Getting a F1 student visa US Embassy AmsterdamAugust 7, 2016

For studying a language program in the United States, you’ll need a F-1 visa. This visa grants you access to the United States 30-days before the start of your course and 60-days after the end of your course.

When you look at the Non-immigrant visa page of the U.S. Consulate in Amsterdam it looks like an easy 5-steps guide for getting a visa. Well, unfortunately it’s sometimes not as easy as it seems to be. I was very happy my school send me a visa-request manual. In this blog I’ll show you my U.S. Visa “Adventure”.

First of all, it’s not possible to request a visa appointment unless you’ve paid the whole study college fee and a bunch of other fees. They want proof that you have enough money to complete the course.
 After you’ve paid the whole study college fee, you’ll receive a hand-signed receipt from your school program coordinator or director. Which you’ll need during your interview at the consulate. You’ll also receive a SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) I-901 form. On this form you find a summary of all information for you’re course such as school information, program of study and the financial costs of the course. This form is also signed by a school coordinator. You’ll also need to sign the document with your signature at the “Student Attestation” and, if you’re under 18 when signing like me, a parent or guardian has to sign to. When you’re done with this, you have to pay a $200 SEVIS-fee.

After this, you need to fill-in a DS-160 form. This is a questionnaire about your personal life as well your business life. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Passport
• Passport photo (5×5 cm -> This photo may have special requirements other than a normal photo)
• Travel documents (only if you already have them, otherwise you can just leave it blank in the questionnaire)
• Information about your last 5 visits to the U.S. (only if you have visited the U.S. before, otherwise you can just leave it blank in the questionnaire like I did)
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) — You’ll need to fill-in your last job positions and field of study
• SEVIS ID (Located on the I-20 form)
• School address (Located on the I-20 form)
• Contact person (Most likely located on the I-20 form to)

Keep in mind that you need to answer every question, unless it is an “optional” or “does not apply” question. You’ll also need to fill-in everything in English!

After completion of the questionnaire you must print the confirmation page, this contains your application ID and some other personal information. It’s recommended that you write-down the “Application ID” in the above right corner. So if your computer disconnects from the internet or in the worst case it crashes, you don’t need to fill everything in back again.

Yes! After I completed the above steps I finally was able to set-up an appointment at the U.S. consulate in Amsterdam. And when I finally thought I was done paying all kinds of fees… No.. For the appointment I had to pay $160.

And there it was, the very 1st of August 2016. In the early morning I had my appointment at the consulate. On the website of the consulate, I found a page with a list of all forbidden items. There I saw that it’s forbidden to carry electronic devices when visiting the consulate. I decided to travel with public transport to Amsterdam, since that’s the best option here. But, I took my iPhone and MacBook with me.. Why? Because I made an appointment at the Apple Store to fix my MacBook screen. So I decided to take a locker at Amsterdam Central Station to put in my electronic devices so my appointment won’t have any delays.

After I took the tram to Museumplein and arrived at the consulate, there we’re many people waiting outside. They all had an appointment around the same time as I had. Unfortunately not everyone was allowed to go inside. Some people still had a mobile cellphone with them or a watch. They were refused to get in and had to leave the queue. I even saw someone who was rejected because of his hearing aid! So be careful there. They also don’t have any lockers to store your stuff, so be sure to leave it home or store it in a locker.

After I was in the building, I walked to the appointment desk and gave my appointment confirmation. After they checked it with my passport I had to take of my belt, vest and empty my pockets. All these things were scanned in a x-ray scanner for forbidden items. After that, I had to walk through a detection gate. After everything was checked-up and I got my registration number, I finally was in the building and I was waiting in a big room, with a bunch of other people. But they were all very quite. After a few minutes one man stands up from his seat and looked outside, the with bars covered, window. Directly after that, a security guard came into the room and told the man to stay away from the windows and that he has to sit down on his seat.

There were 4 desks in the back of the room. After my number was called on the screen, I walked to desk 1 (desk 1 and 2 are for registration, desk 3 and 4 for the interview). There I gave the man behind the glass my passport and all my payment confirmations, I finally had to scan all my ten fingers (First 4 fingers from my left hand, after that 4 fingers right hand and the last scan was my two thumbs). After that I was told that I have to sit down again, and wait until my name was called over the speaker. After they called my name I had to walk to desk 3 or 4.

Finally, after 10 long minutes my name was called. I walked to desk 3 and scanned my left 4 fingers again, so they know that I was the real Kevin Meeuwisse ;-). This was the interview section, I personally thought he would ask me a lot of questions. But no, on the contrary, he asked my only 3 questions: “Why are you going to the United States?”, “For how long will you stay in the United States?” and “Were are you going to stay in the United States?”. After that, he said “Your visa is approved, you may now leave the building.” And I was like: “AWESOME! THANK YOU!!!”.

After three business days of waiting, I got my passport back via mail. My visa was pasted in the middle of my empty passport, and they also gave my I-20 form back.

So.. I’m almost ready to go to the United States!

• College fees paid: Check!
• F-1 Visa received: Check!
• Pre-departure meeting from EF: Coming the 20th of August!
• Receiving flight tickets from EF: I think I’ll get them somewhere around the 5th of September.
• Flying to San Francisco: 18 september!!!

Important notes: This guide was written on Sunday the 7th of August 2016. Visa-request procedures change often, so be sure to check your local U.S. embassy website how you can get your visa and which steps it’ll take. I’m not responsible for any failures when following the above steps. This is just a brief indication on which steps I had to take to get my F-1 visa.

Photos of my trip to the Amsterdam U.S. Consulate: