Visitor Visa - B2

Dear All,

I want to share my recent experience of a refusal and a subsequent issuance at Chennai consulate. A brief about myself, I am senior IT professional working in Bangalore and have visited, worked offshore European countries and south Asia. My wife is a banking professional and together we have visited many countries. US being the only country we have not visited and hence we decided to apply for the visa so that we could travel this winter.

We have family and friends in the US who have been inviting us for a long time and hence we approached a famous tour operator and decided on the itinerary and went for the interview in the month of June. They took care of the documentation and appointments. We were very confident that we will get the visa as we had good travel history in the past five years. This is how the interview went:

Vo: Good morning
We: Good morning, How do you do?

Vo: Good (Smiled)
Vo: So, why are you going to the US?
We: vacationing

Vo: have you been to any other countries together?
We: yes, (named the European countries)

Vo: what do you do sir?
I: I am ------ in --------

Vo: …and you ma’am?
Wife: (Replied)

Vo: how much do you have in your savings?
We: (Replied)

Vo: Do you have family or friends in the US?
We: yes, mentioned the places

Vo: what is your studying?
We: Replied to the question

Vo: How long are you planning to vacation?
We: Showed the itinerary and replied. Vo saw the itinerary and typed for some time.

Vo: Sorry, I cannot issue you the visa, better luck next time.

We were shocked and in disbelief, but ma’am, can you tell us the reason why? Vo: She gave a letter and said, read this, the reason mentioned in this, thank you. We lingered in the premises for some time and asking some staff there about the refusal. They give a standard reply “Please read this and reapply again”.

My brother in law in the US did some research and referred us a immigration counsellor and asked us to get their advice which we did. They asked us to get back after two months which we did. They asked for all the details and told us that this is a simple case and that we would not be needing their services as we had good travel history. At this stage we did not want to take any chance and asked them to help us from the beginning. They revised the documents and suggested some improvements in our presentation and told us that the vo might ask for our profession related documents.

We went for the interview last week to Chennai US consulate, This time almost same questions but the vo asked for our old passports and income related documents. Vo: VISA ISSUED, YOUR PASSPORTS WILL BE READY IN A WEEK. We were ecstatic and relieved, what a relief! Based on my experience, my suggestion is, don’t be over confident even if you have travel history. Be grounded and be prepared. Luck also plays a part in the process. Don’t take it personally. Seek help and save yourself a lot of time and money. A BIG thanks to Visa Vikings for helping us in a honest and sincere way. Their help made a big difference in the way we perceived our case.