Preparing for visa interview for self and parents

[TBoneTX 45,957]

Considering that NIV interviews are scheduled to last for only a few minutes, and that a CO can refuse the visa upon a bad or hesitant answer to even the first question, HFM has provided the OP with a wealth of advance information.

[HFM181818 750]

Ought to know a H4 does not come with work authorisation.

I never said that the sister was working legally. And some H4s can work (rare)....

[HFM181818 750]

HFM,

How do you presume quite a bit, even without taking the itme to have your details clarified with the OP???

How do you know she has not taken a single class? She is in her second semester and master''s degree are a total of 4 semesters. The credit hours are different from the US and would take an eternity to explain it to you.

What makes you think that at 21, she is husband shopping and not looking at a career to settle into first?

The OP was looking for simple answers. Just give the simple answers instead of having to throw a whole lot of BS about her intentions and her sister having a child!!! Get a grip dude.

Easy....validation studies have shown that young, single women from developing countries are huge favorites to 'forget to return' as a tourist...as far as simple answers go, that is what I gave her. When you have interviewed more than 150,000 applicants, give me a call...then we can have a conversation from similar perspectives.

A former colleague of mine, who worked for nearly 3 years in India, gave me the following statistics based on his/her observation and validation studies:

single women ages 18-29 - non-return rate = 93% chance that any such applicant will disappear. That is way too high to be taken lightly.

[TomEn 90]

Easy....validation studies have shown that young, single women from developing countries are huge favorites to 'forget to return' as a tourist...as far as simple answers go, that is what I gave her. When you have interviewed more than 150,000 applicants, give me a call...then we can have a conversation from similar perspectives.

A former colleague of mine, who worked for nearly 3 years in India, gave me the following statistics based on his/her observation and validation studies:

single women ages 18-29 - non-return rate = 93% chance that any such applicant will disappear. That is way too high to be taken lightly.

That did not answer the question on how a presumption can be made about the OP's intention,let alone the fact that her education status and various other information were simply "presumed" due to the past studies!!! Rude.

All you had to do was just give the status that was given by your colleague. Not try and state what the OP's education was and presume that she never started her course. Also falling under the category of presumption would be her sister being pregnant and working "legally" or "illegally".

I accept your validation thanks to your ex-colleague, but that does not warrant presumptions on what the OP is or will be nor to presume details about her family.

All i am saying is, just give the facts without presuming this or that is what the person is and this or that is what the other person's thought is!!

Simple, do not make it personal. Look at it objectively and if in doubt, ask for your questions to be clarified!!!

[TomEn 90]

Considering that NIV interviews are scheduled to last for only a few minutes, and that a CO can refuse the visa upon a bad or hesitant answer to even the first question, HFM has provided the OP with a wealth of advance information.

Yes, no one questioned the "wealth of knowledge". It is the delivery of such knowledge coupled with presumptions that is under question here

[HFM181818 750]

I never said that I did stop at 150,000....but with 0 under your belt, you are a long way from fully understanding how a CO approaches the day....we don't have the luxury of spending 20-30 minutes with each B2 applicant, so we can sit down with some tea, hold hands, regale each other with our life stories, etc.....we move fast...and when we are interviewing high risk candidates, our approach is to try and eliminate the more obvious reasons why someone might wish to go to the US....and we start from a position that gets to the subject matter very fast.

Since every B2 applicant is presumed by law to be going to the US to stay, our job is to try and sort out the bona fide ones from the others....and that can mean some pointed questions aimed towards the applicant to assess their credibility....quickly. Is it a perfect system? No. But since our CBP folks lack the support of Congress and since Congress legislates laws filled with loopholes, our job is to close that gap as best we can (or did).

Since the preponderance of young, single women from developing countries have a poor track record of returning to their home country following a visit, they are going to (and did) receive more scrutiny than perhaps some other folks (like the older generation, who will still get some scrutiny, but from a different perspective).

A CO would be a fool to do otherwise, as many of my former colleagues discovered.

[HFM181818 750]

I am retired, no longer required to engage in 'diplo-speak'....I don't believe in sugarcoating things, others do...that's their choice. Someone asked a question, and did not add, 'how strong are our chances and....please...only give me the absolute, there is an Easter Bunny, response, and tell me that I will be approved without a doubt and I don't want to hear any other answer..."....I have not seen any other answer that even comes close to mine in terms of accuracy, in spite of the words or questions chosen.

[TBoneTX 45,957]

*** Thread locked for review. ***

[TBoneTX 45,957]

This thread is reopened. Several posts have been removed from the thread for argumentative/assaultive/bickering/noncontributory posting behavior, and administrative action has been applied against two participants.

One post has been edited (to remove references to deleted material) and is returned to the thread, as follows:

The OP asked, "My parents have their own business here in india. We wish to visit my elder sister and her husband living in san jose. Our trip will be sponsored by my sister's husband. How strong are the chances of us getting the visa? What documents should i carry to support our case? ".....she now has a far more accurate answer than any other. Her first post did not state what status her sister (and husband) were in...I asked whether LPR or something else...she asked about documents.....note that I mentioned none. Someone else suggested a receipt for tuition....(whoop dee doo - how does a receipt overcome 214b?). Anyone have an idea of how many first or second year/semester students forget to return and complete their education, especially from developing countries? The percentage is off the charts. It's not one in 4000 - it's sky high. As for granting a visa, well, a lot depends on the answers given during the interview. I was merely setting the stage, to see what responses I got (just like I did in my former life), because from there, (when done in person), I can glean a lot by asking and listening, even in 3 minutes.

I estimated her chances as about 5%....while her parents somewhere around 50-50. Of course, a minor concern regarding the parents is that in spite of owning a business, they apparently cannot afford their own plane tickets....so how well is that business doing? If they barely eke out a living, that's not much of a reason to return. There is far more than meets the eye when it comes to assessing the credibility of a B2 applicant than a reviewing a couple of documents.....much more.

Everyone should please direct comments toward the OP's questions/situation rather than toward one another. Thanks for heeding this.

TBoneTX

VJ Moderation

[Boiler 45,949]

Theses threads do amuse me, obviously the amount of information given compared to what is on the application form is minimal so we all fill in the gaps.

I do not know anyone who has their own business who could take a month off, but then have one's own business covers a very wide field.

[HFM181818 750]

that can be another issue....the most often heard answer when a business owner was quizzed about taking time off (at least, at my window), 'oh, my brother or BIL will take care of it for me...'....when asked why said relative could not 'take care' of said business for a longer period of time, the typical answer was, 'well, he, er, he has to go back to work!'...Work? Where does he work? And then the answers became rather garbled....

Sure, some biz owners can take a vacation, but they surely need someone trustworthy and capable to run that biz in their absence...who might that be? (some claimed to have managers, others just offered some vague answer..'it's the slow season..')....but again, only when these folks are interviewed will a CO determine their bona fides....I merely shared how a CO might approach the interview...and why.

[EM_Vandaveer 2,408]

It needs to be understood that immigrant intent is presumed first (according to the law) and this has to be overcome for the citizens of non-VWP countries who wish to obtain a tourist visa.

In other words they have to prove why they'd return rather than why they'd like to visit (although I believe a specific reason to visit can be helpful).

[az2014 381]

That did not answer the question on how a presumption can be made about the OP's intention,let alone the fact that her education status and various other information were simply "presumed" due to the past studies!!! Rude.

All you had to do was just give the status that was given by your colleague. Not try and state what the OP's education was and presume that she never started her course. Also falling under the category of presumption would be her sister being pregnant and working "legally" or "illegally".

I accept your validation thanks to your ex-colleague, but that does not warrant presumptions on what the OP is or will be nor to presume details about her family.

All i am saying is, just give the facts without presuming this or that is what the person is and this or that is what the other person's thought is!!

Simple, do not make it personal. Look at it objectively and if in doubt, ask for your questions to be clarified!!!

You what?

They are already presumed to want to stay in the USA as soon as they fill out the form online, thats the law. And off course its personal, how else would they decide whether to grant or deny the visa.

You are trying to take some moral high ground but have no clue what you are talking about.

[Bzegurl 41]

Hello

I am a 21 years old unmarried female from India. I am currently in the first year of my Msc(2 year course). I along with my parents have a visitor visa appointment at mumbai embassy on 21st march. My parents have their own business here in india. We wish to visit my elder sister and her husband living in san jose. Our trip will be sponsored by my sister's husband. How strong are the chances of us getting the visa? What documents should i carry to support our case?

Way too much stuff just go with faith you will never know a beginners luck. Good luck

[HFM181818 750]

there is no such thing as 'beginner's luck' when it comes to obtaining a US visa...at least, not if I trained said CO...luck was never a factor....it all hinged around the applicant....neither myself nor anyone I trained sat at the window, ready to fall prey to some sympathetic tale of woe, or change a decision because the applicant started crying, nor ever change a decision just because Congressman Slushfund wrote a letter or had a staffer call....nope, pure, unemotional adjudication....forget papers....ask the applicant questions, make a decision, case closed. No looking back, no second-guessing oneself (99% of the time), back one's judgment to the absolute limits without regard to the opinions of others...isolate the 'noise' from the self-interested....it may, at times, sound cold, but at the end of the day, we make (made) decisions on our own, without input from third parties....to try and keep the process free from influence, whether real or perceived...and speaking from my own experience, that meant sometimes telling a colleague from another part of our embassy that the answer to their pleading and begging and whatever was....'no!' (and that their new girlfriend, who they met at a bar a week ago, was not getting a tourist visa anytime soon!)

No doubt, I missed a few parties or free lunches....I did not care...I wanted no part of anyone claiming that I 'was for sale', that I played favorites, etc. It can be a lonely world as a CO....but like baseball umpires, we do our jobs while the crowd boos....

Edited March 1, 2016 by HFM181818