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6 Reasons Why Your F1 US Student VISA Would Get Rejected

This year, many students will apply for a US student visa to go and study in the US. But only 85% of them will get one. 

Why do other 15% get rejected?

In this post, I want to explain the UNDERLYING cause for cause for visa rejections & what you can do to avoid it.

Real Examples of US Student Visa Denial

I have seen less than 5 visa rejects among our clients in last 8 years. One had admission from IIT Chicago but his US student visa got denied. His father had only 20 lac in savings.

And there was another person from Gujarat whose visa was denied too. Why? His brother was already working and settled in US and sister lived in Canada.

What’s common in both the cases?

They are rejected for one reason – the Visa Officer feels that these people are more likely to immigrate to US which is another way of saying – they are NEVER COMING BACK!

US hates this. They don’t want students to stay there after their graduation. They want you to finish your studies and come back to your home country. In fact, the joke went that if there’s anything that US fears after terrorism, it is immigrants. 

I have talked about how US visa policies make no sense in other posts here. The irony is that if international students really started to leave after their graduation, US wouldn’t have many amazing companies that were founded by immigrants including Instagram. But let’s leave that for now. 

Number of F1 student visas issued by US in 2018

So, US is one of the toughest countries to get a visa for Indians. They don’t want people moving there unnecessarily. During your visa interview, this is the biggest flaw that US Visa Officers (VO) look for. They are trained to detect people who are trying to sneak into US under false pretenses.

6 biggest reasons why Student Visa can get rejected

So, if you have admissions to US schools and you are applying for a F1 visa, do not say or show anything that makes you look like a potential immigrant.

Lets take a look at what are these things in case of student visa:

1. Suspicious looking university

If you are heading to a University that very few people have heard of (aka ranking >150-200), VO would question your ability to secure a good future after graduating from it. He would doubt if you can find a job after graduating, which means you might look for other ways to supplement your income and start working (even illegally). Such suspicions are enough for him to reject your visa.

2. Course does not match your profile

This, right away, makes the VO suspicious why you are attending it.

3. No clarity of goals

Again, it makes you look desperate and sneaky. See, a genuine student trying to study in US and build a good career should be clear about his/her goals and how this course would help him/her – which brings me to my next reason:

4. Cannot articulate your reasons for attending this university

This shows that you don’t care about education and that you are enrolling only because you want to sneak into US.

5. Little savings (low bank balance)

This means you are more likely to find ways to work in US and not come back to India!

6. Family already in USA

Yes, it shows you have no strong ties to India and you are likely to stay back in US to be closer to your family.

Note: There is one other reason for visa denial and that is Administrative Reasons, also known as 221G rejection.

This can happen if you come from another religion or work in an industry which is on the technology alert list (TAL) which includes biotech, defense, pharmaceuticals etc.

Don’t worry too much about this because you cannot do anything about it. Focus on the first 6 reasons and make sure you prepare your answers correctly.

Hope this helps. For a more expressive version of this, watch our YouTube video and don’t forget to subscribe.

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1 Comment

  1. I am very satisfied with your post. Thanks for sharing!


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