Getting US Visa [Archive]

kevinkhoo1986

15-01-2005, 11:06 PM

I am thinking to travel to New York City right after my STPM examination. Now the problem is, what is the best way to obtain US Visa and to enter US? Should i tell them i went there for education purpose? :?: Well i have a relative currently living in new york. So i don't have to worry about accomodation, food and so on.

kucingbiru

16-01-2005, 12:16 AM

education purpose? u mean u wanna apply for a student visa?

just tell them u come as a tourist. dont lie to them. u can be in a lot of trouble otherwise. that my suggestion.

masterof_none

16-01-2005, 12:18 AM

apply on the tourist Visa. Unless you get the F1 form from the school that you're applying. I think it should be straight forward.

chenchow

16-01-2005, 12:21 AM

Yeah, as others said, if you want to come in to visit, apply as a tourist visa. That's very easy to get. Student visa on the other hand, you need to get I-20 to apply. If you come for educational purposes, you may need to show proof of the conference that you are coming for.

Never cheat.

jitpunkia

16-01-2005, 05:27 AM

if u come here on a tourist visa . and later on u decide to study . then ull b where i am . im getting my I-20 soon . and i should b changin my status here .

it all depends on wat u wanna do . but u got to get d visa .. in d 1st place .. ^^

kevinkhoo1986

16-01-2005, 09:49 AM

But i heard that it is hard to obtain visa as a tourist since 9/11, futhermore i am not very rich, they might think i go there to work.

lzyee

16-01-2005, 10:48 PM

you are going to US to do ur architecture? pls tell me something about that.i am interested too!!tq!

Skeith

16-01-2005, 11:48 PM

it was harder during 98 - 02, but the past 2 years the US are more lenient about letting foreigners in. Things have calmed down.

I'm sure it's not hard applying for a visa. Especially if you are a tourist.

Give it a try first. If you lie to them you might just end up in alot of trouble.

chenchow

17-01-2005, 04:17 AM

For tourist visa, if you are coming in with a good reason, especially if you are coming with a tourist agency, the chances of you getting a tourist visa is very high.

b_ronick

17-01-2005, 10:03 AM

would you rather cheat about your visa and having to worry most of the time while you are here that you might get into trouble?

i would say try the tourist visa although it might be tough...
but i dun think that your conscience will leave you alone if you were to cheat about your visa and not have a peace of mind...

DecentMerson

17-01-2005, 12:05 PM

i agree with b_ronick...

and other than not having a peace of mind...

u have to think about.... WHAT IF u are caught... or just something happened... u might be blacklisted or wat...

not to scare u ..but it's always better to be safe than sorry....

and i do think that u do stand a higher chance on getting a VISA if u are following a travel agency than travelling alone...

and 1 more thing... u might have to travel to the US embassy for at least twice... or thrice to get ur VISA done... so, better plan ahead...

jitpunkia

17-01-2005, 01:31 PM

its very hard to decide . cause the decision lies on the embassy and your luck .

look at me . i got a B2 . im not rich . i only show them 10k ringgit in my own acc . and if convert that . thats gonna be peanuts . my mum is here , so they might think im coming here to stay with her . thats not a good thing..im over 21 male . under muslim country (malaysia)

i got it in less then 2 weeks ..

so its hard to say

kevinkhoo1986

17-01-2005, 05:11 PM

you are going to US to do ur architecture? pls tell me something about that.i am interested too!!tq!

All depend on the STPM result. If i got good result and accepted into local u with the course that i want, i will certainly come back :D. If not, i am going to try my luck at there.

kevinkhoo1986

17-01-2005, 05:13 PM

jitpunkia

18-01-2005, 05:16 AM

after 9/11?

i just got d visa in august .. n it was gonna expire on 26th december 2004 .. so im here .. i applied in oct 2004 ..

so d answer is yea .. i applied after 9/11

linglingling

25-02-2005, 02:16 PM

A friend of mine - his bro came here after his SPM (his mom works in the US).....there is no problem getting a visitor visa. If you think you may want to stay and look for a school (in the US, I mean), then it is also alright to indicate that you are a 'prospective student'. I am not sure if our Malaysian Embassy does that or not, but I have seen many students who come in with a visitor visa, then on their visa there is a "prospective student" printed below the visa. It should be no problem telling them you may be a prospective student and still get the visitor visa - the problem is the Malaysian system and the attitude of people who work as gatekeepers to your visa.
I know about that possibility because I work in a uni's office for international students...
Ask around and see if this is practiced in Malaysia....
Otherwise, the route to get a student visa from converting from visitor visa is harder than when you start a new application for a student visa in Malaysia. It only takes a couple of weeks to get a student visa when everything is in order.

jiinjoo

26-02-2005, 04:45 AM

Here's my harrowing US visa application story - I just went home for 2 full weeks in M'sia, from 1 week befoe CNY to 1 week after. Since this is the first time I'm going to re-enter US with a working visa (before that was student visa) and although I've already been given the working visa (H1B), I will still need to pay a visit to the US embassy in order to get a stamp in my passport (you know, the sticker with my hedious face).

Before I left I did sufficient research on the web and asking my company's visa experts about how long it takes to get my visa. This is what I found:
- Apply for new passport -- 1 day (my passport expiring soon, so..)
- Apply for new visa -- 1 day (or same day)

So I thought everything will be fine even though the embassy will be closed for CNY and Awal Muharram. So I went back, first thing got my passport (1 day) and went straight to the embassy for the interview. The online scheduling system was still one week away from being activated, so I did the line up and wait thing.

Did the interview, they told me because I'm male and I'm between 16 and 45 (I totally don't believe this) my case will be pending further administrative reviews from Washington D.C. The process is known to take as long as 2 weeks, but then since I also told them my expected entry date (which is by then slightly less than 2 weeks) they say don't worry, they will try to do their best, which again is just to shoo me out of the embassy - they, the embassy folks, already given their approval, it's the D.C. folks that needs to check out this dude.

So I went home, waiting for them to call. Nothing. The day before I flew, I went to the embassy again and pled to the lady (Rosy) at the security booth to let me talk to the people inside, went in, waited for the usual lecture of me not supposed to come back without being notified to be over, then cried and pled that they just go check to see maybe the approval came over the holidays. Fortunately it came, the lady who was did me a favor and checked it out for me kept repeating as she grumbles about other things I don't understand. I was able to come back around 2pm in the afternoon to get my stamped passport.

The moral of the story is - Don't Try This At Home! These kind of extra reviews are just ridiculous because they aren't forwarned anywhere on the USCIS websites nor the embassy websites. It seems like only a few people that I know have ever been told to wait indefinitely while others literally got it the next day, it's still very risky...

linglingling

26-02-2005, 05:23 AM

jiinjoo: I hope this won't happen to female though. I will be going back this May, and need to be back for a conference 1st week in June...I hope 1 month is sufficient for me to get the new visa. thanks for the info! I knew things are different at all embassies, so this is really helpful to know.

26-02-2005, 07:45 AM

Is it possible to renew your visa in Singapore? A friend of mine, Malaysian citizen but Singapore PR, managed to do it. If you can opt for that, do it since Singaporean are apparently "not suspected terrorist".

Thirdshifter

26-02-2005, 10:45 AM

Actually.. chinese are not suspected terrorist either. YOu might have some delays applying if your a Malay.

This is coming from few of my girlfriends sister who works as flight attendants that always complain about going to USA. Thats why you see a lot of Chinese flight attendats on MAS flights to USA.

Even the Malay pilots have a hard time getting their visa through.