How to Crack the Australian Visa Interview
Students can crack the Australian visa interview by being honest and confident during the interview. The Australian government has also introduced a more streamlined student visa processing system to welcome high-quality students from Indian and elsewhere.
Are you applying for a student visa to Australia? Thousands of students not only from Indian metros but also tier 2 and tier 3 cities have been applying for vocational as well as business, engineering, IT and science courses in Australia. Many of them face the prospect of the student visa interview with some anxiety. But there is nothing in the interview that should make a student nervous, as long as they have been honest in their application. The Australian student visa interview is conducted simply with the purpose of confirming that you are going to Australia to study, and not for immigration.
The questions asked at the interview are also geared towards making this verification. For instance, you will be asked about your choice of university, how your education is being funded, what your future plans are. You may also be asked about how prepared you are to live in a foreign country, and whether you plan to work in Australia after you complete your studies there (for which you will need to apply for another visa at the end of your course) or return to India.
Australia's student visas are of several types, and the one you need depends on the type, of course, you will be taking. Some visas allow you to stay in the country for the duration of your course plus one month, during which time some students may be able to apply for a Post Study Work Visa. Students who have a Tax File Number may also be able to work part time on their visa. You should be aware of any such conditions against the type of visa you are applying for before you turn up for the student interview.Student Visa Interview Questions
There is no fixed template for student visa interviews since each interview varies from others depending on the course being applied for. But in general, some of the generic questions may have to do with your choice of the universities to study abroad and any rejections that you may have received from other universities in Australia. You may be asked to show your GRE scorecard, TOEFL scores etc., just to verify that you meet requirements for application. Your educational history and the name of your sponsor will also be brought up.
If your parents are your sponsors, you may be asked about your father's employment, your family's average income etc. You should carry bank statements to show your family's financial status. If your parents are retired or unemployed, there may be further investigation of how your education is being sponsored. Any funding or scholarship approval letters that have been sent to you should be shown to the official.
The interviewer may also ask you how you will cope if your visa application is rejected, how you will keep in touch with your family if you have plans and funds to return home during the holidays and so on. Visa processing
The visa interview questions can be easily fielded as long as you are calm, confident and honest in your replies. After the interview is over, begins the anxious time when you wait for approval or rejection. The visa processing time varies depending on several factors.
The Australian government has introduced a new visa processing system to be launched in July 2016, called the simplified student visa framework (SSVF). According to this new processing system, there will be only two student visa subclasses (instead of the eight there have been since 2012) and a much simpler immigration risk framework. In other words, the Australian government is very welcoming foreign students, and it is a good time to apply for higher studies in the country.