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Hi all,
I'm desperately looking for some advice on how to approach when I apply for my parent's visitor visa next time. It has already been rejected three times (more details below).
Background: My parents live in a small town. My father's main occupation is running a small family business with farming with a decent amount of agricultural land. The business is not registered and hence the taxes are not paid on it (the total income is far below the tax limit). He has one or two bank accounts as well. My mother is a house wife. I also have two younger siblings, one doing job and other in college at this time.
My situation: I was on H1-B status during all the three attempts and I was the sponsor. I filled out their applications (DS-160) in english and indicated as such. My parents don't know english. Just a few weeks ago, I got my green card approved (conditional green card) via family based petition (marriage to a US citizen).
The first attempt: Being completely ignorant, I applied for visitor visa for both my parents and my siblings. I didn't have a slightest idea that this would turn out to be a HUGE mistake. The application was rejected with 214(b). Later I realized that this was a very bad idea as it shows immigration intent.
The second attempt: Still being ignorant, I applied for my parents and the youngest sibling again (leaving out the middle one who was doing job) as I really wanted her to visit me. Rejected again.
The third attempt (early 2016): Applied only for parents. Rejected with the same reason.
I was thinking that even if I need to become a US citizen in the worst case just so that they can get visitor visas easily, I'd do it (even though I don't want to). But based on a few posts here, it seems that the chances of getting a visitor visa reduces ever further if I become a US citizen (which doesn't make much sense to me).
I'm going to talk to an immigration lawyer. But I'm also looking for some advice from all you experienced folks on how to proceed from here. A couple of ideas I had so far are:
1. Self-sponsor: Instead of me sponsoring them, let my dad be the sponsor for both of them.
2. Get visitor visas for other countries first and let my parents travel there first. This might help establish that they are actually interested in traveling. The countries I was thinking are UAE (Dubai), Canada (so I can meet them too from Seattle) and Germany (my mother-in-law is from there).
3. Register the business. Not sure it'd help much since the interviewers never asked for much documentation.
4. Apply only for my dad first. Let him travel to US and go back once. Then in an year or two, apply for my mother as well.
Thanks for reading this long post. I'd really appreciate any inputs!
I'm desperately looking for some advice on how to approach when I apply for my parent's visitor visa next time. It has already been rejected three times (more details below).
Background: My parents live in a small town. My father's main occupation is running a small family business with farming with a decent amount of agricultural land. The business is not registered and hence the taxes are not paid on it (the total income is far below the tax limit). He has one or two bank accounts as well. My mother is a house wife. I also have two younger siblings, one doing job and other in college at this time.
My situation: I was on H1-B status during all the three attempts and I was the sponsor. I filled out their applications (DS-160) in english and indicated as such. My parents don't know english. Just a few weeks ago, I got my green card approved (conditional green card) via family based petition (marriage to a US citizen).
The first attempt: Being completely ignorant, I applied for visitor visa for both my parents and my siblings. I didn't have a slightest idea that this would turn out to be a HUGE mistake. The application was rejected with 214(b). Later I realized that this was a very bad idea as it shows immigration intent.
The second attempt: Still being ignorant, I applied for my parents and the youngest sibling again (leaving out the middle one who was doing job) as I really wanted her to visit me. Rejected again.
The third attempt (early 2016): Applied only for parents. Rejected with the same reason.
I was thinking that even if I need to become a US citizen in the worst case just so that they can get visitor visas easily, I'd do it (even though I don't want to). But based on a few posts here, it seems that the chances of getting a visitor visa reduces ever further if I become a US citizen (which doesn't make much sense to me).
I'm going to talk to an immigration lawyer. But I'm also looking for some advice from all you experienced folks on how to proceed from here. A couple of ideas I had so far are:
1. Self-sponsor: Instead of me sponsoring them, let my dad be the sponsor for both of them.
2. Get visitor visas for other countries first and let my parents travel there first. This might help establish that they are actually interested in traveling. The countries I was thinking are UAE (Dubai), Canada (so I can meet them too from Seattle) and Germany (my mother-in-law is from there).
3. Register the business. Not sure it'd help much since the interviewers never asked for much documentation.
4. Apply only for my dad first. Let him travel to US and go back once. Then in an year or two, apply for my mother as well.
Thanks for reading this long post. I'd really appreciate any inputs!
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