What do Visa Officers see & think about as you approach the window? Ex-Visa Officer explains!

renan renh High directly translated from Mandarin it means people mountain people see but in plain English it really means wow that's a lot of people and this was an ongoing joke that I had with a couple of my colleagues when I worked at the Visa section at the US Embassy in Beijing China we would get to work every morning we'd look out the window and we would see hundreds if not thousands of Visa applicants patiently waiting their visa interviews these were people maybe looking to travel to the United States for a vacation maybe looking to study at a high school or university here or maybe looking to come here for a business meeting or any number of other reasons and we knew we had a daunting task ahead of us we had to personally interview every single one of those people waiting in line before they could get a decision on their visa application some of which they had waited months if not years for and we had to get through all those people before we could go home that evening so today I want to talk a little bit about that experience what should you expect the next time you go to a consulate or Embassy to apply for your Visa what does the officer see as you approach the window what does the officer know about your situation and I'll leave you with a couple of tips that will hopefully put you in the best possible position for hopefully a good outcome at your next interview hi I'm TR I'm a former Visa officer with the US state department where I spent almost 7even years as a career Diplomat during that time I interviewed over 880,000 Visa applicants from all over the world so I do have a unique perspective and some expertise on how this process actually works so let's start with the basics now every us Diplomat with very few exceptions is required to do at least one year of Visa interviews during one of their first two overseas assignments that means that you may encounter a Visa officer that never intended to spend their time interviewing Visa applicants now you also might encounter a Visa officer that has chosen to do that as their career and they're really excited to see you now this is not to say that you're going to encounter somebody who's super grumpy and has no interest in talking to you at all because at the at the end of the day the reason that that almost all of us joined the Foreign Service is to engage in diplomacy it's to talk to people from other countries from other backgrounds and give them a a glimpse of what it's like to be in the United States to talk with an American because it's it's in those one-on-one interactions that we can break down misunderstandings and break down barriers and hopefully make the world a better place but the flip side of that is that this job is exhausting when I worked at the Visa office in Beijing I would interview anywhere from 150 to 250 Visa applicants per day on average and so if you think about what that means mathematically I had between two and a maximum of three minutes per Visa applicant to go through all of the key questions that I needed to ask and then to make a very crucial decision now let's be clear this decision might be life-altering for many Visa applicants this may mean that you are able to go and study at a university in the United States or you have to go somewhere else it may mean that you can travel here for that crucial business meeting that's going to make or break your business it may mean that you can travel here on that vacation that you've saved years for and we all know that in the back of our mind that this is a very very heavy decision that we are about to make and so we do want to get as much facts as possible so that we can make the best possible decision so how does it all work well first when you get to the consulate or the embassy where you intend to apply for your Visa you generally have to present some sort of documentation at the gate now most cases that's probably going to be your passport and it might also be the confirmation page for your interview now at the gate you might also be asked to remove your electronic devices you may have your bags searched and you may actually even be required to leave your bags and other belongings outside of the property outside of the consulate or the embassy when I worked in Mexico there were a couple of private businesses around the consulate where you could for a fee leave your belongings but this is tip number one I always tell applicants that they should arrive with as few things as possible because it just makes everything easier you're not having to go to multiple places to leave things and pick things up and you're also not worried about the security of your belongings either so now you've gotten through the outside gate or the front door then you generally will go through a more rigorous Security check you'll probably go through some sort of metal detector you'll have your bags thoroughly searched or x-rayed and you'll again be required to remove any electronic device and leave them behind sometimes in a secure Locker sometimes in a basket somewhere so again it's generally advisable not to take something with you unless you think you absolutely need it so now you're finally inside the the Visa section of the consulate or the embassy well a few things are going to happen pretty quickly in the beginning first you're probably going to check in with a local staff member somebody that speaks your language probably looks just like you uh and that's where you'll check in you'll provide some documentation and that all depends on the type of Visa you're applying for but generally you'll put your passport under the the slot in the window you may provide the confirmation page for your interview and that local staff member will make sure everything is correct in the system now the next step is to get fingerprinted now this is generally going to be a us employee a diplomat uh that employee likely will speak your language but they may not and so be prepared for a little bit of a language barrier if you don't speak much English but again speaking English is not a requirement so you get to that step and you'll be asked to put your fingers and your thumbs on a little electronic screen where it electronically captures your fingerprints now after that generally the longer wait ensues you may wait and anywhere from just a couple of minutes to a couple of hours depending on how busy the Visa department is at that particular location and while you're waiting in line you probably have a lot of time to to think about your interview hopefully you're not getting nervous because hopefully you've been prepared and hopefully you you have everything in order and that's the first place that ZF visa and immigration can come in reach out to us on our website atzf visa.com or send us an email to info@ zf.com schedule a consultation with us and we'll take that time to meet you to understand your circumstance we'll ask you lots of questions about why you intend to come to the United States and maybe about your background and then we'll work strategically with you to put together a plan and walk you through the actual interview process itself so you know exactly what to expect and you can put your best foot forward so now you're approaching the Visa officer you've waited in probably a long line you've gone through security you've gone you you've provided your fingerprints this is the crucial part of the visa application the the interview itself and so let's break down what happens here so as you approach the window the officer will probably already have some information about you pulled up on their screen now they may have to scan a barcode on your confirmation page or maybe a sticker on the back of your passport but quite often they'll already have some of your information available so when you actually stand in front of the officer at the window what does the officer know about you well they know several things actually on their computer screen on their monitor the officer will obviously have a picture of you and your name your date of birth you know some key biographical dat data but beyond that the officer will have access to three crucial pieces of information one is have you applied for a Visa before and was that application denied or was it approved two is have you applied for a a visa to immigrate to the United States to move to the United States and this could complicate your application a little bit because again if you're applying for a non-immigrant Visa that means that you have to prove prove that you're going to come back to your place of residence outside of the United States if you can't prove that you'll likely be rejected or denied under what we call 214b we have a separate video about 214b which will link in the description below but the gist of 214b means you are required to prove that you have sufficient ties outside of the United States that will compel you to return home after a short stay and other other words you're not moving to the United States so if you have an active immigrant Visa petition that's not an automatic disqualification by any means but it does mean that you'll need to explain the circumstances around that application because the officer will definitely ask you now the third crucial piece of information comes from your fingerprints and your photo your passport photo that you bring with you now from your photo the computer system will run check against many many other photos and see if you might be somebody that is committing identity fraud somebody that may have applied for a Visa or even a passport before under a different name and with your pass I'm sorry with your fingerprints the officer will have a a bit of a glimpse into some of your criminal history primarily what might have you done while in the United States previously but also it might include some information about what you've done outside of the United States so if you have any degree of criminal past you've gotten tickets you've been arrested do not try to hide that this is a major major tip for you be honest be forthcoming because chances are that's probably not going to be an outright bar against getting a Visa so be honest if you try to hide anything the Visa officer will quickly realize that and that will probably end up being a bar to getting a Visa so beyond this superficial kind of immediate data that's available to the officer on that screen as you approach the window the officer will then go a little bit deeper into your details and so they'll pull up your ds160 form this is the the form that you fill out when you're applying for your visa and when you're scheduling your visa interview so it has everything ranging from your name and your address and your dat of birth but it also has much more detailed information such as what are your plans in the United States where will you stay how long will you stay what will you be doing are you visiting anybody do you have family members in the United States and then of course it has a question that I always found to be a little bit funny which is if you were denied a Visa previously what was the reason for your denial well I find that funny because quite often you're not really given a good concrete reason for a Visa denial as I mentioned earlier the officer might say you don't meet the requirements of 214b and that's it and many people don't really know what 214b means so while it's important to be as forthcoming as possible and as truthful as possible you may honestly not really know why you were denied last time or the time before that and so again that's another place that zfa and immigration can help reach out to us schedule that consultation and we'll start by helping you understand why you might have been denied in the past we'll try to lift that that Veil a little bit and delve into the legal requirements for the Visa that you applied for and that might help us pinpoint the reason that you didn't qualify or at least the Visa officer thinks you didn't qualify so the officer is going to look at all of those details your DS1 60 application form your fingerprint history whether you have a an outstanding immigrant Visa petition your facial recognition results everything available on that monitor the Visa officer will look through in a matter of seconds because again remember mathematically speaking if I was doing up to 250 Visa interviews a day I had just minutes to complete an entire interview front to back and so Visa office ERS are really really good at looking through all this information really really quickly it becomes essentially muscle memory to go through different pieces of information focus on crucial aspects of the ds160 form and focus in on what might be problem areas or what might be really good signs that helps the officer come to a decision faster so at this point the actual conversation the actual interview should start now the officer might ask you one question the officer might ask you 10 or more questions and this is because the officer may have already largely made up their mind after looking through all of your data now that again could be leading to a good decision could be leading to a negative decision and so this is where your responses your clear confident responses to the officer's questions become crucial and that's the third place where where ZF visa and immigration can help you after we understand your unique circumstances your plans to travel to the United States we can then strategically put together a plan to help you respond confidently and more crucially truthfully to the Visa officer questions because again if you watched our video about 214b you're essentially guilty until proven innocent you're you're assumed to not qualify for your visa and you're assumed to be an intending immigrant to the United States until you can prove otherwise and so you have to have a very very good plan in place to explain your circumstances in a confident truthful way to the Visa officer to hopefully convince the officer that you're not intending to move to the United States and that you will qualify with the Visa class that you're applying for and then after just a couple of questions the officer is probably not going to look at any of your documents because as we explained in another video documents can easily be forged even official documents like passports are commonly forged and so as a former manager of a fraud prevention unit at a consulate in Mexico I can tell you I have seen every single type of document forged that you could possibly imagine fake documents are everywhere and documents of any type rarely prove anything that's really why we have a requirement in the United States to interview every Visa applicant face to face in person Visa officers are especially trained to look you in the eye as you answer their questions they're trained to spot signs of maybe less than truthful answers hesitation nervousness and of course everybody is going to be a little bit nervous at their visa interview but nervousness from not really telling the truth from trying to get a story across and convince somebody of something that isn't quite accurate and that's why most Visa officers will rarely rely upon documentation they will instead rely upon how you answer their questions so reach out to us at ZF visa and immigration you can go to our website at ZF visa.com or send us an email at info@ zfv visa.com from there you can schedule an an initial consultation where we will take some time again to meet you understand your circumstances we'll delve into the Visa that you're applying for what your plans might be in the United States and then we'll help walk you through this process and because each Visa each applicant is so different we'll create a strategic plan tailored to you to help you understand how you might need to respond to questions how you might need to explain your unique circumstances your plans in the United States and hopefully we can get you a positive outcome now to be clear we of course do not guarantee a positive outcome because only the Visa officer is actually going to make that decision but what we will guarantee is that we will prepare you as well as possible possible so that when you approach that window you're confident and you're putting your best foot forward so reach out to us we look forward to meeting you and good luck in your next interview

Channel: ZF Visa & Immigration

Views: 174,418

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Id: q6NB_s2wJK8

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2024