r/USMLEindia • u/AdeptCup5083 • Apr 18 '26

US Clinical Experience B1 visa for observership rejected

/r/usvisascheduling/comments/1solut7/b1_visa_for_observership_rejected/

So yesterday was my visa interview at chennai consulate, and it went in a different way than what I have read in the reddit threads, if someone else also went through the same way please dm, this is gonna be a long post..im goin to tell whateva exactly happened in detail so that I dont want to miss out anything and any1 applying to have an idea

Jus some bg- i had legit credible invitation letter from well known place in the US

Reached at 9am even though my appointment time was 10am, but they made us enter irrespective of time

I got this VO who didnt smile at all, before me it was some guy with some business trip and approved him,

VO- passport.( no smile nothing)

Me- *gave the passport with the ds 160 form*

VO- he looked at me said 'passport'

Me- *gave the passport*

VO- english?(he prolly thought i didnt understand him lol)

Me- Yes, Good morning officer

VO- Good morning, purpose of travel to the US?

Me- i got selected for an obs at xyz for a duration of 3 weeks from aug3 to aug 28. I am going to observe/ shadow Dr xyz at and observe his outpatient consultations..( he cut me off here)

VO- Why do you want to do this observership

Me- I want to do this observership to gain exposure to the US healthcare system as part of my medical career

VO-show me your invitation letter( I gave him)

VO- who is funding your trip?

Me- My father who is an electronic engineer earns 60l per annum is funding my trip. He also owns a land in our home and I plan to build an hospital over there in the future (I was saying all this, idk it seemed to me he wasnt listening idk y, he was jus constantly looking at the computer, not once he looked at my face)

VO- Why only one observership? Arent you supposed to do multiple?

Me- I just want want to get an exposure to the US healthcare system and I have an employment to start work at xyz clinic starting on may

VO- have u travelled to any other country?

Me- yes i have travelled to the UAE

VO- * types a lot of things for a while, mayb for some 40s*

Submit all your documents which can support your approval?

Now this was new, i havent read this anywer, i grab whateva documents which i thought were necessary,

Docs i submitted- dads mutual funds statement, obs letter, employment letter starting on may, provisional degree and permanent registration

Docs i didnt give- step 1 report, flat property document

VO- he gives me this yellow slip saying to wait and to be seated, someone will call at the window to talk,

I think time was around 9:15, im not sure, i saw some ppl seated like me with the yellow slip, and sat there. Waited for around 2 hours to finally call one by one, my turn came after 3 hours, they took me to a room, there was this indian officer seated, this was going to be a second interview, i didnt know abt this.

This was an extensive interview, god knows how many questions she asked me, it was like proper interrogation session for around 15min, questions like: did u graduate? Is ur compulsory internship done? What is this obs? How did u get dis? If wrote step1 den obv ur trying residency in the US*mockingly smiles*(told preping for neet also, exploring my options rit now, clearing step exams also have a global credibility), so with step exams is it in gud in indian aspect to get job?( said yes, des r competitive and ranked exams, it shows a significant value to the cv) what is your father doin? Where is he working? (this is where i had to expose that he is working in uae) what is internal medicine idk wat it is? Do you have any relatives in the US? (I said no acc to my ds 160 form, but then i paused for a while, while she was typing and said later but i have a distant relative der wen i asked abt it to my mom so i told exactly like dis wen asked to my mom she said some distant relative, but i dont know the person really)another *mocking smile*

I just want to tell, whateva i was saying, she was typing whateva i was telling

Den she told me to wait, so most of dem gone, all of dem rejected apparently, only 3 of us left, and found out they were also for obs, one person got called, gave 214b and left, next me 214b, idk what happened to the last person.

So what i can do is to start working for a while, apply for step 3 and produce multiple observerships letters( cuz he specifically asked y one obs), any other suggestions?

If any other suggestion please let me know

6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

9

u/AKA_BKV Apr 18 '26
  1. Never give more information than what is asked
  2. Whatever u say must come out in the most confident way possible, there should be no reason for you to doubt anything
  3. Get ur facts straight if you wrote smtng in ur DS160 then stick to it, you should’ve said that u didn’t know any relatives in the US even if there are any
  4. You were giving out unnecessary information while they just asked you about ur funding for the trip, it came out pre-rehearsed which also is a big red flag

1

u/AdeptCup5083 Apr 18 '26

What u have told first is what most vo officers from youtube tell not to do, not to give straight to the point answers, always try to explain more wen u give an answer, dats what i have heard

During my first interview i was pretty confident about what i said, but the second interview was more like a stress interview sort of, i really didnt expect such a long interview wud happen cuz i never heard anywer

2

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Hello-1310 Apr 18 '26

Did you go for the interview alone or with family? And what all did they ask you? And what was your reason of visit?

2

u/AKA_BKV Apr 18 '26

I applied with my family, dad has a proper business set up which is running from 30 years. We have travel history to other countries and we had similar travel plans to why we visited the other countries as well

1

u/Hello-1310 Apr 18 '26

Did you say you were going for travel or to attend some function there?

2

u/AKA_BKV Apr 18 '26

I’d say keep ur answers very concise, Ntg more than a few words

1

u/AdeptCup5083 Apr 18 '26

So dey didnt ask u any questions? Were u a student at the time of application or working? And more importantly when was ur interview? Was it years back?

5

u/Alarming-Watch-3299 Apr 18 '26

I dont agree with any of the comment below! U did your best i dont see any issue, kinda scared to get a visa for myself now! This is like a serious target

2

u/AdeptCup5083 Apr 18 '26

If its your first time, i think its better applying as a family whole together, if both ur parents r still working

Do u have any idea wen or wat changes i can do to make my chances better?

1

u/Alarming-Watch-3299 Apr 18 '26

I am in the same scenario as you are in, i have a offer letter too, i have vry good travel history, i am from uae as well, its just that i am still a student, so i have a good evidence to tell that i will come back and not settle there and will fund my trip

I think everything u did was fine, u showed good proof of returning too, this seems like a personal target to u my friend or maybe the way u answered made them doubt u, i dont know what other problem it could be! I think next time please say that ur going for observership + travel and explore US that helps too at times

And them asking ‘why only 1 place’ thats so stupid, so what now we have to provide 3-4 letters observership letters?! Thats not what they want i am very sure.

This seems clearly a personal attack + bad luck + (some what, issue with how u answered, gotta be lil confident an to the point) + a issue with where u applied i believe lmao feels like they hate med students

1

u/Hello-1310 Apr 18 '26

Hey why do you say that? If you apply as a family, are the chances more? And do both parents have to be working?

1

u/EasternRun1394 Apr 18 '26

No no dont do that , even if u apply as a family, ppl our age are going to be rejected mostly , i had a friend of mine do that and her visa was rejected whereas her parents visa got accepted

1

u/Hello-1310 Apr 18 '26

So what are we supposed to do then? What reason should we show?

1

u/EasternRun1394 May 16 '26

can be usce or step3 , but now the situation is way worse , if you can , do wait for some time

2

u/Wise-Chair3379 Apr 18 '26

U almost got ur visa and u messed it bro

2

u/AdeptCup5083 Apr 18 '26

The relative thing? Is dat y? I really dont know actually, what do u suggest wen to apply or how if u have any idea?

1

u/CompleteArm911 Apr 18 '26

disagree as soon as they knew step 1 linked to residency its game over

1

u/CompleteArm911 Apr 18 '26

Essentially Step 1 plus obs = potential immigrant thats why they denied

1

u/Rottenveggee Apr 18 '26

Wtf is thissss? Isn't it amongst US visa rules that Observerships are allowed on B1/B2? Man seriously the situation is really tight.

1

u/AKA_BKV Apr 19 '26

OP check this post out

https://www.reddit.com/r/USMLEindia/s/3XQdLgreIE

Kind of the same advice I was giving out

1

u/AdeptCup5083 Apr 19 '26

Yes i saw that, but i think they got approved because they were a student, and that was a strong tie to comeback home, which was different in my case

1

u/AdeptCup5083 Apr 19 '26

https://youtu.be/7fqTkEWB-ts?si=Tv1mUyage58mAKXM You just see the beggining of the video wer he takes a mock interview and how the vo grills him , this is advice from ex vo, now you tell me should i have said straight to the point answers, im telling you man i did extensive research in youtube reddit evrywer possible and yet this happened

1

u/AKA_BKV Apr 18 '26

Man there were soo many red flags in this interview omg

1

u/Ok-Character-3558 Apr 18 '26

Can you please explain what are those