Ex-US Visa Officer Reveals Student Visa Interview Secrets

[00:00:16]hi welcome everyone um this is the Fred Effect YouTube channel and it's great that you tuned in today today we are privileged to have a former Visa officer who is going to give us the tips and inside adist on how you could go about your Visa process and get approved I know you would have a lot of questions so you can join us live um we are currently live on Facebook the Fred effect Facebook page we are Live on YouTube as well uh the Fred Effect YouTube channel we are also live on X um the FED effect XO Twitter page and live on Instagram and also we'll be live on Tik Tok as well so um let me know which country you're watching us from and which category of Visa are you preparing for it is very important that you know know you prepare for your Visa but also speak to somebody who has been issuing the Visas so an ex Visa officer will be the best person to help you so ago Visa has um a group of former Visa officers who are their expertise um in in the field of um you know issuing US Visa interviews and the advice that they give you it's it's nothing like you can get anywhere so today we are going to speak to a former Visa officer and then we get information on how you can get your visa approved if you've ever been refused a Visa no worries no problem we are going to respond to all your questions about how your next attempt can be successful so I'll bring my guest on remember to reach out to us via um the comment section let me know which questions you want you want me to ask I'll be reading them and later on I'll give you an opportunity to one of our subscribers to be interviewed and assessed by this the former Visa officer and that be a great one so let me bring my guest on and then we can get going hi Christa nice to meet you hi Fred nice to meet you too hi everyone great to have you so a little bit of introduction um Christa who is Christa and you tell us about Argo Visa as well okay hi guys my name is Christa last name is biker I work for Argo Visa since 2020 all world how to prepare for their visa interview I would say I'm pretty qualified to do this because I uh actually interviewed you know thousands and thousands of people for their visa uh for their visas before this I specifically worked in um Latin America I was in Mexico um Dominican Republic and Guatemala um but we have uh former officers who have worked in almost every region of the world many who have um foreign language skills so they're able to consult in the person's um native language very often um F1 visas you know were're passionate about making sure that people are really prepared for their interview because it's not just a rubber stamp it's not just oh you said you're you got this I20 issued now you can have your Visa it's not some people think it's an exchange an I20 for a Visa but that's not true at all it's not a one for one it's more okay the 20 is the starting point now you've got to go through this interview present all your information and convince the Visa officer that you're truly qualified for the US Visa so studying in the US is a great opportunity to advance your career we love International students and um love the opportunity to help people understand the Visa process better and um have possibly better chance at issuance of the Visa ultimately Fred you're on mute we are grateful to have you Christa um to share your experience and knowledge with um our viewers and subscribers as well so why would there be a need um to speak to a former Visa officer if one is preparing for a visa interview why is there a need to consult or talk to a former Visa officer before the individual goes for the visa interview well lot uh a lot is on the line with the visa interview you know like I said you you're going there you're going to get a yes or no answer obviously if you're applying for the Visa you want a yes answer um and there's a big knowledge gap between how do you get from no to Yes um and that's you know kind of the the fault of the process itself the way the state department sets it up they don't give out a lot of information about what they're expecting or how this process is supposed to work um and so you really need someone to inform you of okay this is what they're actually looking for this is how you present your case um and so that you can go in there the most prepared possible going in with preparation um is going to give you a lot of confidence and confidence is my second reason that you um preparation is so important because if you go in there you know with your shoulders slouch and like super nervous and you can't answer the question um you seem like you just don't want to be there um the Visa officer isn't going to have a very positive impression of your case and so by Consulting with the former Visa officer I think another very important along with learning about the process and understanding exactly what they're looking for it's more this subtle kind of um nonverbal uh aspect that's very important to capture and make sure that you're going in there with real confidence so so that you feel um that you're able to present your case that you're able to convince this Visa officer of your situation now talking about confidence later on um in the session um CH will interviewing prospective student and then we give an assessment so if you want to be interviewed you can um actually type your name in the comments let me know if you preparing for a certain category of visa and then I'll bring you on so that you get interviewed by chista also you um I'll show you how you can schedule one-on-one consultation to speak to ca or any of the ago Visa former Visa officers um the the link is actually rolling on the screen so you can use the link to schedule a one-on-one consultation with ago Visa you don't want to go for this interview twice three times or four times if you've previously been denied no problem talk to a foral Visa officer get The Insider Insight before you go for your next interview that this is very important so Christa um moving on in your years of experience how many Visa interviews um roughly did you did you conduct uh well I did both non-immigrant visas and immigrant Visas so people who are going to the US for like employment or because they have a family member there between all of those types of visas which you know there's like a whole alphabet soup of them um I would say I've done about 40,000 visas wow so with 40,000 Visa um interviews Christa has all the expertise to help you with your visa interview now let's let's start with F1 Visa which most of my followers and subscribers are into so does age matter in terms of F1 Visa approval for example if someone is like 40 years old or 35 years old and is going in for an associate degree or a bachelor's degree does it matter yes it does matter because one of the criteria that the Visa officers is looking at is are you a real student so you they're kind of the way they're trained and their the schema they have in their mind is that a person who's going for an associates degree or a bachelor's degree usually is is fairly young right they're they're just out of high school maybe Max 25 years old so if you're way above kind of that threshold of 25 um you're going to have to really think about how you're going to present your case why are you ready now for your degree are you Chang maybe you've done in the past but now you're going to do a different kind of degree um you're changing your field you have to really get your story tight um to explain it and make it make sense to the Visa officer to ultimately convince them that that you're a real student because if they see a 40-year-old who's going to do an associates degree their probably their first thought is maybe they're just trying to you know apply for this F1 visa and go on this um F1 status so that they can stay permanently in the United States which is not compatible with the Visa class and would lead to a denial great so if you're going for an assist degree um it's advisable that you take the age Gap very important um so Christa you spoke about you know um working in um Spanish speaking countries and all that so my next question is um if English is not the native language for a certain country where you're conducting a visa interview are there um are there you know interviews allowed to speak in a different language other than English so like you know if you're in a French speaking country is it possible to speak French when you are the visa interview yeah it depends on the Visa class right if you're going for a B1 B2 Visa they're not usually going to expect you to speak English perfectly right but if you're going to do a master's degree in the United States um and you need English to complete that degree you better expect to be able to to hold your interview in English um so it depends on what your purpose of travel is whether or not the Visa officer is really going to be testing your English level but if you've got a job offer in the United States that requires English if you are studying a degree that requires you to be fluent in English those are two key situations where you really want to make sure that you are presenting a fluent interview in the English language awesome great so um to for my viewers there's a there are two Cate ories of visas there is an immigrant visa and a non-immigrant Visa so the non-immigrant Visa include visitors you know tourist or student visa M1 F1 and T1 and all that so if you're coming for such categories of visas which requires that of course um us predominantly is an english- speaking country you should be fluent in that all right so um thank you Christa so you know Visa officers you know usually access especially non immigrant Visa applicants um to show ties to their home country and based on your experience how do such applicants especially non-immigrant applicants and Visa applicants show ties to their home country what document would you suggest and in terms of the interview how do they show that so this is kind of the most nebulous vague part of the visa interview and a lot it's a question that people ask a lot okay well what are ties they're saying I don't have ties but my whole family's here um you know I work here I've got all this going for me in my home country why are they saying I don't have ties and it's ultimately because this is a judgment call on the part of the Visa officer of whether or not they think that you have enough ties not just any ties enough ties to bring you back to your home country or motivate you to leave the United States after your temporary stay there so uh what do you have to do in order to show them that you have not just ties but enough ties um you need to be very strategic about the information you present um at Argo Visa that's one of our main goals is talking to you about your whole story really understanding where you come from what your situation is and then helping you uncover the information that is going to show the Visa officer that you have enough ties to your home country um and making sure that you're mentioning those things in your visa interview rather than um things that uh might detract from that calculation of do you have enough ties or would just be irrelevant to to that question now still staying with the non-immigrant VISA and most important and most especially the F1 or maybe student visa whether M1 or G1 so as a student when you get to the United States depending on whether your program is a stem or a non stem if it's a stem you have a three-year op which is optional practical training and then if it's a non stem you have a one-year um optional practical training however this is not captured on the um I20 initially so if my program is for example 2 years however I do have a 3 years of um opt in answering the question how long do you intend to stay in the United States should I say two years which is captured on my I20 or should I inculcate or you know add the opt which is going to be three years so I said I'll be in the United States for five years cha based on your experience what should be the answer to this question yeah so when you have an I20 says the program is two years right that is guaranteed the university is telling the consulate that this program lasts two years that's how long you're required to be the United States opt while of course an OP isn't guaranteed you're not guaranteed to get a job from a US employer that wants to hire you um and so it at the point at the stage of your visa interview it's not a it's not a factor you should bring up the Visa officer is interested in why you want to study in the United States not why you want to do training in the United States you should definitely only mention the length of the program of study not your plans to do any kind of internship or training afterwards because that's not set in stone yet you don't have an offer um and the Visa officer is really focused on you being a real student not a trainee all right so ds160 um is mostly completed by non-migrant Visa applicants so students visitors and all that complete the ds160 is a a little bit bulky about 12 Pages or so so chrisa based on experience what are some of the mistakes that applicants normally make on the ds160 yeah the ds160 is a hard document not only because it's very long it's also the system itself is very clunky it's I say it's like um you know taped together by Band-Aids on the back end um and so it crashes all the time and you lose lose your data and then you have to start over and um it's it's just not a fun experience but you know you got to get through it it's part of the application so what are some of the things you need to be focusing on well um definitely your length of stay just like Fred um mentioned if you're an F1 student make sure that length of stay your intended length of stay um lines up with the program not with any other plans that you have in the United States after um your is finished um in addition you want to make sure that things are spelled correctly your passport number needs to be in there correctly your name your date of birth all of your biodata you know make sure that you're really reviewing that information to make sure that it's correct before you hit that ultimate submit button because after that there's no changes that can be made um and there are explain boxes on the ds160 So like um you fill out what's your present job okay I do this this and this and then there's a box that's just free form you can put as much text as you want in there like it says duties so you describe the job or they'll sometimes um if you've been refused a Visa in the past it will say have you ever been refused a Visa in the past and if you click yes a box will open that says explain so what happened right number one mistake is that people use this box to give the novel of their life they write 500 paragraphs um and try to explain in precise detail exactly what happened or exactly what they do at their job right this is a mistake the VIS officer the the interview is fast right you're not going to be in front of the VIS officer normally for more than five minutes so if you're expecting them to read the novel of your life you're going to be sorely disappointed they're just going to ignore it um and and it might even annoy them right it might negatively predispose them to your case if they see this long long long thing in the in the um application what you need to do is be very strategic with that box with those boxes that are free form you need to have a very concise kind of Snappy convincing um response there especially to the question of have you ever been denied in the past if that's your case um and in the duties for example you don't just have to talk about what you do for your job you can get out some of your highlights you know I uh I'm a business representative in addition I invest in this stock market and have a portfolio of x amount of dollars and I own two properties right you can get out more information about your assets about your financial position in that box rather than just um concentrating on the fact that you you know know how to use Excel for your job and you're expected to be at your desk at 9 :' in the morning you know those those factors aren't relevant for your visa interview so on in those boxes concentrate on your highlights concentrate on things that are going to be impressive to the visa interview be very succinct so that they're actually going to read them um and consult with Argo Visa too because this is something we work with um clients a lot with with how what do I do for my ds160 those free form boxes and we are very trained at at giving good suggestions on how to um make sure those are the most impactful possible so so my question only um was asked on ds160 but I'm sure this also goes for the ds260 that is um an immigrant category of Visa as well so one particular question a lot of people want to find out Christa is um you know when one is refused a Visa they do not get a reason why um they are being refused the reason is given on the um 214b document which is given to generically everybody who gets refused so in answering the specific question of um have you been refused a Visa the answer is yes okay what was the reason um give reasons why you were refused I was given 24b document Christ I don't know the reason why I was denied what should I type in there you should type in why you're qualified um and it's because they're not really they don't they don't expect you to know why you were denied they don't tell you right this these free form boxes on the ds160 the few that exist they're the point is to have a positive impact on the officer so if you got a 214b A year ago you applied for a B1 B2 and now you're applying for the B1 B2 again um let's you know I'm just going to make up some data points here but I would say 214b B1 B2 February 20 23 right just very short nothing paragraphs just describe very briefly um those data points then say I have been employed as a civil engineer for the past five years uh I own my own property and I'm only planning to go to the US for a business conference paid for by my employer right I literally just made that up that is obviously not true for I don't know for anyone but you see what I mean you're bringing your saying okay this is when I was denied and under what category of the law and what Visa class now why am I applying again today and what strengths do I have right to say okay this should be reconsidered um and you'll notice with what I just said extremely brief again very important to be extremely as as brief as possible right you're still here on the Fred Effect YouTube channel I am speaking with Christa Christa is with ago Visa um you know with experience working and you know I'm interviewing a lot of applicants as a US Visa um officer um we are actually going through the some of The Insider Insight that will help you with your visa interview do me a favor by subscribing so we are live on Facebook we are Live on YouTube We also live on X and live on Instagram as well we are also live on Tik Tok so join us and you know share so that another person can also benefit from the ideas and information we are sharing remember you can have a one-on-one conversation with Christa use the link that is scrolling on the screen to book a one-onone consultation please don't wait before um when you get denied before you know you you start looking for help look for help now um it is very important that you know um you go through the whole application process for a school or for for a job and then you know you finally get to the stage where the Visa will determine whether your dreams of moving to the US or maybe um getting access to this job or this University this scholarship will be fulfilled the visa interview is the only thing to determine a lot of effort time and also resources to prepare so that you know you get your visa approved and it it doesn't have to be it's very um I don't know how applicants feel um um Chris have you you know in your experience refused an applicant and you know consider how they feeling at that moment when you refuse them well the Visa the Visa process is it's very particular right the Visa officer is told okay you know we get a TR a a Long training about all of us immigration rules and how to apply these laws and given training on how to interview and all this kind of stuff then you start interviewing over a 100 people a day and you have 3 to five minutes to talk to them so you as a Visa officer you start just compartmentalizing to get your job done and um you know making snap judgments on okay what is does this seem qualified and a police officer when they have a doubt they almost always you know if they have a doubt and they don't have time to resolve that doubt or don't think they're going to be able to resolve that doubt um then their default answer is no um so yes there's many times that I denied a Visa that I felt bad but I was also constrained by um the pressures of the job to say all right we've got 100 more applicants to get through today um and so you just you kind of get desensitized to it to be honest um and it's a hard job for sure it's not it's not an easy job and um it often I mean I mean I don't do that job anymore for a very good reason um but I knowing knowing what I know about the the um the job that the Visa Visa officers are doing I can tell you that most of the Visa officers they're nice people they're trying to do a job right they they've been put into this position um as part of their diplomatic career and they're just trying to get through it and get through the day um so it's not yeah I wouldn't take it necessarily personally if you're denied um because it usually isn't um but uh this is why it's so important to stand out as a Visa applicant because they the Visa line where they're going through all these applications and interviews it gets really monotonous for the Visa officer right you've got to ask the person why do you want to go to the United States where are you going to study how are you going to pay for this right you ask that to 100 people a day it gets really boring and monotonous um and so um when you get Visa applicant who's well spoken who seems really bright who knows exactly how to answer the questions who is engaging um it's like a breath of fresh air because most Visa applicants are like onew answer scared out of their life you know um and very nervous and just not able to engage in a kind of normal interview um so when you stand out as an applicant who's like got it together cont really engaging in the questions they're answering they're asking um then you have a much better chance of approval just because of the the constraints of the interview process itself my viewers will really appreciate the step that you just gave Christa we we we really appreciate it so later on um I'll be picking one of you so that you um Christa interviews you and she's going to assess you now remember that um this and many more is where you get when you um schedule a Visa um you know you schedule a consultation with ago Visa you get an actual former Visa officer who have all the experience interviewing and many applicants to go through your your document your ds160 your I20 whichever document whether it's a visitors Visa you know one-on-one consultation and also tell you all that you need to know before you approach your visa interview so stay tuned let me hear from you in the comment section what questions you have I'll be asking um Christa and then later on one of you will be will be interviewed by Christa so Christa moving on I was going to talk about um the best way to approach the question you know from what you just said why should this Visa be approved or granted if an applicant gets this question from a Visa officer how should they approach it uh anytime you're applying for a non-immigrant Visa so this is the B1 B2 the J the f um visas that are just meant for a temporary stay in the United States if a Visa officer asks you why should I approve your Visa right you're going to want to mention why you're going to leave the United States because that's what they're interested in they're interested in what are your plans post us um not just I love you know a lot of people will say why why do you want to go to the United States they'll ask right and a lot of people say oh I love the United States I want to see Statue of Liberty I've watched um so many American TV shows and I just really want to um get to know the culture and practice my English they talk all about what they want to do there they don't talk anything about what they're going to do when they leave or why they need to leave right so I would say you know let's say for example your plan is to go to Disneyland um you know instead of just saying it's been my dream my whole life to go to Disneyland and I can't wait to meet Mickey and this is my children's dream too and um we're going to take 9,000 photos and spend all of our life savings on this huge trip right I'm just being funny but um what you would say instead of that is my family and I would like to take a vacation to Disneyland we've done vacations a lot in the past we've gone here locally to XYZ place and when I only have two weeks of vacation in the summer so it's a really great opportunity for to go while I have my work leave and then I'll be coming to my job right those are two very different answers one of them is this is what I want to do in the US and it doesn't mention at any point whether you've traveled elsewhere been on vacation elsewhere or when you're going to leave why you need to leave okay so um you have to be this is what I'm saying here is you have to be strategic about your answers you have to come up with a strategy of how you're going to Express to the Visa officer that you intend to comply with this Visa class for a tourist visa the basic way of complying with the the tourist visa is by leaving the United States after a temporary stay so you're not using this visa to live in the US so you want to talk to the Visa officer about what motivates you to come home thank you very much m CH so my next question will be on students who are going to pursue whether an assist with degree a bachelor's degree or a master's degree is it advisable for such a student to disclose that if I'm done with my this degree that you are interviewing me for I would like to um you know pursue another degree so like a PhD after my masters is it advisable for an applicant to disclose this information at the interview yeah it's part of your overall plan plan right um you know why do you want to do this master's degree say they're studying I don't know veterinary science I want to do a master's degree in veterinary science because I'm passionate about animals and I want to eventually complete a PhD in that um field as well so that I can come back to my home country and really um contribute to the animal homelessness crisis again I'm making this up but uh you understand what I'm saying right you can include as part of your plan but at the end talk about how you're going to apply your knowledge whether it's at the Master's level or at the P PhD level to your future plans outside of the United States great so um um I'll be asking a lot of questions to ask Christa we do not have all the time and so um as promised I'm going to bring someone on Christa is going to interview this individual this individual is um you know applying for um an F1 V and then afterwards Crystal will give an assessment now this is a learning experience for you and also to give you an idea what to expect if you are to book a one-on-one consultation with either Christa or any of the ago former Visa officers so um somebody requested to join so let me bring Tani on um hello Tani if you can unmute um I'm very fine sir how are you great um which category this are you going for I'm applying for an a Visa Visa I would leave it to Cha and then we take it from there wait one more question before we start what country are you from I'm from Ghana in West Africa okay um all right so you I want to just say one thing real quick to the audience before we start but usually on an Argo Visa call what we would do is I would have a very long conversation with t Johnny about okay where are you from what your parents do uh what are your siblings do why do you want to study this specific thing right we'd have a whole conversation about all of his context and then we would talk about okay what are the points you need to bring up in this visa interview um and then we would do the practice so this is a little bit different because I don't know anything about t Johnny um but we're gonna we're gonna go with this um and then afterwards talk a little bit about maybe uh improve strategy if if need be okay all right T Johnny where are you going to uh study in the United States I'm going to study at the Missouri Science and Technology I'm Missouri as a biological scientist undergraduate okay what degree are you going to do I'm going to Pur under undergraduate program which is which aages under over 124 credit hours and8 89 courses how long will the degree last four years ma'am it's a four year degree course okay what are you going to do after you're done okay so currently I'm I work with the piz man chicken man as operation manager and I work as at the Quality Assurance board and after the degree it will help me enable enable me to come back to my country and help with the food security and food safety in Ghana okay um who do you live with I live in my appearance okay how are you going to pay for this my boss Christian who happens to be the CE of P who earns over an annual income of $100,000 exping my education why does your boss want to pay for you to go to college okay so since I was employed at p man since 2018 my boss has been interested in my education background because he wants to groom locally people to produce our materials that's why he pointed my education to Missouri science technology as a biological science student how do you you find out about Missouri Missouri was posted last year in the New York Times as one of the best universities and also due to their good researches and also I know Mr D who is a professor there okay Vis is approved good job T Johnny um all right let's talk about let's talk about what happened here and why I want to approve this Visa um and what are a few things that t Johnny might be able to do a little bit better um at the actual interview in general I think it was a good interview you're a young guy you're going for a legit program you're going the school that you're going to I've heard of it it's true it's a good school in your field um you mentioned I was very good that you mentioned that you work in Ghana and you intend to come back to Ghana to work in that field and this is a way for you to kind of skill up um to be the best at your field in in Ghana um a few things that I would mention to improve though when the Visa officer asks who do you live with your answer was just my parents um this question is actually an opportunity for you to share more about your socioeconomic situation so if your parents are employed if they're doing okay if they have a college education um you should mention those things I I live with my parents my dad's an accountant and my mom is a teacher what I don't know if that's true in your case to Johnny but if it were true that's what I would suggest don't just give a one answer if they're asking the question they want a little bit more context you need to go a little bit further the other thing is when I said why did you choose this University you said it was reported in the New York Times as the best university in this topic um that is dead weight in the visa interview do not um use the visa interview to repeat facts that you can find on Wikipedia or in the New York Times um you've got to make it personal so the last thing you said that I met Professor so and so who inspired me to apply for this program that's a good answer because you actually met a person they told you about the university um but just these General like some people will say oh I really want to go to this school because it has a 140 acre Green campus and was established in 1820 by Senator Joe Schmo and it just is a great University for my education right an answer like that or like even what to Johnny said oh it's you know in the New York Times it's ranked really high um the Visa officer they just think that that's like Anonymous data that doesn't really matter to why you are actually looking for this school and the reason they ask this question of why are you going you know how or why did you how did you find this it's one of their ways of detecting whether or not they really believe that you're a real student so what is a real student going to be doing when they're looking for their University they're usually going to be look uh reaching out to their contact Network looking what professors are at the school seeing if the school is very well ranked in their field um they might be considering how much scholarship the the school is willing to offer right those are the factors that are going to be more convincing rather than like I found this random information on New York Times or Wikipedia about this school so those are the two things that I would say oh and the other one is you could tell that on some of the questions I was asking you follow-up questions how are you going to pay for this okay but why does this person want to sponsor you right those though you should try to combine your answer to include both of those things try to avoid having the Visa officer ask follow-up questions try to get as much impactful information in there as possible so uh I've received a private scholarship from the CEO of the company where I work um they have a salary of over $100,000 a year and the means to support my education they're interested in doing this because they want to build my career here in Ghana and I'll be working for them when I come back right so don't make it a long explanation but try to get that impactful information in there so that they don't have to ask follow-up questions all right yes ma'am any questions to Johnny okay so about you ask when you asked like maybe where are you going to stay after school is vacated or maybe in the summer and maybe you tell them about an intention program so what if you don't get an intention program can the officer that for you like okay ask me that maybe I was Will to be stay enjing sum since you don't know anyone in the state and I'll tell them okay I'm going I'll I'll be I'll be going for an internship or something why if you don't get the internship does the off think that for you or I would say you know if you again this is kind of like a hypothetical question of like you don't have an internship today so it's not something that the Visa officer is likely to concentrate on but um if you were to be answer asked that question I think the perfect answer is there are internships opportunities through my school I'll make sure if I get one of those that it's um compatible with the Visa class that I'll be on and otherwise I'll be coming home to visit my family if I'm not able to get an internship thank you that's fine so Tani thank you for following and subscribing to the TF platform this is some of the benefits you get I'm sure this has been a very good learning background you can go ahead and book um a one-on-one consultation with ago Visa team and you get a lot um from you know doing that if you're watching this is just a tip of the iceberg um of the benefit you have when you schedule a oneon-one I was actually shocked some of the things CH was talking about and I didn't even realize them so it would be great if you with ag Visa thank you so much Chris thank you to jeny for joining us thank you Johnny good luck yeah so Kristof we we have few questions and then um we'll wrap up for today so I wanted to ask about the financial statement so for example Tani who has a deficit when going for um the the visa interview the U the the US Embassy has specific requirements on how the pictures should look like what picture should be used for the ds160 it it doesn't have to be older than you know um this number of month and all that but they are very silent on the type of financial document should it be 3 months older should it be be um printed recently can it be a year older you know what what would you advise applicants to consider when um selecting the type of financial statement to use for the interview I would suggest that the financial statement be no more than six months old um you want it to be relatively recent to show that this money is available so if you bring a year old document they're going to say well did this you know did this person buy a car and now they no longer have this money or you know you want to make sure it's it's recent so that it's it's plausible that the person still has the funds saved for your education um the other thing is a lot of people say oh the Visa officer was looking at my um Financial record really closely looking at all the lines um and then they just rejected my Visa what happened if you bring a bank statement that has huge influxes of money and outflux of money the Visa officer is going to think that this is not a very solvent stable situation often it their assumption is that you know the person you're saying is who's going to be sponsoring you actually isn't that solvent they just borrowed a bunch of money to say oh I can pay for this right so it's not just how much is in the account it's you want to pay attention to what do those movements in the account look like does it look like a stable account that has money saved over time not huge influxes or outflux of money so you're still here on the Fred effects YouTube channel we are talking to Christa from ago Visa ago Visa um is it's made up of a group of former Visa officers with you know um High expertise in helping you to get your visa approved if you're preparing for any category of Visa whether be visiting tourist um student Visa any category of Visa whether being immigrant or immigrant Visa they they have done it all so book a Visa um book a consultation with ago Visa don't wait until you are refused before you come to seek for help on the other hand if you've ever been to the visa interview and you have been refused that is not the end of it you can still reapply so before you do that make sure that you find out the reason if you continue doing the same thing obviously you get the same results make sure that you talk to an expert to know and understand the reason why you were refused before you apply on the second one so we have few questions and we'll be wrapping up with Christa today remember that you know the session will be still live on the fredd effect platforms you can you know share with your friends and family so that they can learn from the experiences and information we are sharing here so um Christa is having a relative or a friend or knowing someone in the US a red flag when applying for a non-immigrant be so it depends on the proximity of the relationship so if you say oh my mom is in the United States because she went to the US and claimed Asylum um yeah that's going to be a huge red flag um of like well are you really intending to go study or are you intending to go reunite with your mom um if you say you're playing for a student visa um on the other hand if you have some friends who went to the University that you're applying to um that's a great thing to mention right um how did you find out about this University well some of the um kids who are older than me in my high school they went to this school they've really recommended it had a great experience um and so I'm really looking forward to it as well right those are two totally different answers um the proximity of the relationship is quite a bit farther um and it doesn't show um like immigrant intent so this is one thing that you've really got to talk to a consultant about to if you have a close relationship or or um many relationships in the United States how are you going to frame your responses to those questions at the visa interview so that you're diminishing the red flag making the red flag a little bit less strong in your case or really using it to your advantage because you know like I said this this response that I had friends who went to this University is uh A+ for the visa interview so when Visa officers are interviewing and they they looking at a computer they are not looking at the applicant what actually are you guys looking at um well it's a very computer-based system so the ds160 is on the computer screen there and a lot of people don't know this but the Visa officer has not studied your ds160 before before you come up to the window that's why it's very important to like I was explaining earlier to have really short answers in your ds160 because they're literally reviewing your ds160 as they're starting to ask you questions they've done it you know thousands of times so they get really good at it of reading really fast um but uh that's why you cannot put a novel in the ds160 in those explain boxes um so the first thing they're looking at is the ds160 they also have um like records of anything that you've ever applied for with USCIS if you've ever had your fingerprints taken at the airport or by like a USCIS application those fingerprint records will show up if you've ever been arrested in the United States for any kind of crime um even like a DUI or a traffic ticket that will show up in the U in their system um they can also see uh any like in a very quick summarized way all the Visa applications you've ever had in the past the year that you had the visa application the type of visa and the outcome um so they're analyzing those are the first things that they're analyzing really quickly on their computer screen and then they're going back and forth the whole time between the computer and the um interview because they're typing notes uh and if you've ever had a visa interview in the past um they're going to be reading what are the notes in your prior case and they're also going to be um typing notes for this current one um so very computer based process um and they're they've got all your case information in there now a lot of people say well can they see my bank statements or can they see um I don't know like how many children I have or uh if I've ever served as a you know in a political position in my country right like what what what is the extent of the information they have access to um it's a lot less than you think they certainly don't have your financial records credits scores anything like that that's all private information a bank would not share that with a government unless there was like you know like a subpoena or something really serious in the middle um and they are relying I would say 60% of the case they're relying on what you report in your ds160 um they don't have a sophisticated web where it's like you know they see all of your mother's applications or all of your sister's applications um it's it's more what are you putting in the ds160 especially when it comes to your family and stuff there there's even a school of T that you know you're able to find out which other countries like the person applied for Canadian visa an Australian Visa or a UK Visa you do have that information too there is some sharing um in the system with other other um countries that's true um especially Canada um but it's not as much as you think great we are wrapping up real quick with Christa um Christa actually gave us 45 minutes so we've taken more than um necessary so um based on your years of experience what was your favorite question how do you expect applicant you know to respond to this question uh so this is a little bit unorthodox but a lot of times when I was like really you know sick of asking the same questions all the time um I would just say to the V and I was just you know I've been already interviewing people for four or five hours and was just like okay I'm this is getting old you know um I would just say tell me about yourself okay and just let them talk um and that was always my favorite because uh you know it gives them an opportunity to to explain themselves why why they're applying so if you ever get that question from a Visa officer you better be prepared it is not a moment to stutter or to be like you know I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say no this is you know I'm going to pitch my my application um and you know very succinctly tell them why why I'm qualified great so for applicants who are applying from a third country so let's say um a ghanian now living in let's say Kenya or maybe Canada is applying for a non-immigrant Visa or any category of visa to the US how do they prove their home ties they are currently not interviewing in Home Country how will they be able to prove that they will still go back to their home country after you know their visit or whatever they're coming to do in the US yeah so the regulations aren't so much focused on you have to go back to your place of nationality it's more your place of residence so if you're you know living in Kenya or you're living in Canada as a third country National and you have residents that's still a pretty good application because you're showing that you have um a place that you've you're living you're working you you have you know something going on outside of the US so that's not as hard what's more difficult is if you can't get a an appointment in your country because of the long wait times and you say okay I've just got to go to some random country to apply um just because they have a lower weight time that's going to be a hard interview and once again if you can afford to get on a plane and go to another country and pay the visa fee there you're going to want to uh try to afford to get a consultation with Argo to um figure out how you're going to present your case because it's not uh just a simple situation right so we we'll take an an advice for people who are unprepared and nervous but before that this is pretty new so some countries like Ghana and Kenya if you have ever gotten an nonim Grant category of Visa you could re we could apply for another Visa um which you have what we call the interview waiver now for those people who are going for an interview waiver option and not presenting and going in front of a Visa officer to be interviewed what should they pay attention to uh very carefully read the instructions of what is required for your visa interview waiver the um consulate does want some documents make sure your ds160 is correct if your name is wrong if your pass if your date of birth is wrong um and it doesn't match your passport um they're going to make you do it again um and it could possibly delay your processing um so pay very close attention to that the information is accurate and also that you're providing exactly what they're asking for um and then uh if you've had like really long stays in the past in the United States um on a tourist status uh you're probably going to get called in for an interview um if you had were arrested at any point since your last visa application you're probably going to be called in for an interview right the VIS visa interview waiver is kind of the start if they don't see any issues with your application you've sent everything in perfectly um no problems then they're likely to issue it but I would you know say a good chance to be called in if you have if there's anything that's kind of slightly odd about your application and that's a situation in which you can proactively provide kind of a written explanation um to preempt those questions and you can include that in your um visa interview waiver packet um if that's your situation again I would suggest getting a consultation to figure out exactly how you should word that and how you should um present your information through the visa interview waiver process right is is it advisable for non-immigrant Visa applicants to reserve a flight ticket before the interview uh no absolutely not the state department is unequivocal on its website on all its written materials and while I was a Visa officer that there is no reimbursement for the visa fee there is no reimbursement for any travel expenses that you pay for prior to re to interviewing for the Visa whether or not you're approved or if you're approved and the Visa issuance like the printing is delayed for whatever reason they don't give you any guarantees and they're not going to give you any money or compensate you in any way knowing this it's very foolish to pay for anything prior to having Visa in hand not just um you know you go to the interview and they say issued uh and then you say okay I'm going to go home tonight and book everything bad idea until you have the Visa physically in your hand do not book anything it will save you a lot of headaches um and uh again you will not be compensated if anything comes up um for money that you've spent so best practice is wait till you have your Visa in hand to book anything the other thing that's important is the Visa officer is not in expecting you to have paid for anything because of this whole framework that I just said about how the state department advises very um clearly that you shouldn't pay for anything before you have the Visa in hand the Visa officer isn't expecting you to have anything booked they are expecting you if they ask okay so what what's going to be your itinerary or when are you hoping to travel right there you're going to want to have a good answer I haven't paid for anything yet but I have looked at I don't know Air Canada that flies uh through Toronto and gets me to Chicago in a reasonable time and for a good price right you want to want to show them that you've done some research and you've taken this seriously but you're not required to show anything paid for so so um Christa you've been interviewing a lot of applicants there is somebody listening to us now who is a bit anxious and nervous about a visa application what would be your words to such an individual um well one big thing is you know really remember when you're going through this process that when you go to the visa interview you're talking to another person right so at the base level this is like a psychological interaction with another human being you're not talking to a program or a robot or a computer um you're talking to another person and so um while there is a lot on the line and it is a situation that should make you feel like okay I need to get prepared for this um I wouldn't overthink it too much either right you're talking to another person you've got to convince them that you're qualified um and this takes practice this takes confidence um and so that's what you need to um work towards not just getting yourself completely flustered and you know um scared about the process take proactive steps to gain confidence um for this visa interview so so that when you get to the visa interview you can say okay I'm just talking to another person I'm going to tell them about my situation in a way that they can understand and that shows that I qualify one way to you know um sort out the issue of being anxious and nervous is when you're very well prepared and one way of preparing very well is when you book a consultation with ago Visa now if you check on the screen the link to book a consultation with ago Visa um it's on there please please type it in your browser follow the processes in one of my videos I shared how you can go through the process to book a consultation with ago visa and you sure whatever amount you paid will be worth um and especially you witness you know Christa you know interviewing the journey and you understand that when you schedule a one-on-one consultation you are getting a lot and your Visa will definitely um be approved if you follow the directions and then instructions they give you so chista myself and my and my viewers um are very happy that you joined us today we appreciate your time and hopefully some other time will have you on hey it was great to speak with everyone I saw there's a lot of participation in the comments a lot of people watching this and I'm sure as it goes um you know gets posted on YouTube and other um forums people will continue to watch it in the future I just want to let everyone know that here at Argo we care about your situation we care about about people getting through the Visa process with as little nerves and you know as much confidence as possible we're really looking forward to helping you and you can follow us on um YouTube and Tik Tok as well where we publish a lot of videos on different topics that are that are going to be helpful to you and we look forward to speaking to you in a consultation if you need one thank you so much thank you so much Christa and thank you for joining us so this has been the Fred effect um thank you for joining us try and share and so that other people can benefit from the ideas and information we are sharing here it's very rare to get a Visa officer to talk to um you know or be on your channel so this is a lot of information we' ped here remember the live session will be um on the Fred Effect YouTube page Facebook X and then Instagram as well also on Tik Tok so that you can rewatch um and then learn from it take your pen and papers and learn remember um be positive about the whole process a lot of effort time and um you know goes into preparing for this whole Visa processes it will be important that um you know you put in the measures to get approved tell somebody to watch this video and learn from it tell somebody that talk to a former Visa officer um before you go for your visa interview my name is Fred this has been the Fred effect I'll see you in another video and be positive everything will be fine