Visitor Visa - B2

Hi All,
My parents got the visa this morning(Oct 11) at Bombay Consulate.
VO(indian lady): Which language would you like the interview to be conducted in: Eng, Hindi, Gujarati or Marathi.
Dad: Any of those :-)
VO writes down hindi.
VO: why do you want the visa.
Dad: visit our son and see touristy places.
VO: (smiles) Your son has been there for a long time why did you wait so long to visit him.
Dad: younger son was a student and was still dependent on us and he just moved out of the house so we're free now.
VO: (smiles back)
VO: How long will you stay there?
Dad: Less than 2 months.
VO:Why that short?
Dad: have to report back to work.
VO: Ok, I'm granting to you the visa..enjoy your stay!


Just thought I'd share.

my dad's visa was rejected the 1st time(2 yrs ago). At that time both my dad and mom had applied. My mom applied by herself the 2nd time and got rejected again. She applied again for the 3rd time and we had sent the Congressman's letter and she got 10yrs visa. Although she was asked a lot of questions and they looked at all her documents.

This time around, we sent the Congressman's letter for my dad and my dad got 10yrs visa. the questions asked were as follows: -
1.where does your daughter stay?
YYYY

2. what is she doing?
ZZZ

3. How many children do you have?
only 1 daughter

4. Show me the affidavit?(my husband's)

5. why are you going alone? why does not your wife
accompanying you?
   she already went twice and so i would like to go now.

6. how long do you want to stay there?
   i want to stay only one month.

7.what are you doing?
I work for YYYY X

Then the translator told my dad that he got visa and will get his passport in the mail after 2-3 days.
Hope this helps.

Thanks to everyone for the contribution.

This is probably one of the happiest day in my life. This website has immensely helped me pulling together all the documents.

My mom who is single, retired and both her kids being in USA got 6 months visa in third attempt on Oct 10 2006.

She was rejected twice earlier under 214 (b).

This time we applied for 3 months and also opted for an intrepretor. I sent all documents indicated in this website.
p.s. Also send husband/brother/sister's documents.

I enclosed these documents in seperate folders with tags.

Questions seemed to be very basic.

Some of the question & answers that my mom could remember:

How many children do you have?
xx
Who lives in India?
Brother's son, elderly sister stays with me and other family members live close by.
where do you intend to go?
xxxxxxxxxxx (state)
who is the sponsor?
daugher/son
where is the sponsor working?
xxxxxxxxxxxx (Name of the company)
How many months do you want to visit?
3 months and I need to get back for medical treatment and for my brother's son and sister.

The intrepretor was not available and the VO managed to speak Tamil. She seemed to be friendly in my mom's perspective.

My mom handed over the "Re-apply letter to Consulate" and "Invitation Letter" which VO read. I had listed all possible family, financial and social ties in the "Re-apply letter to Consulate". This is available in the Sample documents section in this website. I also had sent a letter from Local Congressmen.

VO requested for the pension book and then granted her the visa.

Good Luck and thanks

I have been following immihelp for sometime.

Thanks to immihelp and all the people who shared there experiences

My parent got visa in fourth attempt.
Both of there children are in USA. And my dad is retired govt. employee with no pension.

This time we only applied for 1 month and we took interpretor.

This time they specifically asked for marathi interpretor and not gujarathi who knows marathi.

They thought that helped.

They lot of questions. But being confiedent in answers was the key.

Thanks to the all the posts and advice on immihelp!

My parents said the visa process was smooth, and everyone at the Chennai Consulate was friendly and courteous.

On the visa application, my parents had stated "purpose" to be tourism, and to visit son and daughter. I chose to be the sponsor, and sent all the documents. No documents or letters were sent by my brother.

Here are some of the questions & answers my dad could remember. No questions were asked to my mom.

Q: How many children do you have?
A: Two. One son and one daughter. Daughter is in California and son is in Arizona.

Q: So you will visit CA first and then go to AZ?
A: Yes

Q: So your daughter is a green-card holder?
A: Yes

Q: Is your son also a green-card holder?
A: No, he is on H1-B

Q: When did your daughter visit India last?

Q: What about your family?
A: All my brothers and sisters and my wife's brothers and sisters are here in India.

Q: What about your parents?
A: They are no more.

Q: What about your wife's parents?
A: They are also no more.

Q: Where do you work?
A: YYYY company. Would you like to see the appointment letter?
(The officer read the whole letter)

Q: Do you have leave sanctioned?
A: Yes. (hands over the leave-sanction letter, which is also read in full)

Next my dad said - My daughter has sent some sponsor documents. Would you like to see them?
VO said yes, and quickly flipped thro all the papers in the set.

That's it! VO said - I'm granting you 10yr multiple-entry visa.

Good luck everyone!

First of all i'd like to thank immihelp.com and everyone who posted their experences and FAQ's to visitor visa applicants.
My parents visitor visa had been refused for three times and we had lost the hope that they will ever get the visa.this time i had prepared all the documents which were asked to be prepared in this site.
my parents had been asked the following questions:-
1.how many children do u have?
2.Where they are?
3.what they doing?
4.Where are you going in USA?
Ask your parrents to show evryone's(children)visiting card or school/college id to make them (Visa Consular)sure that u r not lying.
Do one more thing.make a separate file of visitor n sponsor documents and ask your parents to give the sponsor's file to consular so that they can verify all the documents.So that you will be asked fewer questions.But read all the sponsor's documents thorougly.Dont be scared ,anwer the questions to the point ,do not go in details.
once again thanks evryone for thier help.If anyone need help.Plz do not hessiate to contact me.

Hi folks, this message will give hope to a lot of people. I applied for a visitors visa for my parents 3 times. And it got rejected all 3 times. The first two attempts were in June 2003 and the 3rd was in May 2005. I did the 4th attempt, I sent my parents separately. My mom went in March 2006. They grilled her for 20 minutes and then gave a 10yr multiple. My father went in Aug 06 and he was grilled for 20 minutes and got a 10yr multiple. Now finally after a long wait, they are coming together next week.

Hi Everybody,
I am a businessman and I got 10 Yrs multiple entry visa for U.S.A. last year. Now I am planning to visit Chicago next week.

I can accompany and take care of your elderly parents if anybody willing to send their parents with me to Chicago.

Has anyone applied for visitor visa on medical grounds? I would appreciate if you could shed some light on what are the documents needed.

My parents got rejected 3 times under tourist visa a year and a half back. Now genuinely my mother has genuinely a medical condition for which she needs to come here to USA for treatement. Any advice would be useful. I don't want visa officer to think we are simply trying on different grounds. Its a genuine case. The problem is that the medical institute here will only give appointment but cannot give invitation letter nor are they ready to commit to time of treatement. We have valid documents from Indian doctors (reputed hospital) of proof. Thanks for your help in advance.

I am happy to share good news that yesterday my FIL, MIL and SIL(Age: Early 20's ,Single and Student) all got 10 year multiple entry Visa at the Mumbai Consulate. They had an early morning appt at 8:30 am. They arrived a little early around 7:30 am itself.I had told my FIL to dress in formal with Tie as he is a senior executive ,MIL in a saree, and SIL in Salwar Kameez all neatly dressed, which I felt is very important when dealing with Americans.They underwent the standard security checks and then the big moment came. The VO was a young lady in mid 30's according to my FIL.

FIL,MIL,SIL: Good morning officer.
VO: HI

Then she asked the following:

1)Why do you want to go to USA?
FIL:Tourism
2)Who lives there?
FIL: My Daughter and Son-in-law.
3) What does your Son-in-law do?
FIL: He is a Senior S/w Engineer with YYYY company.
4)Do they have children?
MIL:NO
5)To FIL: What do you do?
FIL: I am a Senior executive in YYYY company.
6)Is it a Government Company?
FIL: Yes.
7) Do you have the leave to go to US?
FIL Yes, I do.I have leave for a month. Shows the leave letter sanctioned from his company.
8) To MIl: Ma'am , what do you do?
MIL: I work as a Teacher in YYYY school.
9) Do you have leave too?
MIL. Yes, I do.For a month. Shows the Leave letter from her school.
To SIL: Are you a student?
SIL: Yes. Show the certificate from her college indicating she is a student in their instituion for the particular course finishing in YYYY month xxxx year and staying in their campus hostel. But the VO didnot look at it completely.
10)How will you go for a month, if you are student?
SIL: I will be going for only 15 days and return after that. I have 15 days holiday around Diwali timeframe.
11)What does your Daughter do?
Fil: Software Engineer.
12)How long she has been in states?
SIL: 5 years.
13) What company does she work for?
MIL,FIL confused as I was the sponser and not my wife. But SIL confidently replied, She works for YYYY company in YYYY city and YYYY state.
14) I know that company, It a government company in US,Is that correct?
MIL,FIL and SIL all confused, but say YES in union.
15)Where will you stay when in US?
SIL: YYYY city, YYYY state.

VO:OK, Visa granted to all of you. Enjoy your stay in the States.
MIL,FIL,SIL: Thanks Madam.

They gave their passports at the counter, paid some money with a draft from Bank ofIndia which is close to the consulate as my FIL,MIL and SIL had taken appt 5 months back and that time the 1$=46rupees and now its 48rupees, so they were told to pay the difference by draft from BOI.They went in the evening around 5:00PM to collect the passports and they had been granted 10 year multiple entry. MY FIL was so excited when he called us up and he said that the mock interviews that we had been doing with him on phone for a month really really really helped. The VO did not see any sponsership docs and my FIL felt that since she saw him entering with very organised folders in different color and which looked that he had all the paper work right, she could make out that the paperwork must be OKay.Although my FIL,MIL were a little tensed, but they gave all the answers right and to the point, not a word extra. MY SIL was very confident throughout the interview process and of what she was speaking, so, the rule of thumb is prepare thoroughly,be confident,dressup and ofcourse have trust in the great god.

Hope this post helps to future applicants and all the best.

Thanks
JKits