₦airaland Forum

Hello everyone,

I'm a silent follower on this thread. Learnt a lot from here in preparing for my Visa interview.

I had my interview on Tuesday, 8th of May, 2018 - 6:45 am batch.

Went through 4 security checks before entering the interview hall. Did my fingerprint and document verification also.

Joined the interview queue around 7:25 am ... Overhead other applicant's answers (some approved visa, others rejected)
I had to stop focusing on them so as not to get too nervous.

CGI directed me to booth 10 (around 7:45 am) - a man in his very late 30s


Transcript below:

VO: Good Morning, How're you doing today?

ME: I'm very fine, and you?

VO: I'm doing fine.

VO: Pass me your passport and I-20

ME: (passed)

VO: You're going for Masters. Where are you going for your Masters?

ME: (didn't hear what he said) sorry, I didn't get that

VO: Where are you going for your Masters?

ME: Ooh... (my brain then kicked in) ... University of Illinois. Going for an MBA program

VO: Which school did you finish from?

ME: Obafemi Awolowo University

VO: When did you finish school?

ME: September 2014

VO: What did you study?

ME: (.....) Engineering

VO: What have you been doing since then?

ME: Entrepreneurship. I co-founded a technology startup after school. We build Mobile apps, Web apps, VAS applications and general software solutions for businesses and to solve local problems. We have worked with ... (VO then cuts in)

VO: ok ok ...tell me about a live service you've built that is currently being used.

ME: Currently, we have a Location Based Service that helps ...(explanation was longer than this sha...I continued explaining the service till I saw the satisfactory expression on his face)

VO: So how many staffs do you have?

ME: 15 staffs (developers and product leads)

VO: Are you married?

ME: No

VO: Kids?

ME: No

VO: How do you intend to fund your studies? (total of $60,000 for the first year - $40,000 tuition and $20,000 living expenses)

ME: I have $40,000 in scholarship - $20,000 for the 1st year, and another $20,000 for the 2nd year. I also have $35,000 in student loan for the first year and $10,000 as personal savings

VO: (checked through my I-20 to confirm the scholarship) Can I have the loan approval letter and your statement of account?

ME: Sure. (passed them to him)

VO: (spent about 1 minute reading the loan approval letter and about 3 minutes scrutinizing my personal statement of account)

VO: I'll be approving your Visa now (He then issued the white paper) You can have your I-20 back. Make sure you keep it very well, you'll need it at the point of entry. Failure to produce it means you'll be sent back on the first flight to Nigeria
(at that point, he smiled at me)

ME: (smiled back) Thank you very much (left the hall around - 8:00am)


Thanks to Nairaland and everyone that has shared their experiences so far... It gave me the confidence going for the interview. I made sure I reviewed all the transcripts here and tried to understand why they might have been denied or approved, then used the feedbacks to prepare my answers.


Tips & Advice:

1. Try to go through all transcripts posted here...including the one uploaded to Dropbox (the very first post on page 1 of this thread)

2. We all have different cases to present and support for our visa to be approved.
Try to look critically into your own case and ask yourself if it makes sense to you...Try to review your answers from a VO point of view...
Ask yourself - "If I am the VO, will I approve the visa for this applicant based on his/her answers?" If not, then keep reiterating your answers till they make sense to you. Try to learn from other people's experience (transcripts)

3. Try to attend to the applications yourself (DS-160 form, paying for DS-160, Scheduling interview time etc)
Look at it as a process you have to go through yourself, and you might have 1 or 2 things to learn in the process...

I saw some people turned back because the agent they used filled the wrong application number while paying their DS-160 fee...

4. Create a checklist of all the documents you need (both required and supporting documents), and get them ready and printed at least 48 hours to your interview. This will prevent you from forgetting any document and give you more time to focus on your possible interview questions and answers

5. Create a possible list of all Questions they might ask (based on your own peculiar case) and provide best answers to them
No need to lie in your answers... even if you will, make sure it makes sense, and you can prove them (just incase they ask)

6. Get there early enough (30 minutes before your set time is just OK)

7. You do not need your phone or smartwatch (except you have about 1,500 or 2,000 to give the security guys)

8. Get enough rest before the interview

9. Believe in yourself, talk confidently and of course, your body language is very important too (just be moderate with it)

10. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY & PRAY (you can ask friends and family to join you in prayers too) If you can FAST too... that'll be fine.


Goodluck to future applicants.

@bimbcy

I applied 2 weeks ago.

ok