The customary Visa interview post

Since this is a customary post, true to tradition, I will try not to skip the well known facts. I had the visa interview appointment at 8:15 am, reached the consulate at around 7:20 am. This incidentally was my longest drive in Mumbai ever, during what has been my longest stay in Mumbai– a whopping 16 hours.

Got in to a typical Indian queue, which thankfully is a special subclass of the normal queue where addition to it is possible at both ends as well as any point in between. Finally went in at around 8:10 am to be greeted by a security check. Here you are given a wooden token which you have to carry around for no apparent reason. Gents please take note – you have to undergo a particularly unwelcome exercise of taking off your waist belt before going through the metal detector – so don’t wear loose pants :P

Went through the detector only for it to beep and give me a little shock. So went through it again, and this time it obliged. Strange. Wonder now if it was the new shining armor for my capped teeth. Collect your belongings and get into another queue to collect your application papers. Take them to the next queue and get your fingers snapped. (Just electronic fingerprints – don’t bite your nails off just yet)

Take the pink token and then await the moment of destiny. Now, I had been advised to try and stir up conversation with anybody sitting near you to show off your calmness and composure to who ever is watching, but most consecutive seats were taken and so headed for the next empty row. Heed to the call for your token number and go to the said counter. Stand in the row to watch people ahead of you get grilled over their finances, and pray to God that you don’t mess any of this up.

On your mark… get, set, go……………….

Me: Good morning officer. How are you?

(The token opening greeting - do this irrespective of whether you mean it or not, and irrespective of whether you possess any ability whatsoever to make the morning worse for the visa officer)

VO: Good morning… I am fine, thank you.

VO: (Looking at the computer screen and typing something) What will you be studying in the United States?

Me: I’ll be doing my Master’s in Computer Science at the Arizona State University

VO: Why ASU?

Me: (stuff about faculty, research, infrastructure, and some more similar stuff)

(I happened to mention some particular research areas, so the guy asked me about the professors that are working in them, told their names)

VO: Who’s sponsoring you?

Me: My parents are sponsoring me.

VO: What do they do?

Me: (occupation)

VO: What’s your family income?

Me: ___ Rs. (this is simply a fill in the blank answer)

VO: How will you fund your studies?

Me: Told him about the fund flow… savings accounts, deposits et al.

At this point he was carefully inspecting my passport at various angles, during which he happened to glance upon the UK visa stamp on the passport after which he suddenly seemed to run out of questions and/or I had managed to convince him enough of my intentions.

VO: Ok, you have been granted a visa. You will get your passport in a few days.

Me: (Collecting my I-20) Thank you sir, have a nice day. (Now, this I really meant :))

(The customary document case was purely excess baggage in the whole thing - didn’t have to open it until later to put the I-20 back!)

Coolly walk out of the room, hand over the wooden token to the guard, leave the air conditioning behind and re-enter the terribly pleasant Mumbai weather. Its all about composure, confidence, and some quick thinking.

In the end, it only took about 3-4 minutes to get a Visa, but this whole tale has been going on for almost 4 years since that day in May 2001, bang in the middle of the prep leave when I registered for D.O’s GRE training center. Of course there now remains that small matter of studying for 2 years, but this is a big milestone in the grad school story.