What You Need to Know About Getting Your F-1 Visa

Welcome back! Today we will be diving into one of the most important legal aspects of being an international student in the USA: your student visa. (Note: This guide is specifically for the F-1 visa. If you are looking for information regarding J-1 or M-1 student visas, look out for a future post! Until then, you can find official information here.)

Let me state a disclaimer before continuing: this guide is for informational purposes only, and does not offer official legal advice. I have provided links to resources posted by the US government throughout this post, and I strongly recommend getting in touch with your local US embassy or consulate if you have questions about your personal visa situation.

So, what steps do you need to follow to apply for your F-1 visa, the most common visa held by international students in the US? I have written a simple breakdown of the main components below. To view more detailed information, look here for the guide provided by the US Department of State.

1. Get accepted into a US school
   F-1 visas are only issued to students with a confirmed place at a US institution, so you must apply to the school(s) of your choice before trying to apply for your visa. In the coming weeks will be a post of tips to help you through the college application process!

 

2. Request your I-20 form from your US school
   Most schools make you wait until you are accepted before you can apply for the I-20 form. All students must have a valid I-20 form from their school to be given a visa. In order for your school to be able to give you the form, you will be asked to provide:
   – Proof of funds. According to US government rules, you must be able to prove that you can afford to study and live in the USA before being issued a visa. Your school will tell you what the estimated cost of living and tuition is, and you must provide bank documents that show you will be able to pay these costs. These can be from your own personal finances, or those of a relative or someone willing to sponsor you.
   – A copy of your passport.
   – Other materials as requested. Your school may require you to submit extra materials before they will issue the I-20 form. If you are not sure whether you have submitted all the documents they need, get in contact with the school’s admissions office to check.

 

3. Fill in the online application
   The online visa application is known as the DS-160 form, and is filled out here. You will need to answer questions about your travel history and plans in the US, provide a passport photo, and pay an application fee (this varies country to country, and will be listed on your embassy’s website.) Remember to print out the confirmation page once you complete the form you’ll need it for your interview!

 

4. Schedule your visa interview
   It is simplest for applicants to attend their visa interview in their country of permanent residence, as there can be complications if you apply in a different country. Keep in mind that there may be a significant wait time for an appointment, depending on where you live in the world. There is a handy site here that estimates the wait time for an interview for your city, and the time it takes for your visa to be processed.

 

5. Attend your visa interview
   To be approved for a student visa, you must attend your appointment at a US consulate or embassy and meet with an officer who will ask you some questions about your intentions to study in the US. It is important that you bring all of the required documents, or you will have to reschedule another appointment. These items are:
   – A valid passport
   – Your I-20 form
   – Your DS-160 form confirmation
   – A receipt of your application fee payment
   – A photo that meets the requirements
   – Any other requested materials
   Although a photo is uploaded online when you complete your DS-160 form, I always bring a spare photo to the interview, which is different from the one I uploaded. This was very important when I applied for the visa I am currently holding the officer did not believe the photo I had uploaded looked recent enough, and if I had not come prepared with a spare copy, my application may have been denied. So always arrive as prepared as possible!The interview itself can be scary, but it is generally quite short. I plan to write a more detailed post about the visa interview process in the future, but for now, take a look here at a great list of potential interview questions and topics posted by internationalstudent.com.

 

6. Wait for your visa to be processed
   The hardest part is over! Now you just have to wait for your passport to be returned to you, complete with your new visa. In most cases, the visa will be processed in a matter of days; you can use the link posted under #4 in this guide to check how long processing takes in your city. A small number of cases may be subject to “administrative processing” which can take up to 60 days, but you should inform you during your interview if you will be subject to any delays.

And that’s it! The process can be a lot to remember (even I have trouble sometimes, even though I’ve gone through the process twice already!) but as long as you remember to plan ahead and apply as early as you can, you should have no problems if all of your documents are in order.

Are you waiting for your visa interview, or still applying to the school of your dreams? Leave a comment with your experiences or questions, or join the Facebook group and let us know!