US Student VISA interview? I-20?

Question

Hi, I live in the Philippines. I'm gonna study in the US this fall as an undergrad.

I made an appointment yesterday, July 17, 2008 with the US embassy. They scheduled me a July 22, 2008 interview date.

The problem is that the I-20 was just sent today, July 18, 2008 and it might not reach Philippines in time for the interview.

What should I do? I don't know how to reschedule the appointment.

Answer 1

mam, u can inform this to ur US Consulate via mail. They will make an arrangement for u ofcourse. there is a help desk for the same matters. b happy.

Answer 2

I would consider rescheduling your visa interview at the U.S. Embassy for two reasons:

1) You do not have your I-20 in hand.

2) You are unable to pay the $100 SEVIS fee without the I-20.

Failure on both points 1 & 2 are automatic denials of your visa application. FWIW, you should never schedule an interview until you have all of your documents in hand, doing so is counting your eggs before they hatch and if the I-20 doesn't arrive in time, then you will have egg on your face, since you will not have the documents needed for a successful interview.

The Consular Officer cannot approve an F1 visa without an I-20 and proof of SEVIS payment.

Answer 3

You don't need to send it, at the US embassy you hand in your I-20 form there to the person interviewing you... along with other documents like the DS-156 and DS-158. Have you paid your SEVIS fee? Unless you've been told not too, i think you might have to pay it ($100). Google it to find out more, i only found out about this 2 days before my US embassy interview a couple of weeks ago (studying in the US from the UK).

Literally, you get called to the desk, hand over all the documents you've been told to bring, they'll take your finger print electronically, you'll be told to wait for a couple of hours so take a book or something, than you get called up to another desk and they say yes or no (more likely yes).

Answer 4

You can ask the university to fax a copy. You can show the Faxed version and submit the original later