Hello, I hope everyone is fine
I would like to share my visa experience because I am a little bit concerned with my interview. I was admitted for PhD studies
in Computer Science at Univ of Minnesota - TwinCs. As a short note, I already had a J1 visa issued before 1.5 year without
any delay.
I had my F1 interview done yesterday at the US embassy in my country (in European Union). I thought I had all of my documents in folder but I forgot
to take with me a bank note which was showing that I have personal funds of $500 (the amount was written in my I20). As a matter of
fact, the lady who first gathered my documents (passport, photo, I20, Sevis fee) told me that the VO will request this document.
I replied that I understand that he will request it and I can bring the note if I instructed to do so.
When the VO called my number, the interview did not took more than 3 minutes. He asked me the following:
1) Why I am going to the US
2) If I am married
3) If I have relatives in the US
4) If I have ever been in the US before
After I gave the answers, he asked me if the university will pay my salary (although he had an expression like: "I can see this information from
your documents and I ask you just for the records"). I think that after he saw and canceled my old J1 visa he did not asked me anything else
and we were done.
Now comes the interesting part: I asked him if I got the visa and he told me: "I can not really say if you did because there is
some background checking to be done, if everything is ok then you are fine". He also asked me if I knew how I will pick-up my passport.
However, when I returned home I saw that my visa status is set to "administration processing".
I understand that a missing document will delay the process (since I will have to submit it in a later date) but the VO didn't mention anything about
the missing document (maybe because my income from the assistantship is greater than the estimated expenses, even without considering this
small amount of money I have as personal funds) nor he gave me a 221(g) paper nor I received any email from the embassy. Could the administration
processing be a typical initial visa status or there is something that I will be notified in a later manner?
Any opinions? Thank you very much!