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But... things are not working as they should. You are still not getting your I-20, or the university is suddenly asking for more money, or the Visa officer is somehow determined not to give you Visa. You are getting tense. Time is slipping away. You begin to despair and think that studying abroad is not for you. Right at this critical moment, dear reader, we request you to remember that ...
I did re-apply and got another date few days later. My family was really upset, because there wasn't much time left before I left for USA. And if it didn't click even this time, we won't be having time left for repeated interviews. However, I opted for a membership at the USEFI, and spoke to the counsellor there, even attended a seminar organized by the same visa interviewer who had rejected me!!! Anyway, the counsellor advised me to be more confident the next time, and asked me to explain my subject in more technical terms, and also fetch a letter from the chair of the university I had been admitted to, as a proof of admission. And reminded me that I would be interviewed by another person next time. Well, I went confidently or whatever! the next time, and did get through. This time, the interviewer didn't ask anything at all!
All I would like to advise the applicants is that, BE CONFIDENT when you go for the interview. That's the key to success. Have all your documents ready, and don't falter while asnwering any question. Just be confident.
And the rest is....destiny. Good Luck!
(Priyanka is now a (happy ?)student of university of Florida and she is driving happily on Florida Highways!)
One of the rest (most of whom went for computer jobs in India) went to Delhi and applied by mail and got the visa. I tried the same, but was refused again.
Around this time, I heard from an IIT friend that he failed to get his visa from Calcutta twice and then went to Madras after a couple of months and got it - he was even allowed an interview. Some people think that after failing twice, U can not appear for an interview in the next 2 years or so - that is wrong - may be that's true for the same place - but not if you apply somewhere else - but again, if you apply somewhere else, the officer may question about changing place and deny a visa if not convinced with the answer. Same thing happened to some other IITKGP people - they got it from Madras after failing in Calcutta.
So I wanted to give it a try. I had the job in TCS Calcutta - I went to the TCS office and changed it to TCS Madras (the people there were surprised seeing a Bengalee wanting to go to Madras - one of them even asked me if I was in love with a Madrasee girl !). Right after reaching Madras and joining TCS, I enquired in the visa office and came to know that I would be allowed an interview there. Then I got an interview date 3 months from then (In Madras, if you go to the visa office on any day, you will be allowed to take an interview at least a few weeks from that day - how many weeks depends on the rush at that time. I am not sure if the situation has changed now - but that's how it was then). After spending 3 terrible months in Madras (eating dhosa, idly, sambar, rasam .......), I appeared in the interview and got the visa very easily. The only questions the officer asked me was "Why did you apply from Calcutta ?" rather than the expected "Why did you apply here ?" and "What do you plan to do after returning ?" This time, I was more prepared and answered that I would like to start a consultancy in Statistics as there would a big market for that kind of work in India when I would return. From my experience after talking with the other students there, the visa officers there rarely deny a visa to somebody with full suport from the university (rather, they usually disappoint the huge Andhra population trying to go to U.S. without any support at all) so may be my anwsers were immaterial.
Strangely, one month after I came to U.S., the Calcutta visa office sent me a letter at my home instructing me to apply again - they were ready to give the visa then - I didn't understand what that was all about.
Hope nobody would have to go through what I had to - but if you are ever in a situation like me, the above story might be useful.
He granted me a Visa without any questions. What helped me through the crisis were
The first problems began when everyone except me received their subject GRE score reports. It was OK for the first few days, but when a few weeks went by, I started getting worried. But I didn't know what to do, so I decided to wait for a few more days.
Finally, when almost one month had passed, I was really worried and decided to act! First, after much effort, I was able to find an e-mail address where I could post my problem. For GRE and subject GRE, it's gre@ets.org . So I wrote to them and got a response within a week, which said that they were sending a duplicate copy of my score report.
Four more weeks passed by, and I still did not get the report. So I decided to write again. Coincidentally, I got the report just after I came back after writing that e-mail. In the response to that e-mail, they just wrote the date on which the duplicate copy had been sent out.
The duplicate copy, however, did not contain the list of Universities to which the score had been sent. I still do not know whether those Universities received the subject GRE report! That may be one reason why I got unexpected rejections from two of them... but that is not very likely, though.
The next major problem, or should I say series of problems, started in early June, 2002. First, my mother was detected with stone in her gall bladder. Soon after, my father fell off a bus and broke his arm. And I did not get my I-20 though all my friends got theirs. Also, no official in the university was responding to my e-mails. I was in a real spot.
I heard from one of my seniors who was at Stanford that time, that the graduate office over there sends out I-20s quite late, so there's no need to worry. Meanwhile, I had made an appointment for the Visa interview on July 30th. The senior student asked me to inform him if I did not get my I-20 by June 30th.
I did not. So on July 1, I wrote to him. He went to the graduate office, and heard that I was not getting my I-20 because they had not received my TOEFL scores! The unofficial truth was, due to some renovation in the computer systems, many TOEFL scores were lost. However, the ultimate end-result of all this was that I would have to send my TOEFL scores again. This is a complicated procedure. I would have to download a copy of the TOEFL score report request form from the net (the one I had, had expired) make a dollar draft of $12, and mail the filled-up form and the draft to ETS score reporting service.
But I had my interview on July 30th, and it was already July 4th! My senior talked to the lady in charge, who said that I could FAX her copy of my score report, and send the official one later.
By the way, I should also mention that I got an official intimation from Stanford informing me about the problem sometime in mid-July.
Anyway, I immediately faxed a copy.
But no response yet again. Again my senior contact went to the office and enquired. What he told was bewildering: The lady has taken a leave of two weeks, and since my faxed copy was lying in her file, nothing can be done now!
So I had no option but to postpone my visa appointment to August 13th. However, when I didn't receive my I-20 even on August 2nd, I again contacted the senior student. This time, more bad news. He said that they were not willing to disclose any information to him anymore! As a word of comfort, he said that he too had faced similar problems, though due to different reasons, and told me not to worry because the worse that could happen was that I'd arrive a month late! I was devastated.
Meanwhile, my mother was going to be admitted to a nursing home for her surgery on August 7th. My father's arm was still on a sling. Everything seemed so dark. All that I had was the support of my parents, who were very nervousand worried, and my friend Soumik, who, too, was having his bit of problems with the admission hassles.
I mailed my TOEFL score report and dollar draft on August 1.
Finally, on August 3rd, I exercised my last possible option. I phoned up the lady in charge of the I-20's. However, for some strange reason, I could not get her on phone, too! But I did not give up. The next day, I found out the phone number of her assistant, and called her.
Now this lady was cooperative. She told me, to my great relief, that my I-20 was ready, and will be mailed out next week. But I had only one week left for my visa interview! And meanwhile, the rush for interview dates had also increased by leaps and bounds, and my date of journey (i.e. the day for which I'd booked a ticket on Singapore Airlines) was September 14th.
Just as I was going to again postpone my interview date, I received a mail from my department secretary, who said that she'd brought some I-20's from the graduate office, and mine was one among those. If I would send her my address, she would send the packet by FEDEX! I was overjoyed, and lost no time in sending her my address.
Finally, on Saturday, August 10th, 4:15 p.m., I received my I-20. My mother reurned home on the 12th. I had my interview, as scheduled, on the 13th. And the doctor opened the plaster on my father's arm on the 14th. I received my visa on the 16th, and bought my plane ticket on the 17th. It seemed that the Sun was in a hurry to rise after a long night.
I sent e-mails after e-mails to the department. The department secretary did not reply to my e-mails. I wrote to the department chair (proved to be a good strategy) to find that the secretary has gone on a vacation ! My travel agent was putting pressure on me to finalize buying the plane-ticket. Frantically, I e-mailed a lady who was supposed to issue the I-20. No reply. I e-mailed the president of the University (possibly a silly thing to do!) . No reply. I kept on e-mailing the dept almost every day, until oneday I got a somewhat angry e-mail from the dept secretary saying that they simply could not issue any I-20 in my name because I did not have enough financial support. Goodness gracious! The offer letter clearly mentiond "full financial support", and then I was also given a fellowship for three years to see me even through the Summers. Not only that , the e-mail also told me that I was informed of my "lack of finacial support" long back by paper mail !!! But I never received any such mail. (Clearly it was lost!) Being very nervous, I asked them whether my fellowship was not enough, or what did the statement "full financial support" in the offer letter mean then? There was no reply. Now, I had a scholarship from Ramakrishna Mission. A professor in ISI suggested that I should let the university know that. Some people said that it would reduce my hope for getting a Visa. But I finally FAXed the document.
The I-20 arrived very soon. It bore the name of Ramakrishna Mission saying that I was getting some financial help from the Mission. There was no problem with my Visa.
