international student at a disadvantage?

[TheLuckyOne]

Why do you need to show assets? Do you need to have assets essentially covering your loan? Wow, that's weird. I was under impression that once you into top20 school, visa should be a piece of cake.

So you can prove you have money in, and ties to your home country. The assumption is that if you have assets there, you will be less likely to attempt to become a US citizen. If you don't have enough money then you are more prone to become a burden to the US and attempt to stay here illegally.

Does it apply to India only or to most countries?

[jamaicanjynx]

AFAIK, it's the same procedure for all countries.

[NewHere]

The requirement to show some sort of connection to the home country exists for all countries, but how strict they are varies from country to country, and what sort of proof is sufficient as a consequence also varies. Proof of assets are one way of showing "ties" to the home country, but it's only one way of doing it. Family connections, a job or business, a car, a home address . . . that kind of thing can all be used to show "ties."

People coming from Western countries are generally not considered a 'risk' (the 'risk' is the possibility of overstaying the visa and disappearing into illegality), and proof of family connections (or maybe even just a good-sounding story of why the person wants to visit the country) will often be enough. For people from countries that are considered more of a risk (i.e., where the US immigration services think that a considerable number of people will prefer to stay in the US illegally rather than return to their country of origin) more proof is generally required. For people coming to the US from China or India it's often very hard to convince Homeland Security that they have no intention of staying. It's not impossible, but this is where proof of assets etc. comes in.

[TheLuckyOne]

The requirement to show some sort of connection to the home country exists for all countries, but how strict they are varies from country to country, and what sort of proof is sufficient as a consequence also varies. Proof of assets are one way of showing "ties" to the home country, but it's only one way of doing it. Family connections, a job or business, a car, a home address . . . that kind of thing can all be used to show "ties."

People coming from Western countries are generally not considered a 'risk' (the 'risk' is the possibility of overstaying the visa and disappearing into illegality), and proof of family connections (or maybe even just a good-sounding story of why the person wants to visit the country) will often be enough. For people from countries that are considered more of a risk (i.e., where the US immigration services think that a considerable number of people will prefer to stay in the US illegally rather than return to their country of origin) more proof is generally required. For people coming to the US from China or India it's often very hard to convince Homeland Security that they have no intention of staying. It's not impossible, but this is where proof of assets etc. comes in.

Thanks, makes sense.

By the way, would the fact that someone has been to the States several times and returned serve as a good reason? I would imagine it should give some boost as to intentions, right?