Iam new to this...Need help

[Pisa]

Hi all

Iam in H4 and my husband is in H1 visa. We are planning to bring my parents by Feb. I have booked an appointment on Feb14 at chennai consulate.
What documents we need to send to my parents. Please give me the full list. My father is an retired bank employee and my mom a retired school headmistress.My father owns a house. My two other sisters are settled in India.
Also let me know, if I should start collecting the docs right now. Since i have 5 months of time

regards
Pisa

[taco]

Hard to get visas for retired parents with pensions; especially when all their children are married and settled. (read several posts in this forum about parents).

Your mother applying alone for a short visit of few weeks has somewhat better chance. That way she will have her husband to who she will return.
Your husband can send her an invitation letter stating his visa/job
status and a copy of yours and his passport and visa. If she cannot show enough funds to finance her trip , your husband will need to send an I-134 and supporting docs(bank statements, tax returns).

[Pisa]

Thanks Taco.
But my father has house, land and other properties like shares in India...***'t that enough to show that they would come back. We absolutely don't have idea to settle down here.
How do my husband send the invitation. Is it a plain letter or any document with prescribed format. How do i know if we need to send I-134. What bank balance the embassy expects from my parents?
Thanks in advance for the response.

[taco]

They won't even look at all that.
Mostly, they decide on the basis of first few questions;
What do you do?
What is your income?
Who is in US? On what visa? Which company?
Why do you wish to go?
For how long?
How many children ? In US and in India? Married or single?

It will come to showing the documents only if they are satisfied with
answers to the above qs.
Self -financing goes in the applicant's favour but she should be able to
show good regular income as well as savings logically proportionate for the
expense. For example,It is fine if you have savings of 10-15 lacs and want to spend 3 lacs on the trip , but not if you have 4 lacs.
If your mother does not have enough savings , you can send an I-134.
Details about that and the invitation letter are found on this forum's
homepage under the link VISITOR VISA.

[mahesh_lakhani]

hi pisa
dont you worry too much, your father is retired bank employee, so just tell him to apply visa alone . and tell him to say that he is going for tourism only.
he must be getting good pension.
defenetly he will get visa.
only thing be honest, tell consulate what ever truth is.
dont you have any brother ? dont forget to menion abut this
good luck

[Pisa]

Thanks Mahesh and Taco
My parents dont have any sons. We r three daughters. And both my sisters are settled in India. No father and mother would settle down with their daughter and son-in-law right. I have applied for Tamil appointment for my parents in the chennai consulate. Won't the officer know this.

If at all they give what is the default amount of stay duration they will get

[taco]

Duration of stay is decided by the inspector at the entry airport; it used to be default 6 months for most visitors before 9/11 but now they can issue you
anything from a month to 6 months.

[Pisa]

If I cancel the present appointment, can I reschdule it as early as possible, or do I need to wait for certain duration of time?

[taco]

Modifying appointments is no longer possible. If you cancel the present one,
you start all over again,meaning you go back to the end of the line (next year).