Visitor visa for a relative. Please advise.

[mrcoolbuddy]

Hello All,

I have sponsored my in-laws for visitor visa and they got visa in this Feb. Also I would like to sponsor visitor visa now for my mother-in-law's sister. She is a widow and 65 years age old. She has 3 sons and a daughter, all living in India. She has a own house and other properties as well. Her husband was into postal department and she still receives around 5000 as pension after her husband's death.

I have two questions:

1. Given the above background about my mother-in-law's sister, which one is best, my mother-in-law's sister applying for visitor visa by self sponsoring or I am sponsoring her with all my documents. what will be safe bet? Even though I will taking care of all expenses, Is it okay if she claims that she is sponsoring herself for the trip as she has good financial position.

2. I would like to sponsor visitor visa for my parents also very soon. Will there be any negative impact for my current visa extension (L1, due in Sep 2012) if i sponsor more visitor visas? Will they track this info and consider this for issuing extensions?
Please advise.

Thanks,
Cool.

[peace999]

Sponsoring relatives does not affect visa extensions. There is no such tracking.

With 5000 income she cannot self finance. Anyway, widows have difficulty getting visitor visas, but there is no harm in trying.
She has strong ties to India as all her children are in India.


Is your wife working? It will be ideal for your wife to invite and sponsor her aunt because she has a direct relation.

[mrcoolbuddy]

Yes. She started working in last Sep on L2 EAD. Its only 6 months she has been working and we have only one W2 of last 4 months.

So do you think one of us send documents for sponsorship and it would be better if my wife sends?

[peace999]

In view of your wife's EAD and short work history , maybe we should wait .

Or can the relative show better income in India than 5000? Any other sources of income like
rent or business? Any of her sons earning well?

[mrcoolbuddy]

Yes. She owns a house and they also gave some part of it to rent and may be she earns around another 5k. And she also lives in the same house.

One of her sons has a good business in Hyderabad and he earns well and the other 2 will earn to take care of their families.

And regarding my wife's work history, how long do you think we have to wait before we sponsor the visa.

[peace999]

I had thought about your wife waiting till she had a primary visa of her own.

But, the bottom line is widows find it hard to get visitor visas to visit their own children in US; here she is visiting her niece and that too on niece's financing. Plus her financial ties to India are not very strong. So , not to discourage you, her chances are not too strong anyway.
So, try once on your wife's financing with her EAD , if she gets it fine .

[mrcoolbuddy]

Hi Peace, Thanks a lot for your thoughts on our queries.

One more thing I would like to ask if we can arrange around 15 lacs in our anut's account to show that's her savings and try with self sponsor, will it work out?

Please advise. She has very good family ties, but only problem is she is a widow and not a direct relative for us.

[mrcoolbuddy]

Hello Peace/Seniors,

Can you please suggest what would be the best scenario to apply visa for my anut? self sponsoring by showing 15+ lacs as her savings or we sponsoring her? and also any other precautions to take care....

Thanks,
Cool

[peace999]

Actually, they may not look at her savings.
Usually they take a decision after asking about husband and work status/income.

Another reason they do not look at bank balances is people borrow and build it up.

But she can take a gamble with that. She can volunteer that info about 15 Lacs right when she is asked about her income.

Another option is if one of the sons has good income and can show 1L/month combined family income.

[mrcoolbuddy]

One of her sons has a hardware shop (business) who make an turnover of around 12 lacs per annum. It's not 1 lac income per month, but the revenue is around 1 lac per month.

He has income tax proofs for more than 10 years to show that as proofs and can also show a bank balance of around 10 lacs. With this, do you think case become stronger.

And do you mean that my mother in law's sister should also be part of the business to show this as combined family income? Actually she is not part of business, and the business owner is one of the sons who take care of her.

My spouse is still working on her L2 EAD. Can you please suggest what option do you think will work better considering my mother in law's sister's family situation and my sposue's L2 EAD:

1. self sponsor
2. my wife sponsoring

Thanks,
Cool