Tourist visa in Baghdad

[Quarknase 1,072]

Hi Everyone,

 

I wasn't able to find any info on success rate of tourist visa approval in Baghdad Embassy.

My boyfriend wants to come visit me for a month or two after Bachelor graduation, before he starts his masters. It's a good moment to spend some face time - my travel abilities are limited to a couple of weeks per year due to work, and he's got some geographical flexibility on his hands while he's applying for Universities to start his masters.

He can show ties to home (house, business) and financials to support his trip, even though he would obviously stay with me so there's not much to support besides day-to-day expenses.

I'm a permanent resident, not US Citizen - hence the risk for him to stay and AOS is non existent. Besides, he wants to go back and study anyways.

 

Anyone with advise/first- or second hand experience?

[aaron2020 11,651]

It's gonna be an uphill battle for an single young male Iraqi to get a visitor visa.

 

You being a permanent resident does not mean the risk for him to overstay is non existent.   You are a strong tie to the US.  You are not a strong tie to his home country.  Not being able to AOS has not stop lots of people from overstaying their visitor visas.  

 

Best of luck.  

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

2 hours ago, Quarknase said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I wasn't able to find any info on success rate of tourist visa approval in Baghdad Embassy.

My boyfriend wants to come visit me for a month or two after Bachelor graduation, before he starts his masters. It's a good moment to spend some face time - my travel abilities are limited to a couple of weeks per year due to work, and he's got some geographical flexibility on his hands while he's applying for Universities to start his masters.

He can show ties to home (house, business) and financials to support his trip, even though he would obviously stay with me so there's not much to support besides day-to-day expenses.

I'm a permanent resident, not US Citizen - hence the risk for him to stay and AOS is non existent. Besides, he wants to go back and study anyways.

 

Anyone with advise/first- or second hand experience?

57% refusal rate for Iraqi nationals in the last fiscal year https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/RefusalRates/FY18.pdf

it will be a tough one, hopefully his evidence of ties will be enough but be prepared for a potentially disappointing outcome.

[Quarknase 1,072]

Thank you both, @aaron2020 and @SusieQQQ!

 

I understand that it won't be easy - thanks to all the overstays, the honest ones might not get a shot.

 

Do you have any advise what is being considered strong ties to home - I read in a different topic (Aaron maybe that even came from you) that property, a house, and such might be worth nothing? We just don't want to lower the 50% chance even more by missing the obvious.

Since I will make a tie to the US (thanks for pointing that out), and he'll likely have to put my address down as place where he'll stay in the US to keep it 100% honest, we (and by we I mean he :)) probably needs to front load the application as much as possible.

[Going through 5,671]

You can't really front-load a tourist visa application...CO makes the decision based on the info from the application and however he answers any questions asked during the interview.  The CO is not under any obligation to look at documents brought/additional "evidence" submitted.

 

 

On 3/31/2019 at 9:13 PM, Quarknase said:

I'm a permanent resident, not US Citizen - hence the risk for him to stay and AOS is non existent.

Sometimes LPRs marry someone crossing on a tourist visa, and then file for the spouse visa thinking that the spouse can just "wait out" the F2A process within the US...of course that can lead to more complications for the foreigner in the end----but people have gone this route thinking to circumvent waiting times.  Or, sometimes people just overstay their tourist visa, never return to their home country, and then the LPR becomes a USC who can then marry and file to adjust the person's status from within the US and the overstay is forgiven.

[Boiler 45,466]

I assume there would be a good Asylum claim option so that would need to be addressed.

[Quarknase 1,072]

Thank you. Sounds like an uphill battle, but if we don't try the answer is always no I guess...

 

@Boiler I have been reading here for a while and love your comments. Every. Single. One. lol... However, how can we address that - I would imagine again via ties to home...?

Edited April 3, 2019 by millefleur
Edit for profanity that wasn't detected by language filter

[Boiler 45,466]

i do not know, I can not imagine it is not a concern, I have often wondered how any visitor visa's are issued in such circumstances. Long time ago there was a similar question about a Family in Syria, forget which City, who wanted to visit and they were saying everything was fine and they would return etc etc. To my knowledge they did not come back and update us what happened at the interview but within a month the City was in the news as basically a warn torn hell hole.

 

I have not been to Baghdad and have no desire to do so but I am sure there is a small percentage who do fine. Obviously we tend to see in the Media those spending large sums to get to for example Germany by any means. A Visa and you could fly at a much cheaper cost would seem much easier.

 

So how do you differentiate yourself, basically you are saying you are the very odd one out.

[Quarknase 1,072]

I hear what you're saying.

 

Yes, he and his entire family are doing well for themselves - mother and brother have passports without travel restrictions really, due to their jobs. He's frequently traveling back and forth between India and Iraq - which unfortunately doesn't help much when it comes to travel history from an IO POV I'd think...

 

Yup, we'll have to pursue both options. US and Germany. The latter would be complicated for me because PTO is limited. But well... 

 

Thanks a bunch for sharing your thoughts!

[millefleur 5,046]

**Edited to remove euphemism for profanity, which is against the Terms of Service. Please refrain from using such language so that our forum can remain "family friendly" as per TOS.**

 

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