Six factors that increase your chances of getting B1 visa
1. Travel history – If you have travelled to other countries before your first USA trip, then chances of getting issued a B1 visa increases.
2. Medical student – If you apply for B1-visa as a student rather than as a graduate, then it means you have stronger ties to come back and finish you medical school and chances of getting issued B1 visa increases.
3. Occupation of your father- If your father is a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or in a well reputed profession, it is a big plus.
4. Marital status- If you are married and applying a visa for yourself, chances of getting a visa increases as compared to when you apply as a single, because it shows your intent to come back to your family.
5. Tickets: If you have already bought the tickets.
6. Housing: If you have already paid for your housing.
Complete set of documents you need for your B1 visa interview
I used to divide my documents into categories and used to take 2-3 documents per category.
Tip: They will not see any document besides the acceptance letter but be ready with everything, because you don’t want to take risks. Take photocopies of every single document that you are carrying.
• Appointment letter.
• Acceptance letter: In this category, take acceptance letter along with the application form that you sent to the program, photocopies of Gmail conversations about your acceptance and approaching the coordinator, elective schedule, housing details and all the relevant material that you got from your program
• “US department of State Foreign affairs Manual Volume 9- visas”- Page number 16 of 32, you can easily get it online, this has clearly mentioned that clinical electives are allowed on B1 visa.
• Documents for support: In this category, you need to carry an affidavit of support from your parents, their bank statements for last 6 months, their Income tax returns in the last 5 years. (Try to maintain balance of at least Rs 2,00,000- 5,00,000 in the bank account of the person who is going to support you), property evaluation by a CA
• Travel insurance (TATA AIG, ICICI, National insurance, it costs about Rs 13000)
• Malpractice insurance: Academicins is a company that we all get malpractice insurance from, the person is Mr. Peter leone (he is not related to the one you are thinking) and he knows everything that you need, just tell him that you need malpractice insurance for your elective rotations .
Email: peter@academicins.com
Website: http://www.academicgroup.com/
You just need to fill the application form, from their website and he will get in touch with you with a fee structure and how to pay for it. The process is pretty straight forward.
• Immunization proof: Most of the programs ask for your titres, PPD and chest X ray proof, take all the documents with you in the embassy (Dr. Lal Path Lab is preferred)
• Identification: I used to carry my voter ID card, my PAN card, my Drivers license and my birth certificate
• Tickets: Take the copies of your tickets for the journey
• Background criminal check up: If your program asked for it, take it with you to the embassy.
Also note, the best iOS app for USMLE preparation – Dailyrounds.
Crack B1 Visa interview by following simple rules
There are few things that you need to remember; the key of getting B1 visa is to convince them two things:
1) You are going there for a temporary period
2) You have very strong ties back home
3) You are not very desperate for getting a visa
There is only one question that is surely going to be asked from you:
“WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR VISIT ?”
Trust me, this question may seem simple and straightforward but the answer you will give to this question is going to determine whether you are going to issue visa or not.
Ideal answer: I have been selected for clinical rotations at XXX hospital for a duration of XX months from XXX to XXX.
Then he might ask: What are “clinical rotations” ?
Ideal answer: Clinical rotations are the voluntary shadowing in a hospital under the direct supervision of a US physician with no academic or financial credits.
Then he might ask: Why are you doing this?
Ideal answer: To learn from the US healthcare system and apply that knowledge and experience while working in my country.
These are the main questions but he can ask anything, just remember before answering any question that you need to go there temporarily and come back home and you will be fine.
If asked about your future goals, don’t lie, just tell them that you haven’t decided anything yet.
Don’t tell them about USMLEs, research work, residency, match, trust me you don’t want to complicate things further, keep it simple.
Once you get your visa, you can enter USA and do anything you want, from searching a research position to talking to Program directors about you match application.
Tip: Dress well, be confident (not overconfident), be clear in your speech, don’t use abbreviations, explain properly (don’t think that it will be too obvious), be honest and you will get your 10 years multiple entry B1 visa.
Ten Easy Steps for your H1B visa
Steps to take an H1B visa for your residency (for doctors):
1. Your program usually appoints a lawyer for all the processing of your visa while you are in India, and he will ask you for a bunch of documents to start your case, which includes:
Your residency contract which you have got from your program after match results:
• ECFMG certificate
• Medical school diploma (MBBS degree)
• Medical school transcripts
• Your passport scanned copies of front page and visa page including all port of entry stamps
• your CV
• Your USMLE step 1, step 2 ck, step 2 cs and step 3 scores sheet
2) Then, he will start the processing and prepare a case for you to send it to the department of labor of your state, if your program is not from New York, then you need to apply for state licensing before your case, to be forwarded to department of labor (LCA form).
3) You will also need to pay for premium processing via check to the lawyer. This is the only fee you pay to the lawyer for most of the programs, it varies very less amongst different programs, it was 1265$ for me.
4) After your documents have reached your lawyer through email and your check reaches him through post, he will send LCA to the department of labor and will give you the ETA number. From the ETA, you can track your case in department of labor. This whole process can take 10-20 days.
5) After your case gets approved by department of labor, he will send your petition I -129 to the USCIS and then he will give you the receipt number of your case. The same receipt number will be your petition number as well. You can track the process of your case at USCIS from that petition number.
6) Once it gets approved from USCIS which will take another 10-20 days, he will notify you about it and send the LCA and I 797 to your mailing address.
7) Meanwhile, you can fill your DS-160 form and pay the visa fee, which is 190$ for visa appointment at your embassy.
8) The documents will reach you in 7-14 days depending on the type of service used by your lawyer for sending it. In the meanwhile, you can create your account at CGI website from traveus.gov link and start filling up your profile and schedule a visa appointment after the expected date of document getting delivered.
9) To schedule an appointment, you will need the petition number (receipt number) which your lawyer already gave you and also the petition’s start and end date. You can request your lawyer to provide it, so that you can schedule your interview.
10) Bring your passport, ECFMG certificate, Step scores, Resident contract, LCA, I-797 and other necessary documents with you for your visa interview, and you can collect your passport the next day.
Also read,
Six things you can do in college before USMLE step 1 preparation
USMLE WORLD: Ideal strategy and don’ts for your USMLE preparation
