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!