Clearing the interview round is one of the most important steps in the visa application process for Australia. After securing a successful seat in the Australian university of your choice, the next important milestone is to get the student visa. Having submitted the filled-in application form, the next important task for an aspirant is to prepare for the visa interview.
This blog post is about answering the questions and doubts you may have for this stage. An interview for student visa for Australia is structurally no different than any other interview. You would be expected to dress formally, present all the relevant documents, answer the questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge and display a positive attitude. For a visa officer, this is his (her) opportunity to verify what you have written in the application form and if you truly abide by the values that your application form reflected. In this post, we will talk about 2 things simultaneously.
1. Tips to crack the visa interview – These tips would be distributed throughout and not presented as a bunch.
2. Some of the most common questions asked and the intent behind those questions.
So, here goes our first tip for a successful interview:
Pro-tip 1: Be consistent with your answers – A lot of questions in the interview would be similar to the ones in the application process. Hence, it is important to go through the answers written in the application form so that your answer in the interview is similar to what you have written in your application form. There is no need for the answers to be same (no rote learning required) as long as they are similar.
Now, let us go through the list of the type of questions that a visa officer may ask during the interview:
- Academic – The questions in this section would be about the subjects you studied, your favorite course in school and college and why, details of your school and college life, the scores you got in your final exams etc. The intent would be to verify the information on your application form.
- Personal – In this category, the questions might range from your hobbies and interest, about some anecdotes that reflect the values and principles of your life and some situational questions. All these questions would help the officer to understand you as a person and your character in detail. While preparing for this section, it is important to be a good amount of introspection and make a list of the most important values and principles that you abide by in your life.
- Why Questions – Why this course, university and country and why not your own country. They are meant to help the officer understand the real intent of choosing Australia as a destination for foreign education.
- Post study plans – When the officer shows curiosity about your post study plans, be rest assured that he (she) is trying to find out if you have assured plans of going back to your own country or not. No country wants to have students who are undecided about your post study plans since the student visa expires after the course completion and hence every student must have a pre-decided plan to outline what he (she) aims to do after course completion.
- Financing plans – Questions related to financing or sponsorship of the course would help the officer to ascertain about your financial ability to sponsor your education in Australia. While you may have sent all the required documents along with your application form, the additional questions in the interview round give the officer to verify whatever is mentioned in the application form.
- Work experience related – This may apply only for students who have shown work experience in their application form. The intent is to understand the kind of profile an applicant had and his plans about utilizing the course to further enhance his (her) career.
Most of the questions in the above types would be similar to what is asked in the application form. Hence, it is important to follow Pro-tip 1.
Pro-tip 2: In case, you come across a question of which you don’t have an answer, it’s a good practice to be honest and let the officer know about it. Faking an answer or giving an impression that you know it all can hamper your chances of a visa approval. A lot of questions could be rigged in a manner just to test your values and conduct as an individual and honesty is one such virtue that everyone expects.
Pro-tip 3: While preparing for the interview, it’s not just enough to know about your own self but also about Australia. More than its weather and culture, if you could expand your knowledge about some of the current affairs news affecting Australia and its citizens, it would help you answer some of the offbeat questions that interviewers might ask just to test how much aware a candidate is about Australia.
Pro-tip 4: One of the most important aspects of a visa interview is to find out the intent of a student about going back to his home country after the completion of his (her) studies. Study visa expires after a certain period of time (based on the duration of course). A student needs to return to his (her) home country.
In view of the current pandemic situation, it is advisable to go through the coronavirus related updates shared by the Australian Universities and present documents that have been asked in relation to this. It may be about your health, medical history or covid vaccine. It is important to submit the documents related to them and keep an eye on the updates related to coronavirus. Interviews are as much about how you say as much as they are about what you say. Hence, along with preparing for the answers, it is important that you work on your confidence as well. In case, you need any further help, we at GoCan (the best Australia study visa consultants in Ludhiana) are just a call away!