To the site Admin, Senior Members and kureeus

[Razor_Chief]

To the site Admin, Senior Members and kureeus

I was reading a lot of threads in this forum for the last few months and I found it very useful, especially the senior members helping others, giving proper guidance etc. First, I would like to congratulate the site admin and all members for managing, maintaining this forum and helping others. I could not contribute anything yet as I am not familiar and I have no experience. However I have an idea (which may sound rubbish - delete this thread if you feel so, as I just thought I will suggest) and I would like to share it with you

Majority of the forums in internet will have some topics which are 'sticky', like the terms of use etc and this forum has the same. I would like to suggest one more thread to make sticky ( - and locked too as only Admin can edit it and keep it clean without any unwanted posts/replies). so here is the idea

There are a lot of questions in the forum which get repeated. Examples are (the below examples are just for explaning my points and please do not consider it as my answers or my personal advice - those are just examples)

1. I am the only son / daughter of my parents. Shall I ask my parents to tell I have one more brother /sister in India so that it will help my parents to get a visa as they can present it as a tie to India

Ans : You should never lie to the VO. It will not only lead you / parents in to trouble, they may denie the visa permanently. The VO are very smart and intelligent and they can find out the lies in almost all cases. And finally this forum never encourage telling lies to VO. Always tell the truth

2. My parents are having enough fund to visit me. It is better they self-sponsor or I send the sponsor documents ?

Ans : If they are financially sound and can sponsor the trip, it is always better to do that. They can show they are not depending on you financially in that way

3. I am working in the USA for the last 3 years. Shall I ask my parents not to mention my name when they appear for the visa interview ? Shall I ask them to tell -just tourism - as the purpose of the trip ?

Ans : No, Never. (similar to Answer 1, never lie to VO etc). They can very easily find your details in the USA which will lead to permanent denial of visa

4. I am the only son / daughter of my parents. My mom is a widow. For the first interview she mentioned I am the only son, second time she told the VO she has one more daughter. Now for the third interview shall I ask her to get a death certificate somehow to prove she didn't lie ? Will it work ?

(Believe me, there was a post in this forum, very similar to this)

Ans : We are here for legal help and not for supporting fraud activities or encouraging lies. Please do not ask such questions in this forum (I think a very similar reply like this was given by a senior member which is perfect)

There are more questions like this which get repeated and almost all the time they get the same answer. Why not making the commonly asked questions and their answers as a sticky topic ? Like - 'Frequently Asked Questions And Answers - Read Before You Post ' ? Is it a good idea ? What do you think ?

Now, something more. Why I mentioned Kureeus here. I do not know him / her personally. I am not sure whether he / she worked in the Consulate. I do not agree / disagree with every single post or reply he / she make. And most of the time his / her posts sound like very harsh. But I would like to mention something. The user kureeus tell some facts - like


1. Never tell lie to the VO
2. Never do anything illegal, it not only create trouble for you but also make trouble for others
3. Documents has not much value
4. Most of the time, visa approval or denial is solely depend on the person appearing for the visa interview than any other thing.


Of course, most of the senior members tell the same.Now, as the admin mentioned in the site and many threads, the site is for helping people get visa in legal way and not for anything illegal, kureeus can also contribute to the 'sticky' thread I mentioned. His replies may be harsh, but sometime it also helps to get an idea what the VO may think. That can also help to reduce the number of 'heated up discussions' which get diverted from the topic.

I know we can always tell the person who post the topic to 'search' the forum. The user may get a lot of threads similar too, but the answers in different thread may be different and that may confuse the user. I hope the 'sticky' thread I mentioned may be of help for them.

Please feel free to comment on. And as I mentioned above, please delete this thread if you feel this idea is useless/rubbish

Thank you all . And Happy Holidays

[peace]

I agree with razorchief, a FAQ thread would be helpful. THe administrator could post the FAQs especially in the most frequented B1/B2 section at the top of the section.People could read the FAQs before posting their
queries.

To the site Admin, Senior Members and kureeus

I was reading a lot of threads in this forum for the last few months and I found it very useful, especially the senior members helping others, giving proper guidance etc. First, I would like to congratulate the site admin and all members for managing, maintaining this forum and helping others. I could not contribute anything yet as I am not familiar and I have no experience. However I have an idea (which may sound rubbish - delete this thread if you feel so, as I just thought I will suggest) and I would like to share it with you

Majority of the forums in internet will have some topics which are 'sticky', like the terms of use etc and this forum has the same. I would like to suggest one more thread to make sticky ( - and locked too as only Admin can edit it and keep it clean without any unwanted posts/replies). so here is the idea

There are a lot of questions in the forum which get repeated. Examples are (the below examples are just for explaning my points and please do not consider it as my answers or my personal advice - those are just examples)

1. I am the only son / daughter of my parents. Shall I ask my parents to tell I have one more brother /sister in India so that it will help my parents to get a visa as they can present it as a tie to India

Ans : You should never lie to the VO. It will not only lead you / parents in to trouble, they may denie the visa permanently. The VO are very smart and intelligent and they can find out the lies in almost all cases. And finally this forum never encourage telling lies to VO. Always tell the truth

2. My parents are having enough fund to visit me. It is better they self-sponsor or I send the sponsor documents ?

Ans : If they are financially sound and can sponsor the trip, it is always better to do that. They can show they are not depending on you financially in that way

3. I am working in the USA for the last 3 years. Shall I ask my parents not to mention my name when they appear for the visa interview ? Shall I ask them to tell -just tourism - as the purpose of the trip ?

Ans : No, Never. (similar to Answer 1, never lie to VO etc). They can very easily find your details in the USA which will lead to permanent denial of visa

4. I am the only son / daughter of my parents. My mom is a widow. For the first interview she mentioned I am the only son, second time she told the VO she has one more daughter. Now for the third interview shall I ask her to get a death certificate somehow to prove she didn't lie ? Will it work ?

(Believe me, there was a post in this forum, very similar to this)

Ans : We are here for legal help and not for supporting fraud activities or encouraging lies. Please do not ask such questions in this forum (I think a very similar reply like this was given by a senior member which is perfect)

There are more questions like this which get repeated and almost all the time they get the same answer. Why not making the commonly asked questions and their answers as a sticky topic ? Like - 'Frequently Asked Questions And Answers - Read Before You Post ' ? Is it a good idea ? What do you think ?

Now, something more. Why I mentioned Kureeus here. I do not know him / her personally. I am not sure whether he / she worked in the Consulate. I do not agree / disagree with every single post or reply he / she make. And most of the time his / her posts sound like very harsh. But I would like to mention something. The user kureeus tell some facts - like


1. Never tell lie to the VO
2. Never do anything illegal, it not only create trouble for you but also make trouble for others
3. Documents has not much value
4. Most of the time, visa approval or denial is solely depend on the person appearing for the visa interview than any other thing.


Of course, most of the senior members tell the same.Now, as the admin mentioned in the site and many threads, the site is for helping people get visa in legal way and not for anything illegal, kureeus can also contribute to the 'sticky' thread I mentioned. His replies may be harsh, but sometime it also helps to get an idea what the VO may think. That can also help to reduce the number of 'heated up discussions' which get diverted from the topic.

I know we can always tell the person who post the topic to 'search' the forum. The user may get a lot of threads similar too, but the answers in different thread may be different and that may confuse the user. I hope the 'sticky' thread I mentioned may be of help for them.

Please feel free to comment on. And as I mentioned above, please delete this thread if you feel this idea is useless/rubbish

Thank you all . And Happy Holidays

[kureeus]

Dear RazorChief: that is exactly what I have been saying.
Yes,sometimes my tone may be blunt, but, as you point out, hundreds of people ask the same question and in spite of reading the same basic answer, they keep asking..."should my parents lie?" or "should I deposit a bunch of money in their bank account?"...or "can I sign an affidavit promising they will return?"...etc...etc...etc....and then there are those like the recent poster who used profanity towards me, yet I was dead on the money with my assessment of (a) what he/she was doing in the US - working illegally and (b) he/she would be denied admission the next time he/she tried to enter and (c) there will be more trouble ahead for this person...yet, for being right, I was chastised! No one else answered as accurately.
I have no objection to people coming to the US for honest reasons, while obeying our laws....I only object to those who want to try and play games to get a visa, then act shocked when they don't succeed (while searching desperately for those '***** papers' that will reward them with a visa)..
thank you for your support.

[immihelp]

Actually, we already have FAQ section at https://www.immihelp.com/usa-tourist-visa-faq/

We could do one of the several things. We could either enhance that section to include more commonly asked questions.

Or we could make one sticky thread where frequently asked questions are posted.

Or we could enhance that FAQ section and put a sticky thread here with the link to FAQ section.

No matter what we do, in my experience, most people who post questions are quite selfish. They just come to the web site, don't read anything that already exists, don't read prior posts and just ask their question, expect a nice and prompt answer from someone and vanish from here and never come back or contribute.

Therefore, the repeated questions that are very basic will continue to get posted. Even if we post a stick thread and write 'read before you post', how many actually will that sentence itself?

Please give me your ideas. I am open to all suggestions.

[kureeus]

now perhaps you understand a bit better why some of my answers sound blunt....the same questions are asked even though hundreds of others have asked them before...and the same misplaced focus is out there about documents, bank accounts and pay stubs.....

[immihelp]

I completely understand how people behave, what they are trying to do, what they want.

I am running this web site for last 7 years!!

But I try to be as nice as possible.

[Razor_Chief]

OK, coming back to the point, happy you think it is a good idea

Yes, I agree with immihelp, true, most are selfish, they never care going through the forum to find whether there is any similar post already and many never come back to post their experience. And yes, evenif we make a new sticky thread for FAQ, there will be people who will ask the same question again and again.

But I think the number will reduce a bit, or we can always ask them to go through the "FAQ and Answers" section if someone post a question like -

1. I am the only son / daughter of my parents. Shall I ask my parents to tell I have one more brother /sister in India so that it will help my parents to get a visa as they can present it as a tie to India

Another thing is, all the senior members are very helpful here. They reply to posts very promptly, but they will find it borring to answer same questions again and again in future. So if we make a FAQ section inside the forum, that will make things easy for the seniors. And yes, there will be lot of questions that can't be put in FAQ, like particular / personal questions, not common to all. So seniors will get time to help them and suggest more instead of answering the same questions again and again

And another thing is, as I mentioned, it will also reduce 'heated up discussions'. Kureeus is true to certain extend as it is painful to see people are asking same questions like (may be asking indeirectly) - 'Shall I lie to VO ?' or ' Shall I hide things from VO ?' etc

Through the FAQ in forum we can ask them to be honest always. Getting diverted a bit here : I am not sure whether it was Kureeus, someone posted a link of US goverment site which gives a detailed report on immigration / visa stats. It tells how many applied, how many re-applied, how many cases were fraud, how many denied visa, how many travelled on B1/B2 but never came back etc etc.

People (atleast some) think it is ok or it is easy to fool the VO or to tell lie, get Visa somehow etc. Some think if we get visa once (or even denied visa), then no one can track, there is no record etc. If they succeed somehow in telling lies etc (rare chance) not only their credibility is lost but that also affect others. If a lot of people go to USA from India in illegal method, or a lot of people never come back, or a lot of people try to fool VO / lie, then definitely the US officials will think its a general trend in India. So we will lose credibility of the nation as such (yes, bit exaggerated, but there is chance - atleast in future)

Making an FAQ will not solve these things instantly or will not stop people asking questions like the one we discussed. but I think it will make a difference, may be very small but sure

Will wait for comments from other members ...

[immihelp]

It is technically not possible in this vBulletin discussion forum software to just have a special thread where only few people can post.

Therefore, I suggest this:
We keep https://www.immihelp.com/usa-tourist-visa-faq/ up to date with FAQ.
And put a sticky thread on this forum that has a link to FAQ and close the thread so that no one can post anything that is not relevant there. Also, there will be a note there requesting people to send any new FAQs that they would like to add.

In any case, I need some volunteers that could go through the questions on this forum and give me some FAQ and their answers. They can either post in this thread or send us an email to info [at] immihelp.com

If any one else has better idea, please let me know.

[Razor_Chief]

It is technically not possible in this vBulletin discussion forum software to just have a special thread where only few people can post.

I think we can make a sticky thread (start topic by admin) then lock it. when someone suggest a good point, which can be added to the FAQ, then reopen and we can add (only admin add it, the volunteers can pm admin about new addtions)

Just checked some forums using Vbulletin and they use that technique.

Why I prefer the sticky thread inside the forum itself is - in that way it will be a part of the forum as majority visit the site directly goes to forum

But if you prefer it to be seperate from forum, that is ok too. Also, I am ready to go through the forum to list some questions (commonly asked) and forward that to you. Shall I PM you if I find such questions ?

[Razor_Chief]

Just checked Vbulletin script.

Can also make an 'Announcement' in Vbulletin. So people can only view, can't post in that. In that case no need to lock thread too.

[immihelp]

Razor_Chief,

Please keep sending us the questions/answers to info [at] immihelp.com

We will prepare FAQ and post them.

[immihelp]

I didn't find any option to lock the thread. There is only option to 'close' the thread.

Also, look at the thread http://www.immihelp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23261 I really volunteers to go through the forum and provide us with frequently asked questions.

[Razor_Chief]

oops, Sorry. I meant the 'close' thread feature. 'Lock' is in PhpBB, not in Vbulletin, was confused a bit.

Sure, will go through the forum and will email you the commonly asked questions