We were late for the embassy. Moscow traffic is terrible. We crawled along in the car for a long time, moving just a meter at a time and stopping again. Time was running out. We decided to switch to the metro. Once we reached the station, we ran to the embassy. When we arrived, our coordinator wasn't very happy because we were the only ones late and they missed a turn because of us (which actually turned out for the best).
Everything else happened as usual... You get checked before entering the embassy (by the way, there was a pile of chewing gum packs and loose change on the fence in front of the embassy, apparently people forgot to leave them in their bags).
Inside the embassy, there's another check, and then you enter a VERY cold WAITING ROOM, full of students and cold air! Minutes and hours of jitters, followed by moving to the next room with two windows and two lines. You stand in either one, and when you approach the window, you place your fingers on the scanner according to the instructions in front of you! A nice woman sits behind the window, asks 'Yulia, right?', and asks you to place four fingers of your left hand, then the right, and finally both thumbs (it was uncomfortable for me :) I had to stand on my tiptoes so my thumb fingers would scan).
Opposite was another room where everything was decided! THE INTERVIEW ROOM!
In this room, there were 5-6 rows of chairs with about 8 in each, and in front were the windows where people were being interviewed for their visas!!!
There was also a TV playing Uncle Tom and an episode where he was eating an apple. But that didn't help me...)
And now, a few tips and snippets of what happened in those minutes:
Guys, the main thing is to calm down, THOSE WHO HAVE AN INTERVIEW AHEAD!!!
- Your English is not the main thing. I personally know several people whose English wasn't great, sometimes even switching to Russian... and they got their visa, while there were others with excellent language skills who got rejected. So that's not the indicator.
If you understand the consul (their question and what they are talking about) and answer ON TOPIC (i.e., what they asked), even with bad grammar and even if you ask them to repeat, that's already good.
By the way, they ask a few elementary questions that can be answered with one word - YES, NO, OF COURSE...
My advice: everyone has a list of questions that might be asked at the embassy, so take it and copy INTERVIEW EXAMPLES (people in groups wrote about their interviews for each date, detailing both questions and answers, for which I am very grateful).
Everyone is asked almost the same questions. Take a sheet of paper and make drafts (in the form of answers) for all the questions and memorize them!
It helps! Tested :)
SO GUYS, ENGLISH IS NOT THE DECIDING FACTOR IN ISSUING OR DENYING A VISA. (even if they told you so at the embassy)
- As for final years and certificates... well, it's a matter of luck...
My boyfriend (6th year, correspondence course) had his interview with the Redhead (Kyle), and the first question the consul asked him was:
- You're in your 6th year and you're planning to go to America? (with a 'disdainful' tone...:))
My boyfriend answered calmly that yes, he is in his 6th year, but it's not his last year because he is defending his thesis in November, after returning from the States, and offered to show him the certificate stating that he only finishes the institute in November... but Kyle said he didn't need any documents and said - visa is approved...
So for FINAL YEARS, find everything you can as proof that you will return to the RF, talk about how you have EVERYTHING here (even your favorite kitten named Masya:), talk about your parents, work, friends, loved ones who are staying here and will faithfully wait for you because you love each other. In general, I think everyone's imagination works well. So, draft answers are an EXCELLENT thing. And just in case, bring all the certificates you can possibly collect (even property deeds and photos with your work team:)))
And in the end, I will add that I am just giving advice because I went through it all myself. Filter my 'tips', take something for yourself, maybe something will seem unnecessary to you. In general, this is not an instruction, but just the experience of someone who survived all these worries and preparations for the interview (before the interview, my head was overflowing with information and I couldn't think about anything:). Right before entering the room where they scanned fingers, the last thought popped into my head:
'WHATEVER IS MEANT TO BE, WILL BE. I CAN'T CHANGE ANYTHING HERE ANYMORE, I DID EVERYTHING I COULD AND EVERYTHING THAT WAS REQUIRED OF ME' and I calmly went into the room where the interviews take place.
My boyfriend was standing in front of me in line, and when I saw him go into the booth with Kyle (the Redhead), my heart sank, and I was next in the booth nearby... and I was so worried about him that I sometimes listened to what they were saying in the booth next to me (Kyle and my boyfriend) instead of what was happening to me and what my consul was asking me:)
But thank God, everything worked out!
I wish the same for you.
Although I still think that at the embassy, either everything is known in advance, or they are given a rejection percentage (and if you fall into that percentage, it's not because you SPOKE POOR ENGLISH or YOU ARE IN YOUR FINAL YEAR, no. That's my opinion, maybe someone won't agree.
If you have questions, I will gladly answer!
And one more thing about job offers - we went to the interview without them and said that our agency is looking for an offer for us - the consuls didn't have any questions!
Once again, GOOD LUCK to everyone!!!
And for those who didn't get it, I repeat, it means you will get something else (as compensation:)))
