F1 Visa Interview Experiences

F1 Visa Experiences at Hyderabad – University of Bridgeport – Rejected

I’m sharing my F1 visa rejected experience from US Consulate in Hyderabad.

Profile:

  • Visa Date: July (for Fall semester)
  • University: University of Bridgeport
  • Program: Masters in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
  • Result: Rejected
  • U.S. Consulate: Hyderabad

All my dreams of studying in America came down crashing in a few minutes after my F1 Visa was rejected in Hyderabad.  I attend the visa interview in Hyderabad and this is my experience.

Please give my suggestions and reasons why my visa officer (VO) rejected my student visa.

VO is a young lady at counter number 10. She is rejecting all the student applications before me who had applied for F1 Visa.

A girl in front of got rejected with in 20 seconds.

Visa officer asked her GRE score, she said “I did not take GRE and got admit based on TOEFL scores”. Then VO said “I can’t give a visa and gave her passport.”

Next , another guy went to the same counter. He came to attend student visa in U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad for the second time. His F1 Visa was also rejected in less than one minute interview.

I felt a bit tensed, but kept a smile on my face and maintained my confidence at high level.

Experience: F1 Visa Rejected in Hyderabad 

Me: Good morning mam. (she did not reply and she was looking in to her system.)
VO: Give me your I-2o.

Me: Yes Mam, I passed on my I-20 and passport.

VO: Why do you want to study in this university?
ME: The department profile is decent, professors are experienced in my field of interest, student to faculty ratio is good and finally there is an extensive research going in the field of DSP, VLSI.

VO: What’s your bachelors degree academic percentage?
Me: 72% first class (VO interrupted)

VO: When did you graduate?
Me: In 2011.

VO: Pass on your mark sheets.
Me: I gave my documents. She had a quick glance at them for about 2 to 3 seconds and gave them back.

VO: How any admits?
Me: I applied for 4 universities and I got admits from 4 of them. They are St.Mary’s University, Indiana State University, Pittsburg State University and Bridgeport University.

VO:(again) Why only Bridgeport?
Me: I’m interested in the research work carried out by the professor Digital Signal processing lab.

VO: What is your GRE and TOEFL.
Me: 990 and 94

VO: What is your father ?
ME: He is a Agriculturist. He gets an annual income of (interrupted)

VO: How many acres of land does he have?
Me: 12.75 acres. (interrupted) She again shifted to academics

VO: What project did you do in your Bachelors?
Me: GSM based wireless billing system for ECIL Company.

VO: Explain me about your project.

(My confidence level have increased because people in front of me had interview of only one minute)

Me: I explained project to her.

VO: What is your dream job?
Me: I would like to Settle in a challenging job in my field of interest.

VO: Sorry sir I can’t give visa (and she passed on 214 (b). I’m shocked with her words)
Me: Thank you.

Please give suggestions. I’m not sure why my visa officer rejected my F1 Visa.

What’s my mistake?

I later came to know this : Rejection to Approval ration is 10:1.

Does this effect my visa interview?

Why F1 Visa is Rejected

  1. “I like to settle in a challenging job”
  2. Not strong answer to this question “Why do you want to study in this university”
  3. Rejection to Approval ratio has has nothing to do with you rejection.
  4. You failed to do a strong interview and your visa was denied.

Students tend to blame the visa officers or often cite reasons that everyone attending student visa on specific day was rejected. That’s not the case in general. If your performance in the interview is like a standard template based answers, then chances of approvals is based on luck. If you want to 100% control of your interview, then stop copying answers and make it unique to your needs and interests.

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27 Comments

  1. I applied for j1 visa still I am studying as a student I want to go to USA for internship is there any possibilitys to get visa quota is full do they reject

  2. F1 visa experience – Hyderabad

    Date: Dec 31 2012 Time 10:30AM

    Counter 13;

    im IN THE Q, VO SAID, NEXT I APPROACHED.

    vo: HELLO,
    ME; GOOD MORNING SIR,
    VO: I-20, AND PAPERS PLS,
    I PASSED THEM TO HIM,
    VO: Y THIS SEMINARY,
    ME: I READ LOT OF BOOKS OF THE FOUNDER, THOSE INSPIRED MY LIFE MUCH, THATS THE REASON I APPLIED,
    VO: WHO’S UR SPONSOR?
    ME: MY DAD
    VO: GRE?
    ME: MY COURSE DOESNT REQUIRE GRE SIR
    VO: OK…ANY SIBLINGS?
    ME: SAID,
    VO:Y THIS FIELD?
    ME: I SAID THE REASON, EVEN MY FAMILY IS IN THE FIELD, I LIKE TO FOLLOW THEM
    VO: CHURCH STRENGTH:
    ME: SAID 2000
    VO:WHERE IS IT?
    ME: IN AP
    VO: OKK
    WHATS UR FAV BIBLE VERSE:
    ME: I SAID MY FAV VERSE
    VO:CAN U TELL ME
    ME:I TOLD THE WHOLE VERSE
    VO: SMILED; OKK WISH U HAPPY NEW YEAR, UR VISA OIS APPROVED
    ME:THANK U SIR, WISH U A HAPPY N BLESSED HAPPY NEW YEAR A HEAD
    VO:THANK U

  3. It’s a bit of bad luck and unnecessarily elaborated answers are causes to your visa denial. I got visa for same university for fall 2011. I shared it with HSB but not yet posted. When you retry just give a short and precise answer apart from being confident with an eye contact with VO.

    Good luck.

  4. gosh… they asked you around 15 questions… My VO just asked me 3 question and I gave one line / word answers…..
    1. which university
    2. which department
    3. GRE Quant score..
    Thats it!

    So, I guess you need to be succinct. In many of your answers you have provided info that was more that what she had asked for and was not needed. Also, refrain from stereotypical answers… like the one you gave for the dream job and why Bridgeport question!

    Brevity without the loss of content is the key… BOL for your next interview…

  5. Since you anyway plan to repeat the interview at an unspecified later date, perhaps you can retake your GRE. This might help strengthen your case. The most important criterion in their consideration is the finance – do you come from a family that is bending over backwards to put together that money for your foreign degree? [You may not agree with their approach to this but it is their country and we are not entitled to an opinion, so get with it!] It would be better for you to get into a university that assures you funding out of an assistantship or an administrative position matching your present education. Perhaps get an I20 from a university that negates your financial profile by providing funding. Also, do not get fixated on the US as most fellow-rejectees do; consider equivalent universities across the world. Spread your risk. At the end of the day, what you are looking for is a mutual match – you must be good enough to deserve them – and their universities must be good enough to deserve you.

  6. even my f1 visa was rejected with out even looking at all my financial documents
    after a few questions asked in the same manner as yours he asked me my income i said my fathers is 6 lakhs and even my mother also works and her income is 3 lakhs and as i was waiting to give more details about my liquid cash he just said i am sorry ur visa is rejected

    1. this year, US consulates are rejecting VISAs without any solid reason … mine also has been rejected two times.

  7. Bad university selection, simple as that. Any good university and that interview would have gotten a visa stamping.

  8. Wow! looks like you were almost there!

    Some of the red flags I could see in your responses:

    You answered more than what was asked for the following questions:
    How many admits, What is your father and how much land (luckily you were interrupted for both)

    The biggest red flag: was your answer to the dream job. Nothing in your answer makes it clear that you are not aiming to get out of USA after the education is over. (VO must have understood it as: this candidate will most likely get the dream job in US, so he’ll settle down in US)

    Suggestions for your next visa interview:
    1) Answer exactly to the point. Be very very sure of this. Answering any more than what is asked, is basically a way make the VO feel that you want to hide something.

    Now, I dont know how true that is with all the VOs, but in India, we have the habit of writing a 10 page answer for a question asked in the exam, all for the sake of marks. But that’s exactly what you shouldn’t do in a visa interview.

    2) When anything related to future plans/dreams is asked, make sure you give them a picture of “you having no plans to settle in USA” (I am not asking you to lie, because its IMHO just impossible to have a plan to settle down in US when one hasn’t even been to the US even once)

    Hopefully you get an another chance for an interview where you’ll be able to answer the questions much more accurately.

    Good luck

  9. The thought to attend a Visa Interview in Hyderabad itself makes me tremble in fear 🙁 Almost all with whom I had contact have been rejected! No specific reason though… Is it because of the Tri-Valley incident? HSB, I strongly need your opinion man! 😐

    1. If you go to good university, then you don’t have to worry (with proper documents and without any fraud).

    2. Your Answer’s to VO shall be from your heart not from scripted or shall not be look like
      ” dog trained” (Consultant). Honesty is the best policy and do not try to lie or produce fake documents.

  10. It seems to me that she thought you were not smart enough to be issued the visa. Bridgeport University is not highly ranked and your GRE score also isn’t very good. It was perhaps for this reason that she asked you questions about your project and dream job. You could try preparing more impressive answers for questions like these because you can be sure that you will be asked them again because of your low GRE.

    Better luck next time 🙂

  11. I think the “i would like to settle in a challenging job in my field of interest” is what caused the issue. She might have thought that you are going to migrate to US. However, since she rejected everyone before you, I think she has reached the quota for the day.

    1. The biggest chink in your armour was your GRE score. And then you made the fact palpable that you are planning to settle in USA and was taken as an probable immigrant which is a complete no-no in visa interviews.

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