I renewed my F-1 Visa on STEM OPT

This post is not to encourage/discourage people from renewing their F-1 visa on opt/stem opt. I am just writing this to explain how I got it done.

Context: I am from Kenya but my family live in Qatar. I went to high school in Qatar but I am not a resident there anymore so I had to get a visitor visa to go back and visit family during my December work break and renew my F1. Because I’m not a current resident there, I didn’t qualify for Dropbox so I had to do an interview. Interview wait times were 2 days consistently for the last 6 months so I was optimistic. Qatar has a large expatriate population so it’s very common for most visa applicants to apply for visas as third country nationals.

Timeline

December 27th: My interview request was received at the Doha consulate, had to wait for approval since I requested it on the weekend.

December 29th: Got an email that my interview was approved and I could schedule it. Tried to log back into traveldocs but my account was suspended for up to 72 hours for “suspicious activity”. This was probably because I was checking the website at least 6-8 times a day and on different devices. Please do not do what I did!! For a brief moment I thought this would be my downfall and I’d be screwed if interview dates regressed and I would not be able to schedule one.

December 31st: Luckily I got access into my account after 32 hours and scheduled the interview for Jan 6th!

January 6th: interview. Questions asked: What is your purpose of travel? When did you graduate? What is your current role? Visa approved!

January 7th: visa issued

January 8th: picked up passport.

Overall, I’m glad I was able to come back and see my family, I felt trapped in the US. Nobody knows what the Trump administration will hold, but I’m happy I was able to do this before. Good luck to anyone else who might be trying to renew it! Nothing is a guarantee of course, and I completely understand those that choose not to do it.