F1 visa rejection, Reason unknown

[ramakrishna1245]

Hi everyone,

My f1 visa got rejected 2 times in a span of one and half month in India.

I really don't understand the reason why I got rejected, I'm sharing my experiences here, if any body could help me with what's the reason.

1st attempt : interview lasted hardly 10-15 seconds, I didn't even know what was just happened.

It was early in the morning at 8:00 Am,

Visa officer: Pass me your i20 and passport.

Me: Passed the documents.

 visa officer: Why this university?

Me : explaining about the university course and also a professors research at the university, here officer interrupted me

Visa officer: Have you contacted this professor, like exchanged emails ?

Me : No sir, but I met the professor in a zoom meeting where admitted students had a meeting with the college faculty. ( he didn't let me finish my sentence and gave back my passport).

Visa officer : scan you fingers, I did it and gave back my passport . gave me 214b slip.

This was my first visa experience and I didn't even realised that I was rejected, I just walk away from the counter, even I have taken the print of the mail confirmation for meeting with faculty but couldn't show it there, as VO didn't allowed me.

I got panicked and don't know what to do.

There was nothing wrong with my profile, I got 80% in graduation with no backlogs at any time.

Additionally I have received a merit scholarship of 18000$ from the university. I have enough funding. I got approved education loan.

But the decision has been taken in 15 seconds, and I got rejected.

I have accepted the truth, I got rejected and by hard chance I have got a f1 visa slot after 40 days from my first interview.

 

F1 second Interview Experience:

For the second attempt, I haven't changed my college, as I really wanted to study in that particular college, It was a good college with ranking less than 100. I have opted masters in computer science.

The second time interview experience was good but got rejected again. There were 5 people before me in the line all of them also got rejected. Even though I was very much confident and I  gave my 100%.

Me : Good morning officer.

Visa officer: good morning, please pass the i20 and passport. Looked at the screen and asked me about my previous rejection, Have rejected previously?

Me: Yes officer, I have a rejection last month.

Visa officer: What changes have you made to your application since your rejection?

Me: I haven't changed much in my application, as I wanted to study at that particular college, and also its been hardly one month, In this short period of time there are no changes to my profile. 

Visa officer: Ok good. why this particular university?

Me: I have explained about the course ML specialization and courses offered. VO listened very carefully and with patience.

Visa officer: what subjects are you going to take for the first semester and explain them?

Me: explained about the subjects very clearly and precisely, and VO listened with patience.

Visa officer: What was you doing after graduation?

Me: After graduation, I have joined a software company as an associate software engineer and working there from past one year. 

Visa officer: Ok, looked into screen for about 1 min and thinking something. Returned my passport and i20 back to me and said please re apply. and asked me to take 214b slip from the counter.

Me: I got really sad and have no clue what went wrong. I have asked may I know the reason for rejection, but the Officer said I cannot say that, Please take the slip (214b) and leave, you can re-apply again.

That's it I left the counter silently.

I really don't know what's going wrong with my interview. 

Please help me if anybody could, is it about finances or anything. 

They didn't even asked me about the finances in the interview.

It was my dream to do masters, Now I'm in a situation, where I don't understand the reason and thinking whether to try for another attempt or not.

Please any one could help me.

[pontevecchio]

which college did you get admitted to?

Which subject/s did you graduate in?

[JoeF]

You need to show that you have learned from the denials. Have to talked with the professor? If not, do it. Professors don't bite...

Participating in some general Zoom meeting with all faculty is rather worthless. That is just like welcome week, everybody in an auditorium. One-on-one talks with professors are the way to go.

I am assuming this is graduate school. You'll interact with professors much more closely than as an undergrad. Your lack of talking with a professor one-on-one shows that you haven't really thought about what Graduate school means.

Show that you learned from the previous denials. Just applying without any changes is a waste of time and money and will just lead to more denials.

Edited September 22, 2022 by JoeF