New H1-B for a GreenCard Holder

[pralay]

The number of international students in US schools has decreased over the years not because it is difficult to get F1 now a days for the reasons you stated, but due to the fact that it has become extremely difficult for the international students to obtain H1B sponsorship or full-time employment from American companies even with a U.S. master's degree.

Probably H1 is one of the reason, but not all. Students whoever aspire to have higher degrees would like to have degree from MIT, Stanford or Harvard - whether H1 jobs are available in USA or not. In addition, there are plenty of students who don't care for H1 jobs, but prefer do higher studies and research in good institutions with good facilities. The major problem F1 students face is unknown amount of delay - to get interview date it takes 3 months in some consulates, to security check can take anywhere between one week to 6 months. If a student keeps waiting for visa, he/she can loose a whole year. And most of the good students do not want to loose years, but rather go for alternate fallback options. I have a friend in Stanford who keeps complaining that some of the students who are offered scholarships from his lab and other labs are still waiting for F1 visa in China, India. It's very unlikely they will be able to join in fall semester which is going to start very soon - within two weeks.

Secondly, a bachelor degree takes 4 years, MS degree takes 2 years. There are very few students who want to loose a chance to have degree from good US school, speculating what the job market will be 2 or 4 years down the road.

I have come to U.S. on F1 visa prior to 9/11 and there were many universities that were giving scholarships (full or partial) to international students. Now, I hardly see a university giving scholarship to international students, and major reasons for this being the decrease in the amount of funding from American companies and the decrease in the number of international students. Also, I have seen students coming to U.S. recently with relatively less TOEFL, GRE and GMAT scores than before.

Yes, funding has gone down drastically. That is one of the reasons number of international students has gone down - considering the fact that many students rely on scholarships. But it does not make getting F1 visa easier anyway, but rather difficult.

Getting offer or admission from school is easy part of whole process (true for many good schools too), but getting scholarship and then F1 visa from consulate - that is another story.

 

[pralay]

I don't have to get it from google. I said it from my personal experience and personal experience of many students. Yes the quota is already filled but most of it is consumed by Indian Software Consulting companies.

That's right. Most of the H1 are consumed by big software companies like Wipro, Infosys, HCL, TCS, IBM Global Service etc. They file LCA and H1 petitions with "fake" job postions with their employees in India and eat as many as H1 they can so that they can use them for whole year. I knew a person who used to work in one of the companies I mentioned above said that 30-40% of approved H1 petitions are not used immediately after approval, but rather those employees keep working in India. In future if requirement/skill matches in USA, then they use those H1 petitions. It became a big racket now. That way reaching H1 quote too soon is artificially created.

 

[v_wind]

Question on F1 Visa:

I'm asking a basic question. What are the things needed to get an appointment
for an F1 visa at a consulate (not for the interview itself)? Specifically, can one
get an appointment for F1 before any college/univ in US has apporved the
candidate's admission application? Or does one need to get an admission before
applying for F1 appointment? Pl. help. In othe words, the appointment website
for Chennai consulate asks the College/Univ where the candidate is going, its addr and such info. Can this be a tentitive college/Univ, or does it have to be
the one for which F1 visa is being sought?

Thanks

 

[Studious]

Question on F1 Visa:

I'm asking a basic question. What are the things needed to get an appointment
for an F1 visa at a consulate (not for the interview itself)? Specifically, can one
get an appointment for F1 before any college/univ in US has apporved the
candidate's admission application? Or does one need to get an admission before
applying for F1 appointment? Pl. help. In othe words, the appointment website
for Chennai consulate asks the College/Univ where the candidate is going, its addr and such info. Can this be a tentitive college/Univ, or does it have to be
the one for which F1 visa is being sought?

Thanks

Replied in the other thread. Ignore what some people posted in this thread. They are making a simple case very complicated.

Go for the kill, go get your fiancee on F1.

 

[arizonian]

Go for the kill, go get your fiancee on F1.

The only thing getting killed this way will be her chances of getting here without much problem.

H1B, if at all possible would be the way to go.

 

[pralay]

I'm asking a basic question. What are the things needed to get an appointment
for an F1 visa at a consulate (not for the interview itself)? Specifically, can one
get an appointment for F1 before any college/univ in US has apporved the
candidate's admission application? Or does one need to get an admission before
applying for F1 appointment? Pl. help. In othe words, the appointment website
for Chennai consulate asks the College/Univ where the candidate is going, its addr and such info. Can this be a tentitive college/Univ, or does it have to be
the one for which F1 visa is being sought?

Thanks

You need I-20 (certificate of eligibility for student status) that is issued by the school. Without that, she cannot go to consulate.

 

[maasikus]

You need an I-20 from the school. That means, she will need to apply to a school with her TOEFL (and optionally GRE/GMAT scores). She will also need to show she has sufficient funding (a bank statement with the current balance from self/sponsor) and a letter from the sponsor stating the willingness to pay for the degree. Different schools have different requirements.

But for the F1 Visa interview, she will need to get an approval letter from the school and they need to also send her the I-20. Once that is done, she will need to take in that and the letters of sponsorship, bank statement stating the balance, TOEFL and GRE/GMAT scores (based on what her field of study will be). Some schools do not require a GRE/GMAT score, but its good to have them, because I have heard some consulate officers reject visa request just because the student has not taken up the exam.

She will need to prepare for some basic questions for the interview like the following:
1. Why did you choose to study in xxx school?
2. Do you have sufficient funding?
3. What are your intentions after graduation?
4. Do you have any relatives in the US?
5. Usually if the parents are the sponsors, they ask questions about what they do for a living.
6. They sometimes ask if you have any siblings, what they do and where they are.

She has to be confident and also answer sincerely to all the questions. Also look in the eyes of the officer. But might be a good idea to not mention about you. Since you are not related yet, its technically not a lie. But, you know what is good. Good luck with everything, but think a million times before gining up ur PR.


Maasikus

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[v_wind]

Ok, what I really asking was whether it's possible to get an appointment for
an F1-Visa at the consulate (not attending the visa interview itself) before
getting an admission into a college/univ. That question still remains unanswered.
If anybody has done that, pl respond.
Thanks

 

[Studious]

Ok, what I really asking was whether it's possible to get an appointment for
an F1-Visa at the consulate (not attending the visa interview itself) before
getting an admission into a college/univ. That question still remains unanswered.

--- Dheeraj Kandula <k_dheeraj66@...> wrote:
>
> Hi
> I have booked for a Visa slot on July 1, 2005. I
> have put the univ
> name as "NOT YET DECIDED". Is this an issue. If so
> ket me know what to do.
>
> Regards
> Dheeraj

Act at your own risk. But it is possible.

If anybody has done that, pl respond.
Thanks

 

[Studious]

Ok, what I really asking was whether it's possible to get an appointment for
an F1-Visa at the consulate (not attending the visa interview itself) before
getting an admission into a college/univ. That question still remains unanswered.

hi,

tht is gr8 tht u r a PHD student. and u have to
book a slot at www.ttsvisas.com go this web site and
u can book a slot for chennai, delhi and calcutta.

and u dont need any documents for booking a slot
except ur passport details and u wil have to fill up
every thing on ur own ( be carefull while filling the
slot any mistake regarding the passport details will
cost u a lot later)

and u will have to show the amt for the yrs of
study in US tht is compulsary but as ur a PHD student
u can even tell tht u can earn money after comming as
it depends on the project u take up so u should show
for at least 2yrs of ur expenses at the tiem of the
interview.

ok

ALL THE BEST

with cheers,

sujatha.......
--- kum_amol <kum_amol@...> wrote:
>
> hello
> plz tell me how to book the visa date online
> what docs r required for booking the visa date?
> how to pay the Visa fees ?
> I have not got aid.
> So do I need to show liquid funds into my
> account for all 4 yrs.(Phd)?
> or can I show the liquid funds for the first yr
> expenses?
>
>
> plz tell me ..
> I have to go there b4 9th May.plz..
> regards,
> Amol
>
>
>

If anybody has done that, pl respond.
Thanks

 

[Studious]

Ok, what I really asking was whether it's possible to get an appointment for
an F1-Visa at the consulate (not attending the visa interview itself) before
getting an admission into a college/univ. That question still remains unanswered.

hi this is praveen
i read ur mail . i think that doesnt bother u.the
appointment is checked when entering in to embassy.ok
ALL THE BEST

--- natasha sharma <ntasha1122@...> wrote:
> hi all
>
> Actually i've blocked the date for visa for u texas
> arlington.... i've also got call from syracuse but
> the i-20 has not reached yet.....
>
> now i want to change the university name from texas
> to Syracuse.......
>
> Can i change the university name on the appointment
> on ttsvisas.com ......because i've visited the site
> and in modify or cancel appointment they allow only
> to change the date( incase of modify)........
> do i have to cancel my appointment if i want to
> change the university name for visa........
>
> please help
>
> Ntasha

If anybody has done that, pl respond.
Thanks

 

[Studious]

Ok, what I really asking was whether it's possible to get an appointment for
an F1-Visa at the consulate (not attending the visa interview itself) before
getting an admission into a college/univ. That question still remains unanswered.
If anybody has done that, pl respond.
Thanks

Also read through the following link carefully.

http://www.gsa.buffalo.edu/gisa/info.htm

Also she cannot have appointment at the consulate and apply for visa earlier than 90 days prior to the program start date mentioned on I-20 and cannot arrive in U.S 30 days prior to the program start date.

Excerpts from the above link:

If you are unable to keep your appointment, you must cancel the appointment 24 hours in advance through the ''Modify/Cancel Reservation'' link at www.ttsvisas.com

If you fail to cancel your appointment, you will not be able to schedule another appointment until 90 calendar days from the date of your initial appointment.

 

[v_wind]

That's a bit unfair to others, don't you think? Taking a slot even though you don't know if you can actually attend. Others who have their paperwork ready would be suffering delay because the schedule would fill with such "appointments". And since cancels would be on short notice, they probably wouldn't be able to fill the slot anymore. So, even if it is possible (which I don't know), I personally think it would be quite a selfish idea to do that.

Joe,

I understand your case for moral argument. To cut short my story, all I'm
trying to do is, after ascertaining that my fiancee has a fairly good chance of getting admitted to a particular college (after filing the admission), I would
want to go ahead and make an appointment, knowing fully well that if I
cancel that appointment I'll not be able to re-aplly for certain time (6
months?).
All the colleges/univs say they take a min of 4 to 6 weeks do decide on admission. If I dont act in parallel, the current waits for visa appointments at
chennai together with the fact that the college/univs run on semesters and
req foreign students to be present a month b4 the courses start, this whole student visa approach becomes impractical.

 

[v_wind]

Whats your real problem?? Can you post it clearly?? Please don't post if you don't have good idea about your problems.. That will help a lot

givemegclord,
Both JoeF and studious have understood what my question is. I take that
2/3 ppol understanding my question doesnt warrant me to re-phrase/re-state it.

 

[v_wind]

Joe,

I understand your case for moral argument. To cut short my story, all I'm
trying to do is, after ascertaining that my fiancee has a fairly good chance of getting admitted to a particular college (after filing the admission), I would
want to go ahead and make an appointment, knowing fully well that if I
cancel that appointment I'll not be able to re-aplly for certain time (6
months?).
All the colleges/univs say they take a min of 4 to 6 weeks do decide on admission. If I dont act in parallel, the current waits for visa appointments at
chennai together with the fact that the college/univs run on semesters and
req foreign students to be present a month b4 the courses start, this whole student visa approach becomes impractical.

And to add to the above, if consulate does allow this way of getting an appontment, I'm sure almost all the seekers would be doing the same.
So my first intention in asking that question was to get the correct information as to whether or not that is allowed.

 

[hipka]

And to add to the above, if consulate does allow this way of getting an appontment, I'm sure almost all the seekers would be doing the same.
So my first intention in asking that question was to get the correct information as to whether or not that is allowed.

It is possible to book an appointment online, check out the website of the consulate you are planning. I don't think you need documents just to get the appointment. Its not unfair to others as you can cancel a week before and vacate your slot to someone else