Welcome to the 8th Podcast ofEducationUSA Iran.
The EducationUSA Iran Adviser: Today one of our most successful Iranian students, Arash, is with us, and I wanted to take this opportunity and ask him a few questions regarding his application for visa and the process he went through, so that we may benefit from his experiences. Hello Arash, and thank you for coming to see us. When did you start the visa application? What documents did you need for your visa application?
Arash: Hello. First of all I have to explain that I applied to the U.S. embassy in Ankara for a visa and got an appointment from them. The U.S. embassy in Ankara has a regulated method for getting an appointment, which means getting in touch with them at 9:00 a.m. on the first Monday of each month – that is 9:00 o’clock Turkish time. Then you have to give your credit card number and information, from which they deduct and provide you with a PIN number, which according to them is valid for appointment making of 5 family members who reside in the same place in Iran. The appointment is given for the following month, in other words, if you contact them the first Monday of the month of April, they give you an appointment in May. This is a very difficult system, as it takes a long time before we are able to contact them – since usually the telephone number is busy during this time which corresponds to 10:30 Iran time. I think that by 11:00 o’clock all the appointments are filled up and no one can have another appointment.
But there is another better, simpler and more secure system for students, through which I applied. It is necessary to send an e-mail (of course what I am telling you is written in the embassy website too); they explain in the website that you need to send an e-mail to a specific address and state that you are a student and want to get an appointment as a student, or need an emergency appointment. They will then look in the cancelled appointments and provide you with an appointment time. In general the waiting period is not long, and it has its own specific limits, since in any case the consulate appointments are not that many, but they provide these conditions for students, provided the student is willing to speak in English during the interview. It is nevertheless worthy of mentioning that this is necessary, and I think that it is generally speaking necessary, because while we were in the embassy I noticed that they refused a Turkish student, because he was not fluent enough in English and the Consul was asking him how he wanted to continue his studies in the United States when he was not able to talk well?
This is one of the elements which is important for them. In order to send them this e-mail, you have to send the scanned I-2o form as well. The reason why they require this is because they want to know that you are a student, and also another point which is stated in the I-20 is to know if you have sufficient fluency in the English language or not as assessed by the University. This is taken into account when they give you an appointment at the embassy.
When I sent them this e-mail, within the next few days they sent me an e-mail. I sent them an e-mail on the 14th of October and asked for an emergency appointment, with the title that they had specified themselves (NIV Emergency) for such visas. Within a few days they contacted me via e-mail and told me that my application had been accepted for an emergency appointment; they asked me to call a certain telephone number and talk with one of two persons they had indicated and tell them that I need to have an urgent appointment at the embassy. For that stage of calling and asking for an appointment, I needed to pay another .
It was the 20th of October when I contacted them, and they were willing to give me an appointment for the 2nd of November, but since I was not sure that my documents would be ready by then, I asked them for a later appointment, and they gave me an appointment for the 9th of November.
Adviser: When you got the appointment, did you need to fill out another form? Can you provide some explanations as to when you completed the DS-160 form?
Arash: yes, I will tell you about my own experiences. The D-S 160 form must be completed before the interview. This form is long and is completed online, and has a specific link in all the websites of embassies. You can enter this form via the website and you must upload your photo and indicate which embassy you want to have your interview done. This application has an issue and that is for those who wish to do complete it in Iran, considering the speed and internet facilities which we have in Iran, completing this form is somewhat difficult, as it has a specific time limit for completion – I think it is around 20 minutes, when it should not be idle, and sometimes there is an error that occurs while you are completing the form and it cannot be trusted. It is for this reason that I recommend that you use the save option which exists in the application; in order to avoid losing information, and restarting the process of form completion, you should save the file as you go along.
For me one of the interesting parts or questions was that they had asked for the name to be spelled in the native language, it was unbelievable for me that I had to write my name in Farsi. Yes there is a part which asks you to write your name in your native language. Another part which I remember is the pin number, and to state a booking number for the passport if you have one. On my passport and that of my friends which I have seen, a white label is placed with a number written in pen. I had doubts about whether this would be the same booking number that they are asking for. When I asked my friends, they said that this is a different one and for those of us who hold Iranian passports there is no need to have this booking number.
Another question in the form was regarding my place of residence, for which I had not yet decided and did not know where I was going to reside. Of course I think that this will not create issues, and we can give the university the dorm address. We do not necessarily have to go there, but in any case it is a place where we may reside. They had also asked me information regarding people with whom I am in contact with in the United States, including their name, telephone number, their address and information regarding the relationship I have with them. Also, all my work experiences, but I did not have a specific work experience, though had worked in the University Research centers as a volunteer, so I entered that and I also entered information regarding my training in order to make sure everything was covered.
At the end, they provide us with a confirmation page which is the most important element of this application, which we should present on the day of the interview. For some embassies, the provided bar code is used for getting an appointment at the embassy.
Adviser: yes – in order to get an appointment at the embassies you need the D.S-160 bar code. Did you have to pay a sum for this form?
Arash: No
to be continues...
