Preparing For A Visa Interview, Part Two
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009Yesterday I said the “secret” of preparing for a visa interview was straightforward and available to all international students. I even claimed that this secret was contained on the webpage for your local U.S. consulate!
What secret am I talking about? Here is the introduction to the “Non-Immigrant Visas” page of the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan:
It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide all necessary information and documentation for the Consular officer to make an appropriate decision. During the interview, each applicant should be prepared to explain to the Consul the purpose of the intended trip and present evidence of sufficient funds. Applicants also need to convince the Consul that they have strong and permanent ties to Uzbekistan, such as a family, job, property, etc., which would demonstrate their intent to return to Uzbekistan after their stay in the United States.
Four immediate things jump out:
- It is your responsibility to demonstrate your suitability to receive a visa. The consulate will reject your application if you do not fulfill that responsibility. This means that you need to properly fill out your application, and bring all the documents you need.
- You must be able to explain to the consulate the purpose of your trip to the U.S. (in this case, to study in a U.S. university). As part of this, you may need to show that you are sufficiently prepared to study successfully at your chosen institution.
- You must present documents that prove that you or your family have the financial resources to support you during your stay in the U.S. (these might include business registrations, licenses, tax documents, as well as original bank books and/or statements). If you are the recipient of a scholarship you will need to present evidence of that as well.
- You must convince the consul – again, through documentation – that you have “strong and permanent ties” to your country, ties so strong that they will compel your return after your study.
Should you fail to fulfill any of the above four points, you will not get a visa. I think a lot of students probably get tripped up by thinking that, if they just focus on two or three of these points, they’ll be OK.
Another thing students need to realize, is that the burden of proof is on them. This is not a process in which the consulate begins by assuming you should get a visa, and then looks through your files checking for problems. Actually, the opposite is true:
Under Section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, a visa may not be issued to any applicant who is unable to overcome the presumption that he or she is an intending immigrant by demonstrating the above factors to the satisfaction of the interviewing consular officer.
In other words, by law, your visa interview will start with the presumption that you should NOT receive a visa. You are responsible for convincing the consulate that you should receive a visa.
This is the “secret” of the visa interview. Not such a secret, right? There is no magic formula. Either you prove to the consulate the four points enumerated above, and you get a visa, or you don’t, and you don’t. It’s difficult, definitely – but it’s not hard to understand.
Tomorrow we’ll talk a little about how you can go about proving the above four points effectively.
ONE VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Each consulate is going to have additional requirements of visa applicants. These requirements are going to be slightly different for each country. Before you apply for a visa, YOU MUST THOROUGHLY REVIEW THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE U.S. EMBASSY IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY. Do not rely on overviews (such as this one) as your sole source of information.
Posts in this Series
