The Truth Will Set You Free

I’ve been working with a client who has a visa interview next month.

Mainly, my job has been to tell her ‘no.’

No, do not buy a fake travel itinerary.

No, do not sell your house before your visa interview.

And, perhaps most importantly…

No, do not come up with a “better” answer for why you’re coming to the United States.

Now, even though these answers are all a ‘no’, they’re ‘no’ for a different reason.

The middle point, to not sell her house, is because the visa interviewers always look for ties to a potential student’s home country, and owning property is one of the best ways a person can show ties.

The other ones, however, are what I actually see the most often from incoming students.

Let’s break them down individually.

1. No, do not buy a fake travel itinerary.

   Sometimes it’s a travel itinerary, other times it’s a padded bank account, or it could be a hundred other things. The point here is that sometimes people feel that their visa application needs something ‘extra’, and that’s when they get into trouble. There are many people out there trying to profit from international students, and they’re willing to sell people things they don’t need that won’t help them; or worse- may actively hurt them. Embassy officials see hundreds if not thousands of visa applications- they can sport a fake, and that’s a fast track towards a visa denial.

   And if you’re reading this thinking that I’m in the same boat as those people selling unnecessary documentation, well remember that this newsletter is free. And so is my community for international students. So if I’m only in this for the money, I’m doing it wrong.

2. No, do not come up with a “better” answer.

   As I gave my client mock visa interviews, she kept coming up with different answers for why she was coming to the U.S. I paused our mock interview and asked her, while I was completely surprised and had no idea what was going on:

Why are you actually coming to the U.S.???

She asked if she should tell me her ‘interview answer’ or just tell ’the truth”.

I asked her to tell me the truth.

And guess what?

Her honest answer was 10x better than any of the other ones she told me thinking that it was what I ‘wanted to hear.’

Now, just because you’re being honest doesn’t mean to have to share EVERYTHING that you’re planning, but you should be honest in answering what questions the visa interviewer asks.

And certainly don’t lie.

Not only is it bad…

And something your Mom probably taught you against…

But we never know how much info the embassy official has, so it really is better to be honest during this process.

That’s about it for this week. Let me know if any questions come up!

And in the meantime…

Live Your American Dream.

Josh