B1B2 visa and boyfriend

[Paf94 0]

17 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Not smart to falsify information to get a visa, even if someone wrote about doing so in a blog.

Why do you assume the blog said to falsify information? The blog just made it seem easier than it actually is in reality for many young applicants. It would be as if someone responded to this thread saying that I should just apply again and it was clearly bad luck. That's not good advice but they wouldn't be encouraging any lying or illegal activity. 

[SalishSea 18,073]

2 minutes ago, Paf94 said:

Why do you assume the blog said to falsify information? The blog just made it seem easier than it actually is in reality for many young applicants. It would be as if someone responded to this thread saying that I should just apply again and it was clearly bad luck. That's not good advice but they wouldn't be encouraging any lying or illegal activity. 

I guess it was in relation to this statement in your first post:  as one of the requirements of the petition for this visa is intention to marry, it would be fraudulent.

14 hours ago, Paf94 said:

I mean what would happen if we applied for k1 just so he can visit but then we don't get married during that time?

[SunflowerSweet 1,321]

I definitely sympathize with what you are saying about the comparative immigration process between the USA and EU. I’d also be very wary of using the UK as an example when making the comparison. Years ago, when my husband and I were trying to figure out the best way to come together and start our lives, we discovered it would be significantly easier for him to move from the UK to a number of countries in the EU and petition for me there, than it would be for him to have me just join him in the UK. Our holdbacks were more his financial status as a student than it was anything criminal, but it was still frustrating. I did prefer moving to the UK/Europe than staying in the US, but it just didn’t work out. I can’t remember if France was one of the optional countries, but I know Germany was and I believe Ireland and a few others as well.

 

I am sorry about your troubles getting your boyfriend approved to visit. A year is a long time to wait, and it’s easy enough for people to look at your situation and think you are lucky you are able to be living with him in France now, but I personally find that transitioning back into a long distance relationship when you have gotten used to living close to/with your partner is much more difficult than a long distance relationship that’s been that was from the start. 
 

If there is any way you can think of to beef up his ties to France in a meaningfully and calculable way, you can of course reapply, but if not than I worry you will only be shelling out money for more disappointment. 
 

And yeah, of course France has a much smaller volume of immigration applicants. They are a much smaller county and I would imagine many of the people moving there come from other EU countries and don’t require the same processing others would. I’m not sure if that alone is a good explanation/justification for the stark difference in wait times, especially considering immigration in the US is suppose to be funded with the sizable fees we pay. So higher volume of applicants should lead to a higher volume of funding. Too bad a decent portion is being diverted away to certain other agencies.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

45 minutes ago, MorganandMichael said:

I definitely sympathize with what you are saying about the comparative immigration process between the USA and EU. I’d also be very wary of using the UK as an example when making the comparison. Years ago, when my husband and I were trying to figure out the best way to come together and start our lives, we discovered it would be significantly easier for him to move from the UK to a number of countries in the EU and petition for me there, than it would be for him to have me just join him in the UK. Our holdbacks were more his financial status as a student than it was anything criminal, but it was still frustrating. I did prefer moving to the UK/Europe than staying in the US, but it just didn’t work out. I can’t remember if France was one of the optional countries, but I know Germany was and I believe Ireland and a few others as well.

 

...

But OP is supposedly talking about a visit visa, not immigration. If it’s genuinely just a visit OP is interested in, none of that (or the previous discussion, not just your post) is relevant.

 

Regarding visitor hassles:

For those of us who have actually  had to suffer the bureaucratic processes to get both US and schengen visas in the past (I cannot tell you how thrilled I am at the imminent arrival of my new US passport), let me be explicit that the burden of the application is much - MUCH - heavier for schengen. The form is much longer, and the hoops are ridiculous - not just already having bought air tickets and booking accommodation etc before you even have a visa because that is pre-requisite, I have sat in the rain outside a French embassy on the phone to the credit card company because even though they know you get travel insurance with the ticket booking they still want an actual policy number before issuing you the visa. Going back inside to see some poor dude get refused even with all the above. And then after all that you only get the visa for one trip in the vast majority of cases! Give me the beauty and simplicity of the US’s quick to fill in DS160 and a 10 year multiple entry visa any day.

 

(schengen is still kind of walk in the park compared to a uk visa where they want your entire life, family and financial history just about, but at least you can get a long term multiple entry uk visa, if you can afford to pay for one -around $1000 last time I looked for a ten year.)

Edited December 8, 2019 by SusieQQQ

[HRQX 4,145]

24 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

at least you can get a long term multiple entry uk visa, if you can afford to pay for one -around $1000 last time I looked for a ten year

In some cases they deny the long term multiple entry application or only issue a short term multiple entry visa when paying the high ~$1000 application fee: "You will not get a refund of the application fee if you get a shorter visa or your application is refused." https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor-visa/eligibility

Edited December 8, 2019 by HRQX

[JFH 12,191]

Regarding long-distance relationships after being together full-time...I always think if military spouses and families can do it, so can we. Military families are regularly torn apart for months on end without even knowing if the active duty parent will even return and when they do return it may be in a state of disability (either physically or mentally or both). 

 

Knowing what some of my family members have been through made the separation my husband and I faced during 4.5 years of long-distance seem like a walk in the park.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

3 minutes ago, HRQX said:

In some cases they deny the long term multiple entry application or only issue a short term multiple entry visa when paying the high ~$1000 application fee: "You will not get a refund of the application fee if you get a shorter visa or your application is refused." https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor-visa/eligibility

I only ever got one 10-year one and that was paid for by my company (I needed the visa for work trips too) but gee I’d be mad as hell, especially coming from a developing country where that is a huge amount of money in purchasing power. 

[Boiler 45,913]

2 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

I only ever got one 10-year one and that was paid for by my company (I needed the visa for work trips too) but gee I’d be mad as hell, especially coming from a developing country where that is a huge amount of money in purchasing power. 

That is always what confuses me, see the comment a lot on here. visiting anywhere does not get any cheaper depending where you come from.

[Gsanon 33]

Why not have your family visit him instead ?

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

That is always what confuses me, see the comment a lot on here. visiting anywhere does not get any cheaper depending where you come from.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean here? Weak/strong currencies do make various destinations cheaper or more expensive in home currency.  My point above was only that for example, $1000 is a lot more to a South African than an American, so to lose it on a visa application hurts a lot more. Annual average income per head in South Africa is just over $6000, now obviously the people earning that aren’t trying to visit the UK and spend two months’ wages on a visa, but it all scales. Flip side is why it is so cheap to visit these countries coming from the US, UK etc.  

anyway not really relevant to OP

[Boiler 45,913]

37 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

I’m not sure I understand what you mean here? Weak/strong currencies do make various destinations cheaper or more expensive in home currency.  My point above was only that for example, $1000 is a lot more to a South African than an American, so to lose it on a visa application hurts a lot more. Annual average income per head in South Africa is just over $6000, now obviously the people earning that aren’t trying to visit the UK and spend two months’ wages on a visa, but it all scales. Flip side is why it is so cheap to visit these countries coming from the US, UK etc.  

anyway not really relevant to OP

If you are earning $6,000 pa then visiting the US to spend a couple of weeks at Disneyland whatever does not sound very practical.

 

I have a friends who went on Vacation to South Africa this year, Safari etc, I would imagine they spent not far off $6,000 so not cheap.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

If you are earning $6,000 pa then visiting the US to spend a couple of weeks at Disneyland whatever does not sound very practical.

 

I have a friends who went on Vacation to South Africa this year, Safari etc, I would imagine they spent not far off $6,000 so not cheap.

You can get a luxury room in a hotel in a prime part of cape town with sea view, 4 or 5 star hotel, for around $100-$200 a night in high season. You're not going to get that in any comparable location in the US or western europe. "Safaris" (nobody local except the tour guides will call it a safari) are well known for price gouging western tourists, it's not really comparable. Locals will do the same thing for probably a quarter of the price.