Application for Non-immigrant US Visa: Suggestions

Hi guys, I am one of the survivors of the US Consulate B1/B2 visa interviews. With all your friends and relatives narrating to you the horror stories of how Mrs.so and so's application got rejected and the ad-hoc behavior of the interviewing consul etc., I am putting an end to some of the myths regarding this procedure to ease your tensions a bit. My opinion is that the whole procedure is quite objective in nature.
First let me chart out the procedure for the use of the people at large.
1. Online application for a date for the interview: This includes all your personal details like Passport No, Date of Issue, Place of Issue, e-mail address, kind of work, work place address, phone no.s, education, Education Institute address, phone no.s, years spent in the institution (which year to which year), Marital Status, If applying alone or with family etc and a long list of questions which most normal people with sane backgrounds needn't get tensed about. Basically they need to know if you have any criminal history. I think a few deciding factors would be age of the applicant (the older the better unless you are too old) and the countries you have been to before applying for the US Visa. The online application must be completed in 20 minutes flat or you have to start over again. My sincere suggestion is to let a professional travel agent handle this while you sit by his/her side to prompt. A 50mmX50mm photograph has to be sent too.
2. Payment of visa application fee: This is done in HDFC bank into the consulate’s account mentioned in the application procedure who after payment of the fees will give you two copies of the fee payment acknowledgement receipts (one blue and one pink) and you will receive a confirmation from the US State Department on the e-mail with your photograph on it.
3. You have to choose a date and time of your interview within the frame of some 15 day window the consulate will provide you with.
4. Documentation: My opinion is that the onus is on you to prove to the consul that you are not a potential immigrant. We should remember that a large number of people from our country have been misusing this route to get into the US of A and then diappear in the country. Therefore we must appreciate the Consul's concern about such possibilities.
On the day of the interview you have to carry all supporting documents. Carry two transparent folders (as nothing else is allowed into the consulate property) one for the originals and one for the photocopies of the same originals. In addition to the documents you feel fit,what I would suggest one to carry is:
a. Your Passport: This must include your present passport and old ones if any.
b. Proof of Residence: your sale deed copy with tax paid receipt or proof of rent paid etc
c. Proof of Income: Your Salary Certificate, IT returns for the last three years (personal and of the firm or company that you may own), FD Certificates any other savings etc Most important is a 6 month bank statement of every bank account you hold signed and a seal of the bank stamped on it.
d. Proof of Education: School, College Certificates
e. Any other proof of your social standing.
5. At The Consulate: Go to the Consulate Entrance where there is booth in which there are people who on seeing your Passport, Confirmation of the consulate and the pink and the blue slips mentioned above will guide you to the gate of entry. Here you are frisked and let inside the consulate. Once inside your belongings are checked. Please do not carry any purses, wallets, mobile phones, pen drives, calculators, car keys with the remote controls or any metal objects or electronic gadgets inside. Even water carried for babies is checked by having both the mother and the baby drink that water. Here you are also scanned with a metal detector.
Then a courteous staff will guide you through the procedure. Now you’ll have to go to a pre-screening area where you are to give your passports the blue slip and are scanned for your fingerprints. Then you are led to an area where the actual interview takes place. Here too is a staff which very politely will ask you for your interview timings and will guide you to the interviewing window. Here comes the Interviewing consul who will ask you for your fingerprints again and will ask a few questions which differs from person to person and circumstance to circumstance of the application.
My opinion is that they do not want your seriousness as much as they want your sincerity in answering these questions. Putting on a grumpy face will not influence the results but a smiling face with sincerity is always welcome especially considering the fact that the interviewing consuls have to handle a few hundred people a day and it is not very enjoyable. So the least we could do is not to burden them with our grumpy looking face and not to argue with them. Answering their questions to the point rather than breaking into an elaborative rhetoric also helps, I think. They are testing your sincerity in you continuing to be a citizen of your own country and are not interested in testing your knowledge. This is not a quiz competition.
Hope this helps my sincere fellow countrymen.