As a study abroad agency, you know visa interview is the final hurdle. Prospective international students need to cross this hurdle for turning their study abroad dreams into reality. But it is a hurdle many students find too difficult to get past. Uncertainty about what to expect makes them nervous. Many of them spend sleepless days and nights ahead of the scheduled visa interview fearing rejection. This is where a study abroad agency can help.
Student visa interview needn’t be such a tense affair if as a study abroad agency you assist your clients be well prepared to face it.
Your clients are definitely better off when they know the interview questions generally asked to study visa applicants. They will be able to handle the situation better if they know in advance what it’s like facing the interview and questions generally asked people applying for a visa. As a study abroad agency, you should conduct mock interviews to help familiarize them with the questions.
A study abroad agency must remember that students who get the visa with their guidance are likely to be their lifelong brand ambassadors. Every time these students come across someone preparing to go abroad, they are sure to recommend your agency. This is why your study abroad agency must be good at what they do.
Calm & Confident Attitude
Make sure that your clients are prepared to face the visa interview confidently while maintaining a pleasant and calm composure.
To begin with, the visa officer may be put off just by their appearance. Therefore, your clients should avoid overdressing and heavy makeup as it may raise doubts about their academic inclinations.
Another thing to keep in mind is that an interviewer cannot spend more than a couple of minutes with one visa seeker. There’d be scores of people waiting to be interviewed on any given day. So, your clients should keep their answers concise and to the point.
That should not be very difficult. Interview Questions for Study Abroad Applicants are hardly a secret. A few days of preparation is all that your clients need for answering those visa interview questions perfectly.
In the end, it’s all about being honest. A study abroad agency must tell the clients to respond to all the queries with complete honesty.
Financial preparedness
It takes a lot of money to pursue education abroad. Apart from the tuition, prospective students need to consider other expenses too. One should consider expenses such as housing, food, transportation, health insurance, and all other relevant expenses.
They must show how they plan to meet these costs. For those who have managed to secure a full scholarship, there is nothing to worry about. But for the ones on self-funding, the chance of getting the visa depends greatly on certain factors. It depends on their ability to produce enough proof that they have the financial means to cover all the applicable charges.
Even if your clients have a solid academic record, the visa officer is likely to turn them away empty-handed if they lack sufficient financial backing to complete the course.
As a study abroad agency, you should ensure that your clients or their sponsors must provide evidence of financial preparedness to back up the student for the entire duration of their study.
Post-study plans
One of the major reasons for visa rejection is the failure of students to convince the visa officers in the visa interview that they plan to return home after completing the studies.
If your students convey the slightest hint that they plan to stay on after finishing their degree, their dream of obtaining a student visa is doomed.
Rather, they should tell the visa officer that they look forward to a rewarding career back home. They can point out Study Abroad Benefits and how an international degree increases their chance to land a well-paying job in the home country.
Many students have plans to run their own business in the home country upon finishing the degree. If that’s the case, your clients should say so in the visa interview.
The whole point here is that your clients must be able to maintain the impression that they are genuine students. Hence, they should show their full commitment towards their academic future.
How Agentcis Can Simplify Interview preparation
Agentcis, the agency management software, has great tools to help study abroad agency prepare clients for Study Visa Interview. This is one of the software that helps education agencies better organize and streamline the task of preparing your clients to face the visa interview.
The Client Profile section of the software lets you save all the visa interview preparations documents related to a specific client applying for a specific country. Therefore, you can easily save and retrieve those documents when required to deliver fast and professional service.
You need to make sure that your students have a clear vision and purpose for studying abroad. Let them visit the gooverseas site, and help them find what they’re looking for.
You can also send those documents to your clients anytime they request them using Agentcis’ inbuilt emailing system.
