F1 visa refusal: Former visa officer says Indians taught to memorize everything, rehearsed answers sound like lies

Reacting to Indian students getting rejected at their 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 crack and say rehearsed answers. Bansal said even if these rehearsed answers are not lies, they sound like lies to US visa officers as they are trained very differently. If you are not speaking comfortably, and suddenly your tone changes like you are reading from an AI, the visa officer suspects that you are lying, Bansal said.

Object to it 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 short visa interviews. Indian students hold visa officers at a high esteem and sometimes agree to what the visa officer assumes, even if it’s not right. Bansal said it has something to do with the cultural difference, as Indian culture emphasizes harmony, humility, and US officers like direct response. But the visa interview is not a place to show humility and the applicants must object if the visa officer forms a wrong idea about the applicant and should correct him or her.If a husband speaks on behalf of the wife when the wife is asked a question while both go for a visa, this is also a red flag to the visa officer.

Every student has the same answer

Bansal said every student says they want to go to the US to work with Professor XYZ. They are also often advised to practise mock interviews but US culture is completely different. Indians consider this like another test that they have to clear and so they learn everything by heart but this is not IIT.

Sharing less or more

Bansal pointed out two scenarios that are opposite, yet both are examples of bad interviews. When a visa officer asks a question to the applicant and only one-word or two-word answers are given. Such interviews look evasive. On the other hand, if an applicant is oversharing, that’s also problematic because there is a thin line between the two. Sometimes, applicants panic over unnecessary documents that the visa officers don’t even want to see.