Reacting to Indian students being rejected in F1 visa interview despite not lying, former visa officer Yvette Bansal said Indians are taught to memorize everything, and they take this visa interview as a test to solve and speak rehearsed answers. Bansal said that even though these rehearsed answers are not lies, they appear to be lies to US visa officers because they are trained very differently. Bansal said, if you are not speaking comfortably and suddenly your tone changes as if you are reading from an AI, then the visa officer suspects that you are lying.
Object if a visa officer says something that is not correct
In a podcast, Bansal said that a lot of psychological games go on behind the scenes of small visa interviews. Indian students respect visa officers very much and sometimes agree with what the visa officer believes, even if it is not correct. Bansal said it has something to do with cultural differences, as Indian culture emphasizes harmony, politeness and American officials prefer direct responses. But visa interview is not the place to show politeness and if the visa officer has a wrong idea about the applicant then applicants should object and correct him.When both go for visa, if the husband speaks on behalf of the wife when questions are asked, this is also a red flag for the visa officer.
Every student has the same answer
Bansal said every student says they want to go to America to work with Professor XYZ. They are also often advised to practice mock interviews but the American culture is completely different. Indians treat it like another exam which they have to crack and hence they memorize everything but this is not IIT.
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Bansal pointed to two contrasting scenarios, yet both are examples of bad interviewing. When a visa officer asks a question to the applicant and only a word or two is answered. Such interviews seem evasive. On the other hand, if an applicant is oversharing, this is also problematic as there is a thin line between the two. Sometimes, applicants get overwhelmed with unnecessary documents that the visa officer does not even want to see.