PRESS RELEASES

United States welcomes prospective Indian students

July 28, 2011 | New Delhi

The United States is proud of its record of welcoming foreign students, and in particular the numerous Indian students who enrich America's academic communities. The number of Indian students who have applied for visas to study in the United States increased by 20% over the same period last year.  This increase is an indication of the dynamism of the Indo-U.S. partnership and the strong people-to-people ties between the two nations.  It also reflects the desire of high quality Indian students to pursue a world-class education in the U.S.  

Prospective students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the free resources offered by the U.S. government and fully research the academic options available to them. The Embassy is to provide accurate, free information that allows students and their families to research schools and to protect themselves from visa fraud rings.  All legitimate students have a fair chance to study in the U.S.

As always, the U.S. government urges all prospective students to fully research their chosen educational institutes and have a firm grasp of what is and is not permitted under a student visa. In particular, all students must be aware that any of the following will result in an immediate violation of status:

• Lack of physical attendance at classes (taking only online courses is not acceptable)
• Failure to maintain a full courseload
• Unauthorized employment

Violating the terms of a visa can result in deportation, arrest and even a bar on future travel to the United States. If any educational advisor or academic organization suggests that such actions are permissible under a student visa, we strongly recommend students contact the Embassy immediately in order to prevent committing visa fraud.  It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that he or she is in accordance with the law. 

Visa fraud is not a victimless crime – genuine, hardworking students are hindered from studying in the U.S. when fraudulent applicants take up their visa appointments and admission spots.  It is critical that all prospective students utilize the resources offered to them by the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Consulates in India to fully research their academic options.

More than 100,000 Indian students are currently studying at universities across the United States, and thousands more will join them in the coming academic year. Because the number of student visa applications in India is already significantly higher than at this point last year, in response the U.S. has greatly expanded its consular staffing and educational outreach initiatives to ensure that prospective students can get the visa appointments and information they need. 

This effort includes significantly increased funding for the EducationUSA Advising Centers at the U.S.-India Educational Foundation (USIEF). Educational seminars and advising opportunities continue to be hosted by EducationUSA advisers at various locations around the country, both in-person and via the internet. In addition, within the next months, the EducationUSA center at USIEF New Delhi is expecting to introduce a telephone hotline and virtual information hub. These and other resources will allow any prospective student to not only learn more about studying in the U.S., but also guard against visa fraud.

More information on all available resources and full seminar schedules are available at USIEF and Education USA.

Visa applicants from any location in India may e-mail the Embassy atinfousdelhi@vfshelpline.com at any time for free and accurate visa information direct from the source, or visit the U.S. Embassy's website.

frequently asked questions

This is about the visa interview to help Fall 2011 students. I think if know what the interview is for, what the categories are, what questions will be asked and what they are intended for, then you can prepare your answers accordingly suitable to your situation. So instead of just going through the questions asked for others, try to figure out what your weak points are, put yourself in the officers position and then prepare the answers accordingly.

So the interview is mainly to see how good you present yourself. During the interview the officer is looking for :
i) how good you english is (you will have to live in a english speaking country, so you got to speak fluently. Thats the same reason you take GRE & TOEFL as well). 
ii) How good you are academically (since the edu sys is so different, they want to send only the best students who can cope up)
iii) See if you are financially sound (you can afford the costly edu and dont have to drop out in between due to the lack of money) - very imp, you should understand it yourself. They dont want to see how much money you have. But they are looking if you are able to support yourself in case the worst thing happens ie not finding any sort of funding.

The interview can be broken down into 4 parts.
Part 1 : Questions on Colleges / Universities
Part 2 : Academics
Part 3 : Finance
Part 4 : Returning to India.

Questions on Colleges / Universities:

Here the office is trying to see how confident you are and where you stand according to their sys of edu. Here the officer will ask you things like 
i) How many colleges you applied to - He is trying to see how eager you are to study in US.
ii) How many admits or rejects - This tells him where you stand according to their sys. If you have a lot of admits compared to rejects and that too form good colleges, then he is pretty sure that you are capable to cope with their sys. If you have a lot of reject from big schools, say so. This will show that you really care about your edu and want nothing but the best for yourself.
iii) Which are the colleges you applied and what was the result - This will show what you think of yourself. If you had applied to all the big ones, then it shows that you really care about your edu.
iv) Which college you are going to
v) why that college - Wants to see how much you know about the college. He is trying to see if you really searched for the colleges or had just applied following somebody's suggestions. He is also looking for how confident you are about yourself and are you able to take your own decision (afterall you are going to live here all by yourself).

Be prepared with a good intro of the college. Know a few of your profs names, the labs, the research group, a little about the place where the college is. 

  

ACADEMICS : 
Here the officer is trying to see if you are academically strong enough to cope up with their sys. The questions would be like 
i) What is your score (GRE, TOEFL, GPA/Percentage).
ii) how many backlogs.
If you have good scores then no need to worry. If your scores are not that good or you have backlogs, then take extra care. You will have to be prepared with answers like why you got those backlogs, why do you think you are suited for edu in US. Stress the importance of research in graduate edu in US and show that you are prepared by highlighting your projects, papers, reserch exp, internships etc. Also have good reasons why you got a specific backlog, say something like you had done a proj and was too involved. Also show the proof by saying it got published later at this conference.

FINANCE :
The officer wants to make sure you have enough money to compelete your edu. They dont want you to come here and then drop out in between due to the lack of money. They also dont want you to work outside and put your life in jeopady. 
Prepare a good CA statement. This has to be neat and should clearly show all your funds and their dollar equivalent. The officer has only a few minutes to evaluate your profile, so dont make him look for stuff. Having gone through the statement he will want to see a few things to verify if all the things mentioned in the statement are true. Have your papers organized and hand them over quickly. 
They usually look for the first year in liquid cash (ie saving or FD), since you will be paying that money as soon as you join the college. The second and third year can be asset or other things. They consider asset for second year coz, this can be used as colateral to get loan in case required. 
A few things to note here is if you have a few siblings (brother/sisters) and are showing all your parents money = college tuition. Then the office will naturall ask "if your parents are willing to spend all their money on you" and "what will your sibling do."
In cases like this, having a loan helps. It shows that you are not putting a burden on your family and are willing to take responsibility. 
If you can show loan + savings = college tuition * number of years. Plus you bring in your assets and your parents tax forms. This shows that you have all the means to fund your edu.
Your finances should be equal to College tuition * number of years mentioned in the I20. Mostly the number of years is 2 but not always. In my I20 it was mentioned as 3 and my visa got denied because of that. So make sure before you go.
As for evaluating your assets, the agricultural land can be evaluated by the Tahisldar and the house can be evaluated by the Municipal Corporation's Planning Engineers.

PLANS TO RETURN TO INDIA :
No American wants you to stay here and work (even though thats what we come for). So he wants to make sure that you will come back to India once your education is done. In order to show this, you can say that all your relatives are back there in India. How stable the Indian economy is. How the job market is improving everyday. Give some concrete examples. Dont pretend, mean it. It will show in your words.

In the end, be confident and yourself. If you have done your homework, nothing can go wrong. Best of luck!

visa experiences.....5

Praveen Reddy

Write something...

Praveen Reddy
After trailer....:P am releasing the movie :D.............(had a gr8 response to the trailer :)))
Date: 7th July 08:45 AM
Consulate: Hyderabad
Decision: APPROVED :) :)
Counter : 15

Me: Good Morning Sir......How u doing?(passed the documents)
VO: Good Morning ... How are you doing ??(Overlap of these sentences)
Me:(wid babu moham smile.......) Im doing good...(:P)
VO: so....which univ.?
Me: I decided to go to Michigan technological University
VO: which univ??????????
Me: (chevulu dobbaya????) Michigan tech. univ. sir
VO: Why dis univ.?
Me:(waiting for this.....:P) MTU offers good course curriculum in Mechanical engg. , flexible enough to choose course work of my interest , i am interested in specialising in IC engines ,with my subjects being (thokka1 thokka2) which has a good faculty teaching us these subjects. Dr. Naber and Scott D. miers doing the research on similar concepts of IC engines , and Mech.engg. dept. has decent lab facilities!!!!! (i added some thing else which was genuine
VO:(Impressed........) How are the other univ.s u have applied?
Me: Tennesee tech(VO: wat?? tenes...Me : (cheppani bey)),Tennesse tech.univ. UNCC, Oakland univ. and Mcnesse state univ.
VO: what is ur gre score?
Me:1090.......(after a long pause)....wid 760 in quants and 330 in verbal
VO: Toefl?
Me: 83...
VO : 83??????? why low toefl?
Me : i gave these exams back to back days as i was running out of d time to apply many univ which had the deadlines by jan15.......(toefl dec19 and gr dec20)
VO : what is ur undergrad. % ?
Me : 72.15 % sir.....
VO : Backlogs?
Me : Gave a big smile :p NO BACKLOGS SIR :D
VO :.............................​.........................(2 to 3 mins of silence)......(he was checking about the univ. details which i gave about the faculty and their research works....he looked mpressed, i could judge that seeing his eyes )
VO : ................... ... wait for a sec.....(still checking)
Me : sure sir.
VO : who are going to pay the fee?
Me : My parents
VO : have u got any scholarship??? (he looked into i20)
Me : no sir...but i have got a loan for 15 lakhs :P(hehe...i donno why i said this)
VO : ur visa is issued sir.....
Me : Thank you sir(Pichi ga arichedham ankuna dance chedham ankuna:D).....................

then i came out running like a art cinema hero(this was in d trailer i released 5 hrs back :P)(actually, i came out running to meet my frnd who's visa got issued i the next counter(16)....i could hear the VO in counter 16 saying "ur visa is approved" to him....and wid in few secs....my visa was approved too :D)

Me : mama.......vachesindhi ra
My frnd : ankuna ra.....gatti gattiga arichesthunav ga interview apudu , nenu cheppetappudu nee answers vinpisthunai naaku kuda
Me:(Siggesindhi) avnu ra....!!!! VO ki chevulu poyayanta :P:P..........................​......................

i was feeling like did i really get the visa? or did i come out wid out collecting my passport enough though he said "i cannot issue u d visa" :P :P

Flashback : i didnt even sleep yesterday night wid tension....den i decided wat ever may happen i will not panic, then slept happily for few hours....

At consulate : as soon as ii entered d consulate,i was as cool as cucumber :D 
environment is very good at the consulate, even though when i was waiting for my turn in front of VO, i sensed the victory (unknown reason)....and at last i got it

NEXT VISA EXPERIENCE

Mythri Reddy

Hie guys Visa approved
HYD
Time 9 45
counter 15

Vo: Hie...good mng
ME:Good mng VO..H R U
VO: So which unv
ME: campbell
Vo: wat other schools u applied
me: virginia, suny buffalo. georgia and toledo
vo: OK....
VO: For masters or phd
ME: Masters sir
vo: UG percentage
ME: 82 sir
VO:Which position in ur class
ME: 4( bla bla )
Vo: gud academics
vo: He typed sumthing for 5 min
VO: UG from which unv
ME: osmania unv sir
vo: GRE SCORE?
me: 1270( 770, 500, 3)
vo: TOEFL
me: 104
vo: who are ur sponsors
me; my parents
vo: wat do they do
me: told
vo: annul income of ur family?
me: xxxxxx
vo: Ok Iam approving ur visa. U ll get it in 3 days time. Good luck in US
me: thanku sir... u made my day

Its a short VI...and VO was too cool.... I felt getting visa is not at all a prob if u have gud acads, gre and toefl.

NEXT VISA EXPERIENCE

Vinod Kumar Bonthu

guys ...........i got my Visa
hyderabad consulate 6th july 8.15 AM
they allowed us in only 15 mins prior.
counter no 15

me : gudmorng sir
vo : very gudmorng....was nicely smiling
so....which univ ??
me : Oklahoma state university
Vo : ohhh...gud 1
Vo : passed out,aggregate?
me : 2011,76%
wats ur father ??
me : told
vo : annual income?
me : told
Vo : golden words " Visa approved"
Me : thank u sir!!! :)

It was interview was simple hardly 45sec.....

NEXT VISA EXPERIENCE

Vadrevu Lakshmi Sai Siddhartha

Date: July 7, 11.30
Consulate: Mumbai
Decision: Approved :D :)))

I would really like to thank all of you who posted their experiences and also to all of you whose experience has been my inspiration,and i would also like to post my experience so that others gain from my experience.......thanks a lot people :) 

Me: Good Morning Sir, how are you doing ??
VO: Good Morning, I am fine , how are you ??
Me: I am fine, thank u sir :) 
VO: which school??
Me: Sir, University of New Mexico
VO: So why this university??
Me: My area of interest VLSI, and my specialization would be low power VLSI design and IC Fabrication, UNM has great research faculty and also has a good curriculum which suits me in my area of interest,that's why i choose to go to UNM. 
VO: Who would fund you?? 
Me: Sir, my father would fund me.
VO: What does he do??
Me: Sir, he's a C.G.M(Chief General Manager) in NABARD(National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development)
VO: Do you have any relatives in the U.S??
Me: Yes Sir,I have my brother in the U.S
VO: What does he do??
Me: He's doing his masters there.
VO: May i know which University??
Me: Yes Sir, University of Florida, Gainesville
VO: We will courier your passport in 7 days.. enjoy ur stay and study well in the U.S..
Me: thank you sir... :D

I never expected it to be this easy, so guys take it easy, don't bite your nails before the interview, bite his if he doesn't grant you visa :D........