Visitor Visa - B2

My parents got 10yrs multiple
entry on Jan 28 @ Chennai consulate. One hurdle in my parents case was the spelling of my fathers middle name. All my certificates were having my fathers middle name different than what he has in his passport. My dad got a notarized letter from an attorney in India on a 20 rupees stamp paper which mentioned the observation and the letter says that he can be identified by both the names which worked with the consulate guys. I have observed in the immihelp experiences section sometime back that one of the application got rejected due to the typo in the name. Maybe a notarized application from can help them resolve the issue.

Hi,
I would like to know if I & my husband can sponsor my parents combined since I just got a job last week??

How is the visa process in India, what do they need to do and waht documents do they need to get an appointment at Chennai consulate.
How long does it take to get an appointment??

Thanks

I would like to invite my parents here on a tourist visa.The only concern, i am really worried to know how much should one have in their savings account ??

I would really appreciate if anyone could give a dollar amount.

Thanks in advance

My Parents got 10 year multiple entry visa at Chennai.

Questions asked were:

1.What's the reason for travellng?
   To visit the tourist places.

2.Who are there in U.S?
  Daughter,Son-in-law & Grand son.

3.What is your Son-in-law doing?
  Working for xxx company.

4.What do you do for living?
  Both are Govt. employees.Showed the salary
  certificates.

That's all.The Visa officer told the visa is granted & pay the issuance fee at the other counter.Thanks a lot to immihelp and every body who shared their experiences.It really helped us to prepare them for the interview.

I got 10 years visitor visa for my mom on jan 28th 2004.
  Question asked -
1. Where does ur son work ??
2. How many children do u have ??

One important document this site does'nt mention is the pension book. If you receive pension then pension book is a good proof that u will return back to ur country.

Thanks to this website and all those of you, who have shared their experiences, my parents have got a 10year visa.
My parents submitted their documents at Pune. After duly scrutinizing the documents, it was suggested that it is advisable to keep 2 copies of NOTARIZED I-797 (Notice of Action) and I-94 (DepartureCard), one each for parent. But the application was accepted and my parents got the visa interview date as desired. Since my parents wanted visa date only after 2 weeks (due to other commitments), I was able to send them the relavent docments.
At the USConsulate in Mumbai, the lady who interviewed them was American, but she also spoke Hindi.
My I-797 & Visa is expring in June 2004. She asked my parents, if I am aware of it. My parents told them that I am aware of it and am planning to renew it. She then said, what if it is not renewed. My father said that I would come back and that we would abide by the law.
My father has retired from a high post and is earning good pension. He was asked if he could afford going to US independently, without me sponsoring him. For which he said NO as it is very expensive and doesn't want to go on his own.
The interviewer then ASSERTED my mother and said "your daughter-in-law is pregnant". My mother said no to that and told her that they are planing to come to US only to me us & meet the friendly americans and see the culture.
She also asked them why they have not come to US in the last 5years (i have been in US for 5years). My parents told her that they had other responsibilites and my marriage.
My parents told me that she was impressed by looking at the letter from my employer. She said great and raised her eye-brows. I don't know why. The format was as giving in this website.
Apart from these questions, they were asked several questions listed by other members of this forum. In all they asked about 10-15questions within a span of 5mins.
Thanks to everybody who have shared their experience and best wishes to all!!!

My in-laws got their visa from Chennai Consulate in Jan 1st week. I prepared all the documents as per this web site. And even I prepared some set of question and answers which they might ask. This site is simply VERY VERY great help. Before their interview last 3 days we used to call them and go over with them the whole process and Q & A. It's like preparing for an exam after a gap of 35 years for them :). Finally the day came they entered consulate. First they verified all documents and asked to wait for the officer to call. After couple of minutes the officer called them and looked all documents and asked only 2 questions. (1) Who is there in US? (2) How long your daughter is there? And then he said he is giving visa them and asked them to pay the fee at next counter. Luckily my in-laws got 10 years multiple entry visas. My in-laws told me that, on that day they are giving most of them visa’s. The whole process took less than 1 hour. It seems to be now days they are little bit liberal on visas. So guys it is good time to apply. All the best and good luck to you all!

Once again many many thanks to this website for helping my in-laws to get visa.

- Sns
Atlanta, GA.

Thanks a lot to Immihelp.com, my parents got a 10 year Multiple entry visa at Chennai Consulate on 29th January.It was their first time applying for a visa.
We put in a lot of effort and made sure that the documents were all there, besides I prepared my parents well in advance to answer any kind of question that the officer may ask.
The key of course is confidence and spontaniety, I guess. They were asked about 7-8 questions regarding their income, duration of stay and their purpose. My husband and I are Greencard holders and my husband had already given Affidavits of Support earlier at 2 diiferent occassions.The only documents the officer saw were the copies of our Greencards , the applications and the affidavit of support. Rest of documents were not even glanced at.After asking a few other questions like my age, whether I have children or not,the officer asked them to pay the fee at the counter.The entire process took less than an hour.They had the appointment at 8:15 AM, they were out of the consulate by 9:10 AM.Definitely, this is a much better procedure than the one earlier, when I remember long lines of people waiting outside the consulate gates for 6-7 hours,braving the fumes and reckless driving on Anna Salai.

Finally the courier landed up around 10 AM the following day and by God's grace they got a 10 year visa. Happy Ending and Thank you Immihelp.com.

Supriya
Orlando, FL.

Thanx to the immihelp.com site, it really helped us a lot.We exactly follwed the insturctions given for the vistors visa, and applied for my mother at Chennai consulate.
Everything went on fine, Actually we listed all the questions form the visitors visa experiences,,and sent them to her ,,and asked her to prepare well.
They asked four questions
1)who stays in the USA?
2)where do they stay?
3)How many children u have?What is ur last daughter doing?Is she married?
4)How long do u intend to stay there?

she answered everything confidently, and they said she got a visa.Thanx a lot to this site.

vaNakkam.

I am 58 yrs old and my wife is 55 yrs. Iam a lawyer not in active practice but based in a rural area. That is we live in a small panchayat town and my aged present live in village 60 kms away from us where we have our ancetsral house too . We r backed by inherited agri lands.My wife has an inherited bungalow from her appaa, worth indeed a substantial money. We both r not income tax assesses.

Our ONLY son is working in the USA and he had sponsored us. A lot of works had gone into preparing for our visa interview.

Though I had contacted a travel agent i felt I should read the instructions authentic from the the consular website. Details of individual experiences divulged in this immihelp website too were immensely guiding me.

I fixed on 11th January myself by the web access to the US consulate an appointment and I was given 27th jan at 12:30 and 12:45 noon. i jhad suiggesetd this date to the Consulate office for allotment of time after-

1.Verfiying the available dates with the consulate office for appointmen.

2.verifying with the Southern railways the avilability of reservation in trains between Coimbatore and Chennai on the dates shown by the Consulate office website as open for appointment.

We were given 27th jan 2004 the nearest date for us to seek appointment even when I had searched much before PONGAL festival for suitable date.

We were allotted the aforesaid time slot for personal interview on 27th january.

I had searched the Chennai (tamil naadu, India) website links and found these instruction very relevant and to be kept foremost in mind:

"Very important:

Remember: though suggested documents may assist you in your interview, the Consular Officer relies primarily on the interview to determine your eligibility for a visa. Documents are of secondary importance.

Caution: Use only valid Documents. Fraud or misrepresentation can result in permanent ineligibility for a nonimmigrant visa."

I had paid Rs.3000/ auditor fees to get the report by him. rs.1850 to another Civil engineer to prepare his estimate of our five bedroom bugalow. Form a number of Village administrative officers I obtained certificaets to show that
we had substantial fixed assests fo considerable worth. I and my wife had taken bankers statements too asla slo the FD recipts form banks and private financial institutions.

I had with me neatly pinned on white sheets my receipts for payment of membership fees for the years from 2000 to 2005 in the Advocates Association in Chennai.
My wife's jewels were valued and certified. Our two cars were included in the Auditors report.

ALL THESE WERE DONE TO ESTABLISH OUR STRONG ECONOMIC & SOCIAL TIES IN INDIA.

SENTIMENTALISM !! - does it have any role or meaning in the context of VISA seeking efforts?

Reaching Chennai on 26th morning bu express train, we found that we had left behind our cars' Registration books and originals of our deposit receipts. But we had with us Banks' pass books & Bankers' statements to evdience our bank cash and deposit base. If faced wiht some questions of ounsavings or financial hold i was reday to persusaively argue wiht these availabvle documenst.

we felt anwyay first sentmental tremor-was it a bad omen inkling soeme negative cosenquence in getting visa to morrow? BUT I RUTHLESSLY REPRESSED IT.

still-

we found the travel agent had made mistakes in filling up the156 appliction forms. I myself had to do again on 27th morning and time was ticking away! Having finished all such works and ready with neecssary papers as they were available with us, we locked the hotel room in Egmore at 12 noon and rushed to our taxi waiting down on the ground floor. my wige got into the rear seatbut in my case-
the door in the front declined to open. Again sentimental rattling in mind.."visa kidaikkaatahu" ( will not get visa, after all) But i imediately brushed aside such thinking and maintained my confidence . Racehd te Consulate in enxt 10 minutes via Conneemaara & Spencer junction and there at teh cosnulate-

police posting some 100 yards from the doors of entrance into the Consulate did not allow me to take the briefcase! NO, they said .

OBVIOUSLY IN MY ANXIETY I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTON THE CLEAR INSTRUCTION IN RATHER BOLD LETTERS IN THE SECOND OF THE FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS IN THE RECEIPT CUM APPOINTMENT LETTER OF THE TT SERVIECS WEB APPOINTMNET DONE BY MYSELF ON THE 11th OF JAN 04! I HAD DOWNLOADED THE RECIPT/LETTER AND THE FIRST TWO PARAS WERE IN RED COLOUR.

Meanwhile taxi had gone to get parked somewhere near. Where to keep the briefcase? I took away the folder having visa papers from the briefcase and begegd the p[olie themselevs to keep it until we came out after interview..as the schedule time was almost reached to enter the Consulate. Finally the p[olice accepetd the brui3facse after opening it and shwowing them that there was no valuables at all of anyworth except t some papers and no dubiopus contents inside it! Ran to the entry as my wife wiht large wwrtinekld on her foreehead waited with some fright some fright even as others with later/subsequent appointment times were getting ahead of us.

As our turn came to enter, already a few minutes late-

the consulate admission staff asked to declare if i had a cell phone or any other electronic gadget.

"whaaaaaat..YES I DID HAVE ONE ,of my cell phone."
"No sir we can not allow it inside! "

"Sir, it can be totally made mute"

"Nnnno Sir, please keep it away from u anwywhere"

 It was 12:35 noon already. I ran to the police posting again and begged to keep the cell phone too. I begged again. and ran back to the entry point. I was asekd to now to show the appointment letter and passports

something inside me told me again:"NO WE will not get visa today". But once again I kept up my morale.

After verification of passpots and their numbers found in the appointment letter in regard to tallying, we were allowed in.

As we moved into the consulate, we were frisked with metal detector and our file folder and wife's leather purse were scanned . We moved further inside to find a hall with some five or six counters and even before we could move to a ocunter we were asekd to fall in line before a table with an electronic AGT brand billing machine of Coimbatore origin. It was the table of TT services and they took the Rs.400 draft. after verifying the appointment letter and passports. He i{sued receipt for payment of cou2ier fees.

Then we were asked to stand before the first counter where we were asked to hand over the appointmnet letter, passports and rest of the drafts on the set of three - Rs 0600 & Rs.2300 drafts for each.. She verified and retained t(e two Rs.4600 and gave back the two Rs.2,300 draft of mine and my wife's wiht our passports. She also issued the receipt for payment of visa issuance fees thus. ALSO GIVEN TO ME WAS A PINK COLOUR TAG WITH THREE FOLDS HAVING AN IDENTITY NUMBER on ALL THREE FOLDS. The same number had been printed on t`ree folds of the tag.

REMEMBER I PRESENTED THE PASSPORT & DRAFTS OF MY WIFE TOO.

We were asked to fall in line before any counter hereafter and was suggested that one would do to stand in the line while the other can take a seat in rows of seats. The roof was low and there was no fan. In summer time definitely there would be external heat felt in this hall to bear with -apart from the anxiety about nature of visa interveiw next and the result of it!!

We took the counter number three and waited. My wife refused to leave me and get seated in one of the chairs kept there.

As our turn came, there was change of staff at the counter inside. In all counters in this hall ONLY INDIANS of both genders manned them. The young man had been replaced by a young lady and she asked us to submit our-

appointment letter, passports, pink colour tag of three fold, courier service & visa processing ( Rs.400 & Rs.4,600) fees payment receipts, passports, 156 applications of both me and my wife and the Rs.2,300 draft. Applications were thoroughly verified and she asked us to hand over her ONLY MY SON's SPONSORSHIP PAPERS. She did not even ask me to show her the other papers I had with me. Here the photo glued to the 156 application was scanned.

She had retained our passports, one fold of three fold pink tag and 156 applications.

I saw her taking out a plastic file and retained our passports .REST WERE RETURNED TO ME .

She asked me if could understand American accent during interview to follow next or wanted an interpreter.

THIS WAS A SUPRISE TO ME..

For, when I booked the web appoinmnet on 11th Jan through my PC at home, at the stage of choice of language for interview the instruction in RED COLOUR as to choice of interview language read that native language choice was available to 0NLY those who can not converse in English!! I had to oipt for English with my PG degree, law degree and professional status of lawyer and my wife too was a PG in psychology.

HENCE NOW I WAS HESITANT TO THE LADY AT THE COUNTER TO ASK FOR ANY CLARIFICATIO AND SAID I COULD MANAGE THE INTERVIEW IN ENGLISH.

Well, we moved on further inside the open space of the consulate. The guards guided us to the visa section only a three or four minutes walk from the first hall of verification and issaunec of interview token ( the pink colour three fold tag to us with our interview turn number printed on it at the first cash counter itself) .

a small desk of snacks and cococola soft drinks cooling machine welcomes us in the first hall of VISA section. We ignored it and passed on to the main VISA interview hall. This was airconditoned Can accomodate about 3OO. There were 8 counters partitioned by glas and wiht intercom communication nfacility before each counter. To the left extreme was the 1 st counter receiving only payments from applicants after VISA had been APPROVED.

A staff was calling for numbers and was asking to fall in queue before selected counters. NOT ALL 8 COUNTERS WERE MANNED at the time of our presence in the interview Hall. ALL INTERVIEWING OFFICERS WERE MALE AND WHITE.


I observed business VISA and STUDENT VISA APPLICANTS WERE GIVEN TWO COUNTERS. IT APPEARED TO ME THAT IN THESE TWO COUNTERS THE CONSULATE OFFICERS WERE NOT ASSISTED BY ANOTHER PERSON.

However in the counter where malayalam interview was going on and in the next counter for Telegu and tamil interview, the offiecsr had the assitance of interpreters.

Well at about 01:45 PM our turn came. A ten minutes earlier we were asked to stand before counter No:7

There were just three before us and after their turn was over , the interpreter assistant signalled us to come close to the counter.

We went to the counter and the visa officer looked quite affable. I watched him watching on the monitor details about us. I told them:"good morning, Sir and madam"

Then- surprisingly questions in Tamil started coming from the kind lady interpreter. I did not even ehar them through intercom and I heard her clearly through the paper passing limited/narrow opening at the counter .

Read the questions put to me and & answers I told them:

what is your son doing there in the USA
working.

How long he has been there ?
Five years.

how many children do u have?
ONLY son.

What r u here?
An advocate.

what type of service u r doing-private ro government?
private?

what type of cases u r handling?
civil cases

what type of clients u r serving?
rural middel class.

what is your earning?
about Rs.100,000/

How long u want to stay in the USA?
three months

some pause...

the interpreter lady told me.."go to counter number one and pay the fees!"

NOT A SINGLE PAPER I WAS ASKED TO PRODUCE OUT OF SO MANY I HAD CARRIED WITH ME AND THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE QUESTION TO MY WIFE.

THANKKKKK U SIR & MADAM.

gleefully I Ieft the counter number.7 to 1 .

Sentimerntalism ? RUBBISH !!

BE CONFIDENT ALWAYS IN A SITUTAION LIKE VISA INTERVIEW OR ANYTIME IN LIFE.

we were outside the consulate by 02:15 PM.

On 28th night we left Chennai to reach our home near Coimbatore on 29th morning. By noon there was dial from BLUE DART courier office to deliver a parcel from Chennai.

Curiously, anyway I asked them if the consignors were TT services Chennai. They said
yes!

please bring I said the consignee/addresse was available.

The parcel was delievered in the enxt 30 minuets by two staqff of Blue Dart, Thiurppur riding a motorcycle.

I asked them if they would like a cool & fresh juice. They declined and drove off .

Took out the scissiors and slit through the parcel to find the passports of mine and my wife's.

Recahing the particular VISA page in hopeful outlook-

THERE WAS 10 YEARS LONG US VISA STAMPING from 27th jaN 2004 to 26th Jan 2014 WITHOUR SCANNED PHOTO STARING AT ME!

I YELLED TO BELOVED WIFE AND SHARED THE HAPPY EVENT & END OF USA VISA SEEKING!

 at 05:08 AM IST 30th Jan 2004