Visa Interview Questions and Prep from MyUsConsul

MyUSConsul helps people prepare for Consular Processing in US Embassies and Consulates through mock interview sessions and feedback from an experienced former US Consul. Sessions are conducted at your convenience through a two-way video link (Zoom).

Of course! In a real consular interview at an Embassy or Consulate, the Consul usually will speak at least passably in the language of the host country. At the present time, MyUSConsul can offer sessions in English and Spanish. Other languages may be added. If you speak neither English nor Spanish, you can ask a neighbor or friend, or a professional, to act as your interpreter during the video conference. Obviously, this will take longer, and some efficiency may be lost, but you may feel free to sign up for additional sessions.

Consular Processing is the process whereby aliens who are living outside of the United States, and those that cannot adjust status within the United States, present themselves for interview at a consulate or embassy in order to receive their visa. Typically, the US consular post at which processing takes place is the district or the country in which the applying alien resides. In large countries, like Russia, or countries with a single district, like Chile, an applicant may need to travel very far for a very short interview. Before issuing the visa, the Consular Officer must decide whether the applicant is admissible in the desired visa class. Consular determinations are discretionary and non-reviewable.

Consular Officers traditionally address admissibility issues only, meaning that they would defer to the decision of USCIS on petition-based cases like H L and E visas. While Consular Officers were once instructed to second guess USCIS determinations only in the case of suspected fraud. However, in recent years there have been an increasing number of reports that Consular Officers are re-addressing the issues that applicant and attorneys may have thought were already resolved by USCIS. This is one more reason to make sure applicants are prepared for anything. That is the goal of MyUSConsul.com - to prepare you for anything.

The purpose of MyUSConsul is to recreate, to the extent possible, the situation you will encounter at the consulate, when you walk up to the window. Therefore, we will conduct an interview immediately upon establishing a secure video link.

Once we see how you do, we will discuss our impressions of your performance. We won’t be too harsh! But we will be honest. We will also discuss any items of concern we may see in your papers and propose some methods to deal with those problems during the interview.

We will do as many mock interviews as time allows in order to prepare you for any question that might come your way.

If you need to reschedule, you may, provided that you cancel within 72 hours prior to your scheduled session. If there are no open sessions, you can come back later as we open new dates. We are sorry that we can not refund money under circumstances that aren’t our fault, and we can’t allow you to reschedule interviews if you fail to notify us within 72 hours prior to your interview. If, at the time of the interview, your or a third-party’s technology prevents us from making an adequate connection, we MAY, in our discretion, schedule another session, gratis. If it’s our technology at fault, we will try to reschedule you before your interview with the Consular Officer. Only if our system fails, will we return your payments.

Unfortunately, there is often little that can be done, and we can’t guarantee results. Sometimes a lawyer can write to the embassy and get some insight on why an applicant is denied, but most of the time, the consulates and embassies respond with form letters that may not even address the specific case. You can always re-apply, but it may not serve you to re-apply until your circumstances change materially. You can schedule a new session with us to discuss what the counsel said. Perhaps we can figure out why you were denied and provide suggestions on how to get approved in the future, or suggest additional help.

MyUSConsul’s founder is a lawyer, but won’t act as your lawyer without a separate understanding outside the context of MyUSConsul. We cannot go on record as your representative in the MyUSConsul format. However, we can discuss additional services and referrals to other qualified lawyers and experts. We have a lot of contacts in the migration business.