My Sister is applying for a tourist visa (b1/b2) but studies, can she get it?

[calengineer 4]

My sister, Mexican, is 20 years old and is currently studying in Mexico in a college for a degree. However, she wants to apply to get a tourist visa (b1/b2). How likely is it that she can get it in Mexico?

Also,

0. Other than the DS-160, what should she take to the interview?

1. She has never applied for a visa before

2. Our mother already have a tourist visa and has obeyed the law, entering and exiting the country

3. Almost all of her immediately family is in Mexico, except me, not in the USA, and our brother, in the USA.

Thanks!!

[Ryan H 3,812]

Answers:

• Odds that she will receive a tourist visa are probably less than 50/50.
• The DS-160 is submitted online, she would not take it to the interview (but would need to print out the confirmation page and take that). She should take evidence of her ties to Mexico.
• irrelevant
• irrelevant
• irrelevant

[Hypnos 6,576]

Generally it's more difficult for younger people to show ties to their home country when applying for tourist visas. By law, they are presumed to be an intending immigrant until the consular officer is convinced that they are not. I would suggest her chances are slim.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Hypnos

[calengineer 4]

Answers:

• Odds that she will receive a tourist visa are probably less than 50/50.
• The DS-160 is submitted online, she would not take it to the interview (but would need to print out the confirmation page and take that). She should take evidence of her ties to Mexico.
• irrelevant
• irrelevant
• irrelevant

But what other evidence can she take to prove ties to Mexico? she's obviously a student and is half way her career. If someone provided an invitation letter from the states would it help?

[Boiler 45,525]

If she does ot apply, zero, if she applies something more than that, a pretty straightforward process.

But what other evidence can she take to prove ties to Mexico? she's obviously a student and is half way her career. If someone provided an invitation letter from the states would it help?

Whatever evidence she has, how would a letter help?

[Ryan H 3,812]

If someone provided an invitation letter from the states would it help?

No

[HFM181818 750]

Invitation letters line the trash bins in almost every consulate....totally worthless...how did the brother get to (and stay) in the US?

The CO would have to be about 160% convinced that whatever her studies are cannot be duplicated readily in the US, that whatever she is studying, she has far more to lose by abandoning those studies....hard to say, not knowing what degree she is seeking...if something common, well, she could, after marrying, (or just by doing the ever popular COS to F1, continue those studies in the US)....go to school in the US as a CR1....those are the possibilities that an experienced CO will be contemplating...now, though you might think this unfair or unusual, I can tell you from my own considerable experience that young female students from just about every country in which I worked were poor B2 candidates...(which means, their overall rate of return was quite low).

[Boiler 45,525]

Millions of Me icans do have B or BCC visas.

[HFM181818 750]

Border Crossing Cards are a thing of the past...yes, lots of people from Mexico have visas; lots of people from Mexico abuse them as well, often using a B2 like a portable green card, coming to the US to (a) clean houses (b) part time cook © various types of lawn maintenance/landscaping work, like on golf courses....(d) construction...

Young single women (not only from MX) use it to shop for husbands....

At the end of the day, the OP's sister will likely find it challenging to be granted a B2 - not impossible, but far from a 'slam dunk.'