 So the US Embassy in India recently conducted their Facebook live event and in this event they covered a lot of important updates about the fall 22 season and this is applicable to all categories of student visas that is F and J and some updates were also covered about the tourist visas B1 and B2. So I'm going to be sharing all of these news updates as well as my analysis and take on the same so keep on watching. Hi guys my name is Shachi and I'm a travel and visa coach. On this channel you will find lots of useful videos on the US visa process. There is an entire playlist which is ongoing for the fall 22 intake and this will really help in your preparation so make sure that you subscribe, press the bell icon and don't miss out on any of these videos. Now the fall 22 season is just starting up and every day or rather every week there is something new which is coming up. So we are going to track all these updates really closely and bring them to you right here on this YouTube channel but also on the Telegram group. So if you want immediate updates and immediate access to the latest information and content on the fall 22 series make sure to join the Telegram group the link for that is in the description box below. Coming to today's video so this video is going to be about all the latest updates and information which are in place for the fall 22 intake and I'm going to divide this video into three different parts. The first part I'm going to cover the major updates which were discussed in the Facebook line. The second part of this video is going to be about interview tips which were shared by Don Heflin himself in the Facebook live and there was also a visa officer who is still a visa officer he's still taking interviews and he also shared some inputs. So the second part of the video I'm going to summarize all the tips and hacks that they shared for the interview and the third part of the video is going to be all the important information which came out in the Q&A section. So let's get started. So starting with the major updates which were released in the Facebook live event. The first one of course is about the availability of slots. So I know that a lot of you have been just waiting and trying and waiting some more to get an interview slot and we finally have some concrete evidence and concrete update from them. So the crux of the issue is that a lot of new slots are going to open up next week. It's going to be sometime mid of next week. The exact date, time has not been disclosed and this is for the reason that last year they did give out a pretty accurate day and time of when the slots would be released and their entire system crashed because there were just too many people trying to log in at that particular time. So to avoid and I think it did take them a couple of days to fix that. So to avoid all of this happening again they have just given a tentative timeline and that's going to be about mid of next week. So hopefully by end of next week a lot of you will be able to get your interview slots and this entire anxiety about not being able to give or rather not being able to get an interview slot will come to an end. There were also some more updates which were shared with respect to how they are planning out the entire slot availability. So this time what they have in mind is to have a two phase system to release these bulk slots. So essentially bulk slots will get released twice and this is different from what happened last year when the bulk slots were released in one go. So this year we will have two sets of bulk slots which will come out. The first one will be mid of next week and these slots will essentially be for interviews which will be conducted in June and July and after this there will be another release of bulk slots which will cover visa slots for the month of August and September. Now the logic they gave for doing this in a two phase manner is that this year the first slots they want to focus on people who have been going for the visa interview who are going for the visa interview for the first time and who already have their I-20s in place and the second set of bulk slots will be for people who are going to get their I-20 a little late. I know that some of you still haven't got your I-20 you are waiting for it. So for people like you there is another bulk slots which are going to be released which will cater to your visa appointments and also the second phase is for people who have a previous rejection. So the timelines that they put out I think are pretty clear and it gives a very clear picture of what we can expect in the coming few weeks or months. However, my take on this is that even if you have a previous refusal you need not necessarily wait till August or September to get an interview date. Many students working with us with a previous refusal have been able to give an interview in the month of May. Some of them have the interview scheduled in June. So do keep checking the system to keep tracking the availability of slots and as soon as you're able to find it whether it is now or couple of months down the line do book it and go for your interview. So if you're still here still watching the video do give this video a thumbs up and from the updates if there's something important that I have missed do comment below in the comment section and let everyone know so it will just help everyone else. The second update which Don Heflin shared in the Facebook Live event is about how they're viewing previous candidates with previous visa refusal versus fresh candidates. So though he stated that more priority will be given to people who are appearing for the visa interview for the first time, however if you still if you have a visa refusal you still have a good chance of clearing your US visa interview. But what you need to do is to fix the reason for rejection. You will have to reanalyze your profile, figure out what is the change you can make, what is the different story, a different style that you can present to the visa officer so that they can give a fresh perspective to your case and approve your visa. So and he also gave an important update about gap year. So a lot of people with gap year have concerns as to how this will impact their visa interview and this they reiterated I think almost twice in the Facebook Live event that if you have a gap year it is not a reason for refusal, however justifying the gap year is important. You need to be able to justify what exactly you did in the gap year and also why you have the gap year. So in this note I just like to share with you a resource that we have for your FN visa preparation. So we have a 7 day prep course and this is a 7 session series which is going to do an in-depth prep for your entire FN visa journey. It starts with filling your DS on 64 and includes multiple marks. So many students for fall 2020 are already enrolled for this and I am happy to report that many of them have already got the visas some of them with a prior refusal. So if you two are looking for an end to end prep do check the link in the description box for the 7 day course. And the third important update in the interview that was shared is about tourist visas. So again for tourist visas he clearly stated two tentative timelines. One tentative timeline will be somewhere around end of May to June where they are expecting slots to get released and the second timeline will be sometime in September. So if you two have been waiting to appear for a tourist visa interview and get your BNV to visas for US then you are in luck because sometime around end of May-June there are going to be bulk slots released for tourist visas and if you missed that then again you have another chance of getting a tourist visa slot sometime in mid-August to September. So next part of the video is going to be about interview tips that was shared by Don Heflin and a visa officer and I think this is a visa officer with many of you have already given me a visa interview. So they share three important tips when it comes to clearing a visa interview. The first one is about how you explain your profile, how you explain why this university and everything else. So here they clearly stated that they are not looking for facts, they are not looking for factual information. So do not reiterate or do not say things which can be read from a website, which can be read from any information booklet because they are not looking for factual information. They are looking for details which are unique to you which are specific to your profile. And if you have been around and if you have been in this channel for some time you would know that this is exactly what we recommend in each and every video. In fact just two weeks back we released a video on how to answer the question for why this university and this clearly explained how to avoid stating factual information and find specific and unique points which are relevant to your profile. So I cover lot more such tips and useful information in the F1 workshops. So these workshops are planned almost every week. So if you are just starting out with your F1 visa preparation journey this is a great place to start so do check the link in the description box for the next workshop date. The second interview tip which was shared by the visa officers is about how to explain everything. Why this course, why this university, why do you want to go to the US. And the bottom line which they shared is that all these three things should tie together and it should fit in and make sense for your profile and your future plan. Essentially when you explain all this you should come across as a good student. So this essentially means that your background that you have, the work experience that you have, the program that you're going for and the future plan that you show to the visa officer should all be connected together and it should all be in the same line of thought. And the third interview tip that was shared is about confidence and presenting yourself in the visa interview. So they said that the way you speak, the confidence level that you show, the clarity of thought that you show in the visa interview is extremely important and this is something which they look for in every candidate. In fact they prefer people who can speak naturally, who can speak confidently and the answers that you give shouldn't come across as something that you just learned and you're coming here and repeating it, it should be more of a conversation style. And this of course is possible through practice. So this is something which again I recommend repeatedly that get enough practice, take mock sessions, stand in front of a mirror or record yourself, but practice such that when you appear for the interview on the final day, you feel extremely at ease, you feel confident and you're able to have a one-to-one conversation with the visa officer. And the third part of the video I'm going to cover some takeaways from the Q&A session. So the Facebook Live event had a pretty long Q&A session in which a lot of questions were covered. So in this video now I'm just going to pick the important updates from the Q&A session so that if you have missed that, then you're still aware of it. So the first one is that how many times to check the website and when to check it. So since they're not giving any specific date or time for when these bulk slots are being released, Don Hufflin recommended that you check the website every day two to three times. So this is the recommended amount of time because if you exceed this, then the system blocks you. So if you want more detailed information on the exact techniques of when to log into the system and how to track it, do check out this video because this gives a detailed explanation of the same. The second update from the Q&A session is about the one-twenty-day rule. So I'm repeatedly asked whether it is okay to book a visa interview date more than one-twenty days before your program starting. And this was clearly explained in the Q&A session that this is not recommended at all. Your visa interview date should be within one-twenty days of your program start date, else it can lead to administrative processing and it can just lead to additional time being taken in your profile. The third update from the Q&A session is about when the things start to look normal. So for this, they had an answer that they are ramping up the capacity of U.S. embassies across India and more and more slots are continued to be released throughout 22 and somewhere around end of 23 is when they expect the situation to be completely normal. Of course, this is taken into account that no new COVID variant comes out and no new COVID wave comes into the picture. The next update is about the financial documents. So when you are going for the visa interview, they did say that the financials that you present is important and again, it should be in line with what you have shown to the university. And another important detail that he added here is that it's not necessary that only a parent has to sponsor you. Any immediate relative like an uncle or an aunt can also sponsor you for the visa interview and they're completely fine with it. However, the person sponsoring you should be an immediate relative. It shouldn't be a second cousin or a really distant relative. The next update from the Q&A session was about GRE. So there were two things that they mentioned here. First one is that if the university does not require you to mandatory take the GRE, you don't really need it for the visa interview. However, having said that, taking a GRE, having a good score in the GRE is a value add to your profile, which will help you in the visa interview in your university and later in your job placements as well. So if you have plans of taking the GRE and you're in preparing for it and you do have the time and other requirements in place, then go ahead, take the GRE because having a GRE score is again something which adds to your profile of being a good student. And this is something which they are looking for in the visa interviews. And the last big update from the Q&A session is about double masters. So a lot of you appearing for F1 visas already have a master and you're looking for a double master. And here again, they're reiterated that they don't really have a problem with people doing double masters. But again, the story should make sense. It should fit in with your profile, with your background and your future plan. So guys, this was everything which was covered in the Facebook Live event held yesterday. So I really hope that you have got the complete information and a very clip which of how things look right now. So if you have any more questions, like always feel free to leave it in the comment section. You can also DM me on Instagram. My Instagram handle is at chachi.well and do join the telegram group for all the latest updates. So once you have your slot booked and you're starting off with your interview preparation journey, do get in touch for a detailed prep. You can book a one-to-one session for answers, structuring, clearing your doubts. You can take more interviews. This is a great way to practice, to build confidence and be really clear about the answers that you're presenting to the video. And for the F1 22 intake, we also have a unique program. This is the 70 program which I mentioned earlier as well. And many students have already enrolled with us for this and we are seeing quite good results. So the details of all of this is right below in the description box. Do take a look. And yes, like always, more useful content coming up your way. So stay tuned, signing off for now. Bye.