Visa Appointment
I have my visa appointment tomorrow morning at 9:30 local time. I guess I am lucky to get an appointment on such short notice (recd it only day before yesterday). Looking at the appointment calendar at the US Consulate in Calcutta, I found no other dates for the month of May. The earliest available date after the 19th of May was sometime in mid-June!
I guess the reason for such a rush for visas could be the students who are trying to attend US universities from the Fall of this year, just like me :). But I can't remember there being such a huge rush before. It makes me wonder if the number of applicants to the US from India are actually decreasing as reported by various newspapers in the last several months.
I found the list of documents required to apply for an F-1 visa close to that of a grocery list. The US efforts in keeping out suspicious people from their country is quite apparent when I compare the procedure now to the procedure back in 1996 when I first applied for an F-1 to attend the University of Michigan. There are 3 forms to fill out along with 2 demand drafts, a notarized affidavit of support, passport copies, photographs, and of course the I-20 form. The I-20 form too has see some big changes, with the SEVIS number clearly indicated in the document.
An interesting thing I read on the US Consulate website was that US Law assumes that non-immigrant applicants actually intend to stay on in the US!! Thus, it is the responsibility of the applicant to prove this wrong!! Very ineresting...
I am not quite sure how long of a wait this whole visa thing will be. I believe it takes a lot more time now than it did earlier. Of course, several years ago you could get an F-1 visa the same day of your application. I received my H-1B in December, in a similar time frame.
I'm excited about tomorrow. I don't expect too many hiccups as I think I could pass off as one of the "safer" applicants based on my deep-set socio and economic ties to India.
I'll find out soon....
I guess the reason for such a rush for visas could be the students who are trying to attend US universities from the Fall of this year, just like me :). But I can't remember there being such a huge rush before. It makes me wonder if the number of applicants to the US from India are actually decreasing as reported by various newspapers in the last several months.
I found the list of documents required to apply for an F-1 visa close to that of a grocery list. The US efforts in keeping out suspicious people from their country is quite apparent when I compare the procedure now to the procedure back in 1996 when I first applied for an F-1 to attend the University of Michigan. There are 3 forms to fill out along with 2 demand drafts, a notarized affidavit of support, passport copies, photographs, and of course the I-20 form. The I-20 form too has see some big changes, with the SEVIS number clearly indicated in the document.
An interesting thing I read on the US Consulate website was that US Law assumes that non-immigrant applicants actually intend to stay on in the US!! Thus, it is the responsibility of the applicant to prove this wrong!! Very ineresting...
I am not quite sure how long of a wait this whole visa thing will be. I believe it takes a lot more time now than it did earlier. Of course, several years ago you could get an F-1 visa the same day of your application. I received my H-1B in December, in a similar time frame.
I'm excited about tomorrow. I don't expect too many hiccups as I think I could pass off as one of the "safer" applicants based on my deep-set socio and economic ties to India.
I'll find out soon....
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