This document will give you a detailed idea of what to expect at the visa interview and how to prepare for it. This document is composed assuming that the applicants are parents or parents-in-law of of persons already in the US.

The visa interview has personal and consequently unpredictable factors involved in whether your visa application gets accepted or rejected.

Please have all documents ready as per this website. It is very important that applicants understand what each document is meant for.

Visa officers are quite skeptical about many Indians as they have understood, based on their vast experiences, that a lot of Indians lie and produce fake documents to get a visa. Lots of Indians go to the USA on a tourist or business visa and many do not come back. They either change their status, stay longer than promised originally, try to become permanent by marriage or other relative greencard petitions, or just stay illegally. Many of their relatives also help these people. Many students try to enter the U.S. with no intention of studying and work illegally in stores/motels. Many fake marriages also go on for getting a greencard. Because of all these reasons, many consular officers keep applicants under lots of scrutiny and if they have even a little bit of doubt, they simply reject the application.

The person should make the consular officer sure that whatever visa category he is applying for, he is qualified for it. If he is going for tourism, he should know all of the places he is going to tour. If you are going on a business visa, you should be working in that company for at least one year, and be experienced, otherwise, why they would spend so much money and resources. Students should know proper English, have enough financial resources (and also legal money on which their parents have paid proper income tax). Applicants must understand the complete procedure and what each document is for.

Consular officers would really like to see that applicants are honest, stay for the authorized duration and come back promptly after that. They would not want anyone to stay illegally in the U.S. Even though the U.S. is a country of immigrants, it does not mean that anyone can enter the country for any reason.

Consular officers are fond of asking questions of type 'What if...'
Examples are
What would you do if you won jackpot in a Las Vegas casino?
What if someone offers you a job in the U.S. at a very high salary?
What if someone offers you a partnership in his business?
What if some beautiful woman proposes to you for marriage?
Consular officers may ask such questions to scrutinize the applicants. If you give answers such as I will buy a house in the U.S. and stay there after winning the jackpot, I will accept the job offer or partnership and start working or get married to the beautiful U.S. citizen girl and settle there, your visa will be rejected. When you are applying for tourist visa, you are just supposed to tour the country and not just stay in the U.S. forever because of one or another reason.

It is very important to thoroughly prepare yourself before applying for the visa. Many people write details in the visa application form( DS-156 ) whatever they feel is convenient for them. If their application is rejected, they apply again and write some other details according to what they feel would get them a visa. Many people don't even keep the copy of the first application. (But consular officers do keep the copy and compare against the earlier application.) There should not be any spelling mistakes in the application. Some times, people don't even care to fill the application themselves and ask the travel agent to fill it up for them, and after that, don't even care to double check what the travel agent has filled for them. The travel agent does not really care much, as he is primarily interested in selling air tickets to you. But you could be in trouble in the future if you write any wrong information in the application. If you are caught providing any fake information, you might be barred from applying for any US visa benefits in future.

Many people don't know the basic rules. Many people are not aware of the penalties of breaking the rules. If you get a business visa, it does not mean you can go to the USA and start your business over there. If you get a 10 year multiple entry visa, it does not mean that you can stay in the USA for 10 years. 10 years multiple entry visa means you can go to the U.S. anytime within next 10 years. For each visit, your actual stay will be determined by the date stamped in the I-94 form at the port of entry. It is usually 6 months. You can extend your stay up to another 6 months.

Many people complain that the visa officer did not even ask any questions nor looked at any documents and rejected their application which is not fair at all. It is not like that in reality. Visa officers are experts in their profession and they are appointed in consulates in foreign countries after extensive training. Due to their vast experience, visa officers, many times, can figure out true intentions of applicants just by looking at them. They can even figure out whether information provided in the application and/or documents may be true or fake. They don't need to talk to applicants in many cases. You may be surprised to know what things they may know, such as the value of property in a given area, income/income tax ratios, and many other things.

While there is a definite luck-factor involved, your chances of success will greatly increase if you prepare yourself thoroughly for the interview. The preparation consists of the following:

1. Knowing the visa officer's concerns and strategically preparing convincing points to satisfy his/her concerns.
2. Practice a list of anticipated questions (provided below) and practice answering them again and again. It is good to take some time out and sit quietly in a room imagining that you are in the interview and that the consulate office is asking you questions. Practice answering the questions aloud. Repeat this entire drill 3-4 times until you have mastered the answers to all the questions. The interviewer will specifically ask some questions to the man and some to the woman and each one will be expected to answer those questions by themselves. So, this practice should be done by both.
3. Prepare perfect documents, especially your family photographs, property documents, bank statements, income tax records, and consultancy documents. Make sure your documents are perfect and that nothing is missing. Arrange the documents properly in a thin folder and memorize their arrangement, so a document can be instantaneously pulled out when needed.

1. Do not get nervous. Be confident. You will be more confident if you have prepared thoroughly. Smile when you meet the visa officer for the first time. Don't show signs of nervousness such as flickering of eyes, trembling of fingers as that could go against you. Look into the eyes of the officer while speaking.
2. Arrive early. You don't want to miss your interview just because you got stuck in traffic.
3. Wear formal clothes as if for a formal business meeting. The interviewing officer will always be an American (the interpreter if required may be Indian). If possible the man should wear a tie. Americans always appreciate formal attire, so they will not find you over-dressed if you wear a tie.
4. Both candidates should greet the officer with a smile and a "good morning", as soon as you enter the interview booth.
5. Both candidates should have a confident posture and look at the interviewing officer straight in the eyes throughout the interview.
6. Be confident in your answers, whatever you say. Make short, clear, to-the-point replies, in a loud and clear voice. Do not tell anything that is irrelevant or not asked. By mistake, you may give some unnecessary information that may lead to your rejection.
7. Be polite, do not argue and do not ask unnecessary or unrelated questions. Do not unnecessarily elaborate your responses as this may not work in your favor.
8. Demonstrate respect in your language even if you don't feel this is being reciprocated.
9. Often times you might not understand what the interviewing officer is saying because of his/her American accent and/or the microphone system. If you do not understand one of their sentences do not feel afraid to say, 'beg you pardon; I did not understand you.' If he/she repeats the question and you still do not understand, that is not a problem, do not panic. Calmly and confidently say, sorry sir/madam. I still did not understand you. Could you kindly repeat what you said?
10. If you know English, it is preferable to have interview in English so that you and consular officer can understand the thoughts of each other. Interpreters mess up sometimes.
11. Consular officers are very smart in their profession. They can figure out true intentions of applicants most of the times because of their training and experience. Some of them also may know regional languages of India.
12. If officer asks the type of "what if " questions, don't give answer immediately without thinking through it. If the officer suspects that your intention may be to stay in the U.S. and/or work there, your visa may be rejected.
13. Be honest during the interview and while preparing the documents. The consular officer is not your enemy and he is just doing his duty.
14. For every question asked, when you are saying your answer, you should be prepared to simultaneously put forth a document supporting your answer, and refer to the document in your answer.
    E.g. If the interviewer asks you what are your ties in India, for which you will return to India after your visit, and if one of the components for your answer is that our only grandchild is in India, you should simultaneously present photographs of your grandchild and your family to the interviewer to strengthen your answer.
15. The purpose of the tour should be vacationing, visiting friends/family. However, some of you call your parents because your wife is pregnant. Never mention that she is pregnant. They will say all the facilities are available in the United States to take care of that and your relatives don't need to come to the United States just for that reason. They will think your relatives would want to extend the visitor's visa to do the baby sitting and eventually never leave the United States.
    Of course, if the officer asks whether your daughter or daughter-in-law is pregnant during the interview, you have to answer truthfully and you can not lie. Also, if the officer asks you whether you have grandchildren, answer truthfully.
16. Always reply with correct answers. All data while appying for the visa and details of the answers given in your interview are computerized and maintained. If your visa is rejected once, you can't be changing your details the next time you go for an interview.
17. Your appearance should convey who you are. If you are a student, you should look like a student. If you are an executive, you should look like an executive. Your body language should convey friendliness but also that you are serious about your goal.
18. Mind your manners and refrain from unnecessary body movement.

1. Go through the documents thoroughly to see that nothing is missing. Improper/incomplete documentation is the leading cause of visa refusal. Know what details you have provided in the application form and in other documents. Many times when applying for parents, children prepare lots of documents and the parents have no idea what is going on.
2. Documents that you carry along with you to the interview should be carried in a thin folder in a plastic bag.
3. You should remember by heart the order in which the documents are arranged in the folder, so that if you need to show a particular document to the interview officer it can be presented in 2 to 5 seconds. The interview officers are highly impatient, and any delay/fumbling in pulling out a document from your folder in presenting it to the officer, can very well trigger an emotional reaction from the officer that might lead to visa rejection.

In rare cases, the interviewing officer might say that I can grant a visa to only one of you two. Be prepared for this situation. Ideally both of you will like to travel to the US together, or both of you would like to stay back in India together. While one of you doesn't want to travel alone to the US, you might as well take a visa for one person. It is better than having both of your visas rejected. This way at least it will be easy for one of you two to get a visa if/when you apply next time. Before going to the consulate decide which one of you should get the visa if this situation occurs, and when the officer asks this question, confidently say "in that case you can give a visa to her", or "you can give a visa to me". Be prepared to give a good reason for the choice made between you two, if the officer asks about it.

Immediately go through all the information on the visa stamp very carefully. Make sure there are no typographical errors in your name, passport, number, date of birth, etc. written on the visa stamp. If there are any such errors, contact the visa application center to get it corrected. Even a small error is not tolerable as it can cause trouble later on, and should be corrected as soon as possible.

1. That's not the end of the world! It doesn't change anything in life. Things continue to be as excellent as they were before.
2. We did our best. The rejection was solely due to a whim of the interviewing officer.
3. We can always apply a second time. Something to think about...

Sample answers are given here. You would have to modify them to fit your situation.