US student visa: Take your port of entry interview seriously, never lie

HYDERABAD: If you are a student and packing your bags for the US to join your choicest university, the news of over 500 Indian students being denied entry into the US by the US Home Land Security and Immigration officials at the port of entry might rattle your nerves. Most of them were deported back to India which denies them an opportunity to seek a visa for five years.

But experts in immigration and visa service consultants advise you to prepare for the port of entry interview as seriously as you prepare for your student visa interview in any US consulate office in India.

“US Visa lets you get to the port of entry. It doesn’t automatically let you into the US. It is your job to convince the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer to let you into the US by answering to his or her questions correctly,” Krishna Reddy who runs a visa consultancy in Begumpet told NewsTAP on Saturday. The role of the CBP officer was to verify the supporting documents and also the purpose and intent of the visitor seeking entry into that country, Krishna Reddy added.

“It has been observed that many students were chatting with their friends in the US to find them a part-time job, hoping to earn enough to pay next semester's fee. They forget that the immigration officials know your chat history and you cannot deny your intentions,” he said.

While the details of the 21 Telugu students who were deported by the US Immigration officials were yet to be known, Alapati Subhakar of Global Tree Consultancy pointed out that many students were not preparing well for the port of entry interview. “They should first understand and reply to the questions of the CBP officer. We heard many of the returned students failed to converse with the immigration officers at the port of entry,” he said.

Nalini of Y-Axis, qn immigration consultancy said that the student must carry the prescribed amount of funds and also carry a demand draft for the fees to be paid ready to produce in front of the immigration official. “Many students were found to have answered that they would earn the fee by doing a part-time job, which is an illegal act,” she said. She advised the students leaving for the US to stick to the details they provided in their CVs and the details mentioned in I-20 Form.

“The slightest difference in these details such as the number of dollars you are carrying, or the address of the place where you will be staying will put you in trouble. The bad record will haunt you as the immigration data bank of the entire North America, including Canada is shared by the Homeland Security officials,” she said.

The consultants in Hyderabad said that the on-campus jobs were very difficult to find. These jobs would pay very little and would be sufficient for small expenses. A student on an F-1 visa would not be allowed to work outside the campus and there would be a limit on the number of hours that one could work to maintain the visa status.

The US Consulate, on the other hand, had time and again cautioned students to prepare well for the interview and be truthful at the interview as their (Consulate) role ends after issuing a visa and it is up to the CBP officer to grant entry or not.