U.S. Visa Interview Facts:

• The average U.S. visa interview lasts only three minutes.

• Visa officers are required by law to assume that you intend to immigrate to the United States illegally.

• The Visa Officer is the one who decides whether you are approved or denied. The decision is not made beforehand.

• Visa Officers are expected to do 120 visa interviews per day

• Visa Officers don’t review your case before you arrive at their window. The moment they see you is the moment they start making their decision.

• The Visa Officer will tell you their decision immediately at the end of the visa interview.

• You can see the wait time to get a visa appointment at your local U.S. Embassy or Consulate by visiting here.

• Countries where more than 50% of applicants are refused the U.S. visa include Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

• The most common interview question is “Why do you want to go to the United States”. Find out how to correctly answer this question by booking a coaching session with me.

• There are forty nationalities that don’t need to attend a U.S. visa interview, including Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Chile, and Bahrain. See the full list here.

• Visa Officers often spend 6-12 months studying the language of the country they will do interviews in.

• The nationalities with the lowest refusal rates include Lichtenstein, Argentina, Poland, Croatia, and Malaysia.

• Visa Officers usually spend 2 years conducting interviews in a country before moving to a new country.

• Visa Officers are U.S. diplomats who conduct visa interviews in the beginning of their career. Most go on to work in other diplomatic areas, but some work in consular sections for their entire career.

• The countries with the highest percentage of visa holders who stay in the United States longer than they are supposed to include Chad, Libya, Laos, and Afghanistan.

• The countries with the highest number of visa refusals include Mexico, India, China, and Nigeria.