Waiting for the F-1 visa interview felt longer than the actual flight

The stacks of paperwork that felt endless

I remember sitting in my room surrounded by printed bank statements, I-20 forms, and a passport photo that made me look like I hadn’t slept in a week. It wasn’t just about filling out the DS-160; it was the weird anxiety of knowing a stranger in a booth was going to look at these documents and decide if I could actually go to school in the States. The fee was around $185 for the application, which felt like a lot of money to pay just to be potentially told ‘no.’ I spent hours trying to verify if my parents’ tax documents were exactly what they wanted, constantly worrying if a missing seal or a slightly blurred stamp would ruin everything before I even started.

The morning at the embassy in Gwanghwamun

Getting to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul was an exercise in pure patience. I arrived way too early, and the line outside was already snaking around the corner. It was cold, and I had all my files in a clear folder because I heard somewhere that you shouldn’t bring a bag, though that turned out to be only half-true. People were just standing there, clutching their documents like they were holding gold bars. When I finally got inside, the security check felt more intense than anything I’ve experienced at an airport. I watched a few people get turned away because they didn’t have their appointment confirmation printed correctly, and I just kept checking my folder every thirty seconds to make sure I hadn’t dropped anything.

Standing in front of the window

The interview itself was bizarrely short. I had prepared these long, elaborate answers about why I chose my specific university in Boston and how my family would fund my tuition, but the officer barely glanced at my files. He asked three questions, typed something for what felt like an eternity, and then just said, ‘Approved.’ I walked out of there feeling lightheaded, mostly because the anticipation had been building up for months. It’s strange how you invest so much emotional energy into a process that concludes in less than five minutes. I didn’t feel relieved right away; I just felt confused about why I had been so nervous in the first place.

The lingering uncertainty of status

Even after the visa arrived, I kept reading about how the rules keep shifting. I saw news about how they might change the ‘duration of status’ rules for F-1 students, which makes the whole thing feel like you’re standing on moving ground. It’s hard to feel truly settled when you know that your right to stay depends on a system that seems to change its mind every few years. My friends who are already in the States keep telling me that getting the visa was the easy part, and now I have to worry about maintaining my status, finding internships, and navigating the mess that is the post-graduation work authorization. It feels less like a smooth transition and more like a series of checkpoints I have to pass one by one, with no guarantee that the rules won’t change while I’m in the middle of a semester. I’m still not entirely sure I have a solid plan for what happens after the four years are up, but I suppose that’s just part of the deal.