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Be brief and clear, US official tells students aspiring for visa

— PHOTO: RAJU V

Useful tips:Marisa Mac Isaac, Vice-Consul, US Consulate General, Hyderabad, making a presentation on the visa procedures at PVP Siddhartha Institute of Technology in Vijayawada on Tuesday.

VIJAYAWADA: Marisa Mac Isaac, Vice-Consul at the US Consulate General, Hyderabad, has advised the students aspiring to secure a visa to the U.S. to be brief and clear in giving their answers during interviews conducted by consular officers. “Long and vague answers using high-sounding words do not help in convincing the visa officer,” she cautioned, addressing the students of two colleges here on Tuesday.

Ms. Mac Isaac made presentations and interacted with the students at the PVP Siddhartha Institute of Technology (PVP SIT) and the Koneru Lakshmaiah University.

She said applicants for student visa should be very careful not to submit any fake documents, which could make them face the risk of becoming permanently ineligible for the same. Those found guilty of producing fake documents would also lose the chance of securing regular U.S. visas as well, which would be a major disadvantage to their future career growth.

Short time

Dwelling at length on the visa procedures and how interviews were conducted, Ms. Mac Isaac said in her presentation that they were able to give only three minutes for each applicant in view of the need to interview a huge number of applicants. So, an applicant should use this short time carefully and convince the interviewing officer that study was their main purpose and that he or she would be able to meet the required expenditure besides affirming their interest to return to India. Other than this, the visa officers would not ask much on anything and also they would not question about the academic performance or any other such detail.

During the question and answer session, Ms. Mac Isaac said that a student need not worry if he or she could not understand what the visa officer was asking. “You can say that you don't understand. You can ask the officer to speak slowly. It is not wrong. We know the difficulties of local students when we speak fast,” she said.

In the U.S. Consulate-General at Hyderabad, visa officers were dealing with nearly 500 applicants every day and about 85 per cent of them were securing the visas.

Phalguna Hari Jandhyala, media advisor, Public Affairs Section, U.S. Consulate General, Hyderabad, accompanied the Vice-Consul. PVP SIT principal K. Srinivasu and KLU Vice-Chancellor G.L. Datta were present in their respective institutions.

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