So, I got admitted to Tepper School of Business. For me, the hardest part was over. It felt like it would be a joy ride from now on. This was all before I looked at the student Visa process. Damn me! Why do I still harbor such false beliefs of ‘Hardest Work Done, Smooth Road Ahead’ ?
Don’t get me wrong. The visa process is not a rocket science or anything, but it is not a piece of cake either.
The first and the foremost thing that I had to take care of was to show availability of funds (tuition plus living expenses) for the two years of the program. This is needed by the school to send the Certificate of Eligibility (I20) which in turn is needed during the Visa interview and also during immigration. The available options were – personal savings, an approved loan or an affidavit of support from someone who is ready to sponsor your education. I have an uncle in US who is a permanent resident and I would be taking a loan from US with him as the co-signer. But I had this weird preconceived notion that I would not be able to apply for the loan unless I have my VISA (Which by the way, is completely baseless and false notion). So with this belief, I thought I would show the funds through two sponsors - my uncle and a cousin who are both permanent residents in US. I had chosen this option – because lazy as I am, it was the easiest way out and involved the least effort from my side. Just when I was ready to send the documents to the school, a friend of mine told me about how having foreign sponsors increases the chances of Visa rejections. Since I did not want to take any chances with the Visa, I started looking for available alternatives. Showing funds of the tune of 150k dollars was a big deal for me and I guess for most others in India. With all the efforts, I could only manage 30k dollars which included borrowed money from my kind hearted friends. I convinced an uncle in India to sponsor for another 35k dollars. Still I needed 85k dollars and had no other option other than showing my uncle in the US as the other sponsor (It is not ideal to have more than two sponsors and may result in rejection of I20). The more I searched about the foreign sponsorship, the more nervous and restless I got. I even called up the Office of International Education and even they confirmed my doubts that it is usually not preferred to have a foreign sponsor. But what option did I have. I made up my mind and convinced the optimistic self that ‘All will be well’. This whole nerve wrecking process took almost 2 months and finally I had all the documents in place. Without any further delay I couriered it to the school.
The office of International Education states that it issues the I20 in usually 2-4 weeks and I received my I20 documents exactly after 4 weeks. Impatient as I am, I had already researched about the list of steps that had to be done once I received my I20. I took the HDFC receipt for which one is required to go to the HDFC bank and deposit the Visa fees to get the barcode (which takes two days to get activated) required for scheduling the visa interview. The next was paying the SEVIS fees and printing the confirmation receipt as the original receipt arrives almost one month after the payment. The next was DS160 – which I filled in one day flat. I won’t advise that though.(You should be very careful in filling the information because it is a long form and requires a lot of information.) I was in such a hurry because I wanted to get it done with. But God had other plans and wanted the excruciating wait to last a little longer. I had to plan an urgent trip home – so I had to schedule my visa interview after two weeks.
Don’t get me wrong. The visa process is not a rocket science or anything, but it is not a piece of cake either.
The first and the foremost thing that I had to take care of was to show availability of funds (tuition plus living expenses) for the two years of the program. This is needed by the school to send the Certificate of Eligibility (I20) which in turn is needed during the Visa interview and also during immigration. The available options were – personal savings, an approved loan or an affidavit of support from someone who is ready to sponsor your education. I have an uncle in US who is a permanent resident and I would be taking a loan from US with him as the co-signer. But I had this weird preconceived notion that I would not be able to apply for the loan unless I have my VISA (Which by the way, is completely baseless and false notion). So with this belief, I thought I would show the funds through two sponsors - my uncle and a cousin who are both permanent residents in US. I had chosen this option – because lazy as I am, it was the easiest way out and involved the least effort from my side. Just when I was ready to send the documents to the school, a friend of mine told me about how having foreign sponsors increases the chances of Visa rejections. Since I did not want to take any chances with the Visa, I started looking for available alternatives. Showing funds of the tune of 150k dollars was a big deal for me and I guess for most others in India. With all the efforts, I could only manage 30k dollars which included borrowed money from my kind hearted friends. I convinced an uncle in India to sponsor for another 35k dollars. Still I needed 85k dollars and had no other option other than showing my uncle in the US as the other sponsor (It is not ideal to have more than two sponsors and may result in rejection of I20). The more I searched about the foreign sponsorship, the more nervous and restless I got. I even called up the Office of International Education and even they confirmed my doubts that it is usually not preferred to have a foreign sponsor. But what option did I have. I made up my mind and convinced the optimistic self that ‘All will be well’. This whole nerve wrecking process took almost 2 months and finally I had all the documents in place. Without any further delay I couriered it to the school.
The office of International Education states that it issues the I20 in usually 2-4 weeks and I received my I20 documents exactly after 4 weeks. Impatient as I am, I had already researched about the list of steps that had to be done once I received my I20. I took the HDFC receipt for which one is required to go to the HDFC bank and deposit the Visa fees to get the barcode (which takes two days to get activated) required for scheduling the visa interview. The next was paying the SEVIS fees and printing the confirmation receipt as the original receipt arrives almost one month after the payment. The next was DS160 – which I filled in one day flat. I won’t advise that though.(You should be very careful in filling the information because it is a long form and requires a lot of information.) I was in such a hurry because I wanted to get it done with. But God had other plans and wanted the excruciating wait to last a little longer. I had to plan an urgent trip home – so I had to schedule my visa interview after two weeks.
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