How to Prepare for Visa Interview

Tell us a little bit about how to get prepared for the consulate interview?

I know from my own experience just being an immigration officer, when we prepare people for consulate or immigration interviews, the one of the biggest thing is to show respect for the officer who's interviewing you. Don't come into T-shirt or anything like that, make sure that you dress appropriately. Make sure you bring your paperwork with you. They probably have copies of most of it. But just in case, it's good to have the interview the documents with you.

So let me just quickly go through well is. Number one, tell the truth. Okay, don't ask some people, they just get it in their heads that they have to exaggerate certain things, or else that they won't get the green card. But it's really important not to exaggerate, just to tell the truth as it is. If you have two years experience, don't try to make it like you have 12 years experience. That's it's not going to get your green card, but it's going to, you know, make the office or look at you like "should I believe what this person saying to me?"

I've been out to the Embassy in Manila, I watched they're doing these interviews, they have a very, very limited time to do each interview. Second rule is don't volunteer, don't start telling them your life story. Just listen to the question very carefully, and answer in a sentence or two. You may have more to tell them. But if they really want to know more, they'll ask you a follow up question. So don't you know could be mindful of that their time. Okay?

And that's kind of interesting, because I think sometimes what happens, I mean, it's an interview. So typically, even if it's an international nursing job interview, and yeah, it's a consular interview. So it's kind of like a whole other level. But people tend to get very nervous and when you get nervous, you start rambling and  talking about all different kinds of things. So I think that advice of keeping it one or two sentences, concise, truthful, to the point is really good advice.

And then the third thing is super important and a lot of people don't think about it and that is, don't guess if you're not 100% sure of the answer. Just say, you know, I'm sorry, I don't remember this. And sometimes I've had clients where the examiner gets mad, "what do you mean, you don't remember?" but it's still what they're looking for. And they deny some cases, haven't had a nurse denied. But I've had lots of people come to me on things like marriage cases. And they said one thing on the application, and then they say another thing to the officer because they're nervous, and they they really can't remember again, did I meet my husband on a Tuesday or Monday? I know, it's like, I don't know what day I met my wife. I mean, that was over 30 years ago, so. But they're looking for contradictions.

If they see that you've contradicted yourself, you could get a denial saying, it's just unbelievable. You said one thing on the application, you said another thing at the interview and that's the worst thing that you can do at the interview.

So read over your application carefully. But remember, you're not on Jeopardy, you're not going to win a prize, by remembering what day you met your husband or wife or exactly when you started working for your present employer and if you can't remember, it's just better to say, I'm sorry, I can't remember what that date was or what that color was or whatever. And you'll be in far better shape than if you make a guess and the guess is not accurate.

Well, that is really great advice. Very, very valuable. Because as I said, I think sometimes when people get nervous, they start to ramble and give all kinds of information that's maybe not relevant. But really important to review what you've put onto that application beforehand so that you familiarize yourself and you prepare right beforehand.