Career Counselling

If you are planning to travel to United States for pursuing a career-oriented course or any profession, you must first obtain a travel document called a visa. USA visa can be subcategorized into two groups: nonimmigrant and immigrant visas. A nonimmigrant visa is a short- term visa for a temporary stay, but an immigrant visa helps you to stay in the United States permanently.
However, a visa is not a certificate of sure entry to the U.S rather it is the characteristic representation of that the U.S. consular officer has reviewed your application, and that the officer has judged him eligible for the post.

Process of the Application of US VISA

The process of filling up the application of VISA is not a very simple part, and hence it required much preparation from the very beginning. In this process, first of all, you have to determine the type of your visa- if it is immigrant or non-immigrant visa. The below given points are the procedures of getting a registered VISA. Any mistake in following these steps can bring hazards to your safe journey to the United States.

• Start with uploading photo. Now access the form DS-160 from the website. Answer questions as thoroughly as possible before submitting; remember incomplete forms may not be accepted.
• Now get the DS-160 barcode confirmation sheet printed on a laser printer. You must have a soft copy of the page to yourself as a backup copy.
• Pay the visa application fee at an approved HDFC bank.
• Remember, you have to make the appointments using your barcode number and fee receipt. After that, download and print your VFS appointment letter.
• In many cases, you just need to drop off your required documents within three working days, before applying for the appointment at a VFS center in various places.
• In case you are a H (H-1B, H-3, and H-4) and L (L-1, L-2) visa applicant, you must submit documents only within four working days before the visa appointment date. Sometimes the VISA authorities may ask you to submit documents earlier; however, it is not more than five working days in advance of the visa appointment date.
• For interview in the US VISA center in your city, you have to report to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate within fifteen minutes before your appointment. Do not forget to carry appropriate documents and follow security regulations. Check, out the details given by the VISA center of your city to get a practical knowledge of the documents, you need to carry on your interview.
• After, you qualify the interview session and submitted all necessary documents that are a valid proof of your reason that why you want to go to the United States, you will be selected to have the registered Visa.
• Approved visas are returned by courier.

So, wait no more! Visit the United States VISA center at your city today to get your VISA for that state registered .

When it comes to traveling overseas for pursuing higher studies or any profession, the most crucial point is definitely applying for VISA. To have a great and trouble free journey, it is essential to make prior arrangements of VISA so that you don’t face any difficulty during your travel. In every country, there is an official VISA application centers, where you can go and collect information and finally apply for the VISA. The core job of these centers is to help people applying for visa, without any inconveniences.

Purpose of UK VISA

UK VISA is an entry or clearance certificate that is attached with your passport or travel document as a permission grant to enter the United Kingdom (UK). On arrival in the UK, Border Force officer will check the reasons for your travelling in the VISA. Normally, you have to apply before 3 months in advance of your intended date of travel to the UK.

Steps to apply for UK VISA
Normally, the VISA application process comprises of three steps. Check these steps here:

· First of all you need to go through the information on your visa category. Get a full idea of the purposes of the VISA and the Immigration Rules, as your visa application will need to meet these requirements.

· There will be different visa application form for each member including even children. Do ensure that you select the correct visa application depending on the purpose of your visit. Download an appropriate visa application form from the UK Border Agency Website. Get it printed on a good quality of paper and make sure that the information does not exceed the margins. Finally complete it in English and sign it.

• Get your documents prepared before. While providing the photocopy of your documents make sure that you have the original documents with you Failure to submit original documents may mean your application is delayed or refused. You need to provide the supporting documents properly translated if these are not in English. The translated documents must include the clear details of the translator’s name and confirmation that it is an accurate translation of the original document. It must also be dated and include the original signature of the translator.
• Your travel documents include at least one blank page on both sides so the visa can be inserted, completely filled, signed VISA form, 1 recent passport sized photo.
• Check out the ‘Visa application fee’ page on this website for information about how to pay your visa application fee and a full list of the fee categories.
• Finally, you have to wait for the decisions of your visa application form.
• At last, you will have to attend an interview. UK Border Agency visa staff reserve the right to make decisions on the basis of the information and documents submitted with the application. make sure that you have submitted all relevant documents with your application. you need to be on the interview venue on the perfect time.

If you have any plans to pursue your career dreams or just visiting New Zealand doing the holidays, the Immigration bureau of New Zealand offers a number of temporary and permanent migration options. When it comes to apply for VISA for New Zealand, the young generations aged between 18 and 30 are more eligible to travel to New Zealand on a Working Holiday.

Types of New Zealand Visa

New Zealand VISA is of different kinds depending on the purpose of visiting. For work permit in New Zealand on a permanent basis, you should file your VISA Application under the Skilled Migration Policy. Skilled workers also have the permit to apply for a VISA on a temporary basis through New Zealand’s Work Permit Policy.

Holidaymakers however do not need a visa to travel to New Zealand, in case they are permanent citizen of a country, which has a visa waiver agreement with New Zealand. If your country has no such agreement, you will need to apply for a Visitor’s Visa.

Details of Different Types of VISA

The detail information of different kinds of VISA is given below:

Skilled Migration VISA- It is the most crucial part of New Zealand Immigration strategy. With a registered Skilled Migration VISA, you can enjoy the opportunity to immigrate to New Zealand by helping boost the New Zealand skilled workforce. It follows a step-by-step application process, right from the initial assessment of ability to the settlement stage in New Zealand.

Business VISA- Such Visa is intended to attracting business owners, investors and entrepreneurs, which will at the economic growth of New Zealand. You can avail this business VISA either as a permanent residence, or temporary resident , after working for several years in New Zealand.

Working Holiday VISA- This VISA offers young people aged between 18 and 30, a grand opportunity to travel to New Zealand and embrace any employment options to earn money during that stay. With this visa, you can enjoy casual working rights, and your employment will be completely subjected to the VISA rules, regulations and timelines.

Under the Working Holiday Scheme, you should stay in New Zealand for a total of 12 months minimum. In many cases, it can be extended to 23 months, if you are from the United Kingdom.

To qualify under this category, you must have the following:

• A citizen of a country having working holiday agreement with New Zealand;
• Meet Working Holiday basic requirements like age, health and character prerequisites;
• Not qualified under the Working Holiday Visa Scheme before.

Tourist VISA- To qualify under tourist visa scheme , you must have the following

• Holding a New Zealand Residence Permit
• An Australian citizen, or Australian resident holding a permanent Resident Return Visa currently

• British citizen or a traveler holding a British passport should have a right to live in the United Kingdom. Under the Tourist VISA scheme, you are not allowed to visit New Zealand for more than 3 months.

Visa application should be made before 3 months of the stipulated date of travelling. Canadian VISA is no exception from these rules. Before travelling to Canada, you make prior arrangements of VISA, so that you do not need to face any inconveniences later. However, the arrangement of VISA starts with visiting the official VISA application Center of Canada in your country. You can collect all the credentials of VISA application from there or from the website of the official center.

Types of Canadian VISA

Depending on the purpose of your visit to Canada, VISAs are of four types- Student VISA (Those who want to travel in Canada for pursuing higher studies), Working VISA (which offers a entry certificate for working in that land), Visa for Visitors ( A VISA who are looking for visiting the land and passing holidays there) and the Permanent residents (those who are trying to reside there permanently).

VISA Processing Charges At the Application Centers

VISA fee is the mandatory part of the Application process, however, getting it done and registered from any official service centers involve some expenses. Apart from the visa fee, visa applicants outside that country are required to pay a non-refundable service charge. In most cases, the VISA Application Centers, do not accept personal cheques. The payment has to be paid in cash. For more details about the service charges, you must visit the office in person or go through the guidelines of VISA application given in the website.

Security purpose of the Canadian VISA Application

Due to the increasing threats of terror, international security has become far more stringent and so it the VISA processing. A lot of revisions has been made in the VISA application forms and from 9^th March, 2008 , followings are excluded from the VISA permit:

• You cannot carry any battery operated and electronic gadgets such as cameras, audio/video cassettes, compact discs, MP3′s, floppies, laptops, or portable music players.
• You cannot carry those bags and baggage, such as travel bags, backpacks, briefcases, suitcases, leather, jute or cloth bags and zip folders. Only a plastic bag containing your application related papers would be allowed while travelling.
• Sealed envelopes or packages cannot be carried during the travel to Canada. Any inflammable item such as matchboxes or lighters or fuel etc are strictly excluded and person carrying these will be severely punished according to the international statute law.
• Any sharp objects such as scissors, pen knives or nail filers are strictly prohibited
• Weapon or weapon like objects or explosive material of any kind are not allowed

The above list is not finite as the authorities can alter their decisions as they wish due to the security purpose. In many cases, the VISA Authorities of Canada do not permit any interested parties such as friends, relatives, business contacts, or any other contacts to accompany visa applicants. Only the interpreters can travel with people having hearing imparity and physical challenges on their way to Canada.

Di you have any plans to visit or study in the serene land of Australia? Then you must focus on arranging for registered VISA for travelling to Australia. The VISA application and registration office at your city can help you lodge your visa application in time. Normally, you need to apply for the VISA before the stipulated day of making travel to Australia. In many cases, you can just send your visa application directly to the neatest center of Australian VISA. However, you need to consider carefully the details of postal requirements of the VISA application form. You can get these details in the official website of Australian VISA. For more details on documentation, visiting the VISA center in person can help you.

In India, VISA Application Centers (VAC) in India are located in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Cochin and Kathmandu.
Accepting visa applications at the centers is subjected to the legal requirements for visa applications and the decision-making process for the grant of Australian visas solely rests on Australian High Commission. After you submit your application, it will be checked , assesses and decided by the visa and immigration office at the Australian High Commission, both in your state and in Australia as well. To get an Australian VISA, your application must be in accordance with the Australian immigration legislation and policy.
The Australian Visa Application Centers in other countries mainly involves in providing the services like collection of visa application documents coupled with relevant visa application charges and returning of passports to the VISA applicants, after considering all the details. The operations and services provided by the Visa Application Centre in other countries rests within the jurisdictional guidelines of client service principles of the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).  While applying for VISA, you need to provide a non-refundable VFS service fee, along with the visa fees.

How to Apply for Australian VISA

For VISA Application, you need to go through the official Australian VISA centers at your nearest location. There you will get the details of VISA application. The applications can be submitted at any of the Application Center between 8:00am to 4:00pm from Monday to Friday.

You can get the Australian VISA application form the nearest VISA Centers, but if required, you can also get the visa application form by downloading the form from the website directly. You can get the downloaded form, printed. After filling the form properly, you have to submit the Visa application form-either by visiting the center or by sending it through Courier or Post. Kindly visit the official website of Australian High Commission to get a thorough idea about the Australian VISA and the submission process.

Other requirements to get Australian Visa

Do not forget to provide the following documents at the time of lodging the application:

· Good quality photocopy of the Bio Data page of the current Passport;

· Clear photocopy of any endorsement pages or change of name pages in the current passport.

Hardly anyone will deny that if the profession of an individual is in the same line with his passion, he can perform better. However, many of us simply avoid this idea, when it comes to choosing our own job and the obvious result is that we lose our interest to pursue that path. This can land many of us in disaster causing a setback in our professional career. Therefore, the career counseling has emerged as the only convenient way to address this problem.

Purpose of Career counseling

Typically, career counseling is a process, which helps in identifying the career interest of an individual and in this way, the ideal profession or career options for him. The job of identifying the interests is not as simple as it sounds. Career counselors have many strategic ways do this and the best approach to this is definitely a combination of carious proved methods, which in total find solutions for getting you the right path.

Online Career Counseling Tests

One of these methods used by the professional counselors is to take career interest test. It is considered as a starting point for ideas and exploration of your career interests. Nowadays, a number of career tests available online. Unlike simple fun “quizzes”, these tests are valid and reliable. One of the most popular online career test or questionnaire is the Strong Interest Inventory or SII. Being available online, it can be used all around the world by career counselors at the same time. Following the test report, a career counselor can give you the necessary career advice. The interesting fact about this process is that the online career tests saves your time and at the same time helps in finding right career path.

Another useful tool used commonly by career counselors around the world is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test or popularly called MBTI. You can also sit for this online test along with the Strong Interest Inventory.

In some cases, these online tests replace the requirement of a professional career counselor. However, you need to make a thorough research about the tests yourself, which otherwise would have done by the counselors.

Effectiveness of the Online Career counseling

Online career counseling and personality test essentially, opens up your mind to a multiple career possibilities. The fields, which you cannot ever think of exploring, can appear more lucrative career once you take help from such online career counseling. The effectiveness of online career counseling lies in making you feel comfortable and confident in exploring those career possibilities, which were otherwise beyond your conception.

You will find numerous online career counseling tests through search engines like Google. However, the good one is that which will provide the candidate with many career options and a brief explanation of the reason for which the option may suit to your personality and caliber. In order to maximise the benefit of the career test online, several revisions and updates are being made. While looking for such tests, enter the keyword “registered professional career counselors list” or something similar, to narrow down the most relevant result.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language is abbreviated as TOEFL. It is intended to evaluate the ability of a student to understand English in an academic setting. It is considered as the admission requirement for non-native English speakers for education and profession. A TOEFL score is valid for two years after the completion of two years, your score won’t be considered as your language proficiency level. Colleges and universities usually consider only the most recent TOEFL score.

It is widely known that TOEFL test is a registered trademark of Educational Testing Service (ETS) and is valid worldwide. Administrated first in1964, till date the exam has been passed by more than 23 million students. The test was originally developed at the Center for Applied Linguistics under the direction of Stanford University.

The TOEFL Committee of Examiners comprises of 12 specialists in linguistics, teaching, language testing, or research. The board is considered as the advisory body of the TOEFL test content.

Formats and Contents of TOEFL

The format of the TOEFL can be categorised into two parts- internet based test and paper based test. The detailed discussion of these two formats is given below.

Internet based test

Internet based tests have been introduced in phases, with the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy in 2005 and the rest of the world in 2006. This is replaced by Computer based training. This is a four-hour test consists of four sections, with special focus on the basic language skills (however, some tasks require integrating multiple skills) and majority of the questions are based on language used in an academic, higher-education environment. The Internet based test can be subcategorized into- reading, listening, Speaking and writing

Reading – There will be 3 to 5 passages to read focused on academic topics. After going through the passages, you have to answer questions like cause-effect, compare-contrast and argumentation, details, inferences, essential information, sentence insertion, vocabulary, rhetorical purpose and overall ideas.

Listening – This section comprises of six passages 3–5 minutes in length and questions about the passages. Student conversations and four academic lectures or discussions are the main part of this section. There will be two speakers, a student and either a professor or a campus service provider in this section. This section is focused on maintaining the ability of the student to understand main ideas.

Speaking- Speaking test will help to evaluate, how comfortably, a student can express his views.

Writing- Writing test is intended to check out how practically and clearly, a student can express his views. Proficiency in grammar and vocabulary is also evaluated in this part.

Paper-based Test

Paper based tests are administered on fixed dates 6 times each year. The test is 3 hours long and consisted of same parts as the former.

Listening – The Listening section consists of 3 parts and consisted of 50 questions

Structure and Written Expression – In this section, you have to complete 15 exercises sentence completion and 25 exercises of identifying errors.

Reading Comprehension – It contains 50 questions about reading passages.

Writing- it contains one essay with 250–300 words in average.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test, abbreviated as SAT, is defined as a standardized test for college admissions in the United States and other English Speaking countries. Owned, published and developed by the College Board, it has been controlled and scored by the Educational Testing Service till date. The test is designed to determine a student’s proficiency for admission in the colleges there.

The modern structure of SAT is developed in 2005 and costs about $47 ($75 International), without the late fees. The scoring varies from 600 to 2400. The scoring of this test comprises of the test results from three 800-point sections (math, critical reading, and writing).

Objective of SAT

According to the score of the SAT literacy and writing skills that are required for passing the academic year in college successfully. The paper is designed in such a way, so that your analyzing and problem solving skills can be judged. Essentially SAT is organized by high school sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Structure of the SAT

The test of SAT can be categorized into three major sections: Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. The scoring of each section varies scale of 200–800. Total scores are calculated by adding up scores of the three sections. Each major section is divided into three parts, each with 10 subsections. The test lasts for 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Following are the main areas of concern of SAT.

Critical Reading

The Critical Reading (formerly Verbal) section of the SAT comprises of three scored sections: two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section. The questions mainly include sentence completions and short and long reading passages. Critical Reading sections normally begin with 5 to 8 sentence completion questions. It will determine the students’ proficiency of vocabulary and understanding of sentence structure. The maximum of the Critical Reading section is composed of questions regarding reading passages. The passage contains short excerpts from the subjects like social sciences, humanities, physical sciences, or personal narratives and answer questions based on the passage.

Mathematics

The Mathematics test section of the SAT is the Quantitative Section, which determines analytical skill of the students. The mathematics section consists of three scored sections – two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section. The 25 minutes section comprises of multiple choice, with 28 questions in total. Rest 16 is also multiple-choice question, but the timeline is 20 minutes.

Calculator Use

Calculator using test us intended to judge the skill of students to use calculator. It is also determined from the test that how fast the students can use it.

Writing

The writing section of the SAT comprises of multiple-choice questions and a brief essay. The essay contains about 28% of the total writing score. The rest of the score is contributed by the multiple-choice question.

The multiple-choice questions encompass error identification questions, sentence improvement questions, and paragraph improvement questions. In the essay part, you will be asked to write essay on common subjects. Experts say this part is comparatively easy to handle.

International English Language Testing System abbreviated as IELTS is typically defines as an international standardized test of English language proficiency. The examination is jointly controlled by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations, the British Council and IDP Education Pty Ltd, after it was established in 1989.

Typically, the IELTS can be categorized as the Academic Version and the General Training Version.

1. The Academic Version is especially for those who want to take admission in the universities and other institutions of higher education. The professionals like medical doctors and nurses, who seek to pursue a professional career in abroad, have to sit for this exam also.

2. The General training version is for those, who are looking for pursing non-academic training or gaining work experience, or for immigration purposes.

The exam of IELTS is accepted in the institutions like Australian, British, Canadian, Irish, New Zealand and South Africa and over 3,000 academic institutions and professional organizations in the United States,. It is also the primary for immigration to Australia and Canada.

The result or the Test Report Form (TRF) of the IELTS Examination is valid for two years.

Structure of IELTS

The paper of IELTs consists of four Modules – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Although the modules of Listening and Speaking are same, the Reading and Writing Modules varies according to the candidate’s willingness to take the Academic or General Training Versions of the Test.

Listening

The listening module comes with four sections. At the beginning of each sections, there is a short introduction, which informs the candidates about the situation and the speakers. They then have some time look through the questions. The first three sections of the question have a break in the middle. You cannot hear each section more than once.

Reading

The reading test follows the academic module has three sections. It comprises of 13 or 14 questions. There is a General test, which also contains 3 sections. However, the texts are shorter than the previous ones, but the number of texts to be read can be 5.

Writing

The writing part of IELTS comprises of two sections and the second section us an decriptive essay.

Speaking

The speaking test us one of the most important parts and consists of three sections. The first section involves a comprehensive round of interview during which candidates may be asked about their hobbies, interests and obviously the reasons for taking IELTS exam. Apart from these, you may be asked about general topics like clothing, your free time, computers and the internet or about your family. In the second section, candidates have to speak about an topic for a certain limit of time. Topic card will be given to the students and he will get a minute to prepare for that. The third section is a discussion round between the examiner and the candidate. The question in this part, mainly involves the questions relating to the theme, on which the candidates have already spoken in the second round of the interview.

For admission in the Graduate schools in the United States and other top universities worldwide, GRE test is conducted. The Graduate Record Examination is a standardized test, which is administered by Educational Testing Service (or ETS) since 1949. Through this exam the verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing and critical thinking skills of a student is judged. The General Test of GRE is delivered as a computer adaptive exam, which is run by selected qualified testing centers. The paper-based exam of GRE is intended for countries, where the convenience of computer-based testing is not available. Although the level of emphasis is placed upon GRE scores, yet the scores widely vary between the colleges and the fields of study.

Normally, the cost of GRE ranges from US$160 and 210, depending on the country where the test is conducted. In many cases, students with economic hardships are awarded financial aid but that student has to be a brilliant student.

Structure of the GRE Test

GRE test comprises of four sections- the first one is a writing section, and the other three are multiple-choice style questions. One of the multiple choice style questions will judge the verbal skills of the candidate, while the second is designed to test the quantitative skills and a third exam is an experimental section to judge the analytical skill of the student. The mark obtained in this paper is not included in the reported score. The examination timeline of GRE is 4 hours.

Verbal section

To judge the verbal ability, the question paper comprises of analogies, completions, and reading comprehension passages. The questions are generally, multiple-choice response sections, which are scored on a scale of 200-800. This test is to judge the proficiency of the students in vocabulary. In this paper, there are 30 questions, which should be completed by 30 minutes.

Quantitative section

The quantitative section comprises of multiple questions, which includes problem solving and quantitative comparison questions. It is the test to test the mathematical skills of the students 200-800, in 10-point increments. Typically, the paper consists of 28 questions, and the candidates have to complete it by 45 minutes. It includes14 quantitative comparison questions, 10 discrete quantitative questions and 4 data interpretation questions.

Analytical writing section

This part is designed to determine the analytical skill of the students. The section includes two different essays- an “issue task” and an “argument task”. The writing section is graded on a scale of 0-6, in half-point increments. The essays are given on a computer based word processer but without any advanced feature. You have to prove your skills there. The essays will be checked by three readers.

Experimental section

The experimental section can be a verbal, quantitative, or analytical writing task. Although its score is not count toward the candidate’s real score, yet it is considered, as an important part to qualify the GRE Test. Experimental section is not common to all GRE examinations. The score of this part is used only for research purpose.