Mike

Hi,
First of all, I would like to thank those who helped me out on this board when I had questions about documents for CP.

I had the visa interview today at American Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, and successfully passed it! The interview itself was very very short and the consular officer didn't ask me anything specific. She asked me a couple of basic things like what I am doing in the states (I am a PhD student with F-1) and what my future plan will be.

She even congratulated me on winning the lottery! (At some point I was kind of nervous about getting asked how many times I have applied for the lottery because I know you cannot have any intention to immigrate if you are staying in the states with F-1. So when she said "Congratulations! Everything will become easier for you, huh?," I felt very relieved).

And then she quickly said that everything looks perfect and will issue a visa. I still have to wait for my passport and visa to be delivered by mail, which will take probably a day or two, but I feel really relieved!

FYI:

1. I am a graduate student with F-1 visa in a PhD program.

2. My case number is AS28XX.

3. Since I don't have any friend whom I can ask to write an affidavit of support, I collected all I have as financial evidence. It can be summed up to $43,200 ($20,000 in my saving account, $15,000 in my pension plan, stocks of current value of $5000, $3200 in my checking account in the states.)

4. I prepared all the tax documents, since I have been working as a teaching assistant at my university, but she never asked me to show them.

5. My POE will be Chicago/O'Hare and I am currently planning to go back to the states in three days if I can receive my passport with the visa (I have to start grading my students' papers!!)

Again, thank you so much for your help and good luck to everyone!

HSR