PREPARING THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT DOCUMENTS
Let me tell you one thing, if you don’t have a financial aid from the college then this section and the next are very important for you. One of the most important part of the interview process is to check how strong you are financially. The more rich you are in India the better are your chances of getting the visa. This ensures several factors. First, if you don’t get any kind of aid or for some reason your university stopped your financial support for bad results or whatever, you still have money back at your home to support yourself. If you don’t have this support from home you will search for a job illegally or may land up bankrupt. Second, since you have so much money back home you will think of coming back to manage your properties and assets, specially if your father has a business and he is getting old or you are the only son in the family. Remember that if you show a lot of income, you also have to show that you have paid taxes. They don’t want to see your black money. So, you have to keep the last three years income tax payment papers in hand.
What about those who don’t have that money ? some people go for educational loans. Getting a loan may not be very easy and its also a time taking job irrespective of what the banks advertise. When it comes to actually giving, they are always slow. Getting the full amount in loan is not a good idea, it means you don’t have the financial strength and to pay this money you are going to settle in USA. How will you pay 25,000 Rs. Per month in loan with Indian salary. The visa officials will thorougly try to ensure that you come back to india after the education. So, getting a loan is not always an end of the story. You have to show assets anyway.
Now, how do you show assets if you don’t have any ? its very common to ask for money from friends or relatives. But then, you cannot deposit 5 lacs in your account in one day. If the bank statement shows a sudden increase in bank balance in a short time they know that you have arranged this money somewhere. It will be an instant rejection. Its already known some indian students are arranging money. Be very cautious. Get the money from your friends but deposit the money in very short amounts for a long span of time so that it looks original. Also keep withdrawing at times. You can always say you sold your car, or your computer or your house or your fixed deposits to get liquid cash but this kind of cover up only works for small increase in balance. No excuses will work for a 5 lacs increase in bank balance in 7 days. You may still need to show papers that you sold your car or liquidated your fixed deposits. Now you understand why preparing for the visa interview may be a long process.
Don’t show your relatives as your sponsor. It does not go well with american culture that relatives are sponsoring you. What is their interest in you ? and then they may suddenly change their mind and stop sponsoring. You have to show your parents as your sponsors or your blood relations like brothers or sisters. You can make more than one person sponsoring you like you father and brother and mother if working. There should be some harmony between the amount of bank balance you are showing and your sponsorer’s annual income as declared in income tax payment papers. If I have worked for three years and I have an annual income of 1.5 lacs per annum and I have a bank balance of 3 lacs, that means I have a salary of 12,000 per month and I save 8,000 rs. per month. It makes sense. If I showed saving 11,000 per month then it looks absurd. Remember, they do make such calculations during the interview. That’s why if you have more than one sponsorer you can divide the money among everybody.
You sponsorer asset should be distributed in all possible ways :
Fixed land assets
Liquid cash in bank balance
Gold reservers
Fixed deposits
LIC and other insurance schemes
Don’t show all the money as land holdings. Your parent will not sell their house they live in to support your education. Fixed assets helps to ensure that you come back to India after studies but to actually support your education your parents should have enough liquid assets which they can dispose of immediately at any given point of time. Semi liquid assets like gold reserves etc. shows that your family has a lot of surplus money which has been invested intelligently. You are not a suddenly rich man and perhaps you have not manipulated the documents.
