This document will give you a detailed idea of what to expect at the visa interview and how to prepare for it. This document is composed assuming that the applicants are parents or parents-in-law of of persons already abroad.
Visa interview has personal and consequently unpredictable factors involved in whether your visa application gets accepted or rejected.
Please have all documents ready as per this website. It is very important that applicants understand what each document is meant for.
Visa officers are quite skeptical about many Indians as they have understood based on their vast experiences, that lot of Indians lie and produce fake documents to get a visa. Lots of Indians go to abroad tourist or business visa and many do not come back. They change their status, stay longer than promised originally, and try to become permanent by marriage or other relative petitions, or just stay illegally. Many of their relatives also help these people. Many students try to enter abroad with no intention of studying and work illegally in stores/motels. Many fake marriages also go on for getting a permanent resident. Because of all these reasons, many consular officers keep applicants under lots of scrutiny and if they have even little bit of doubt, they simply reject the application.
Person should make consular officer sure that whatever visa category he is applying for, he is qualified for. If he is going for tourism, he should know what all places he is going to tour. If you are going on business visa, you should be working in that company for at least one year, and be experienced, otherwise, why they would spend so much money and resources. Students should know proper English, have enough financial resources (and also legal money on which their parents have paid proper income tax). Applicant must understand the complete procedure and what each document is for.
Consular officers would really like to see that applicants are honest, stay for the authorized duration and come back promptly after that. They would not want anyone to stay illegally abroad, it does not mean that anyone can enter the country for any reason.
Consular officers are fond of asking questions of type What if...
Examples are
What would you do if you won jackpot abroad?
What if someone offers you job abroad at a very high salary?
What if someone offers you a partnership in his business?
What if some beautiful proposes you for marriage?
Consular officers may ask such questions to scrutinize the applicants. If you give answers such as I will buy a house in foreign country and stay there after winning the jackpot, I will accept job offer or partnership and start working or get married to beautiful foreign. citizen girl and settle there, your visa will be rejected. When you are applying for tourist visa, you are just supposed to tour the country and not just stay in abroad forever because of one or another reason.
It is very important to thoroughly prepare yourself before applying for the visa. Many people write details in the visa application form whatever they feel is convenient for them. If their application is rejected, they apply again and write some other details according to what they feel would get them a visa. Many people dont even keep the copy of the first application. (But consular officers do keep the copy and compare against earlier application.) There should not be any spelling mistakes in the application. Some times, people dont even care to fill the application themselves and ask the travel agent to fill it up for them, and after that, dont even care to double check what the travel agent has filled for them. The travel agent does not really care much, as he is primarily interested in selling air tickets to you. But you could be in trouble in the future if you write any wrong information in the application. If you are caught providing any fake information, you might be barred from applying for any country visa benefits in future.
Many people dont know the basic rules. Many people are not aware of the penalties of breaking the rules. If you get a business visa, it does not mean you can go to abroad and start your business over there. If you get 10 year multiple entry visa does not mean that you can stay in USA for 10 years. 10 years multiple entry visa means you can go to the U.S. anytime within next 10 years. For each visit, your actual stay will be determined by the date stamped in the I-94 form at the port of entry. It is usually 6 months. You can extend your stay up to another 6 months.
Many people complain that the visa officer did not even ask any questions nor looked at any documents and rejected their application which is not fair at all. It is not like that in reality. Visa officers are experts in their profession and they are appointed in consulates in foreign countries after extensive training. Due to their vast experience, visa officers, many times, can figure out true intentions of applicants just by looking at them. They can even figure out whether information provided in the application and/or documents may be true or fake. They dont need to talk to applicants in many cases. You may be surprised to know what all possible things they may know, such as value of property in a given area, income/income tax ratios, and many other things.
While there is a definite luck-factor involved, your chances of success will greatly increase if you prepare yourself thoroughly for the interview. The preparation consists of the following:
- Knowing the visa officers concerns and strategically preparing convincing points to satisfy his/her concerns.
- Practice a list of anticipated questions (provided below) and practice answering them again and again. It is good to take some time out and sit quietly in a room imagining that you are in the interview and that the consulate office is asking you questions. Practice answering the questions aloud. Repeat this entire drill 3-4 times until you have mastered the answers to all the questions. The interviewer will specifically ask some questions to the man and some to the woman and each one will be expected to answer those questions by themselves. So, this practice should be done by both.
- Prepare perfect documents, especially your family photographs, property documents, bank statements, income tax records, and consultancy documents. Make sure your documents are perfect and that nothing is missing. Arrange the documents properly in a thin folder and memorize their arrangement, so a document can be instantaneously pulled out when needed.