Rejected due to insufficient "Reason to Return"-

[lcontheroad]

Hi,
I am the American sponsor of a very dear friend in India who is trying to get an F-1 Visa to pursue his Bachelor's Degree in the USA. He was rejected in Nov 08 and now again today. In November they said he "had not proven that he has sufficient reason to return to India." Today they looked right at him and said "You don't want to study. You just want to immigrate. DENIED"

All advice out there says "show ties in India." Well what sort of "ties in India" is a 23 year old unmarried guy with no fancy job supposed to show? This is really rediculous.... can anyone tell me how we should show "reason to return to India" and that he GENUINELY is going to study, not to immigrate?



Years ago I tried FOUR TIMES to get another friend (married with family, but again no fancy job, no hi-fi education etc) a Visitor's Visa and it was rejected FOUR times for the same reasons and we finally gave up...

The embassy my friends have to apply to is Delhi. Any suggestions for how to proceed, at least for the Student Visa?

thank you for your help.
Leanna

[kabkaba]

Ties have to be family, property, assets. It is better if you don't sponsor them and they sponsor themselves. You sponsoring can affect their case.

[lcontheroad]

Thanks for your counsel. Please address a couple more qustions based on your ansewer:
1) Isn't it common for a student to have sponsorship to attend a college in the US? If not, what do you recommend?
2) Please give some specific suggestions as to how a 23 year old unmarried guy can show "family ties" in India.

thanks
Leanna

[kabkaba]

Indian sponsor is better than US sponsor. If you are not related to the applicant and you are a US citizen or PR, it makes the impression of immigrant intent.

Family ties could be parents, being only child, siblings staying in India etc. If one doesn't have it, one doesn't have it. You cannot create them. Having immovable property like house, farmland certainly helps.

Visa officers cannot enter into anybody's psyche and decide if they have immigrant intent or not, so they follow these benchmarks and conventions.

[lcontheroad]

What about employer sponsorship. Fact is, we are a nonprofit agency doing social service in India and the applicant is one of our key employees/executives-in-training. So we gave him a sponsorship letter on the international agency and the director of our Indian agency gave him the letter of leave from work to do his studies. Our entire purpose of him doing the studies is to come back to India with the skills necessary to become a top leader in the organization, IN INDIA. So now in the context of organizational sponsorship and employment rather than personal, please counsel me on how can we prove to the Embassy that he really is coming back to India?

[kabkaba]

I would have thought such sponsorship could have been viewed in favor of the applicant, but why they would think otherwise beats me.
It is possible that they are suspect about company sponsored applicants because of the blatant abuse of visitor visa and H1, L1 visas by some companies.

[lcontheroad]

thanks for responding to us. Until now we have been showing that he is working for our Indian organization. Would it be better (or worse) to show that his employment is directly with the US based organization?