Visitor Visa - B2

IMMIHELP , and the interviews posted here have been a great help throughout, so its time to payback!!

Visa interview and OFC was at Mumbai Consulate.

For OFC day, PLEASE check that the details in your passports ( name spelling, DoB, Birth place etc ) match with the ones in your DS 160, otherwise you will have to re submit the whole form again that day, as i had already read those bad experiences here, fortunately, that was not a problem for us.

Visa interview was at 7:45 am we reached there at 6:30, they took us in at around 7. Interview language was Gujarati, as my dad and mom are not comfortable with American accent.

The interview went like this -

WE : Good Morning
VO : Good morning, may i have your passports?
Dad : given

to my dad
VO : Why do you want to go to US?
Ans : For tourism purposes sir. i want to see beautiful places with my family and to meet my friend who has invited us.

VO : what does your friend do there?
Ans. : he is CEO in xx company

VO : how many years has he been in US?
Ans : xx years

VO : oh thats soo long, then why is he inviting you now? why did u not go before?
Ans : *given* - main points : Jobs, children's education, financial stability, holiday time

VO : what do u do?
Ans : i am a government employee working in department of xx

VO : for how many years have u been working?
Ans : xx years.

To my mom
VO : what do you do ma'am?
Ans : i am also a government employee working in department of xx

VO ( to my dad ) : what is the combined salary of both of you?
Ans. : xx lakhs per annum.

To my brother

VO: what do you do?
Ans : i am doing my masters in xx from xx college.

To me
VO : what do you do?
Ans. : i am doing my bachelors in xx from xx college.

 VO : *the moment i had been waiting for* your visas are approved!!

TIPS ( i hope you find these useful)

1. Be confident. Wear a pleasing smile. Always greet the Visa Officer.

2. Dress Smartly. it creates a good first impression. wearing a suit for men is a good option as it is a very normal thing in US

3. Being nervous is okay but DON'T let it ruin your interview. Don't get intimidated by the VO. after all he is also a human just doing his job.

4. IMMIHELP!! how great would that be when you are going to give an exam and you already have the paper leaked! ;) if you have the time and the dedication, go through the first 10-15 pages of this thread, and make a list of the questions asked, and create appropriate answers as per your case.

5. Mock interviews, as silly as it sounds, it is a great confidence booster! try answering the probable questions in front of each other.

6. Visa Officers have been extensively trained for this job, and believe it or not, they know our mentality more than we know! So only if you are true and genuine, you will be granted visas.

7. take all the supporting documents with you, which may help convincing your case, more importantly , it will gain your self-confidence! so even if sometimes they are not asked, do take them with you!

8. if you are not comfortable with American accent or speaking in English, don't hesitate to choose your regional language as interview language, it does not create any bad impression, as you are applying for just a visitor's visa.

9. Be polite, be to the point, don't try to be over-smart, they will always be one step smarter than you ;)

10. Keep your minds open to learn. there is so much in this world to learn and so many places to explore! Stay hungry . Stay foolish!

GOOD LUCK

Today on 16/05/2014, my parents have attended visa interview at Mumbai Consulate. the interview was at 9 AM. They stood in a queue at 8 AM.

Interview went like below:

VO: Whos is there in USA?
Ans : Our Son

VO: What is he doing?
Ans: Working for "Company name" as a "Role".

VO: Where is your elder son?
Ans: He is in YYYY

VO: You can go!!!

VO kept passports with him.

We are now waiting to get passports.

Thank you.

hi ,

first time my mom's visa got rejected , they asked which university your daughter is passed out , my mom could't answered this and got rejected .
Second time we are applying this time we have selected her occupation as 'agriculture' (last time it was others and in description we added farming),
i read some where they may ask for Incom Tax , my mom does not file incom tax.
what should she answer in such condition.

Thanks,

Today 8-04-2014 was my interview at karachi embassy Pakistan.
My question is if any one can help and tell me what did i said wrong in my interview.
I applied B2 visa for tourism purpose along with my wife and daughter 10 months, iam 31 years old and run a bussiness of my own with a income of 5 to 10 lakh rupees per month,
i took all my documents like bank statements income tax returns but the visa officer didnt bother to see any of the documents and rejected me with 214/b

V/O: Gud morning
ME: Gud morning

V/O: why do u want to go to America?
Me: For tourism purpose

V/O: wher will you go in america?
Me: To new york , Houston, Chicago

V/O: what is your Daughter age?
Me: 10 or 11 months, i was confused but my wife told me slowly 10 months than i replied 10 months.

V/O: Do u hav any relatives in america?
Me: No,

V/O: Do you have any friend in america?
me: No

V/O: (To my wife) same question any relative or freind in USA?
my wife: No

V/O: how much your trip will cost u?
me: i said under 2 million Pak rupess ( and visa officer look at me like if i said some thing wrong)

V/O: What do you do for living?
Me: i run my own bussiness

V/O: what is your business?
me: iam distributor of petroleum products and lubricants (oil),

V/O: how many employees u have?
Me: 15 in this city and 3 to 4 in every city of pakistan

than the visa officer left her seat and went inside like she wanted to discuss my case with some one inside,
she was back with in 2 mins,

V/O: (again same question) how much u r trip will cost u?
me: (again the same answer) under 2 million pak rupees.

V/O: where do u live in karachi?
Me: xxxxx town.

V/O: your visa is not approved.
Me: ok, but any reason ?

V/O: it is in form
me: ok thx.

and i was given a form of 214/b and another form was of my travel history which was filled by the visa officer
my travel history was 2005 UAE (dubai)
My wife and daughter travel history was nil.
please if any one can help that what was actual wrong done by me in this interview.
should i apply again or not?

My Interview is on 9th May, 2014
I am aspriring for the B1/B2 visa to visit my sister. My sister is in US, studing there and she is going to graduate this year, and there are two functions (1 is on june 5th and other one is Aug 9th) which she want us to attend. My parents are not capable to go US as they are well. So my elder sister want me and my younger sister would come and be there at the ceremony.

We,both are going to just visit her, not for staying there. I want to know which document should I show them so that they get convince and give visa for both of us. interview for me and my sister is on same date but diff in timing as we have applied it separately, because younger sis passport got delayed, and in mean time, there was some prob in my DS-160 form, so I missed my appointment on 1st may and rescheduled it to 9th may

My little sis is doing graduation 2nd year and she will return back to continue her studies of 3 years and she will continue her studies in India only. My little sis has applied for visa when she was 15, 3 years back. US counselors has rejected her visa without giving any reason. I would like to know if counselor ask her then what reason should she provide. she is 19 now.

I am pursuing masters her and I am in 2nd year, final year, will be completing it soon. and once my result get out. I am going to join TCS as I have take leave without pay from organization.

My elder sister is also going to come back to India after these ceremony.

Me and my sisters will go alone as she would get free from her exam early. and I will go afterwards.

Any suggestions in interview, in document, if given, I would appreciate if anybody can provide suggestions to get the visa, wether for interview or for document, I would be thankful.

If I am not thanking immihelp.com and peace999 in getting our B2 visas approved for our family then I am deceiving myself.
I have taken all help from beginning to end from this site only moment I started to plan for our visitor visa.
Thank you very much immihelp.com and peace999.

I have applied along with my wife (home maker) and two kids.
I am visiting my US Cizen elder brother and family.
In the interest of others who are applying their B2 visas I am posting my own interview experience.
The VO Was a young male American. Very Friendly but to the task.

Both of us greeted him good morning.
He also greeted us and took the 4 passports.

VO: so you are visiting US with your children.
ME: yes sir, with my wife and two kids.

VO: purpose of visit
ME: visit my brother's family and tourism.

VO: what does he do
ME: software engg.

VO: with which company.
ME: working as YYYY with YYY company.

VO: what do you do
ME: working as YYYY in YYY

VO: what is your income
ME: I am drawing XX lakhs per annum.

(As advised by peace 999 I took chance with my current income even though it was on the borderline. Once again Thank you very much peace999)

VO: what is the duration of your stay
ME: 1 month

Then came this tricky question from VO as already mentioned in this site.

VO: so you are going to your sister's place.
ME: no sir, I am going to my brother's place.

Then the VO took my wife's right hand four fingers biometric scan and my left hand four fingers biometric.

Then came the golden words
VO: your visas are approved.you will receive your passports soon.

Both of us happily thanked the VO and left the interview window.

Not a single question was posed to my wife.
Not even a single document asked for even though I was prepared with all the required as it is mentioned by immihelp.com.

Thank you very much once again to immihelp.com.
All the very best of luck for others.

Hello, Need advise/experience from any of members got to apply visa like me.
How much chances we have to get visitor visa.?

My Brother-in-Law(My wife's real brother) works in US for 3+ years. Wants to invite me/my wife & 1yr old Kid to visit him for holidays spent time together. I have some friends too in US but not that close.
He has already invited my parents in law and there visa got approved month ago. Pls suggest anything important before I apply and plan interview.
Me: Working in Reputed MNC for 3 years. (Total 9 yrs exp.)
My wife working in MNC for 4 yrs. My Parents work in Govt jobs in Native place.

Hi

I got a lot of help from this site, so I decided to help others....

the visa was for 3 of our family, me, my mother and father.

my wife had no passport yet, so we did not apply for her visa

my sister is in USA as she is married since 1 year.

I read a lot of pages in this site and prepared all the documents for 2 weeks daily 2 hours!

I bought transparent files and folders, and stickers, i kept all Original certificates in the folders and applied the stickers mentioning what certificate is of Job, Education, Work, Property, Income tax, Marriage certificate.

The same was done for my parents files too, so we had bulky 3 files with us, they looked really neat and clean, it took a lot of effort to make those files, I mean that in my life i had not worked so intense on something

Then came the interview time, well I must say that there are 2 centers, the first one is on first day at OFC at which your finger prints and a photo from their webcam will be taken on the first day. there is no need of 2x2 physical or digital photos to be carried at all, so do not go to photographer for it

the OFC was the most hectic as there was a mistake in my DS 160 form, It was a common mistake, so I am mentioning it here, its that in the passport the GIVEN NAME: VIVEK KRISHNAJI is having my and fathers name, while surname is ok

in DS 160 i should had put GIVEN NAME as mine and fathers, but i kept only VIVEK and surname was ok

so always check the name in passport and ds 160

the guard lady at OFC told me to do the changes at a cyber cafe in the DS 160 form and then resubmit it (you need to go to the DS 160 form page and retrieve your application, it will ask you to fill new form, then click ok, then it will fill the most of the form automatically for you, rest of some fields you must fill up manually and then submit it, take new print out of the confirmation page and throw away the old confirmation page) tell the lady about the changes, she will put another bar code on your passport and will send you to OFC

the most of my time went in finding the cyber cafe, i went 15 kms all the bandra kurla complex but there is no cafe, i found 1 cafe somewhere and got the print, later on my father and mother who were standing in scorching sun heat on the road told me that the cafe was behind the ofc within 10 feets. But the OFC guards did not help me well about it.

anyways the OFC was done and the second day at the american consulate was again in scorching sun heat, at that time i felt as if we are beggars and are asking for some money to american people by standing in line. There is NO locker system at all for tourist visa applicants, for other visa applicants there is locker system.

I was lucky that i brought car, I kept mobile purse and the cars digital locking keychain in the car, I kept only the car keys with me. Then I was allowed to enter the consulate after 30 minutes of sun heat, also all the line was treated as if we had done some crime, they were instructing us to stand here, then sit there, then move here, then stand here again move there, oh my god!

Then the entrance to the fully Air conditioned and secure consulate came, we went inside and after more lines we were taken for interview, I selected marathi as interview language as my mom cant understand the way the americans speek english. So the interview started, the consulate lady was the youngest lady interviewer, she saw me from top to bottom and then started reading the DS 160 form and told us 3 to come in front of the window, then....

Question: in marathi the interpreter asked why do you want to go to usa

it was asked to father

Father: to visit daughter and son in law (maybe he forgot to tell them tourist places, i dont recall that)

Question to father: How many years since your daughter is in usa

Answer: (wrongly father told son in law's usa years) 6 years

Answer by mom: 1 year of daughter, son in law 6 years

Question to father: where do you work?

Answer: MSFC

Question again: Where?

Answer: the answered the full form very fast

Question again: Which corporation?

Answer: finance corporation

(this all the consulate did not like much, as they never like the very short answers)

then she asked me

Question to me: Where do you work?

Answer: I do business........ a big pause then i remembered that on immihelp they have said that do not answer very short, always answer the most, but not too lengthy.....so i told them i do website designing business. She was typing something on her pc, I know it that she is typing the reason for my disapproval, so i Spoke that i was a government employee in Industrial training institute before this.

Answer by father: wife is LIC agent

then the the interviewer (without checking a single document, but she oversaw the huge files) said : Visa for all of you are approved, you will get them in 4 days

we said thank you, and moved on!.... I had told my parents not to thank them a lot, as the process was hectic for us all, and just 1 min before a couple said so many thank you to the american interviewers and also the couple hugged each other and their eyes were wet. I thought what? why so much? it was too much by that couple....

Always keep in mind that if you are tourist then never be in tension, as we Indians give ON ARRIVAL visa for the USA tourists, so the USA tourists should also do the same to us, but they DO NOT!, and they take the visa fee $160 dollars from us even if the visa is rejected, while we take fee from USA tourists only if we grant them visa.

we came out of the consulate as no one was telling what is next step and if we will get the passports with the visa stamping by courier or we have to wait. no one said nothing at all except for the security guard who said to call the call center which is closed on weekends

then we came home, a bit rude experience, I think the USA people should put some tenement for the huge Indians line in the scorching sun heat, and put some umbrellas at the OFC too, because by my calculation they are making a $160 per person and daily atleast 1500 people visit them, so it is 1.5 crore INR or a quarter million USD per day, and they are not even providing water or shades!

This made me a bit less enthusiastic of the USA tour now, my father says I wont be coming to USA.....you and your mom can go ahead....

Hi,

First of All Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences which helped me in getting Visa for my mother.
I would like to share my experience as well.
I had applied for my Mother's visa in Oct 2013 and it was rejected under section 214 B (not enough ties in home country).
My Mom is Widow and House Wife.
I opted for Hindi as language for my Mother and sent all the documents as mentioned on this site to my Mother.
I also sent list of information like my Company Name, My Location and Purpose to visit etc, so that my Mom can mug up and answer counselor's questions.

Interview Date & Location - 25 April and New Delhi.
Duration - 2-3 Minutes

counselor - Why do you want to go to USA.
Mom - I wanted to Visit my Son for couple of weeks to spend some time with son.
counselor - which company your son works for?
Mom - Company Name
counselor - WHere will you stay?
Mom- Location Name
counselor - With whom all you stay here in India
Mom - I stay with my sons. I have big family here 4 sons, 4 daughter in law and their kids. we all stay together here.
             I also get pension money (15k) per month.
counselor - when are you planning to go
Mom - 30 april 2014 as there is function at my son's place on 3rd may, so wanted to attend that as well.
counselor - Congratulations, You have been granted the VISA :) :)

I did not do anything different this time, same set of documents , I am not sure why they rejected in Oct, 2014.

My mom is very old (70 years) and she was very excited after she got visa, she was acting like a first class student who got result and passed by flying colors.

Thanks to all of you!!

I have applied for B2 visa in April, 2014, was denied for 214b reason. I'm single 30 year old last name patel. I have applied for my self only and i showed 65 thousand monthly income in farming. I have a cousin in US who sent me an invitation letter to visit famous tourist place for 3 weeks. And i have also been to UK 4 years ago for 5 months. What was the reason for denial. I m trying to reapply again. If you would help me what changes i need to make. I also have a job but did not mention that and only mentioned for the farming income.

VO: Good Morning
Me: Good Morning Sir

VO: So you've been to UK, What did you do in UK
ME: I have been there for 5 months and been to many places.

VO: Who is there in UK
ME: My cousin and she sponsored me

VO: Do you have any one in USA
ME: my cousin in US and he invited me

VO: What does he do in US:
ME: He is a manager in a motel

VO: Who are you traveling with?
ME: Myself only

VO: I'm sorry but we cannot grant you a visa this time

If you would please let me know what was the denial reason.? They did not even answer me about my purpose to US visit, mainly asked about my UK trip..