Passport expiry date and F1 visa (URGENT: Visa interview tomorrow: 13/8/15)

[Zephyr Penoyre]

I have my appointment for an F1 visa interview tomorrow morning and I've just realised that my passport expires in September 2020, whilst as far as I can tell my visa application has my course (PhD at Columbia university) end date as may 2022.

It says in various places (here for example http://www.ustraveldocs.com/in/in-gen-faq.asp#qlistgen3) that my passport must be valid at least until the end of my visa period (I'm a UK citizen so exempt from having to have a 6 month buffer period). Hence seemingly I shouldn't be able to receive the visa I've applied for, as my passport would expire two years too soon.

Obviously I'd like to be able to get my visa ASAP, so ideally I'd like to find some way to go to the interview tomorrow and be issued with the visa, but if I can't I'll reschedule it and save some of the application costs.

So I have a few questions, listed in decreasing pertinence, and would greatly appreciate answers as soon as possible:

1) Can a visa be issued for further off than my passports expiry date?
Seemingly the literature suggests not, though I just want to confirm this concretely.

2) Where can I check the date for which I've applied for my visa to end?
I'm assuming I've applied for it to end at my listed program end date (18 May 2022) but vaguely remember putting the date 2020 somewhere on one of the online applications, which if true would mean that I'll be fine with my application as is.

3) Can a visa be issued, at the embassy interview, for a shorter period than originally applied for?
If I could just change the end date to 2020 at or before the interview that would be fine. I hope to be done in 5 years anyway and I know extending it at a later date is possible.

4) Can I change details like passport number and reschedule without having to repay all the embassy fees?
I know I can move back my appointment (until this evening at least) and thus not have to repay the embassy fees, particularly good as I'm an impoverished student, but seeing as I might have to re-apply with a new passport (and presumbaly a corresponding new passport number?) does that invalidate the details I've provided when booking the appointment, and if so can they be changed before my rescheduled appointment.

Any help anyone can give would be hugely appreciated. I know this is a very late hour to be making this discovery but unfortunately I have been volunteering in China for the past month and this is the first chance I've had to go over the details.Please let me know if you can shed any light on any of my questions, and thanks for reading through my predicament!

All the very best,
Zephyr

[kabkaba]

That's fine. Visa expiry, passport expiry and end of your studies are all unrelated.

Visa only needs to be valid on the day you travel to US. As F1, you will be admitted as D/S or duration of status. That means you can remain in the US as long as you maintain full-time student status or doing authorized practical training, irrespective of Visa expiry.

Passport also needs to be valid on the date of travel and 6 months in future (even that 6 month is waived for some countries). While in the US you must have a valid passport at all times, that means you can renew it in the US if your country allows that.