US Visa Rejection: My Frustrating Experience (But Here's What I Learned!)

Hey guys, in this video I will share you my experience in the US consulate on how I actually got my visa rejected. I was hoping to be at Funnel Hacks Live 2023 happening at Orlando, Florida Center receiving all of these awards you see behind the scene, hopefully on the stage, but it didn't happen. Just a quick introduction before we get into the stuff. My name is Nikhil Sai, I'm the founder and CEO at funnelingmeter.com. Started as an engineering dropout, turned millionaire in just 2 years running my own marketing agency while helping my clients generate over $500 million in results for them. So coming back, I'm one of the world's youngest $100 million award winner. There is no other guy who actually has as many awards as me at my age, uh, which are worth what I actually have. So these are prestigious marketing awards. I mean, it was actually more hypey, uh, back in 2018, 2019 when there were only a few hundred people who actually have these little golden awards. But these become more common because 1,500 people actually have them right now. And I'm one of the youngest one as well. But these awards which are behind me, the $10 million one and the $100 million one, are like the rarest ones. Like there is probably like, if I'm not mistaken, a dozen people who got this award itself, and the rarity is crazy. I'm one of the youngest one and I really wanted to be on the stage to meet Russell Brunson, to meet Todd, and be in the ClickFunnels, uh, you know, event Funnel Hacking Live 2023 and receive that on the stage. I paid my price, uh, the ticket fee in 2021. And I was applying for visa 2021, 2022, even 2023. I just got my appointment in 2023. The problem was I actually had the appointment in Mumbai for the interview, and I've traveled there. I have a complete vlog of what I've done in Mumbai. Check out Zero to Zillion channel. I will link that in the description. I have a clear documentation of what I've done there. But overall, at the visa location, once I reached there, what was happening is I regret this actually, but I spent so much time and, you know, creating the documents, preparing everything, preparing for the interview, paid multiple consultants to learn and mock-up interviews, all that shit, paid lawyers. I mean, I've spent crazy amounts of money. Like, when I mean crazy, I'm talking about 5 figures on getting the visa slot booked, you know, on all the other things including getting the documentation, consulting lawyers, and all of that stuff. But then what happened was, you know, there's a huge line. There's like tens of thousands of people waiting outside of the consulate. And I was early, like my appointment was at 7 AM, so I showed up at that time. There were already a few thousand people in the line and inside the consulate. So I was already like, oh my God, looks like there's something happening here. And the reality was it's geopolitics, you know, like so many people from India want to travel to US, especially students. Most of them, like I've— I never met any anybody in the US consulate was actually going on a business visa. Everybody was trying to get the F-1 visa, which is, you know, to study in the US. But I was also in the line. There were like, I don't know, 10 counters. We waited in the line for 2 hours. And, you know, the environment itself is set up in a way where it makes you nervous. And I was like pretty confident. But once I got there and I saw the entire line in front of me, rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected. I mean, trust me, there were genuine people who actually wanted or who deserve the, you know, education in U.S., but they were still getting rejected because in geopolitics, I don't know what happened. Like, uh, our PM was requesting Biden to kind of get things done faster, so he promised to clear the line. And when I mean clear the line, they have option to accept or reject. I have heard zero people saying they were accepted. Like, I met few hundred people there, nobody claimed that they actually got accepted for visa, for B1, B2, uh, you know, for F1, whatever the reason it is. They're just taking 30 seconds of time, asking a bunch of questions, rejected. That made me nervous. I was like, okay, I spent 2 weeks of my whole time personally scheduling all of these things, block my sales and fulfillment calendar, just got my time for this because I really wanted to be in US. Like, again, my goal is not to relocate there immediately or anything like that, My goal was just simply like be at the FHL, maybe spend, you know, 15 days there or a month, then also cover the high-level event which is happening, you know, close there. And I wanted to be like for one month and then come back to India. That was like my original plan. And I had significant amount in my bank as well. I was like showing a very, very like a good six-figure worth of amount in my bank account as well. And also showing I created everything. Financial documents, travel support documents, I booked my flights, my hotels, my entire itinerary. I mean, you name it, I've got a sponsor as well, just in case if the US consulate is worried if I can pay my bills or not. Like, I've done everything, but when the time comes, you know, somebody told me, like, I actually heard this from a lot of people actually, that US consulate already decides, like, you know, if they are going to accept or reject it. And the problem in my CV is, for the US consulate, I am a 22-year-old guy from India, doesn't have a college degree, not going for education purpose, and I'm claiming I have a business where there is like no clear proof for them. Like, again, you only can fill where you're going and what is your reason. I don't think you can add the reason. The reason is mentioned in the interview. So where you are going, so I was mentioning Orlando, Florida. Then he asked me a bunch of questions, uh, how long you have this company, why are you going. 'Are you married?' And then, like, after the first question answered, like, he already was typing in, you know, as rejected already. I could pretty much sense it on his face. So it was just a 30-second interview, 3 questions, I'm out. And we can't question them back about why am I being rejected. They give a simple form which has a bunch of reasons. And yeah, one more question I forgot to add was if I travel internationally. So my goal plan was actually be at the Funnel Hacking Live, but I couldn't because my visa got rejected. But my action plan for the next year hopefully is I need to travel to a few countries before I reapply my US visa. Hopefully I will get accepted next time because the first question is going to be, why do you want to go now because you already got rejected, kind of question. But I'll see what can happen. But that would be like the main goal right now, to travel a bunch of more countries before I actually go to the US US consulate and apply for my visa. There's few other ways I can get my visa, like, you know, investing a million dollars and going as an investor, which I'm not interested in right now. At the same time, I don't have intention to be in the US at the moment. I mean, I'm kind of in the fence, like, not sure. Like, a part of me craves to be in the US because all of my clients are in US. Like, I think that's opportunity land and whatnot. And the part of me is, you know, me being close to my family and, you know, being in the country I was actually born and whatnot. I'm also considering Dubai, so I'm like in confusion. But one thing is my family, like I live like 3-4 hour drive from where I am to actually go to my family right now, and they still kind of hate me for not being in home with them. And my mom still asks me every single time she calls me if I can consider to build an office on top of our home and be there. I always reject, unfortunately. And so I'm just like worried if I travel back somewhere at a very young age, you know, they might miss me and whatnot. Like, again, those are like some different concepts or some different things which are happening around. But that is it what happened. So I asked a few people, like, just because of the CV, like I don't have a degree, they probably assume like, okay, this guy who's 22 years old from India who has no college degree traveling to US will probably work at McDonald's hiding That's kind of their, you know, thought process most likely, and I don't think that is wrong as well. Like, there were thousands of people who have done that. That's why they're so scared about giving the visas. But I think they should pay a little bit attention and like, you know, interview, give more time. Like, when I actually spent 2 weeks of my own time, other students are spending 6 months of their time getting their loans approved, getting their financials sorted, getting the colleges approving them and whatnot. And then they come and within 30 seconds they're being rejected or accepted. Uh, it didn't really feel right to me, at least, you know. They could have spent some more time, like legitimately verified everything I'm giving, and after, if he has actually listened to my situation, then he genuinely thinks I shouldn't be there, I would be fine with that fact. But that didn't happen, and that's where I was like, ah, I spent 2 weeks of my own time and there are other people who are spending 6 months to be here, and then you spend 30 seconds and you say yes or no, 99% of the time you're saying no. I don't know, you know, it's not worth it to try in that case. So yeah, I mean, it was definitely a crazy experience. I'll tell you, I was not prepared to hear a no. Like, I mean, I was so confident on me, but my reason was legit, my documentation was spot on. He didn't even ask me to open a single document. He asked me 3, 4 questions, and in 30 seconds I answered fast and he was like, okay, we can't accept you right now, here you go. I was like, I don't know how to react because I was not prepared for that. But then, you know, after a few, few hours I was kind of in shock. Then I was like, okay, only worry about things you can control. I can't control if I can get the visa approved or not at this point, so not worry about that. Then I decided to enjoy my time in Mumbai. We traveled a few places along with my brother. Then I came back to Hyderabad and started working. Right now. So that is pretty much it. That was my visa experience. I got rejected, rejected, rejected. One of the very few times I actually got rejected, and this doesn't happen very often in my life. And I kind of get— I used to deal with a lot very differently when I had a different mindset, but I'm kind of more matured now, and I could feel, you know, I was not as disappointed as I used to be when I get something rejected. So I handled it very well. So had for myself. Now coming back, that's my action plan. We'll travel more countries and try to apply the US visa once again. And but I'm still disappointed because I can't get my own 2 comma club this time on the stage. I can't get these amazing awards which we have helped our clients achieve on the stage. I'm like, how can I make it happen? And I'm trying some sneaky ways here. Again, I'm not talking about me being in Mexico and walking over the border. No, I'm not saying that. I'm talking about even if I can't be physically there, I'm trying to kind of build a cutout of myself and ship it to the Orlando World Center when the event is happening, and hopefully have one of my clients or friends pick it up and take it to the stage when they call me and take an award, you know, instead of me, you know, by holding that award. Again, I'm still in the idea stage. I haven't finalized that yet. I will actually— well, do if that is something I can actually do. I'm taking approval from ClickFunnels team if that is, you know, okay with them. But yeah, that is it for now, guys. I hope I could crack that cutout thing for this year, then I hope I'll be able to physically visit next year. And that is it for now. So my CV is not strong enough, unfortunately. This is one of the very few times I regretted I didn't have a degree, but that was also not one of the reasons actually if I would get accepted or not. It was more about my travel history. If I would have a dozen countries in my passport already where I've traveled a lot I would have gotten it, maybe. Like, I don't know. Again, it's subjective because they're clearing the line, you know. The clearing the line means they're rejecting most of the people. At least that's what's happening. I heard zero people saying they got accepted, so I don't know what's happening there. But that is it for now. I wish Indian passport was strong enough to actually get visa much easily. But yeah, I don't know, like, US is making it tougher and tougher for for Indian people to even travel. Like, I was convinced to spend, you know, $20,000, $30,000, $50,000 in their country in the next month of myself being there, but they are not accepting me. Doesn't make sense. And I need to cancel my flights, lost money there, and cancel my hotels. You know, all of the effort and time I've spent, the opportunity cost of me not running my business and doing all of this shit didn't make sense. But yeah, like, next time I'm not going to spend this much time. I'll probably be prepared for 6 hours because I already have the playbook on what to be done. Then, you know, I will try again after having 3 to 4 countries in my passport. If it works, it works. Otherwise, no worries. So that is it, guys. Appreciate you watching this so far. And if you have any opinions, comment down below, like and share this with somebody who is also trying to get a US visa. And, uh, trust me, they're not giving at the moment, and my CV is not strong enough to get as well. That's it for now. Thank you so much for watching. Bye!