An Indian student shares his experience of F-1 visa denial at the Delhi Consulate, at a time when visa officers have become extremely strict in their approvals. The 2025 graduate student plans to pursue an MS in Computer Science at Columbia University. The interview lasted only 2-3 minutes and was denied under 214(b), meaning the applicant did not adequately demonstrate to the consular officer that they qualify for the nonimmigrant visa category they applied for.The student also reveals interview questions and answers and red flags that could result in rejection.Q.Why Columbia University?Answer: Columbia has an updated curriculum and a combination of courses in different domains.Q. Who is sponsoring you?The applicant disclosed a student loan of Rs 1.25 crore from an Indian bank with the help of parents.Q. What is the income of your parents?Answer: Rs 12 LPA.The applicant was also asked about returning to India after completion of the course. The answer was ‘yes’ and yet the application was rejected.As the student shared the experience on Reddit, social media users pointed out that the interview answers were mostly ineffective and the financial burden came as an alarm bell.Redditors pointed out that the student loan amount of Rs 1.24 crore is a huge burden and the parents’ income as claimed is low in comparison. Others pointed out that North’s response to Colombia was also rehearsed and ineffective.As the applicant asked for suggestions to try again on the visa citing additional financial resources, parents’ savings of Rs 98 lakh and Rajasthan government scholarship of Rs 62 lakh which has not been awarded yet, social media users said that the visa officer actually saved the student’s life. The student explained that this would not be possible at all without the scholarship, but this was not mentioned on the form because the scholarship has not been announced yet.“Your visa was rejected because the annual parental income of ₹12 LPA is completely inadequate to pay off the massive ₹1.25 crore loan, this signals to the officer that you have zero financial support and will be forced to work illegally in the US to survive. To fix this, you will need to secure a scholarship worth ₹62 lakh and request an updated I-20 from Columbia reflecting the new lower costs, as a new I-20 is absolutely mandatory whenever your funding structure changes. With your parents’ net worth of ₹98 lakh, this scholarship brings the remaining loan amount to a realistic level that your family can actually support, allowing you to easily pass your next interview by demonstrating solid financial stability. There was no chance of this getting approved,” one wrote.Another said that the visa officer understood the lie that the applicant would return to India with a loan amount more than the parents’ total assets.