STUDY ABROAD: How To Be Smart at Your Embassy Interview

The visa interview customarily is the last step towards your study abroad plans and its success means you got a ‘Student Visa’ in your dream study destination. As a part of the visa application process, UK, Canada, and Australia, visa interview is conditional, depending on the completeness and the strength of the visa application, but interviews for US and Germany are mandatory. The aim of the interview is that visa officers want to assess whether the student’s intention is genuine in going abroad, and the financial capability to survive cost of living in that destination. To ensure that your visa interview experience is a good one, here are some preparation tips that will help you to ease through your interview:

The visa officer's decision is based on the impressions they got during the first few minutes of the interview since they have to deal with a vast number of applications received.

Prepare for the education program by clearly expressing why that particular course is student’s choice.

• Financially capable by showing how student and his family are going to support him during the study time at there (for example, via family funds, loans or scholarships).
• Use the student visa properly without the intention of work after graduation. Student’s purpose of return to the home country must be clear and precise.
• All documents shall be handy and that will also help the student prepare better for the interview.
• Student must find out everything about his course, contents including course duration, fee, commencement, and end date, etc.
• Believe that you are the best person to represent yourself and be calm the questions are a bit tough.
• Tough questions are only meant to test your intentions, skills or IQ, so don’t be panic.
• Answers must be short and simple. I, if a question is unclear, then student can ask interviewer to repeat.
• Retain required documents (original copy) at hand
• Keep a copy of all the required documents with you for the interview.

Required Documents are:

Appointment letter, visa fee receipt, photograph, passport, letter of admission, ID and Address Profs, financial documents, degree transcripts and test scores of GRE/TOEFL/IELTS/GMAT score sheets.

Finance

To clear the visa interview and get the student visa, a student may be required to furnish certain financial documents to prove that the necessary resources are available as and when it requires to pay tuition fees, living expenses, and accommodations, etc. If your parents are funding a student’s education, then he may have to submit their liquid asset statements which includes their original bank statements and tax returns of required years/ months(depends on prevailing laws in different countries )along with their original fixed deposit receipts. In case of a scholarship or a loan, then the student needs to provide a confirmation letter of the respective letter with its approval .

It is also advisable to prepare for the interview questions in advance with the help of mock interview sessions, referring to sample visa questions and by researching about questions that are generally asked to aspiring students.