Chilexeve:

Someone should please answer this

I did a mock interview with a former VO, and I was told it's good to mention. I also applied to a school in Spain

Opemz:

Denied
Lagos Consulate
VO-(The lady beside the one with white headset)
31/05/2022
COA - 39,908
Total funds available is 42,064
BREAKDOWN:
GA WAIVER - 20,064
On Campus employment - 10,000
Deficit - 9,500

V.O - What will an Msc in Information technology do for you ?
Me - It is my career goal to be a CIO sometime in future, having studied computer science and worked as a software dev for over 4 years, this degree will help me learn theoretical and hands on experience in other aspects such as IT management, Network security, Data Analytics, Data Management. *I'm not sure I said any thing extra here, I was really expecting her to ask me more questions*
V.O - Who is paying for the deficit ?
Me - I will be doing that with some personal funds that I have saved up. I will also be getting monthly stipend from my department
V.O - Yeeea, I can see that
V.O - How much do you earn ?
Me - About 500k monthly
Then she handed me the blue paper, and said thanks for coming.

She only asked me 3 questions, I don't know what the problem was, is it a problem to use personal funds ?

Good day, it's not a problem to use personal funds. I did and it worked out fine.

I think if you adjust your responses the outcome will be better.

For the first question, "what will this MSc do you for you"? Look at it as, "what will it do for you in the short to medium term"? "What will you achieve that you haven't been able to"? Something like, "You have worked for 4 years, and you have been looking for advancement opportunities, but those opportunities favor people with advanced degrees. Your supervisor has also confirmed that your profile is also not as competitive, so this M.Sc. is the logical step to improve your current situation".

For the question on "how you would pay the deficit"? It would be better to say that, "I have worked for this long and I have personal savings of Bleep that would more than sufficiently cover that deficit".

The VO doesn't know your story, which is why you are there at the interview to ensure they can understand it. So don't expect them to ask many questions until they get your story (it's an interview, not an interrogation), don't also rely on documents to give the story. Full succinct answers that will help them connect the dots easily in a short time is a good strategy.

BECKY6240:

Congratulations and if I may ask which school gave you the $10k funding

Texas A&M College Station

Christalt:


Congrats on everything. I’m so very happy for you.
Duly noted the tips you’ve given.
I’m about to fill out my d160 form this week, but with regards to sop, I’d gone through the form and didn’t know that would be required for post graduate tho.
Pls share a little more light.

Thank you !

For the SOP I meant that one should use a scaled down version to respond to the questions like: why this program? why this school? why now? etc. You don't want to ramble on for too long, rather you want the VO to understand your motivation.

Christalt:

Sorry I forgot to ask.
Are you sponsoring yourself , or did you put in a sponsor? If you did, who ?
I’m asking because I’m my sponsor and I have over 10 years of work experience. I’m hoping putting myself as the sponsor won’t be an issue.
Pls allow my draw from your experience..... many thanks

I got $10k funding and I specified that I would handle the rest from my personal savings, highlighting that I have been working for almost 15 years . So my I-20 has personal funds for the remainder.
I was particularly asked how I would fund the program; another point to note that the VOs do not necessarily look at the documents when passed to them, so you should ensure that you highlight those advantages, especially for those with partial or full funding.
When asked, I responded that I had a scholarship, and he interjected, "no that's not true" and when I started to respond, he looked, saw it and corrected himself. After that I mentioned personal funds for the balance.

Hello Everyone, this is my first post. I have gleaned from the posts and experience here, so I decided to highlight some points that helped me.

For those who intend to apply for EA ahead of the 60 days when the rule clearly states 60 days is rather risky. Why would you want to risk that "golden ticket" by flouting the rules?

With regards to appointment booking, when I searched for appointment dates last month (April 2022) after filling out my DS-160, the earliest was April 2023. Being uninformed as I was at the time, I kept checking back and moving it (even as little as 1 week), I didn't know there was a limit to rescheduling until I got a message that if I changed my date 1ce more I would have to pay a new fee. I wasn't sure what that meant, so I stayed put, by this time I had moved up to Nov 22, so even when I saw September dates, I didn't bother rescheduling as that was still not early enough for my August start date. I forgot to mention that I selected Lagos, as that's where I live. I was tempted by the many Abuja dates that were opening up, but thank God I chose not to budge as I had giving myself a window till end of June to activate any contingencies. Well miraculously Lagos dates opened up last week, and I got a date for last Tuesday and picked up my passport yesterday. I can only describe the experience as miraculous.
Summary: Check for appointments regularly (but within the 3 times a day limit), join groups that monitor for openings, I was prompted by someone who was in one of these groups when dates became available.

With regards to preparing for the interview, I read a number of transcripts here that helped, but the most helpful was from a post that recommended watching ArgoVisa videos on YouTube. They have a lot of good free material and also options for paid services. For people who have had a refusal or complex situations, if you can afford it, I would recommend you schedule an appointment with them.

I saw someone who asked if you can go to another country to apply, well that's also risky (as I also gleaned from ex-consular officers). That was one of my contingencies. There are challenges with that, it would be more difficult to establish home ties and also your passport might stand out from the passports they would be used to seeing, thus increasing the scrutiny on you. If eventually you are unable to get an earlier date through any other means, then that may be sufficient justification to apply as a third country national. I advise you do additional research to be prepared.

When asked questions like why this school, why the US, why this course etc, I learnt that it's an opportunity to tell your story. Be an active interviewee and not passive, i.e. anticipate what the VO would like to know with that question, and provide a FULL answer that helps them relate to you as a person and not just some random applicant, in other words succinct responses scaled down from what you wrote in your SOP. This is what i did during my interview.

Travel history I have realized is also important, not impossible to get your visa approved without it, but it definitely gives you a leg up. If you don't have any travel history, then you have to look for other areas to highlight and take away the focus from it. It's better explained why you haven't travelled rather than just responding no to the question if raised.

Something I previously didn't consider important was my appearance, so 2 days before my interview, I went to the barber's for a haircut and a shave. I also wore a clean shirt with trousers, (no need to be overdressed), focus should be on neat rather than flashy. I have almost 15 years of work experience so I attempted to look the part.

If you have a "thick" accent, it's important to practice speaking clearly, use simpler words to express yourself. The person ahead of me had a hard time being understood by the VO, which I suspect contributed to the undesired outcome.

Despite my preparation, I was bombarded with contrary thoughts (high stakes) and so I reminded myself that the previous week, I had an appointment for Nov 2022, and then less than a week later I was about to be interviewed, and God who did that for me was definitely letting me know everything else was covered.

Thanks to those who have been sharing helpful tips. Many apologies for the long post