Travel conditions are becoming worse day by day as the covid cases surges. In this blog, you will find all the helpful information about F1 visa USA 2021, Travel visa, and Work-related Visas information. Students from the F1 visa fall 2021 and the upcoming F1 visa Spring 2022 will be highly affected during the visa slot bookings because of the frequent fluctuations in visa slot timings and differences. But hold your horses; I’m going to cover all the information about F1 visa USA for fall 2021 and spring 2022 and how you can apply for visas from your specific location in India.
Steps before applying for F1 Visa USA
- Get I-20 from your college.
- Fill DS-160 form online.
- Fill SEVIS I-901 form and pay one time $350 fees.
All these three documents are necessary when you apply for an F1 visa for the USA.
Getting An I-20
Getting an I-20 is not something for which you’ll be looking for tutorials, but it takes time to get the I-20, and it is the first step to the application. It takes up to a maximum of three weeks approximately for your I-20 to be fully processed and approved. So make sure you apply it well before time. If you’re like me, who will be waiting for the loan sanction letter from the bank to apply for I-20?So before applying anything else, one tip for you guys is to start looking for bank loans cause it will consume your lot of time. I had a terrible experience with HDFC credilla. Once you get the I-20, congrats, you’re halfway through your process.
Filling your DS-160 form.
This form is also THE MOST Important with your I-20 and passport. It shows your non-immigrant status in the USA. Filling your DS-160 form is not that easy as you think. Firstly, you can fill this form for free, and there’s no charge for the second you. Second, you mustn’t fill in any wrong information in the form cause in the Biometrics, your ds-160 will be checked thoroughly, and ds-160 should match all the details with your passport. Finally, the most common mistake that people make is not adding the middle name In the form. But the middle name is present on the passport, so make sure it exactly matches your passport.
example for ds-160. F1 visa USA 2021.
Also, another common mistake that people make is that they are not aware of that part—the person’s address in the USA and name. You can find the information on your I-20 for the name, address and telephone number at the bottom of your I-20.
Filling in your SEVIS form.
SEVIS stands for Student Exchange Visa Information System. It shows the US government that you’re on a visitor program in a SEVP certified school or university. It has a one time $350, which directly goes to the government. You can pay these fees anytime before your VISA application date because you need to show the SEVIS form as a document in the consulate.
Getting to the Main part ..
Visa Slot booking:
Visa slot booking in the pandemic is just like a lucky draw. You never know when the slots are open and for which locations to search. You can only log in a maximum of 3 times a day. If you try to log in more than that, your account will be freezer for 72 hours. But you can access the account by the end of the second day. People usually take any place they get because of the dilemma of visa slots. Some might get Biometric in some area and Interview in some other location, and that’s not bad at all; the good thing is you’re getting a slot at most negligible.
Getting a Slot Usually takes a month and around, If you’re planning to book on your own. You can also book a slot from a third-party agent with a guaranteed booking, and they might charge you around 5 to 10k.
Agents to look for:
IDP education– Well-known and a trusted agent company. They also provide online Visa interview training with slot bookings which helps a lot unless you’re very confident about the positive outcome for the interview. My personal experience with IDP education was sound. They helped me a lot during my interview process to build up my confidence.
In My personal experience, I booked a slot by myself with the help of telegram groups. There are similar people like us who want to book the slots as well. So people who get the slots or check it (3 times/day) posts an update to the group about the slot, and there are more than 1k people group. So you get an update every minute.
Some Helpful groups for finding Visa slots
Telegram Groups:
For Visa Updates group
https://t.me/joinchat/QMQpps5e6g01NjVl
Some rules to follow after joining the group
•Every user, after checking, please update; we need to get slots by teamwork.
•User can log in 3 times a day.
•By this, we can save many login’s and will be helpful in slot checking
Just some Examples:
(Visa priority – previously refused/first-timer/ cancelled appointment once/reschedule)
NA = No appointments _ if you find no appointments after checking.
NA M D = no appointments for Mumbai and Delhi _ Location and the info about the slot.
NA M = no appointments for Mumbai.
Dummy = you saw from a dummy account. People create a dummy account for visa update checking. They can check the update by looking at the blue box once you make the account before paying fees. You can see the blue box on your RHS once you login into the dummy account.
Freeze – If your account is freeze
Go M VAC/OFC Date = appointment available for Mumbai, Time of slot
BB = Blue box (in which available date saw) (please refer dummy)
Update with these acronyms for guidance and any new user can learn from this on how to update message
For Discussions, move to discussion group: https://t.me/joinchat/HRdN0Rf30lbN8jjmi71xcQ
Discussions beyond the visa updates / promotions will be banned
This Group link👇
https://t.me/joinchat/QMQpps5e6g01NjVl
Mumbai Visa discussions group– For Mumbai consulate people
Visa Experince and Questions group
People post their Visa interview experience and what questions they were asked by the Visa officer.
https://t.me/mumbaivisainterview
New questions to be expected due to covid-19
What are your plans for quarantine? If Visa officer asks this question; Congrats you’re approved.
Share the useful information to your friends.
Related : First time Air traveler Tips – Things to Know before your first flight!