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The law offices of Korenberg Abramowitz Raj & Mathi
P Ltd, U.S / U.K immigration attorneys, based out of
Chennai, India, regularly counsel students for visa
interviews. The following is an attorney's perspective
of how a student should be prepared to face a visa officer:
- Consistent academic record here in India
- Relevance to the course studied in India and the
future course of study.
- Selection of university. Any ranking between 50
-150 is good.
- TOEFL / IELTS / GRE / GMAT scores.
- Financials - they have a way of finding out how
genuine they are.
- Your personality and communications.
And last but not the least, how well u can convince
them of coming back to India after completion of the
course.
- From the moment you are at the counter have a pleasant
demeanor about yourself. Greet the visa officer and
introduce yourself with a pleasant smile. With the
september 11th issue and the recent blasts in London,
you are termed an Al Qaeda or the cousin of Osama,
and the onus lies on you to prove that you are not.
This cannot be said in words and has to emanate from
your body language.
Look the visa officer in the eye, and appear to be
calm and confident. This body language implies that
you are a genuine person with genuine documents.
- All said and done a Visa officer is an American
/ English with a different accent. And most students
do not have prior exposure of having met one. I firmly
believe that by focusing on the officer you understand
better what he is asking. The same also helps you
to be aware as to whether he is understanding you
or not and you can modulate your voice or the speed
of your dialogue accordingly. In case you do not understand
a question please request them to repeat it. This
is definitely better than understanding it wrong and
giving a totally irrelevant answer.
- Do not answer in monosyllables. If you say yes
explain concisely why you are saying yes - and if
no, briefly explain why. Remember the Visa officer
is assessing your English communications at the same
time.
- Do a good research on the web of the university
you have selected. Have the general ranking of the
University and the subject-wise ranking at hand. Also
do a comparitive study of the other universities you
got admits for and why you chose this one. Never ever
say that this one has "more chances of getting
aid later". In case of students shifting platforms
extensive research on the relevance of the two disciplines
needs to be done.
- Be truthful about your financials. Learn to highlight
the positive points.
- The only way you can convince a visa officer about
your return after study, is by not just showing emotional
ties but having your research ready of how your specialisation
is going to influence India in its growing economic
trend and how your going to have a competitive edge
over your colleagues back in India because of this
degree / masters.
- I also advise my clients to have a good night’s
sleep before the interview. It may be a two minute
interview but you need to have a presence of mind
to handle this brief psychological pressure.
In conclusion, I believe that you can get away from
a sticky situation if u have a fantastic sense of
humor. The visa officers love that.
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