AOS FROM TOURIST VISA QUESTION

[KierenHby 897]

and people continue to wonder why so many girlfriends and boyfriends from other countries have difficulties getting tourist visas...thanks to these 'sudden' mind changes..do you really think that an experienced consular officer will be generous when they see so many mind changes in the country in which they are working? (they do receive notification from USCIS when somebody has the mind change that results in an AOS request)...

refusals don't take place because some consular officer is having a bad day...it's because of the constant reminder that mind changes seem to take place so frequently at baggage claim...

A bit off topic from OP's post.. but you did mention in another thread that you were\are a consular officer. So,

So, how come these "experienced consular officers" are generous enough to grant non-immigrant visas when they know full well a 20-something single applicant from a less-than ideal economic background, OR a parent\in-law of a USC is likely to change mind at baggage claim. Sounds like the COs are somewhat complicit then, IMO.

There are scattered online forums (you're probably familiar, I won't name them) full of queries about parents\in-laws\siblings AOSing from B visas.

[HFM181818 748]

simple....a percentage of relatively new, mostly inexperienced consular officers bring their own ideas to the window...instead of following the laws, they make decisions for reasons that are not in alignment with the current rules...'gee, she seemed like a nice person....' or 'I'd hate to refuse this person because they have spent $X for the application, transportation to the embassy, etc'...or (worse), 'I felt sorry for that person..and I wanted them to have a better life in the US.'...any of these subconscious (or conscious) reasons of approving a visa is an odds-on favorite to have been a mistake...some want to just be nice; others are uncomfortable engaging an applicant following a denial...they let emotions rule their decision-making instead of merely adhering to the laws of the INA...

it is also possible that some consular manager(s) have 'encouraged' a more generous approach (again, in violation of the INA) to adjudications....and thus the newer officers feel compelled to follow those suggestions lest their evaluations suffer....

consular officers are there to protect the interests of the United States of America, its culture and economy, not the interests of people living outside our country. When the newer (usually) consular officers forget this priority, bad things happen (bad being relative).

Congress wrote the laws a long time ago, with the idea in mind of protecting the interests of American workers and not providing shortcuts to other legal means of acquiring a green card or a work visa...sadly, over the years, constant tweaking of policy (which, BTW, does NOT trump LAW), has resulted in a lot of inconsistency in the visa adjudication process.

In the case of B2 applicants, for example, the law states that the 'consular officer must be convinced that the applicant will abide by the terms of the visa, etc''(paraphrased)...no mention of other influences...money paid for the application process is just money spent; emotional baggage on the part of a consular official will generally lead to an inaccurate decision, one that will most likely result in the baggage claim mind change, because the consular officer was blinded to a wide variety of visual and aural cues by the applicant that would likely have led to a different decision.

It is vital that a consular officer remain fully focused and not be drawn into the tear-jerking stories that are often told...or the thin excuses presented as to how a 24 year old can afford to take 5 months off of their job to 'see some friends.'