got over 20 officers who have worked in 35 different countries speak 14 different languages and in total the number of visas that we've adjudicated is over 1 million so uh we're bringing real expertise to Visa applicants we're the only team in the world that's able to do this to bring this much expertise um where you can actually get real insid or Knowledge from a former Visa officer about what actually goes into the decision why a Visa is approved why a Visa is denied so uh you know I left the government a few years ago and I've been helping people pass their visa interviews since then because while I was on the inside I saw that there were people who were getting their visas denied unnecessarily right for two main reasons one because uh maybe the office just didn't understand the situation didn't speak the local language didn't know enough about the local country and you as an applicant can actually help that you can educate them a little bit when needed and the other reason was because applicants would be uh poorly prepared sometimes underprepared or sometimes badly prepared by someone who doesn't really know what someone should do in a visa interview and I saw applicants that would come into the interview and do odd things say odd things um behave uh in in in weird unnatural ways because they'd been told this is the way you have to act to get your visa issued that's not necessary and there are ways to get the visa issued which involv telling the truth in a direct and pointed way to get your point across to get your story across to give the Visa officer that confidence to issue the Visa so that's why I came out that's why all of the Argo team came out of the government and now we help people like you get your visa issued awesome so you would want to subscribe to the channel because after after this I'm going to give you a code that will give you a 10% off if you want to have a one-on-one conversation with Ben and the ago Visa team so please subscribe to the channel and you get a code because you have subscribed to the tv YouTube channel to get a 10% off when you book a consultation with ago Visa team and you get to speak to Ben one onone so Ben um let's get going so um the number one question everybody ask is what was the mistake I made that got my Visa so I guess what I'm trying to ask is what is the number one Visa um um you know mistakes that applicants usually make well that's a good question uh the biggest mistake that applicants make when they go into a visa interview is they give short answers short and also uninform answers so right people will come into the interview and I think what's going on because I've had a lot of experience and I've gone through and I've seen everything that the people who are online giving a advice say the piece of information that's out there that's the least accurate and actually the most harmful is that you should just say as little as possible right they say what are you going to do in the US and then you respond with study okay well how are you going to pay for it myself these answers don't help you they actually hurt you and the reason is because I what most people may assume and it's an incorrect assumption is that the Visa officers start a here at approval like if you don't make any mistakes your Visa will be approved and it's only if you make a mistake then you drop to a refusal but that's not the case in the regulations in the law it's actually surprising I was surprised when I learned this when I first became a Visa officer and went through the training Visa applicants are considered guilty until they can prove themselves innocent guilty of what not necessarily a crime but guilty of not being a qualified applicant and it's only when the applicant proves that they are qualified that then the Visa officer will issue the Visa so being reticent being quiet not wanting to give much information actually hurts you because you stay down here you never get up here where the Visa officer will be confident they can issue the Visa so you've got to give answers that contain information because the Visa officer has to feel like they understand your situation before they're going to feel confident enough to click that issue button awesome so are there limited number of questions a Visa officer is restricted to ask uh no the questions that the Visa officers ask uh can well they can ask anything they want right the most common question though will be what's your purpose of travel to the US definitely for a b Visa what's your purpose of travel if you're a student you can assume that they're going to ask you okay what where are you going to study what are you going to study something like that but after that there's no guarantee that they're going to ask anything there's no guarantee they're going to ask about your funding about why you chose this school about um for instance did you apply to any other schools there's no guarantee that they're going to ask any of these why do they ask these questions then why do they ask have you applied to any other schools it's not because you have to apply to other schools right it's it's because they want to hear you talk they want to hear you tell them your story they want they want to know that you're a real student and do real students do well they have a student Journey right a real student is studying hard and thinking about where they want to go to school right and why have they chos in these places well well it could be because the academics are great maybe you got a scholarship maybe you went to an academic fair and this school impressed you maybe this school was the most responsive and recruited you maybe you went to an an educational consultant who recommended a few schools and you applied to this one maybe you've got a cousin who who went to that school uh maybe you've uh always just wanted to go to Los Angeles and so you looked at the schools in Los Angeles there there can be any reason but the V officer wants to feel like you're a real student if you just say uh the school has a beautiful Campus of 20 acres and they have a student faculty ratio of 14 to1 that's not the reason people choose schools that you went to the school's website or a Wikipedia article and just memorized two sentences okay that doesn't make the Visa officer confident that you're a real student so you have to be real it's the the the the secret and I know it's it sounds simple it's just the concept that you're having a conversation with the VISA officer awesome awesome so for from the African perspective and me coming from Ghana as an African you know when we talk to elderly people or people in higher offices making an eye contact is not one of them now how important is eye contact in the F1 visa interview generally an um a visa interview approval H well uh you know these are Americans that you're doing the interviews with um and you know Americans come from a lot of different backgrounds but culturally you know they're all Americans and you know while they may have some experience in Ghana or in other countries in the region and Nigeria or see own they're going to still feel in their heart you know the American Standards for things which is confidently looking into someone's eyes making eye contact speaking clearly uh right feeling feeling confident that when when you're confident they're going to feel confident about you right but uh speaking kind of like this quietly and not wanting to make eye contact it makes them think well why right is it because you know they know that they might assume it's because you're nervous but then while I know most students are nervous because it's a important interview right and they're they're concerned about the outcome the Visa officers will immediately perhaps assume that oh they're nervous because they're lying to me yes that's what they start to assume right okay so the way the way to assume to to approach this and I know that in a lot of cultures you know deference to Authority is very important to to Elders to anyone you know in a government government position and so you might you know kind of be in this mode of of thinking oh I need oh yes or no sir please sir that kind of thing that's not what Americans like Americans are kind of uh they don't really like hierarchy in American workplaces we don't say uh sir or Madam or ma'am or Madam for for our bosses we just say yes John right or of course Susan right that's how we talk to our bosses there's only one person in the entire Embassy that people will call sir and that's the Ambassador right so in the entire organization there's one person and that's actually quite rare and it's kind of a formality that's a tradition um you know we say yes sir Mr ambassador right and there's but there's no one else so when you go to the interview I want you to imagine that you're you're not speaking to a judge or a policeman imagine that you're speaking to a a colleague right so when you're at work and you're talking to someone that's your same level right you're you're not calling them sir right but you're still being professional right you want them to think of you as a professional so and you treat them professionally right so you treat you treat them nicely you treat them formally uh but you're not being subservient you're not being too differing to them awesome awesome glad you bring that perspective so if I'm going to a community college if I'm going to an Iva League um my question is does my college really matter like the standard of my college and what program I'm going to pursue I want you to combine these two does the kind of University or the college I'm going into and my program really matter in the Visa approval mm it does now the program doesn't matter as much as the school uh you know sometimes people might think okay this type of program sounds better than that type of program um but really it's the school that you're going to now when you if you go to an information session uh from the embassy they're they're going to say nope all schools are legitimate you can go to a community college you can go to an English Language School you can go to a four-year University it's all legit because they can't say that they're going to give PRI give preference to some schools and not to other schools but in practice it's inevitable when they see Harvard or Princeton or Yale or one of these best universities in the world they're going to think oh wow Harvard has accepted this student they must have really strong academic credentials right and they're going to issue all of those and then let's say you got a middle school a middle level school right um where they've heard the name of the school they know it's a real school right you know but maybe it's not the best school but still it's got a reputation right they know okay well this is a real school students in America that I know I might have friends that uh have gone to this school so I know that you have to you have to apply you have to be accepted you have to be a real student but then there's schools that they've never heard of yeah maybe community colleges maybe smaller four-year schools that they've never heard of and they're going to think I don't know anything about this school and if I've never heard of it it must be very small doesn't have a reputation and that's going to make them more skeptical because they don't know okay do they have real entrance requirements do you have to pass tests do you have to submit scores or transcripts I don't I don't even know so you're going to have to prove why this is a good school um and why you're you're a trustworthy student and then at the uh the lower end of that list is going to be language schools if you're just going to study English and I don't know if in your audience you have anybody that's uh in that situation from a frankophone country but if you're just going to study English that's the one where those schools will accept anyone so it's not that those schools are bad it's that the best student can go to an English school and also someone who's not a student at all can just say yep I want to go to an English school and so that's that's the one where they're going to have the harshest uh the harshest review of thank you thank you you're still watching here on the tfv YouTube channel we are privileged to have the ago Visa team specifically um Ben with us who has issued more than um um you know interviewed more than 600 Visa 600,000 Visa applicants and then he's very experienced in this Visa processes it is always great to have their perspective and we are having a conversation with him so I guess my next question is that you know um when I was going for my visa interview I thought that you know there was a camera security camera outside um the Visa officers are watching me and they have already made a decision on even before I appear before them so I guess my question is do Visa officers make their decision before we appear in the window they do not they do not make their decision before you appear I know many people think that's what's happening because it goes very quickly but what what is happening is that the Visa officers like I said I did 60,000 not 600,000 but 60,000 of these interviews and when you do that many of them you get very practiced you know exactly what you're looking for and you're looking for specific pieces of information where if you get one two three pieces of information that confirm issuance then you just hit issue if you get one two three pieces of information that can that confirm refuse then you're going to refuse you're not trying you're not you're not trying to find all the information and and then and do an investigation and spend all the time trying to figure out this person's situation you have to take whatever information is at the very right in front of your face and then just make a decision based on that so that's what's happening when they go they go in you say hello and they might not even be looking at you they're looking at their screen but be assured they're listening to everything you say okay they're listening to see if anything triggers a thought that says yes issue or no refuse and while they're listening to you they're going through your application which they can go through because if you look at 60,000 of them you move through it very quickly you see important piece of information good bad good bad and then they're having to make a decision quickly so it it's that it's not that they're making a decision before the interview it's that they're making that decision super quickly as soon as the interview starts that's their goal they want their job to be easy uh by easy that means they they know very clearly whether they want to issue or refuse the Visa as soon as possible because their managers are wanting them to go quickly and so there's no one that's reviewed your ds160 in 99 over 99% of cases no one has reviewed the ds160 until you walk up to the window you hand them their passport and then they scan the passport and they open the ds160 that's the first time that they've seen it in 99% of cases and I and I know of your viewers right now some people are going to think oh but maybe I'm the 1% you're not you're not the 1% you're part of the 99% you're getting a the first review from that officer is happening as soon as you walk up to that window awesome so my next question will be so if you're going through my ds160 and then I have already handed over to you my passport and I20 do you have a copy of the I20 in the system or you're using what I presented to you they're basing it just on what you present to them right um what what you present to them is what they're going to go with they're they're you may have more than one I20 but when you go to a visa visa interview all that's being considered is the one I20 that you that you're presenting for your visa interview awesome okay there are some terminologies used in the British language which are not used in the American language so if um an applicant is coming in front of you are you expecting um some terminologies that you are not used to so for example in Ghana a cold store in in American language means like frozen meat where people sell frozen meat but a Visa officer does not understand the terminology that an applicant is using is that a ground for a Visa refusal well it's not understanding isn't the grounds for the Visa refusal not understanding the word but if you don't make them trust you then that's the grounds for the Visa refusal but just using a Ganan word instead of an American word you know that's not that's not a bad thing like you know the British say a lift and Americans say an elevator so if a British person said oh yeah I'm I'm sorry I'm late I came here on the lift an American doesn't say get out of here you just said lift instead of instead of elevator so but you should you should try to to to use words that your audience will understand like for instance youve got a cold St I don't know if you're talking to someone um you know even I don't know if in Nigeria they say the the same thing but if you if you encounter anybody from a different country maybe you use words that you think oh these are the more common words right so you you avoid slang use formal words right awesome so um as African we have an asset or which country you know um the person is attending the visa interview as an Indian they have an assent so do a Visa applican have to try to speak in the American language for a Visa officer to understand or does the officer being you know experience in that country automatically understands the accent of Visa applicant they're going to understand a lot of it right so um there's going to be it's mostly words that will be the problem M the officers will have been in your country for you know uh anywhere from a few weeks to two years that's how long the The Stance working as a Visa officer last so the ones that have been there for for nearly two years obviously they're going to be much more used to speaking with Gans or or with people from whatever country you're from they're going to be used to hearing that accent um and and it's not going to to affect them as much maybe if an officer has just arrived then they're they're not going to be so so familiar with it um and they're going to you know they're not going going to know some words uh they're not going to to understand some pronunciations if they're different um so it's it's just like um any communication where uh if you if you run into someone who who's different or from a different area you want to speak in the the clearest way possible even even I right right now I'm speaking extremely clear American English uh where when I go back to my hometown and I'm from Kentucky people speak with an accent there and I start I start speaking with more of that that local accent but I I wouldn't use that local accent if I'm going to come out and and speak to people in a different country I want to use the the most proper version of English that I'm able to speak right yeah I I lived in Lexington for like two years and really yeah I it's a bit different all right so um we move on to the next question are there qus so in in a are Visa officers expected to approve a certain number of visas and after that everybody who comes not withstanding your your profile your situation you'll be refused so this is the question is there a quot yes A lot of people think that there must be a quot there is no quota there's no quot uh when I say this you know in a lot of lives uh people will immediately say no that's not true you're lying I don't know why they think I would lie about this uh there's no quota now there are certain visas not student visas for which there's a quota for the petition right like an H1B Visa uh has a quota for the number that they're going to issue issue per year um but that's you know when you win the the H1B Lottery they call it the lottery that means that you you won you're inside the quota so you come to the interview and you you know that that space has already been given to you um diversity visas there's a quota right but if you win that DV Lottery you you come to the interview if you're at the interview you're already passed the the quota system for for those visas and for tourist visas there's no quota for f visas no quota J visas there's no quota so you're going to uh you're going to have a a shot at your interview and the only thing that's playing into that is does the Visa officer believe you are going to use your Visa correctly if they believe yes they will hit issue if they believe no they will hit refuse that's that's all that goes into it they're not thinking oh I'm only able to issue 100 per day and I've already issued 100 and so I'm sorry I have to that does not happen that is not that is not something that happens anywhere so one of the less popular kind of VES which is the M1 Visa um you know because a lot of people think that if you're are going for an M1 Visa depending on your age and because the institutions usually do not issue you um you know have scholarships there is a high possibility of getting denied what is your take on M1 visis yeah so M1 visas uh they're not a high necessarily a high refusal Visa uh it's just that sometimes M visas it's hard for people to prove what their intent is right so for mvas the the the ones that that I normally see are for Pilots um and also for culinary school what what do you have do you have other people that are applying for m1s for different types of studies um so fashion and just like you said culinary and pilot program mostly yeah um and so for a lot of these programs it's not like for a pilot program it's not the same as okay well you studied mathematics for your undergrad and now you're going to study mathematics in a in a master's degree it's something you apply to without having a background right to go into it um so it's something you're doing fresh so it's hard to prove what your intent is based on your past your your your history and so that makes it more difficult the schools you sometimes are a little smaller a little less regulated um and that's what makes the the VIS officer scrutinize it more so the thing to know is that they will scrutinize it more they're going to have more questions so you know okay I've got to be more convincing I've got to show more evidence right I've got to show more strength on my application that I would normally right so are are there likelihood of getting one's Visa approved in a certain country as compared to other count so a ghanian for example feels like you know if I go to IV Coast if I go to codiva for my visa interview the chances of me getting approved is higher than going to the EMB as a Visa officer what's your take on this well can you say that one more time I'm sorry get that um are there um higher chances of getting one's Visa approved depending on the country the applicant is going for the visa interview so for example I am a a ghanian and I feel like if I go to neighboring country Ivory Coast or codo for my interview I have a higher chances of getting approved as compared to going to the Embassy in Aran yeah so that's a that's a good a good topic that you bring up because that's the the concept of a third country National so I'll use this term Third Country National TCN what does that mean it me means someone who's not from the country where you're where you're applying so if a Ganan goes to Ivory Coast then the Ganan is a third country National there now why does that have an effect well we talked about the the Visa officer being confident that they understand your situation that they know uh that you've got the the right credentials that they know you've got the right finances and they need to feel confident before they can issue the Visa if you are from a different country then the Visa officer won't be so confident that they understand your situation so let's just imagine if you're if you're Ganan right and then someone from um Bangladesh shows up and tells you hey I'm a businessman you know and I've got a good business do you want to invest in my business in Bangladesh you would think wait I don't know anything about Bangladesh I don't know if I is it a good business is it a bad business I have no idea right that's the way the Visa officer in in uh in Ivory Coast Fields when someone from Ghana shows up they think oh I don't I don't know that much about Ghana you know they trained me on Ivory Coast and so I know the education system here I know the banking system here but I don't know anything about owning a cold store in in Ghana right right so so so your chances are are lower usually your chances are lower when you go abroad to another country there's always exceptions sometimes let's say if you've been resident there for a long time so if you've been living in Ivory Coast for five years then yeah it's good to apply there because you've established yourself there they're going to know okay well you've got a reason to be here you've got something going on maybe you studied here maybe you got a business here right so there's reasons but the the general rule is that you're going to have lower chances outside of your home country what would you say is the biggest myth or misconception about um F1 visa interview or visa interview in general the biggest misconception well we talked about one and that was giving short answers right right and that's that's really one of the biggest ones but let's talk about another misconception another misconception is that uh it's just it's just random that it's just left up to the the Visa officer and it's it's it's chance are they in a good mood are they in a bad mood right they think that that's the only reason they're making a decision yes I like the way you you your face looks no I don't like your earrings right and they're just making or oh I'm hungry right now so I'm in a bad mood I'll I'll refuse that's not what's going on the Visa officers are trying to make the right decision and but for them the right decision is issuing the visa to someone who's going to use it correctly and a bad decision is issuing the visa to someone who's not going to use it correctly and just so we're clear not using it correctly means going to the US and not coming back not going back to your home country that's what they're trying to avoid so they're always thinking okay is what this person telling me the truth or a lie and are they telling me information that makes me believe they'll go to the US and come back or are they going to go to the US and stay there that's what they're always considering and the VIS officers you know these are these are people that went to top schools in the US these are people that worked very hard very hard to get the jobs that they're in these are ambitious people these are motivated people these are value driven people principled people they want to do their jobs well right it's not always possible to do it accurately because they they have limited time but they want to make the right decision so if you give them a of the good information that really does show you're qualified they will make the right decision they won't no one's going to say oh I didn't get a good night's sleep last night so I'm going to refuse you awesome so you're still here with a tfv YouTube channel we are still speaking with ago Visa um officer Ben and he's sharing a lot of insight that would help with your Visa approval so Ben if if an applicant has been denied on the first on the second attempt on the third attempt what would be your top tip to such um an applicant well you know they say and I I I don't know where this this quote comes from but they say uh the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result okay I don't know if that's a you know a true definition but I've heard that before um if you do the same thing over and over again there's no reason to expect a different result you're most likely going to get the exact same result right because when you go in and you've been refused once you give them your passport and you know Bill opens up your your uh your case and looks and says oh Susan just refused you a month ago okay I I know Susan Susan works right next to me um so I'll probably make the same decision as Susan we have the same training same standards uh and so if you go in and you don't do anything new you're going to get the same decision that Susan made before now you need to do something different you need to have a new strategy and what that entails is identifying what are the strong points on your application what is on your application that actually does convincingly show that you're going to go and do what you say you're going to do in the US you have limited time to get that information in front of the officer right for everyone this is going to be different for some people it's going to be your academics super strong academics maybe the university you've gotten into maybe uh maybe your how you um performed in your in your previous degree you know your high school maybe you won some awards maybe you've gotten a scholarship strong academic sometimes it's going to be finances a scholarship would also show that you got money to to go to school uh if your family has finances if you have finances uh maybe it's uh more difficult to show it because it's spread out you know it's not just in One bank account maybe you just got one bank account with just enough of the tuition but you didn't show oh but there's a business and there's land and there's these other things whatever it is you need to figure out okay what can I show them that gets them out of this thinking that oh yeah he's already been refused we're going to refuse him again you need to give them some information where they think H I wonder why he was refused because this sounds like good information that's how you're going to get the new interview started and you're G to get them to think okay maybe I need to change the decision do Visa so I I I know that Visa officers who refuse an applicant will not interview the applicant on a second attempt do the previous Visa officer give a reason for denying the applicant for the next Visa officer to review before interviewing the same applicant the Visa officers are are making notes you see them typing during the interview they're making notes and when you when you go into the next visa interview the Visa officer will be able to see what the the previous Visa officer said in in their notes um the previous Vis officer doesn't tell the new officer what to do every Visa officer and every visa interview is the sole Authority they they are the person that makes the decision um in fact not even their their manager can tell them what decision to make on a specific case they have uh what's called a consular commission it's signed by the President says that you are authorized you are empowered to make these decisions according to the regulations on behalf of the the US government and so that's what that's what they're doing but yes they they do take into account all the information available to them so they're looking at the previous decision they're looking at the previous officer thinking and they're considering that while they're also considering your application and what you're telling them so every um mostly F1 Visa applicant um when refus get the 214b document which has the same so if there are thousands of Visa applicants who go to the Embassy when refused they all get the same document so on the second attempt how would an applicant answer this question in the ds160 have you been refused a Visa before the answer is yes what was the reason now a 24b document is issued to everyone how then do a specific Visa applicant know the reason they were refused a Visa yeah so uh that's a good question and the simple answer is that you will not know okay you will not know the answer right I know everyone would like to know the answer they're reading those sheets they're trying to interpret okay what color is it was it yellow or was it pink or was it green those are just colors of paper uh what the text that's written on that paper is what you should pay attention to and when it says 214b uh that is the clause in the law that's all that means it's the the clause in the law that says um and I'll paraphrase that the Visa officers will assume that every applicant has immigrant intent which is the intent to misuse their visa until they prove to the Consular officer that they don't have immigrant intent so when they when they use that refusal code that's just the refusal code for anything where they they think no I don't think so I'm not going to issue the VISA it could be that they think oh no he's got a cousin in the US and I think he's going to go and live with his cousin okay it could be very specific or it could just be I don't know I don't it doesn't sound like he there he really can pay for this education right it could be any of those things that's all going to fall underneath that 214b refusal we the former Visa officers we do know the reason and how do we know we'll talk we'll talk to you about what was in the ds160 and then what happened at the visa interview what did you say what did they ask and how did you answer when we know that it's very easy and intuitive for us having done 60,000 of these to know exactly what was going through the Visa officer's mind and what would have made them refuse your Visa right um and then we know okay then how do we overcome it the next time but it's it's it's hard to know what you need to prepare if you don't know okay what went wrong right many many clients will you know take a lot of our information and I'm sure you've got a good a lot of good information on your site now we're working with you and so you can um send people over to our YouTube page there's a lot of good free information there it's very general information you can try to look at look at that try to analyze your own situation your own experience and figure out what could have gone wrong uh or you can come to us and get the expert analysis and we can figure out what went wrong and what you need to do the next time awesome so friends I know you're enjoying this conversation so if you have any specific Visa related issues all you need to do is to head to the ago Visa website and I'm going to share this in the video description so that it makes it easy to click now because you've subscribed to the tfv YouTube channel you're going to get 10% off when you book with a code and I'm going to share the code with you real quick so um you get the opportunity to speak to um Ben one-onone you get opportunity for a one-on-one mock interview preparation and also you get opportunity for him to review your document before you go for your visa interview so this is an amazing opportunity to get before you go for your visa interview I'm going to share the video description um in the video description the link to ago Visa website I'll also share the code so that you can use that to get that 10% up so moving on um Ben my my next question is going to be about um administrative processing why are Visa applicants put on administrative processing and what should somebody being being put on administrative processing expect okay so administrative processing uh and 221g which you also may have heard which is usually written on the sheet that they give you it's the same thing and it's not as uh complicated or mysterious as many people think administrative processing just means and 221g they mean the same thing it just means that the Visa officer does not issue the Visa or refuse the Visa at the interview that's all it means it just means okay I'm not going to issue the Visa right now I'm not going to refuse it right now there's something else I want to do it could be anything right it could be um oh uh the the printer isn't working so I'm going to have to put you in in 221g status until the printer is working and I can print the the Visa right it could be something as simple as that yeah yeah it it it never it's it's never one thing it can be anything right uh it could be um no your your your picture here isn't uh standard so uh you need to give me a new picture a new photograph and so you're 221g right or it could be um no I'm I I don't don't believe your work history and so I'm going to investigate a little bit right um or it could be um something like well you said that you um had a uh something in your past that I need to research the regulations and see if it's actually bad or not right or it could be something like um maybe you got a common name and if you got a common name then maybe there's somebody else with your same name who did something bad and they've got that information and they need to see okay are you you the same person as this other person or not right so there's many many reasons why you could be in administrative processing uh and you have to know what type of administrative processing you're in to know if there's anything you can do right sometimes they'll put you in administrative processing and say send me some more information if that's the case your interview is not done yet because you're going to send more information to them that's going to affect their thinking they're saying I don't know I'm not convinced send me your transcript or send me your finances from the person that's going to pay from your for your school your sponsor's finances right then what do you do okay you have to think about it in the same way as the interview would you just say it's my uncle and then just send a bank account or would you want to explain here's the bank account from my uncle he's my father's brother he's helped you three other cousins go to school because he's been very successful he works for the ministry of of petroleum in our country um and he also owns five properties in Acra right and and and you'd want to explain everything right so don't don't ever take 221g um where they're asking for more documents is just okay well I'll send you the documents no no think of it as like we're still in a conversation I still need to make sure you understand everything so usually when you're asked for more information um and you know it's information where they're not convinced I I I send a a short cover letter with that with some explanation of what of what that document means in the full context awesome so individuals who have been or VISA um applicants who have been put on administrative processing and probably later on gotten a response that they had um they probably um submitted a fake document and now they are being banned do they have a second chance when you say banned what what do you mean so maybe an applicant submitted a fake bank statement and was put on administrative processing later on the embassy verified the statement and the financial document and it was fake and the individual was banned and received another document that says that you submitted a fake document and so um your Visa has been refused and you have also been banned what um that's such an applicant have a second chance of coming back for a visa interview and what should they do no they have no chance they will never get a Visa quite un don't submit fake documents yeah right so um this is very important that you know um you verify the documentations you are using um if you're watching so that you don't get into the trouble of getting there being put on administrative processing and getting banned because you do not have a second chance and probably it would affect your chances in the future if you're trying to travel to any other country so as much as you want um you you as much as you can try and make sure certify your documents if you're getting your statement from an ankle make sure you verify the financial document before you submit it in front of a Visa officer because as Ben said you don't have a second chance once you um you you you are not to be trusted by the embassy you can come back again so um make sure you subscribe make sure that you're going straight to the ago Visa um website and I'm going to share the link in the video description so that you have the opportunity to talk to Ben one onone on a discount I'm going to give you a 10% discount because youve subscribed to the this YouTube channel Ben you still want us to go on I or you you yeah let's go on these are some good questions I think we're providing some good info so yeah let's take a few more few more questions give some a few more pieces of advice to your your viewers all right so um I have um last question here so um so my next question viewers is going to be that if an immigration petition has been filed um for an applicant and now this same applicant is applying for school and is supposed to be on a non-immigrant F1 Visa how does this person prove and it's it's part of the you know um the the information you need to provide so that to establish home ties as a non immigrant Visa applicant how do you prove that you are a non-immigrant meanwhile an immigration petition has been filed for you in the past yeah so home ties that's a good it's a good thing to bring up because a lot of times in things that you read you're going to see about these home ties home ties this isn't even something that Americans talk about normally this is just something in the Visa regulations and you might think well I'm from Ghana of course I have home ties to Ghana my my whole family is here I grew up here why would they think that I I don't have home ties but what they're really talking about is okay does someone have a reason to come back home that's greater than the incentive to stay in the US right um and and by and by stay in the US they mean stay in the US out of status so um you know for for some people around the world for many people around the world the opportunity to get to the US and even have um you know kind of a low skilled job where you might you might be able to get away with it without documents without having any Visa status is attractive right there's there's many people who um who don't have opportunities like you know that are going to compare to that and so that's what the Visa officers are looking for are you one of the people who's going to stay in the US because that's a much greater opportunity than going home or are you in the middle class in your country right do you have education would you be able to have a good job you have got you've got you know some middle class respectability and standing in your country so that it it it's a good life right and if that's the case that's what they're talking about with home ties being able to show that right yeah my my my parents we own our home my my my father's an an accountant and my mother is a physician um and we've got a good life and I'm going to come back and I want to get a job as a as a software developer here because um the industry is growing and I'll have the US education so I'll get the best jobs you know these types of reasons are what they're talking about as home ties now if you've had that immigrant petition in the past like you said it depends because an immigrant petition is shows the ability to immigrate and and shows immigrants intent especially if you take action on it right because sometimes that there's the Immigrant petition which is like from 10 years ago from a from a sibling and that one you know you could say yeah it was filed a long time ago but I've got my life but let's say that it was a um a marriage petition and you were going to the US but then they decided oh we don't believe your marriage is real and now you're applying for a student visa that's that's much tougher right much tougher especially if they suspected that there was some type of misrepresentation on that on that immigrant petition but you should know the main thing that everyone should know is uh in general if you've got an immigration petition in your history they're going to look at that they're going to open up your your case and they they will see it before they issue right they have to look through this page where they're going to see if you had an immigrant petition And when they see it they're going to think oh immigrant intent so you need to know from the beginning that's what their concern will be and you need to know how to counter it from the very beginning yes I had an immigrant petition but here's the reason why I don't actually want to immigrate so if you are in such a situation and you want to know the best way to respond to questions that would be ask at the embassy the best way to do is to book a one-on-one with ago Visa team and the link will be shared in the description you have a 10% off how do you respond to such question in a way that will get your visa approved get the expect Answers by you know scheduling a one-on-one consultation with the ago Visa team so Ben my next question is going to be um does having a scholarship or um you know being supported by a family member with a bank statement or a loan company like um you know I don't want to mention the name of a loan company but being financed by the loan company as a Visa officer which one will be the best preferred uh that's a good question because finances definitely have a a big role in the Visa decision if you have personal and family finances that can cover everything that's great right uh it shows that that you're it not only shows that you can pay for it it shows that you've got that great financial stability in your home country that you've got a a good reason to go home because you've got a good life there right so showing that is important don't ever just start a new bank account and deposit exactly the amount of the tuition in it or some people say 150% in there that one one it it looks a little suspicious that oh tuition is $50,000 and you have a bank account with exactly $50,000 in it it looks a little suspicious uh secondly why only show the tuition amount if you've got more in other locations right it's kind of like if you went to a job interview and the the requirement for the job was a bachelor's degree but you have a PhD and they say at the job interview okay so do you have a bachelor's degree that's the requirement for this job and you said yes I have a bachelor's degree why not tell them you have more I I also have a PhD right you would want to tell them more so you always want to show more the most possible in terms of your resources if that's going to be bank accounts for you for your parents if you're of the age where your parents or would you know be supporting you also uh real estate other types of Investments That might be applicable um any anything that's going to be able to show your family's Financial assets and resources you want to show that uh now if you've got other sources scholarship that's going to be the next best thing having a scholarship uh is is great because it shows the university has trust in you right they've reviewed your application and they're going to give you money or give you reduced tuition because you are uh you are somebody that they approve of and they want to come study to school that's great as well um let's say uh then graduate assistantship something like that same thing as good as a scholarship you definitely want to show that on your appc app now if you have a loan you need to do some explaining because the Visa officer thought is going to be okay well that means you personally don't have the funding for this so if you have a loan you need to explain not just say yes I have a loan right you need more explaining about why it makes sense to get this loan and how you're going to repay that loan afterwards right so uh also I will say this some people take out loans and their families still have resources in that case you want to make sure the Visa officer knows that because when they see loan they might think okay well you have nothing right so if you say loan you say yes I have loan well my you know my parents have their jobs and we own our family home um we also own some land where they're growing sugar cane um but uh we don't want to sell the land and so we've taken out the loan instead right that's a good explanation or let's say your family doesn't have resources and you've taken out a loan you want to make sure that they know okay yeah I'm I'm taking out a loan for it um and my plan is to go and study and then there are jobs here where I can come back and I'm going to be able to get you know one of the best jobs in the country when I come back because I'll have a degree from a US University awesome awesome great so um if an applicant has a relative in the United States does the status of the um relative affect the applicant's Visa approval so for example I have my dad in the US I'm applying for an F1 Visa does does my D status affect my non-immigrant intent yes it does and so here's something that you can keep in mind is that Visa officers will assume that family members will behave in a similar way so if you if you have a family member in the US uh whatever they've done right the Visa officer will assume okay well you being you know from the same family might might do things in the same way so if you've got a family member who's done everything the right way and they're doing something you know at a very high level that's great because the Visa officer will think oh that's great you'll do the same thing let's say you went on an F1 Visa then you graduated and you got an H1B job at Intel right they're gonna think that's great that person really was a legit student they're doing a legit thing that's that's great now but what if you've got uh someone in the US who went as a student but then dropped out of school didn't complete school was out of status for a year then got married to an American and stayed in the US like that well then they're going to think that's something that they don't want you to do they don't want to issue you a Visa and have you do that so if you've got a relative who's done something like that you're going to need to differentiate yourself from that relative saying yes my relative did this but that's not me I have this plan because I'm Different you know cousin cousin Johnny he you know he's not a great student I am I've got I've got the brains right Johnny didn't really have the brains some you know you you you'll have to differentiate yourself awesome so if an applicant sponsor is is in the US um how do the person explain that even though I am going to be sponsored by someone in the US I will still come back to my home country what what is the best answer to respond to the question of you having a sponsor in the US yet you have an immigration intent okay yeah having a sponsor in the US is something that can also be uh an issue and it's exactly because of that because having the sponsor shows a tie to the US right maybe you've got an uncle uh in the US um so if first of all if you have the ability to be sponsored by someone or your family members that are outside of the US that's better right if if if it's all the same then choose the people that are outside the US but if if it's going to be someone in the US uh if it's a family member that's that's better because you know in the US the the US officer standard that they're going to think of is that you know parents pay for their children or the or the student pays for thems to go to school usually it's not extended relatives that would would pay for schooling um and it's definitely not non-relatives just you know friends um so you know if it's an uncle in the US you need to have a good reason why they why the uncle's going to to fund you and also why you still got a reason to go back to go back home and your uncle's status in the US how he got to the US what his Visa status is that's important too if it's a a benefactor that's that's just um you know not not a family member that's even that's even harder to to prove to them you know those are ones where we work with people that have have done this you know Americans who are doing this who are sponsoring students uh from Uganda actually was was a very recent one um there was a man who had sponsored a couple students from Uganda and they were getting refused and it's because he had he was an American who had started some businesses in Uganda um and there were some young people that worked for him and he really wanted to to help them um and they were having a hard time getting their visa and we had to go in and and get the visa applicant prepared to be the person who could explain exactly what this situation is because they're not going to call the the person in America who's sponsoring they're only going to speak to the Visa applicant yeah and so the Visa applicant has to be you've got to be the master of all the information in your application you have to be the advocate for yourself for your sponsor for the university for for everything how how important is age in visa application I am 35 I'm now coming for an assist degree in a community college I am 40 and I'm going to start a bachelor's degree does this in any way affect the approval thinking that you're too old for an assist degree you're too old for a bachelor's degree by now does age really matter so that's one where it uh I'm glad you brought that up because that's what we'll call a nontraditional student so a non-traditional student is somebody who doesn't fit the profile of what you would expect would be the typical student which is yes you're young you study you graduate you go to the next degree you study you graduate you go to the next degree right that's the tradition traditional student so anything that changes that that story one could be uh that you have a gap in your studies right where you went to work and now you're coming back and you're going to school again another example could be that you change what you're studying right you were studying uh Finance now you want to get a different degree in uh computer science right so there's a change another example could be you got one master's degree and now you want to get a second master's degree right because normally you would go up a level in education so anything that makes it out of ordinary is something you're going to have to explain in the interview and the explanation is always just why why why does this make sense why is this a good idea right so you don't just say yes I'm going for another Masters no you say yeah I'm going for another Masters because actually you know my masters here in Ghana um isn't as as good as getting a MERS in the US so getting a masters from the US is is pretty much like taking a big step up in terms of the salaries I can earn and the jobs I'll be able to get right or yes I'm doing another Masters because I'm changing from Finance to computer science um so I can't do you know a higher degree uh than than that in computer science um but I can go back and get the the Masters in computer science you know whatever the explanation is give them the EXP explanation so that they they that question in their mind which is huh why why are you doing this you answer that question for them friends the best way to get your visa approved without any stress is to speak to a former Visa officer like Ben go straight to the ago Visa website and it will be the link will be shared in the video description you're going to get a 10% off because you have subscribed to this channel to have an opportunity to get a Visa officer review your documents also have a one one mock interview with him and also you have the opportunity to ask any questions which will be answered from the perspective of a Visa officer's um you know um ideas so you get the the this is the best you can the best offer you can get get to speak to a Visa officer before you actually appear you know at the embassy to attend your interview go ahead and book a consultation with ago visa and then get a 10% off because you've subscribed to the TF YouTube channel so Ben my last question would be um there is this guy who who is going for a visa interview somewhere in Africa somewhere in Asia they are very nervous um you know they are a bit scared going to the Embassy what would be your advice to such an individual it's hard to to tell someone you know how to not feel nervous right because if you're nervous and say hey don't be nervous don't be nervous it doesn't work right right it doesn't work but what you can be is prepared prepared right and being prepared will help you not feel nervous right because if you don't know what's going to happen then it's all this uncertainty and it'll make you feel more nervous if you know what's going to happen and you know what the goal is you can feel more confident meeting with us will be able to make you know exactly what's important in your interview exactly what the goal is what information you need to get the be a Visa officer and if you know okay these are the points I need to make to the Visa officer it's not how do I answer each question question it's what is the what are the points what what is the info that I want them to have that's that's the way to approach it and you know that if I've given them that info then I've achieved my goal right then then you know that you know okay I'm going in there with some certainty about what my my goal is and how to execute it uh but you should also expect I'll probably feel nervous I'll probably feel nervous because everyone that goes to a visa interview feels nervous and just prepare to do what you know you need to do but acknowledging you're going to feel nervous right so don't get in there and think oh gosh I'm nervous I I I didn't want to be nervous but now I'm nervous expect yes I'm going to be nervous but I'm well prepared I know what's going to happen I know what my plan is I know what my goal is and so I'm going to do that even though I feel nervous friends there's no better way to prepare as Ben said than to talk to an immigration um to talk to a a former Visa officer so go ahead book at a consultation and speak to Ben one onone and have the opportunity to go through a mock interview with an actual Visa officer before you go for um the main interview which will get your visa approved so thank you for joining us today um Ben it's been a very um educative session and we hope that you you as a viewer who is watching this um stream right now have have learned a lot out of this and your Visa will definitely get approved make sure you talk to an ago Visa officer before you go for your um your interview so my name is Fred this has been the Fred effects YouTube channel thank you for subscribing I'll see you in another video you ever witnessed a real time visa interview with a Visa officer well today you will if you preparing for any visa interview you need to watch this video in this video a former Visa officer from ago Visa interviews a subscriber of the Fred Effect YouTube channel and provides exp advice after the interview to this applicant in the end was this applicant approved or denied my name is Fred and this is the Fred effect let's find out all right T Johnny where are you going to uh study in the United States I'm going to study at the Missouri Science and Technology I'm Missori as a biological scientist undergraduate okay what degree are you going to do I'm going to purs under undergraduate program which is which under over 124 credit hours and 89 courses how long will the degree last 4 years ma'am it's a four year degree course okay what are you going to do after you're done okay so currently I'm I work with the piz man chicken man as operation manager and I work as at the Quality Assurance board and after the degree it will help me enable enable me to come back to my country and help with there food security and food safety in Ghana okay um who do you live with I live with my parents okay how are you going to pay for this my boss Christian ad who happens to be the CE of P who earns over an annual income of $100,000 my medication why does your boss want to pay for you to go to college okay so since I was employed at pis man since 2018 my boss has been interested in my education background because he wants to groom locally people to produce our raw materials that's why he he's poting my education to Missouri science technology as a biological science student how did you find out about Missouri Missouri was posted last year in the New York Times as one of the best universities and also due to their good researches and also I know Mr D who is a professor there okay in the comment section let me know your thoughts about his confidence level was he able to answer the questions correctly would you have approved the Visa if you were the Visa officer what do you think he can work on or improve on share your thoughts in the comment section which category of Visa are you preparing for do you also need help help let me hear from you in the comment section the link to schedule an appointment with ago Visa will be pinned in the comment as well Vis is approved good good job T Johnny um all right let's talk about let's talk about what happened here and why I want to approve this Visa um and what are a few things that t Johnny might be able to do a little bit better um at the actual interview wait one more question before we start what country are you from I'm from Ghana in West Africa okay um all right so you I want to just say one thing real quick to the audience before we start but usually on an Argo Visa call what we would do is I would have a very long conversation with t Johnny about okay where you from what your parents do uh what do your siblings do why do you want to study this specific thing right we'd have a whole conversation about all of his context and then we would talk about okay what are the points you need to bring up in this visa interview um and then we would do the practice so this is a little bit different because I don't know anything about t Johnny um but we're gonna we're gonna go with this um and then afterwards talk a little bit more about maybe uh improve strategy if if need be okay if you're applying for any category of Visa you need to seek for expect advice from ago Visa don't wait till you are denied and regretted if you've ever been denied any category of Visa don't go for another visa interview without scheduling an appointment with the ago Visa team ago Visa is a team of for Visa officers with expertise to coach guide and prepare you before your visa interview to get your visa approved pause this video type the link on the screen into a browser to schedule your appointment today and here is how to go about it to book a consultation with a former Visa officer you will simply click on the link which I'll share in the video description I'll also put it in the comment section so it will be pinned in the comment section just use this specific Link in order to get get the 10% discount it will take you to this website now when you come to the website you click on book consultation this website will open all you need to do is to type in your first name your last name you type your email you set up a password and then click on that and then you create an account so when you about to check out you'll be asked if you have a special promotion code then you click here then you type in the code Fred then so the the the promotion code will be applied after you type in that and that's it you're all set you get a 10% off in general I think it was a good interview you're a young guy you're going for a legit program you're going the school that you're going to I've heard of it it's true it's a good school in your field um you mentioned I was very good that you mentioned that you work in Ghana and you intend to come back to Ghana to work in that field and this is a way for you to kind of skill up um to be the best at your F in in Ghana um a few things that I would mention to improve though when the Visa officer asks who do you live with your answer was just my parents um this question is actually an opportunity for you to share more about your socioeconomic situation so if your parents are employed if they're doing okay if they have a college education um you should mention those things I I live with my parents my dad's an accountant and my mom is a teacher what I don't know if that's true in your case to Johnny but if it were true that's what I would suggest don't just give a one-word answer if they're asking the question they want a little bit more context you need to go a little bit further the other thing is when I said why did you choose this University you said it was reported in the New York Times as the best university in this topic um that is dead weight in the visa interview do not um use the visa interview to repeat facts that you can find on Wikipedia or in the New York Times um you've got to make it personal so the last thing you said that I met Professor so and so who inspired me to apply for this program that's a good answer because you actually met a person they told you about the university um but just these General like some people will say oh I really want to go to this school because it has a 140 acre Green campus and was established in 1820 by Senator Joe Schmo and it just is a great University for my education right an answer like that or like even what T Johnny said oh it's you know in the New York Times it's ranked really high um the VIS officer they just think that that's like Anonymous data that doesn't really matter to why you are actually looking for this school and the reason they ask this question of why are you going you know how or why did you how did you find this it's one of their ways of detecting whether or not they really believe that you're a real student so what is a real student going to be doing when they're looking for their University they're usually going to be uh reaching out to their contact Network looking what professors are at the school seeing if the school is very well ranked in their field um they might be considering how much scholarship the the school is willing to offer right those are the factors that are going to be more convincing rather than like I found this random information on New York Times or Wikipedia about this school so those are the two things that I would say oh and the other one is you could tell that on some of the questions I was asking you follow-up questions how are you going to pay for this okay but why does this person want to sponsor you right those though you should try to combine your answer to include both of those things try to avoid having the Visa officer ask f followup questions try to get as much impactful information in there as possible so uh I've received a private scholarship from the CEO of the company where I work um they have a salary of over $100,000 a year and the means to support my education they're interested in doing this because they want to build my career here in Ghana and I'll be working for them when I come back right so don't make it a long explanation but try to get that impactful information in there so that they don't have to ask followup questions all right yes ma'am any questions to Johnny okay so about you ask when you asked like maybe where are you going to stay after school is vacated or maybe in the summer and maybe you tell them about an intention program so what if you don't get an intention program can the officer CH that for you like okay ask me that maybe I was be staying during summer since you don't know anyone in the state and I'll tell them okay I'm I'll I'll be I'll be going for an internship or something why if you don't get the internship does the officer think that for you or I would say you know if you again this is kind of like a hypothetical question of like you don't have an internship today so it's not something that the Visa officer is likely to concentrate on but um if you were to be answered asked that question I think the perfect answer is there are internships opportunities through my school I'll make sure if I get one of those that it's um uh compatible with the Visa class that I'll be on and otherwise I'll be coming home to visit my family if I'm not able to get an internship okay that's fine so T thank you for following and subscribing to the TF platform this is some of the benefits you get I'm sure this has been a very good learning background you can go ahead and book um a one-on-one consultation with the AGA team and you get a lot um from you know doing that if you're watching this is just a tip of the iceberg um of the benefits you have when you schedule a one-on-one I was actually shocked some of the things CH was talking about and I didn't even realize them so it would be great if you with ag Visa thank you so much Christin thank you to Johnny for joining us thank you to Johnny good luck so whether this is your first time going for your visa interview you've ever been refused several times the best way is to interact or talk to a former Visa officer who understands your situation better to be able to advise you have a mock interview with you and review your document before you go for your next interview so because you have subscribed to the tfv YouTube channel if you use the code Fred 10 you will get a 10% discount if you book a one-on-one consultation with ago Visa remember the code is fr 10 and you have to type it as it appears on the screen so this gives you a 10% discount when you book a oneon-one consultation with ago Visa so you're going to have the opportunity for a former Visa officer to review your document give you an expert advice and also organize a one-on-one mock interview to ensure that you are very prepared before you appear at the embassy for your interview the website link to book a one-on-one consultation with the ago Visa team will be shared in the video description all you need need to do is to click on it select the package you interested in and type in the code Fred 10 and you're going to get a 10% discount so that you save some money for yourself because you have subscribed to this channel in everything you do I entreat you to be positive and know that everything will be fine my name is Fred and this is the Fred effect I'll see you e e e e
