From: narayan@ics.uci.edu (Sanjiv Narayan) Subject: SUMMARY : F-1 visa from a third country Message-ID: <27202.745796736@ceres.ics.uci.edu> Newsgroups: alt.visa.us,soc.culture.indian Date: 19 Aug 93 21:45:52 GMT Regarding my posting on this newsgroup about getting an F-1 visa from a third country while travelling for a conference, I got 19 responses which are tabulated below. SUCESSFUL (in getting visa) ********* Country Reponses City ------- -------- ---- Germany 4 Munich (3 month visa) Munich (2 year multiple) Frankfurt (passport returned after 2 days) Stuttgart (only if you can show German residence permit) France 5 Bordeaux (Paris refused for lack of French Green Card) Marseille (Paris refused to accept non French applications) Paris (much begging, consulate busy with local residents) Paris (H-1) Lyon Mexico 6 Monterrey [3], Juarez [2], Tijuana [1] (need appointments) UK 5 London (no problems, may need appointments) Itay 3 Milan [2], Rome Sweden 2 Stockholm (no problem) Canada 2 Montreal, Vancouver Greece 1 Japan 1 Tokyo (no problem) Hungary 1 (no problem) Costa Rica 1 REJECTION ********* Japan 1 Tokyo (had to then go to India) Canada 1 Quebec NECESSARY DOCUMENTS (as applicable) ******************* 1. Your Passport 2. Photograph 3. Valid I-20 4. Conference Invitation 5. letter from International Students Office, requesting visa for you 6. letter from advisor (useful) 7. Conference Paper Copy (useful if asked) CONCLUSIONS *********** 1. Policies vary from country to country, consulate to consulate and even may depend on your country of origin. Best bet is to contact consulate in advance. Local INS office almost useless since policies depend on consulate, not on INS here. Addresses/phone/fax nos. of US consulates are available by calling the US Federal Information Center at 1-800-726-4995 (at least from the L.A. area) or contact your ISO (see 5 below). 2. Will usually get visa if you can show valid reason for applying from that country (like conference invitation, summer internship in third country, etc.). 3. In Europe, especially in the summer, many consulates restrict who can apply for a visa at which consulate. For example one respondent was not allowed to apply for a visa at Paris consulate because they will allow only EC nationals and french residents with carte de sejour valid for 10 years (french green card holders). However, another person got the visa at the same conuslate on another occasion. 4. Important: A major problem may be getting a visa to visit a country like GERMANY, which insists that you have a valid visa to re-enter the U.S. before they issue you one to go to Germany. The German consulate in Los Angeles has this restriction (else needs six weeks to process your application). 5. If you plan to apply at an American Consulate, it would be useful to find out before hand about the consular details (local day, time, whether they require you to make a prior appointment as they do in London) etc. Your International Students Office should have this info. which is compiled in a booklet published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association based in New York. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS **************** Anish Arora Anup Mathur Behram daCosta Bhaswar Sen Ivan Ordonez Reinoso Joydeep Mitra Mona Singh Mauor Costa Mumit Khan Nirav B. Modi Rajiv Srivastava Ranbir singh Sanjay Kumar Sandeep Rajpal Venkat Ajjanagadde V. Sundareswaran Venkatesh Murthy Vishwanath iyer Vibhu O. Mittal Thanks for all your responses, guys. Sanjiv Narayan Dept. of Computer Science Univ of California-Irvine (narayan@ics.uci.edu)