attend a meeting in US on Business visa

[jeevanullas]

Hi All,

I work for a company based out of USA. They do not have any office in India. I have an "Independent Contractor" agreement with the company and work for them in India. The work is primarily to help / support / provide professional services to clients in India.

Now the company organizes an "all-hands" meeting every year. Next year it is on Jan 2014 in USA. They want to invite me to attend this "all-hands" meeting for 4 days. I want to apply for a Business visa to attend this 4 days meeting.

I did apply for a Business visa on similar context back in Feb 2012 but was rejected. The rejection was 214(B) which means not able to show strong ties, family, relationship etc to one's native land (India in my case). I was handed over a booklet explaining the laws and rejection case 214(B). Following was my interview experience:

Interview:

1) What is the purpose of visit?
To attend an all-hands meeting.

2) Where are you visiting in US?
ABC CITY, XYZ STATE

3) What do you do for a living?
I am an Independent Contractor

4) Are you married?
Nope

5) Have you been outside India ever?
Nope

6) What does the company do?
XYZ is a software company which is into ABC technology.

7) What do you do for XYZ company?
I work for XYZ company here in India and provide technical services to XYZ company's customers in India.

8) How many days you plan to stay in the US?
4 days, as the meeting is for 4 days.

In the end she said sorry but according to our laws your application does not qualifies for the VISA. She didn't even looked at any documents prepared by us. I requested her politely to see the documents once but she refused and said she is not interested to see any documents. It was purely based on the interview that she rejected. The total interview duration was exactly 4 minutes.

The difference between Feb 2012 and now is that now I am married and of-course have been continuously working for the same company as Independent Contractor.

Also note that I don't get a salary. It is a fixed amount of money that comes in my bank account via wire transfer based on Net-30 T&C.

Please let me know if I stand any chance right now to get a Business visa to visit USA for 4 days?

Cheers!

[Nattybone]

Hi All,

I work for a company based out of USA. They do not have any office in India. I have an "Independent Contractor" agreement with the company and work for them in India. The work is primarily to help / support / provide professional services to clients in India.

Now the company organizes an "all-hands" meeting every year. Next year it is on Jan 2014 in USA. They want to invite me to attend this "all-hands" meeting for 4 days. I want to apply for a Business visa to attend this 4 days meeting.

I did apply for a Business visa on similar context back in Feb 2012 but was rejected. The rejection was 214(B) which means not able to show strong ties, family, relationship etc to one's native land (India in my case). I was handed over a booklet explaining the laws and rejection case 214(B). Following was my interview experience:

Interview:

1) What is the purpose of visit?
To attend an all-hands meeting.

2) Where are you visiting in US?
ABC CITY, XYZ STATE

3) What do you do for a living?
I am an Independent Contractor

4) Are you married?
Nope

5) Have you been outside India ever?
Nope

6) What does the company do?
XYZ is a software company which is into ABC technology.

7) What do you do for XYZ company?
I work for XYZ company here in India and provide technical services to XYZ company's customers in India.

8) How many days you plan to stay in the US?
4 days, as the meeting is for 4 days.

In the end she said sorry but according to our laws your application does not qualifies for the VISA. She didn't even looked at any documents prepared by us. I requested her politely to see the documents once but she refused and said she is not interested to see any documents. It was purely based on the interview that she rejected. The total interview duration was exactly 4 minutes.

The difference between Feb 2012 and now is that now I am married and of-course have been continuously working for the same company as Independent Contractor.

Also note that I don't get a salary. It is a fixed amount of money that comes in my bank account via wire transfer based on Net-30 T&C.

Please let me know if I stand any chance right now to get a Business visa to visit USA for 4 days?

Cheers!

Hello, Jeevan.

There are no certain ways to get a visa. One can never be certain about the outcome. What you can and must do is, Try.

Ok, the way i see it, there are 2 strong positive developments / changes in your profile:
i) You are married now. So, ties to India stronger than last year.
ii) You are still with the same company, this indicates: a) Your stability, and b) Your company's sound finances, that is not a fly by night operator

I think you definitely have a better chance as compared to last year. If i may suggest, please take a small trip to Singapore / Mauritius / Thailand etc. If possible, try Australia. This way you will come across as someone who travels and can meet the expenses of an overseas travel. All forms have a question on which other countries have you travelled in the last 5 years. Maybe, they give a lot of weightage to travel to other countries.

I hope this helps. Wishing you luck for your interview.

Cheers,