How to Get a Visa for the United States by Mey Lau

How to Get a Visa for the United States --A Guide to Success-By former U.S. Consular Officer and Licensed Attorney Brad Menzer

Introduction……………………….…………………………………….. Who Will Benefit from this Guide……………………….………... Why this Guide is Valuable to U.S. Visa Seekers………………… Setting the Stage – About Visas……………………………………..

II.

Selecting the Right Visa…………………………………..………….. How to Sort Through the Alphabet Soup of Visa Classifications… What You Can and Cannot Do on a B Visa………………………. The Visa Waiver Program – Visa-Free Travel to the U.S…………

III.

How to Apply for Your Visa…………………………………………… Where to Apply for Your Visa………………………………………….. Filling Out the Visa Application, Form DS-160…………………………. About Ineligibilities……………………………………………………… Paying Your Visa Application Fee……………………………………….. Scheduling Your Visa Interview…………………………………………..

IV.

The Visa Interview and Beyond…………………………………… How to Ace Your Visa Interview - 7 Simple Steps for Success……….. Knowing Who’s on the Other Side of the Glass………………………….

What to Do When Your Visa Interview Doesn’t Go Your Way. An Eleven Point Plan for Overcoming A Refusal……………………….

VI.

Conclusion…………………………………………………………

VII.

Appendix……………………………………………………… Visa Resources…………………………………………………….. Frequently Asked Visa Questions…..…………………. Ten Questions to Ask When Selecting an Immigration Lawyer…

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I. INTRODUCTION Who Will Benefit from this Guide: This publication is intended for anyone seeking or considering applying for a visa to visit the United States. It will serve as a useful tool for nonimmigrant and immigrant visa applicants alike, but is geared mostly toward the former – people who are applying to come to the U.S. short-term, as opposed to those seeking to live permanently in the United States on a green card. Persons seeking a tourist/business visa (known as a B-1/B-2 visa) and those applying for student visas will likely find this guide especially helpful. They represent the overwhelming majority of visa applicants generally, and have the most to gain from someone with experience on the other side of the glass. Immigrant visa seekers and those applying nonimmigrant visas like H-1Bs don’t usually have quite as tough of a time convincing a consular officer that they’re qualified for the visa they seek. To be sure, refusal rates are much, much higher for people who want to come to the United States as a tourist or short-term for business. This guide is most useful to them precisely because of the tips provided in it by someone who’s conducted thousands of these interviews, deciding whether the applicant gets to go to the U.S. or not. But it’s still definitely the case that what follows can be of assistance to any visa seeker – many of the tips and tricks contained herein can be utilized across the visa spectrum.

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Why this Guide is Valuable to U.S. Visa Seekers The author’s unique experience in visa matters is what makes this guide such a valuable resource for anyone who wants to get a U.S. visa. I am not only a licensed attorney, but also served as a consular officer with the U.S. Department of State, meaning I interviewed and adjudicated visa applications for all kinds of different visas from people from many different countries. I’ve seen thousands of people walk away from the interview window thrilled to have been successful in their quest for a United States visa, and I’ve seen many a person disappointed over their refusal. I have closely studied both the successful applicants and those that didn’t get what they came for. This guide is essentially a compilation of “lessons learned:” it contains insights into what does and doesn’t work for visa applicants, relaying this information to you in a straightforward, candid fashion that’s easy to consume and remember. I have absolutely no doubt that you’ll be a stronger visa applicant, meaning your chances of being granted a visa are higher, after you’ve read this guide.

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Check out a useful graphic from the Department of State that helps one understand all the stuff that’s printed on their visa: http://travel.state.gov/visa/questions/what/what_4429.html

Setting the Stage – About Visas A visa is essentially a stamp that goes in a passport that allows non-U.S. citizens and non-permanent residents to come to the United States. It technically only allows you to apply for permission to enter the U.S. (i.e., to show up at an airport, port or border crossing) - a Customs and Border Patrol officer can still deny you entry, even if you have a visa, but in reality, if you’ve got a valid visa, you’re almost sure to be let in the country. If you’re not a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, and you’re not a passport holder of a visa waiver country (more on this in Section II), then you need a visa to come to the U.S.

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There’s already been reference in this guide to “nonimmigrant” visas and “immigrant” visas – so what’s the difference? An immigrant visa is issued to people abroad who will be coming to the U.S. to live permanently. It allows someone who qualifies to enter the country and apply for a green card. The person can then live and work permanently in the U.S. A nonimmigrant visa, on the other hand, is issued to people abroad who will be coming to the U.S. for a limited period. These usually go to tourists or those coming to visit family and people coming short-term for business/work, but can also be for all kinds of other activities. The main difference between the two, then, is that an immigrant visa is for someone who’s coming to the U.S. to live indefinitely, as where a nonimmigrant visa is for someone who will be in the United States for a limited duration.

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II. SELECTING THE RIGHT VISA How to Sort Through the Alphabet Soup of Visa Classifications You’ve decided to travel to the U.S. on a short-term basis. Whether you want to shop in New York, hang with the stars in Los Angeles, visit your family in Chicago or seal a business deal in Miami, you will need (unless you’re from a country that participates in the visa waiver program and certain other conditions are met - more on that below) a visa. But, for which kind of visa should you apply? Depending on how one counts the various possible configurations, there are over 30 different visas for temporary visitors. Visa classifications are distinguished by letter, as in a “B” visa, or an “F” visa, and so on. The number you see after the letter tells you the visa “type,” e.g. a “B-1” or an “F-2”, and can provide a meaningful signal about what the purpose of the visa is (for example, an “E” visa is different than an “E-3” visa), but it in most cases just lets the immigration authorities in the U.S. know whether the holder of the visa is the primary beneficiary or a derivative beneficiary. For example, if you are going to go to a university in the U.S. to get a college degree, you will get an “F-1” visa. If you want your minor, unmarried child

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who is your dependent to come with you to the U.S., they’ll get an “F-2” visa the “2” means that they’re a derivative beneficiary of your visa application (which just means that you’re the one that qualified for the visa, but that they get to come with you because they’re your dependent). But don’t be confused by the fact that the main visa for tourists, a B-2, indeed contains the number “2,” despite that it’s for the primary applicant. This is one of those cases where the number after the letter actually distinguishes between what the holder of the visa can do; a B-1 visa is technically different than a B-2 visa (more to follow on this distinction and on B visas generally). You really don’t need to get hung up on the number after the visa classification when applying for your visa, but you do need to apply for the right class of visa, i.e., the right letter.

You’ll have to make this designation when you fill

out your visa application form. The general rule is that your purpose of travel determines which kind of visa you’ll need (this is, by the way, often the first question a consular officer asks a visa applicant at the visa interview – “what is the purpose of your trip to the U.S.,” or “why do you want to travel to the United States” or some such variation). Want to study in the U.S.? You’ll need a student visa, likely an F or a J, or possibly an M depending on your program of study. Just want to go on vacation or visit some relatives? The B visa is for you. For a list of nonimmigrant visas, arranged by general purpose of travel, see the chart below, courtesy of the State Department. The chart can be found here http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1286.html. On the State Department’s page you can click on the visa type to be taken to another page with more information about that particular kind of visa. (Note that the column on the far right lets you know whether you’re required to get something from another agency before you can get your visa; that’s beyond the scope of this work - just know that for the tourist/short-term business trip visa, you don’t need anything from any other U.S. agency.)

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Purpose of Travel to U.S. and Nonimmigrant Visas

Visa Type

Required: Before Applying for Visa*

Athletes, amateur & professional (compete for prize money only)

B-1

(NA)

Au pairs (exchange visitor)

---J---

SEVIS

Australian professional specialty

E-3

DOL

Border Crossing Card: Mexico

BCC

(NA)

Business visitors

B-1

(NA)

Crewmembers

---D---

(NA)

Diplomats and foreign government officials

---A---

(NA)

Domestic employees or nanny -must be accompanying a foreign national employer

B-1

(NA)

Employees of a designated international organization, and NATO

G1-G5, NATO

(NA)

Exchange visitors

---J---

SEVIS

Foreign military personnel stationed in the U.S.

A-2 NATO1-6

(NA)

Foreign nationals with extraordinary ability in Sciences, Arts, Education, Business or Athletics

---O---

USCIS

Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Professionals: Chile, Singapore

H-1B1 - Chile H-1B1 Singapore

DOL

International cultural exchange visitors

---Q---

USCIS

Intra-company transferees

---L---

USCIS

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Medical treatment, visitors for

B-2

(NA)

Media, journalists

---I---

(NA)

NAFTA professional workers: Mexico, Canada

TN/TD

(NA)

Nurses coming to health professional shortage areas

H1-C

USCIS

Performing athletes, artists, entertainers

---P---

USCIS

Physician

J , H-1B

SEVIS

Professor, scholar, teacher (exchange visitor)

---J---

SEVIS

Religious workers

---R---

(USCIS)

Specialty occupations in fields requiring highly specialized knowledge

H-1B

DOL then USCIS

Students: academic, vocational

F, M

SEVIS

Temporary agricultural workers

H-2A

DOL then USCIS

Temporary workers performing other services or labor of a temporary or seasonal nature.

H-2B

DOL then USCIS

Tourism, vacation, pleasure visitors

B-2

(NA)

Training in a program not primarily for employment

H-3

USCIS

Treaty traders/treaty investors

---E---

(NA)

Transiting the United States

---C---

(NA)

Victims of Human Trafficking

---T---

USCIS**

Kind of overwhelming, right? Thankfully, the application form you fill out online for your nonimmigrant visa, called the Form DS-160, lists some of the most common purposes of travel under the question that asks what the purpose of your trip is; you don’t have to come up with the right visa on your own, but you still have to select the right classification. Among the five or so choices listed (the form has changed since its roll-out in 2010, and could change again),

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you’ll see some specific travel purposes followed by a visa class (letter) and type (number), as well as an option that says “other.” You’ll definitely see something like “tourism or visitors for pleasure” and “business visitor” among the choices. The former relates to a B-2 visa, while the latter is for a B-1 visa. But those two often get lumped together, so you might see an option that has both of them, combined. It’ll say something like “Business/Pleasure – B-1/B-2.” If you’re going for either of these reasons, this is the option you want to select. If you want to go to the U.S. to do something that’s not explicitly listed, you’ll need to click on the “other” tab, which will bring up a list sort of like the chart above, from which you’re supposed to select the option that most closely matches your purpose for traveling to the United States. If you’ve had a look at the chart above and still aren’t sure which visa type you should apply for, you can ask an immigration lawyer, or simply call or e-mail the U.S. embassy or consulate nearest you to ask. The majority of visa seekers who are going to the U.S. temporarily end up getting a combined B-1/B-2 visa. This allows you to enter the U.S. as a tourist (or for similar purposes, such as to visit family and the like) or on short-term business - it’s a combination of the B-1 (visitor for business) and B-2 (visitor for pleasure) visas. It thankfully doesn’t cost any more than just getting one or the other, and most embassies and consulates will issue this combined visa even though you tell them you only want to enter the U.S. for one reason or the other (business or pleasure). According to statistics released by the State Department, in 2010, just over 41,000 people received a B-1 (visitor for business) visa, and a little over 358,000 received a B-2 (visitor for pleasure) visa. A whopping 3,278,782 people received a combined B-1/B-2 visa. To see more statistics on nonimmigrant visa issuance by classification, visit this page: http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/MultiYearTableXVI.pdf.

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What You Can and Cannot Do on a B Visa A word of caution: a major pitfall is applying for a tourist

The Versatile B-1/B-2 Visa

visa when you actually intend

A combined B-1/B-2 visa allows you to enter the U.S. as a tourist or a business visitor, or both. The great thing about it is that as long as it’s a multiple entry visa, you can enter during its validity period for business one time (or indeed many times), and then for tourism another. If you’re just issued a B-1, business visitor visa, then you’re technically only supposed to enter the U.S. for business-related purposes. This means that if you go for business, return to your home country, but then want to travel back to the United States for vacation, you’d need to apply again for another visa, this time getting a B-2 (visitor for pleasure) visa.

to do something that’s not allowed under a tourist (or visitor for business) visa. This commonly comes up with people who want to go to the United States for a short-term study program, or who want to perform some kind of work that isn’t permitted.

The guidelines to which consular officers look, established by the State Department, say that a B-2 (visitor for pleasure) visa can be issued to someone if their primary purpose for traveling to the U.S. is tourism but they also plan to engage in short term studies while they’re there. (9 FAM 41.61 N9.2-1, available at: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/87373.pdf.) But there’s also a limitation on how much time a person can spend on the formal studies 18 hours per week (this presumably means in class, and doesn’t apply to time a person spends studying on their own, even if it’s directly related to the formal program). Anything more than that and the person will need a proper student visa (an F or an M visa), which is a petition-based visa, meaning the school in the U.S. has to give you a special form that you’ll have to produce at your visa

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interview, and meaning you’ll have to apply again (including paying a new application fee) for a different visa. Additionally, there’s a prohibition on the granting of a B visa to persons who will be earning academic credit or earning an academic degree in the U.S.; these persons have to get a student visa. Many applicants have their application for a B visa refused when they explain to the consular officer at their visa interview that they intend to study in the U.S. Even if it’s a several-week study course, if it’s over 18 hours per week or they’ll be earning academic credit, they’ll need a student visa, not a B visa. If you do plan to do a short term study course that is not more than 18 hours per week and won’t earn you credit, you need to have the school or program facilitator provide to you a letter saying as much. You should bring this letter to your interview to show the consular officer.

Manuel’s Misfortune in Mexico Manuel applied for a B-1/B-2 visa at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City to go study English in the Chicago for four weeks. At his visa interview he truthfully told the consular officer that the program consisted of 15 hours per week of classes. The consular officer told Manuel that his visa would be granted as long as he provided some further documentation about the course. Manuel had his university fax a letter to the embassy, and in the meantime went ahead and purchased his plane ticket on the assurance from the consular officer that a visa would be issued upon the embassy receiving more info about the course. He got a call the next day from the embassy saying his visa application was being denied because the letter from his university confirmed that he’d be receiving academic credit toward his college degree for the studies in the U.S. The consular officer didn’t ask about this at the interview, and Manuel simply didn’t think to bring it up – he had no clue this could be an issue. His pleas to have the embassy contact the airline to explain the situation and see if his money could be refunded were of no use; he was out of luck, and out the $600 he spent on the plane ticket.

The other context in which applicants are commonly refused when they apply for a B visa due to their planned activities in the U.S. is the business setting. The Foreign Affairs Manual is at once strict and vague about what kind of

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business-related activities are permissible under a B-1 (visitor for business) visa (or a combined B-1/B-2 visa). As a guiding principal, bear in mind that if you’re going to get paid while you’re in the U.S. for working there, you’ll need a work visa (like an E, H or L visa) - a B visa won’t do. Want to wait tables, work at an amusement park, work at a law firm, or teach a language class? You can’t do any of these things on a B visa. The FAM makes clear that a B-1 visa “generally entails business activities other than the performance of skilled or unskilled labor,” and it “is not intended for the purpose of obtaining and engaging in employment while in the United States.” Time and again applicants are refused at their visa interview because they tell the consular officer they’re considering doing a bit of part time work in the U.S., like maybe helping out at their aunt’s restaurant or something - they are told that their application for a tourist/business visa is denied, and that to go to the U.S. they’ll need the appropriate work visa, which can be really tough to get. If a person can’t work in the U.S. on a B-1 “business” visa, what can they do on it? What exactly does “business” mean as it relates to the B-1 visa? The FAM lists certain activities that definitely are permissible on a B-1 visa (meaning you wouldn’t need a work visa to do these things in the U.S.). Specifically, per 9 FAM 41.31 N8, a B-1 visa is appropriate where the applicant plans to travel the United States to: -

Engage in commercial transactions, which do not involve gainful employment in the United States (such as a merchant who takes orders for goods manufactured abroad);

Negotiate contracts;

Consult with business associates;

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Litigate in court;

Participate in scientific, educational, professional, or business conventions, conferences, or seminars; or

Undertake independent research.

Those are probably the most common business-related activities for which a B-1 visa is appropriate. Another fairly common activity, also cited in the FAM as appropriate for B-1 status, includes employment that is “incidental to” a person’s professional business activities. 9 FAM 41.31 N9. Consular officers struggle with applying this provision - what does it mean to be “incidental” to normal business activities? The FAM tries to give some direction, laying out certain groups of persons and stating what is and is not acceptable work for them to do while on a B-1 visa, among them (listing only some of the more common groups): Members of Religious and Charitable Activities; Members of the Board of Directors of a U.S. Corporation; Professional Athletes; Investors Seeking Investment in the United States; Outer Continental Shelf Employees; Certain Commercial or Industrial Workers; Foreign Airline Employees; and Medical Personnel Doing an Elective Clerkship. If you think you might be in one of these categories, you can consult the FAM for further direction, or get in touch with the embassy or consulate to which you plan to apply for your visa (or contact an immigration attorney). Additionally, sometimes a person who would qualify for an H-1 or H-3 visa can go to the U.S. on a B-1 visa, such as for short-term training (but the U.S. business can only pay the person’s expenses - the salary must be paid by a company abroad). 9 FAM 41.31 N11

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The bottom line: if you’re going to the U.S. for tourism, to visit family or friends, or for business-related activities for which you won’t actually be getting paid, you’re going to want to apply for a B-1/B-2 visa.

The Visa Waiver Program – Visa-Free Travel to the U.S. People who are passport holders of certain countries don’t have to apply for a visa to travel to the U.S. in some cases. This regime is called the visa waiver program (VWP). Its purpose is to establish easier travel between the United States and other countries that offer similar visa-free travel to American passport holders (but some have certain restrictions, as the VWP does) and that meet certain security standards (such as providing to their nationals passports that are tough to forge) and other requirements (for example, a country has to have less than three percent of all applicants for nonimmigrant U.S. visas be refused, on average, to qualify). But there are very important restrictions on visa-free travel to the U.S. for persons holding a passport of a qualifying country. The most important of which is that persons can only take advantage of it if they’re traveling to the U.S. for business or pleasure, and plan to stay for less than 90 days. For any other purpose of travel, or for a longer intended stay, a person has to apply for a visa, even if they’re from a visa waiver country. Also, if a person has ever applied and been refused a visa, or if they’re ineligible for a visa under U.S. immigration law, they have to apply for a visa (and in the latter case, will need a waiver of their ineligibility to actually get the visa). You should contact the nearest embassy or consulate in your country if you plan to travel to the U.S. and have done something since your ESTA authorization (more on this below) was issued that could make you ineligible for a visa, even if the authorization is still valid. Otherwise, you risk being denied boarding at the airport (after you’ve already purchased your plane ticket), or worse still, getting to the

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United States and being turned around at the border (which government figures refer to as getting “bounced” at the border). There’s more on ineligibilities below; if you think one might apply to you and you’re from a visa waiver country, you should contact the embassy or consulate and tell them about your situation to see if they think you should apply for a visa. But a person from a visa waiver country can’t just show up at the airport in the U.S. – they first have to apply for a travel authorization. This is done online through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) system. You have to fill out some biographical and other info and pay a small fee (currently $14). These authorizations are generally valid for two years, and can be used for multiple trips to the United States.

Boris’ Blunder in Belgium Boris, who grew up in Moscow and holds a Russian passport, had been living in Brussels for over 30 years when he first decided to visit the United States – his favorite band, U2, was on tour there, and he wanted to catch them in the famed Madison Square Garden in New York. He had heard about the visa waiver program, and read on the State Department’s website about the 36 countries that qualify for the program, noting that Belgium is among them. He thought that since he had lived and worked in Belgium for many years, he could go to the United States without first getting a visa. He went on to the ESTA website to get his travel authorization, only to be told at the end of the process that he did not qualify for the visa waiver program. The problem? What matters is your passport, not where you live. Russia isn’t a visa waiver country, so holders of Russian passports can’t benefit from the program (unless they also have a passport from a qualifying country – Boris didn’t). He settled for U2 in Paris during the European leg of their tour; not bad, but Madison Square Garden it isn’t.

Check out this State Department for more info on the Visa Waiver Program: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html), as well as this

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one from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is the branch within the Department of Homeland Security that actually handles ESTA: http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_visa/esta/. To apply for the ESTA authorization, click here: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html?_flowExecutionKey=_c4B13883D0384-D4AB-1228-2BC1DC3D3C9A_kB78AC067-F363-E140-F70C51FE803DFEAA. Here’s the list of countries that are currently part of the visa waiver program:

Andorra Australia Austria Belgium Brunei Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece

Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Monaco the Netherlands

New Zealand Norway Portugal San Marino Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

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III. How to Apply for Your Visa By this point you know (i) whether you need a visa at all (which is determined by whether you’re a passport holder of a visa-waiver country and what your purpose of travel is) and (ii) what kind of visa you need. The next step is actually applying for your visa. To do this, you’ve first got to know where to apply.

Where to Apply for Your Visa What’s in a Name? The Difference Between an Embassy and a Consulate You’ve by now seen many times reference to an “embassy or consulate,” denoting that they’re two different things. So what’s the difference? Both are diplomatic missions that represent their country before the country in which they’re located, but an embassy is the primary provider of this function. An embassy is located in a country’s capital city (some exceptions apply), and is where the U.S. ambassador works. The ambassador is the President’s personal representative to the country in which he works, and is the head of the embassy. There’s only one embassy in each country. The U.S. has embassies in just about every country. Consulates, on the other hand, are kind of like satellites for the embassy; representation in other important cities in a given country. They perform fewer diplomatic services normally than embassies, with more of a focus on consular affairs, meaning visa work and helping U.S. citizens. The U.S. has zero consulates in some countries and multiple consulates in others (where multiple consulates are present, the main one is called a Consulate General). The greatest number of consulates is to be found in Mexico: the U.S. has an embassy in Mexico City and then ten consulates throughout the rest of the country. Almost all embassies and consulates provide visa

It’s critical that you apply for a visa to the right embassy or consulate. Messing up in this regard, and trying to get a visa from the incorrect embassy or consulate, will set you up for failure. While the various visa applications are all the same, and you can (and indeed must) fill out the main form (the one for short-term tourism or business visits, the DS-160) online, these applications get

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routed to a particular embassy or consulate. As is explained in more detail below, where you seek your visa can also greatly affect your chances for success. But how do you know where to apply? As a general rule, you should apply to the embassy or consulate closest to where you live, within your country. It’s important to note that you should apply in your own country, even if you actually live closer to a consulate or embassy in another country. As a consular officer who has denied people at interviews based almost entirely on the fact that they live in another country, I can tell you with confidence that this is a mistake you don’t want to make. Note that I said the “apply to the embassy or consulate nearest to you in your country” is a general rule – you really don’t need to know the details

Nirav’s Mumbai Misstep Nirav was traveling in Canada when he decided to apply for a visa to pop across the border to the U.S. for some sight-seeing. He applied for a tourist visa at the U.S. consulate in Montreal, but was refused. He has a great, high-paying job as a systems engineer where he lives in India, owns property, and has even traveled to the U.S. before, all things that generally help one secure a tourist/business visa. So why did he get refused? The consular officer explained that he couldn’t evaluate Nirav’s ties to India, and that Nirav should go back and apply there. You see, the documents Nirav submitted (his cousin in India scanned and e-mailed them to him) about his work/property/etc. were all in Gujarati – a language the consular officer in Canada doesn’t know, but one that a consular officer in Mumbai (and possibly other posts in India) will likely know at least well enough to gauge the authenticity of the documents presented. A consular officer in Mumbai would also just generally be more attuned to things relevant to visa interviews that one in Canada wouldn’t. Nirav almost certainly would have received a visa had he only applied in India. The lesson: apply in your own country, or the one in which you’re presently living.

regarding the exceptions. If one applies to the closest embassy/consulate nearest them in their own country and one of the exceptions indeed does apply, the embassy or consulate will let you know and will route your application to the correct embassy/consulate, at no detriment to you (meaning, they won’t deny you or anything bad like that based on this).

Where are these embassies and consulates?

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Check out the list below, courtesy of the U.S. Department of State (which runs these embassies and consulates), and can be found at www.usembassy.gov. It’s arranged by region - Africa, The Americas, East Asia & Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, Middle East & North Africa, Central & South Asia - and then by country, and finally, where there’s more than one mission in that country, by city. The great thing about the webpage from which this list was drawn, www.usembassy.gov, is that on that page these listings are all links to the actual embassy or consulate website. One thing that’s especially convenient for many people is the offering of some of these webpages (or at least parts of them) in the local language. You’ll see next to some of the city names a separate link in the (or in some cases, one of several) languages spoken in that country – you can click on that link to see the page in that language. If you’re still not sure to which embassy or consulate you should apply after having a look at the chart below, you can contact a few that you think might be correct to ask. Just tell them where you live and what your purpose of travel is, and they’ll tell you where to apply. To do this, click on the link on the website that says “Visas,” and you should be able to find an e-mail address and phone number for the consular section, which is the office with which you need to speak to inquire about visa-related matters.

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AFRICA

• Angola: Luanda | Português • Benin: Cotonou • Botswana: Gaborone • Burkina Faso: Ouagadougou | Français • Burundi: Bujumbura • Cameroon: Yaounde | Français • Cameroon: VPP Septentrion • Cape Verde: Praia | Português • Central African Republic: Bangui • Chad: N'Djamena | Français • Democratic Republic of the Congo: Kinshasa | Français • Republic of the Congo: Brazzaville • Côte d’Ivoire: Abidjan | Français • Republic of Djibouti: Djibouti • Equatorial Guinea: Malabo

• Eritrea: Asmara • Ethiopia: Addis Ababa • Gabon: Libreville • Ghana: Accra • Guinea: Conakry | Français • Kenya: Nairobi • Lesotho: Maseru • Liberia: Monrovia • Madagascar: Antananarivo • Malawi: Lilongwe • Mali: Bamako • Mauritania: Nouakchott | Français | ‫ﻉعﺭرﺏبﻱي‬ • Mauritius: Port Louis • Mozambique: Maputo | Portuguese • Namibia: Windhoek • Niger: Niamey

• Nigeria: Abuja • Rwanda: Kigali • Senegal: Dakar | Français • Sierra Leone: Freetown • Somalia: VPP Somalia • South Africa: Pretoria • Sudan: Khartoum • Sudan: Juba • Swaziland: Mbabane • Tanzania: Dar es Salaam

• Mexico: Monterrey | Español • Mexico: Nogales | Español • Mexico: Nuevo Laredo • Mexico: Puerto Vallarta • Mexico: Tijuana | Español • Netherlands Antilles: Curacao

• The Gambia: Banjul • Togo: Lome | Français • Uganda: Kampala • Zambia: Lusaka • Zimbabwe: Harare

THE AMERICAS • Argentina: Buenos Aires | Español • Bahamas: Nassau • Barbados: Bridgetown • Belize: Belmopan • Bermuda: Hamilton • Bolivia: La Paz | Español • Brazil: Brasilia • Brazil: Rio de Janeiro • Brazil: Recife

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• Brazil: São Paulo • Canada: Ottawa • Canada: Calgary • Canada: Halifax • Canada: Montreal • Canada: Quebec • Canada: Toronto • Canada: Vancouver • Canada: Winnipeg

• Republic of the Marshall Islands: Majuro • Federated States of Micronesia: Kolonia • Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar | МОНГОЛ • New Zealand: Wellington • Papua New Guinea: Port Moresby • Republic of Palau: Koror • Philippines: Manila • Samoa: Apia • Singapore • Thailand: Bangkok • Thailand: Chiang Mai • Timor-Leste: Dili • Vietnam: Hanoi | Tièng Viêt

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• Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh • Korea: Seoul | 한국어 City | Tièng Viêt • Korea: Busan | 한국어 * Taiwan* • Laos: Vientiane • Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur | Bahasa Malaysia

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• Germany: Düsseldorf | Deutsch • Germany: Frankfurt | Deutsch • Germany: Hamburg | Deutsch

• Saudi Arabia: Dhahran • Saudi Arabia: Jeddah | ‫ﺍاﻝلﻉعﺭرﺏبﻱيﺓة ﺍاﻝلﺹصﻑفﺡحﺓة‬ • Syria: Damascus • Tunisia: Tunis | Français | ‫ﻉعﺭرﺏبﻱي‬ • United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi | ‫ﻉعﺭرﺏبﻱي‬ • United Arab Emirates: Dubai • Yemen: Sana'a | ‫ﺍاﻝلﺹصﻑفﺡحﺓة‬ ‫ﺍاﻝلﻉعﺭرﺏبﻱيﺓة‬

CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA • Afghanistan: Kabul • Bangladesh: Dhaka • India: New Delhi • India: Hyderabad • India: Kolkata

• India: Chennai • India: Mumbai • India: VPP Bangalore • Kazakhstan: Astana | Русский • Kyrgyz Republic: Bishkek | Русский • Nepal: Kathmandu • Pakistan: Islamabad • Pakistan: Karachi • Pakistan: Lahore

Filling Out the Visa Application, Form DS-160 After you decide which embassy or consulate to which you should apply, you should go to their website (using the links above), and thoroughly read all the

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information related to visa applications. If you’re applying for a business visitor/tourist visa (B-1/B-2) or any other nonimmigrant visa (meaning a shortterm visa, as opposed to applying for a visa that will lead to a green card), then you really don’t need to read all the information provided about immigrant visas – just read about nonimmigrant visas. But make sure you really do pay close attention to what’s provided. Though the form you fill out to apply for a visa will be the same for any given visa no matter where in the world you apply, there are small differences between the various embassies and consulates in how they deal with applications, how they schedule interviews, and what they request from applicants in the way of supporting documents (much more on supporting documents to follow!). For almost every kind of nonimmigrant (short-term) visa, the form you’ll need to fill out to apply is called the DS-160. It’s what’s called a “smart form,” which means it changes the questions it gives you based on your answers to previous questions (for example, males between certain ages have to answer more questions and give more information than other applicants - the DS-160 feeds you these questions if you signify that you’re a male within the established age range), and it relatively recently replaced a bunch of other forms - it’s a consolidation of several older forms, which means (depending on the visa for which you’re applying) you usually only have to fill out one form, which is good for you. The DS-160 is filled out completely on-line, which can be good or bad depending on your perspective. It’s nice and efficient if you’re relatively computer savvy, but it’s caused problems for a lot of older people who aren’t quite as with it when it comes to technology and for some persons from countries that don’t have reliable internet. It’s good from the government’s perspective - less paper to shuffle and keep track of for them, and since it’s

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electronic, it can be stored in their system and viewed by consular officers and other personnel all over the world with ease. There should be a link on the website of the embassy or consulate to which you’re applying for the DS-160, which is housed in a database called the Consular Electronic Application Center. You can jump directly to that site with this link: https://ceac.state.gov/GENNIV/General/complete/complete_gettingstarted.a spx?node=GetStarted. The DS-160 is divided up into several areas: personal (as in biographical) information; passport information; travel information (about past travel and your intentions for your upcoming proposed trip to the United States, including your travel companions, and your point of contact and where you’ll be staying in the U.S.); information about your family; information about your past and present work and/or education/training; and “security and background” information. The last one, the security and background portion, is what seems to worry people the most. It’s where the U.S. government asks you, essentially, whether you’ve ever done anything that might indicate you’re a security risk or if there’s anything in general about you that might make your presence in the United States undesirable. You should be honest about this stuff. It’s important to know that answering “yes” to one or more of these questions doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to get a visa to visit the United States. For a few of them, it is in fact a deal breaker if it brings you within the ambit of the statutory ineligibilities listed in U.S. immigration law (but then again, a waiver is available for some ineligibilities). There’s more in this guide about how to handle possible ineligibilities, but for now suffice it to say that it’s best to just be up front about things in your past that you’re not particularly proud of (if they’re relevant - no need to go out of your way to include something

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detrimental to your cause if it’s not asked about in the application or at your visa interview). The DS-160 is relatively straight-forward. Most people don’t have too tough of a time filling it out, but if you do, there’s no shame in e-mailing or calling the embassy or consulate to which you’re applying to ask for help. It’s perfectly acceptable to do so. Also, here you can find a list of frequently asked questions from the Department of State website that may be worth reviewing before you get started or if you run into trouble trying to fill out the application: http://travel.state.gov/visa/forms/forms_4401.html. Once you make it to the end of the application you’ll reach a page telling you it’s been successfully submitted (meaning it gets routed to the embassy or consulate to which you’re applying for your visa - the one you selected at the beginning of the DS-160 application). At the end of the process you should print the form and save it. You’ll need (in many cases) the 10 digit barcode number from the last page of the printed electronic visa application form to be able to schedule a visa interview. You should also bring this to your visa interview (you most likely won’t need it, but still probably a good idea in case for some reason they can’t find your application online - this will prove that you submitted it, which could help you get a new interview time shortly after you go back and do the application again on-line). A few things to note about the DS-160 visa application: ●

You don’t have to finish it all in one sitting. It’s possible to start, fill out part of the application, and then step away and come back to it later. Your application is automatically saved every time you hit the “Next” button. If you’re going to stop working on it for a while and pick it back up later, you need to record your “Application ID,” which is displayed

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in the top, right-hand corner of the screen. You’ll need this ID to pick your application back up later. If you think it might be 30 days or more until you work on it again, you should permanently save the application to your computer or a disk. To do this, hit the "Save" button at the bottom of the page, and then follow the instructions you see to save the application data so you can upload back into the system later. ●

It’s available in some languages other than English, but not in all languages. It costs a fair amount to have the whole thing translated, so the State Department started by doing the most commonly spoken languages of applicants, like Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and French. They add more languages as funds allow, but there’s no guarantee your particular language will be available. You don’t have to do anything to select a particular language. Once you select, at the very beginning, the name of the city in which the embassy or consulate to which you’re applying is located, the DS-160 will automatically use the language of that area (if it’s one of the languages they’ve translated, otherwise it’ll just be in English). You’ll still see English as you go through the form: to see the translation, just point the cursor over the text you want to see translated, and a little box with the translated language will appear. Pretty useful, even if your English is strong (and if you’re reading this guide, it probably is).

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You have to upload a photo, in JPEG format, into the DS-160 on-line application. This is different than applying for a visa in the old days, when an applicant just had to show up at the embassy or consulate with a couple photos in hand. Now, they want to have it in the system ahead of time (I recommend bringing the actual picture with you to your visa interview; some embassies/consulates require this, as there are often problems with the photo uploaded into the system, and if you bring it

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with you, they can do it for you before your interview). There are some very particular instructions about these photos. Here are the State Department’s instructions for these photos (you can find this page here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/visaphotoreq/visaphotoreq_5334.html). They must be: ●

In color

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Sized such that the head is between 1 inch and 1 3/8 inches (22 mm and 35 mm) or 50% and 69% of the image's total height from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head. View the Photo Composition Template for more size requirement details.

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Taken within the last 6 months to reflect your current appearance

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Taken in front of a plain white or off-white background

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Taken in full-face view directly facing the camera

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With a neutral facial expression and both eyes open

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Taken in clothing that you normally wear on a daily basis ●

Uniforms should not be worn in your photo, except religious clothing that is worn daily.

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Do not wear a hat or head covering that obscures the hair or hairline, unless worn daily for a religious purpose. Your full face must be visible, and the head covering must not cast any shadows on your face.

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Headphones, wireless hands-free devices, or similar items are not acceptable in your photo.

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If you normally wear glasses (without tinted lenses), a hearing device, or similar articles, they may be worn in your photo.

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Dark glasses or glasses with tinted lenses are not acceptable.

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Glare on glasses is not acceptable in your photo. Glare can be avoided with a slight downward tilt of the glasses or by removing the glasses or by turning off the camera flash.

About Ineligibilities Having an ineligibility means you’re not allowed under United States immigration law to receive a visa. Some of the statutorily defined ineligibilities are completely understandable. There can be little doubt, for example, that the United States government has a legitimate interest in keeping members of terrorist organizations or persons with a past full of violent crimes out of the country. But there are other grounds for ineligibility that are ripe for debate. For example, a person convicted of a “crime involving moral turpitude” is ineligible for a United States visa. But what does “moral turpitude” mean, exactly? There is some guidance available to consular officers on how this provision of the law should be interpreted, but it’s still certainly not a bright-line rule, meaning the person applying it has to use considerable discretion in determining whether any given act indeed rises to the level of exhibiting “moral turpitude.” This issue, what exactly constitutes a “crime involving moral turpitude,” has plagued the courts as well as consular officers. Many a different judge has opined in many a different way in the deportation context about the best way to proceed in applying the provision. The bottom line is that some crimes that most people would consider to be very, very minor offenses have been considered, both in the visa application setting and the deportation context, a crime involving moral turpitude. If you’re interested in trying to get a better feel for what will or will not be considered a crime involving moral turpitude,

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you can check out the guidance the State Department provides to consular officers on the matter: http://arpsdir.a.state.gov/fam/09fam/0940021aN.html. 9 FAM 40.21(a). As is discussed elsewhere in this guide (also, see the chart list of ineligibilities below), you can get a waiver for most ineligibilities. Being granted a waiver doesn’t mean that you’re no longer ineligible - you technically remain ineligible, but the ineligibility is overlooked, so to speak, and you can get a visa. You seek a waiver (in the nonimmigrant visa context) at your visa interview. If you think the act underlying the ineligibility really isn’t so bad, meaning you’ll have a decent shot at receiving a waiver for your ineligibility, then don’t let its existence stop you from applying for a visa. You should go ahead and submit your application, answering the questions on it honestly, including the one(s) relating to your possible ineligibility. You should then explain the circumstances fully to the consular officer at your interview. If they decide that you’re ineligible (they’ll do this, usually, by the end of your interview), they’ll tell you as much, and ask whether you’d like to pursue a waiver. You should say “yes.” The consular officer will then summarize your case, often including an opinion about whether she thinks the waiver should be granted, and transfer the file to the Department of Homeland Security, which actually rules on the matter. Seeking a waiver for an ineligibility is free if you’re going for a nonimmigrant visa. If you’re seeking an immigrant visa (trying to move permanently to the United States), you’ll face a much more involved process. You have to submit an actual application for a waiver, using Form I-601, and pay a fee (currently $585). For more information about seeking a waiver of ineligibility in the immigrant visa context, and for links to the actual Form I-1601 and instructions for filling it out, click here to see the relevant page on the website of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)::

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http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176 543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=bb515f56ff55d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnex tchannel=6ca66d26d17df110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD. I recommend you seek legal advice if you’re trying to get a waiver in the immigrant visa context. It’s tough to work through the legal mumbo-jumbo in the form, and a lawyer can likely better articulate for you your circumstances and how they militate toward a waiver being granted in light of the applicable laws and regulations. It’s a closer call as to whether you should hire a lawyer to help you seek a waiver of ineligibility in the nonimmigrant visa context. The process in this setting isn’t as cumbersome, and frankly, the stakes usually aren’t as high. But on the other hand, if you really need to get to the States, such as for an important family event or to start a job on, say, an H-1B visa, then it’s probably worth seeking professional advice. Waivers are sometimes Dinda’s Patience in Cape Town Proves Worthwhile Dinda, an HIV-positive South African male, was refused when he applied at the U.S. consulate in Cape Town in 2008 for an L visa to work long-term as an executive at his company’s branch office in Indianapolis. He was one of many victims of a harsh United States immigration law that made persons with HIV/AIDS ineligible for most types of visas. That rule, however, was done away with in late 2009. Dinda applied again in early 2010 and received his visa. Note that you may still run across information saying persons with HIV/AIDS are ineligible for a visa, or that they can’t stay more than 30 days in the United States on a nonimmigrant visa – this information is outdated. There are no longer any restrictions related to HIV/AIDS whatsoever.

granted for several years, which means that, as long as you’ve got a multiple-entry visa, you can enter the U.S. multiple times during the time-frame of the waiver’s validity without having to go back and apply for a new waiver each time you want to go to the U.S. Sometimes, though, DHS will limit a waiver to either a very short

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timeframe or recommend that the consular officer issue a single-entry visa (which they may well do on their own anyway, depending on what the ineligibility is for).

* Ineligibilities related to nonimmigrant visa classifications for persons applying for a visa are listed below. For information about ineligibilities and waivers for immigrant visa classifications, click on the link below. The rules for immigrant visas are similar, but there are some differences in terms of which ineligibilities apply and for which ones waivers are possible. This information is courtesy of the Department of State, 9 FAM 40.6 EXHIBIT I, available to the public here: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86933.pdf. (Some of the more common ineligibilities are bold/underlined for the reader’s convenience.)

HEALTH RELATED GROUNDS ●

Communicable Disease of Public Health Significance; waiver is possible

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Physical or Mental Disorder and Behavior Associated with the Disorder Which May Pose, or Has Posed a Threat, to Property or Safety, of the Applicant or Others and Which is Likely to Recur; waiver is possible

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Drug Abuser or Addict, one who has engaged in “non-medical use of a controlled substance;” waiver is possible

CRIMINAL AND RELATED GROUNDS ●

Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude; waiver is possible for most, but not all types of offenses

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Controlled Substance Violator; waiver is possible

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Multiple Criminal Convictions; waiver is possible

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Controlled Substance Traffickers and the Spouse, Son, or Daughter of Substance Traffickers Who Obtained Financial or other Benefit and Knew or have Known that the Financial Benefit was the Product of Illicit Activity within the Past Five Years; waiver is possible

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Prostitution and Commercialized Vice Within the Past 10 Years of the Date of Application for a Visa, Admission, or Adjustment of Status; waiver is possible

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Certain Aliens Involved in Serious Criminal Activity Who Have Asserted Immunity from Prosecution; waiver is possible

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Foreign Government Officials Who Have Committed Particularly Severe Violations of Religious Freedom; waiver is possible

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Significant Traffickers in Persons and Beneficiaries, Certain Family Members of Trafficker Who Obtained Financial or Other Benefit and Knew or Have Known that the Financial Benefit was the Product of Illicit Activity in Past 5 Years; waiver is possible

SECURITY AND RELATED GROUNDS ●

General Prejudicial Activities: Espionage, Sabotage, or Prohibited Export of Sensitive Technology, or Sensitive Information; no waiver is available but the inadmissibility applies only to current circumstances

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Terrorist Activities; waiver is possible

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Entry Would Have Potentially Serious Adverse Foreign Policy Consequences; no waiver is available but the inadmissibility applies only to current circumstances

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Participation in Nazi Persecutions or Genocide and Commission of Acts of Torture or Extrajudicial Killings; waiver is available for acts of torture or extrajudicial killing

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Associations with Terrorist Organizations; waiver is possible

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Recruitment or Use of Child Soldiers; waiver is possible

PUBLIC CHARGE ●

Public Charge; don’t actually need a waiver - refusal on this ground may be “overcome”

ILLEGAL ENTRANTS, IMMIGRATION VIOLATORS, AND MISREPRESENTATION ●

Failure to Attend a Removal Proceeding; waiver is possible. Inadmissibility applies for 5 years following departure or removal subsequent to removal hearing

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Fraud and Misrepresentation; waiver is possible

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False Claim of Citizenship; waiver is possible

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Smugglers (Knowingly Assisted); waiver is possible

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Document Counterfeiting; waiver is possible

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Student Visa Abuser; waiver is possible

DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS ●

Nonimmigrants Not in Possession of Passport Valid for Six Months of Nonimmigrant Visa or Border Crossing Card; waiver is possible

INELIGIBLE FOR CITIZENSHIP ●

Alien Who Departed from or Remained Outside the United States to Avoid Service in the Armed Forces in Time of War or National Emergency; waiver is possible

ALIENS PREVIOUSLY REMOVED AND UNLAWFULLY PRESENT

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Aliens Previously Removed; waiver is possible

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Aliens Unlawfully Present; waiver is possible

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Aliens Unlawfully Present After Previous Immigration Violations; waiver is possible

MISCELLANEOUS ●

International Child Abduction; waiver is possible

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Unlawful Voters; waiver is possible

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Former Citizens Who Renounced Citizenship to Avoid Taxation; waiver is not available (but this ineligibility is not actually applied at present)

OTHER INADMISSIBILITIES ●

Alien Who Knowingly Made a Frivolous Application for Asylum; waiver is not available

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Aliens Involved in Confiscation of Property of U.S. Nationals; waiver is available

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Aliens Involved in Political Killings; waiver is not available

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Visa Overstay; waiver is available

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Persons Engaged in Forced Abortions or Sterilization; waiver is available

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Chinese and Other Nationals Engaged in Coerced Organ or Bodily Tissue Transplantation; waiver is available

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Persons Credibly Alleged to Have Aided and Abetted Colombian Insurgent and Paramilitary Group; waiver is available

Paying Your Visa Application Fee You have to pay a fee to apply for a visa. This must be done before you can have your visa interview. Embassies and consulates sometimes differ in how they collect the fee, but most have a deal with a bank that has branches in at least several major cities in the country (or at least a branch in the city in which the embassy or consulate is located) under which the bank collects the visa fees for the embassy or consulate. Applicants go and pay the fee to the bank, and

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get a receipt that they have to bring with them to their visa interview at the embassy or consulate. Some embassies and consulates have their process set up such that you have to have the receipt before you can even schedule an interview (you have to enter a special code from the receipt into the system when you set up the interview online in order for the system to actually give you an interview time). The visa application fee is, unfortunately, nonrefundable. This means that you don’t get your money back if you’re denied a visa. Click here for a list of current visa fees, by visa classification: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1263.html

Scheduling Your Visa Interview You must schedule a time to go to the embassy or consulate to have a visa interview. Much more on this in the following section. Scheduling is sometimes done through a call center with which the embassy or consulate has a contract. Many embassies and consulates (or their contracted agents) have an online system for handling interview scheduling - this is becoming the norm. Follow the instructions on the proper embassy or consulate’s website regarding how to schedule an interview. Know that sometimes you might have to wait quite a while from the time you submit your visa application online to the time of your visa interview. There’s just too high of demand and not enough capacity to meet it in certain countries. In the past, wait times have been up to several months. Much progress has been made in the last couple years in getting wait times down. Most are under a couple weeks, and some are just a couple days.

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In any event, it’s a

Lan’s Lack of Diligence Almost Costs her in Guangzhou Lan worked for a tourist agency and applied for a visa at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, to go to Oklahoma City for a world tourism convention. She submitted her DS-160 about two months before she planned to depart China, thinking this would be plenty of time for the visa process to do its thing. She was smart to submit the application early, but not so much in waiting until just a week before the big event to try to schedule her visa interview. The consulate was experiencing a very high volume of applications, as the summer travel season was just beginning, and didn’t have any open dates for interviews until the day after Lan’s plane was scheduled to leave. She called and begged for an emergency interview. She was thankfully successful, getting in the day before her flight. But this meant that she couldn’t pick up her passport with the visa inserted until the next morning – the same day she was to leave for the U.S.! Luckily, she had an evening flight, so it all worked out. But she could have avoided the significant stress she incurred had she only scheduled her interview right after submitting her application. The lesson here is clear: submit your application and schedule your visa interview plenty early.

good idea to give yourself plenty of time to get your visa before you plan to actually travel to the U.S. You should try to have your interview at least a couple weeks before your intended departure date (but even further ahead of time, like a month, is advisable), in case

they ask you for additional documentation or in case “administrative processing” is necessary. See the following State Department page for visa wait times at each embassy and consulate: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wait/wait_4638.html

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IV. THE VISA INTERVIEW AND BEYOND How to Ace Your Visa Interview - 7 Simple Steps for Success You’ve done the paperwork. Your application for a nonimmigrant visa to travel to the United States was successfully submitted to the U.S. embassy or consulate nearest you in your country. Now comes what many consider to be the hard part; finishing that last step, the visa interview, where a consular officer from the U.S. Department of State will quiz you with sometimes seemingly random questions and determine whether you’re fit to travel to the States. But don’t sweat it. With thousands of these interviews under my belt (from the other side of the bullet-proof glass), I can say with confidence that if you follow seven simple instructions you’ll greatly increase your odds of securing that intensely sought-after sticker for your passport.

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1. Know what you’re getting in to Knowing what to expect going into your interview appointment will do much in the way of soothing your nerves, which will in turn help you appear calm (i.e., not jumpy and/or oozing of suspicion, as if you’re hiding something) and will also help you convey the information you need to convey to get your visa. Mystery abounds when it comes to these interviews, but it’s really fairly simple - for a typical tourist or student visa (and, indeed, for almost all nonimmigrant visa) applicants, they mainly want to know (i) that you aren’t going to over stay your allotted time in the U.S. or work illegally while you’re there, and (ii) that you don’t pose some kind of security risk. There’s not a whole lot you can do in the way of preparation for the latter (see number 6, below, for advice on what to do if you’ve got a criminal past), but the interview is your place to really address the former. When you show up at the embassy or consulate, you’ll go through security into the consular section’s waiting room, where you’ll check in and submit your supporting documents to a staff member (usually a locally-hired person) who will take your fingerprints, collect your passport and make sure all your paperwork is in order. You’ll then sit in the waiting room until your name or number is called, directing you to approach one of the small windows where your interview with the consular officer will be held. Usually, the applicant stands and the consular officer is sitting in a chair on the other side of the glass. The consular officer will normally have you put one finger on a scanner so your fingerprint can be verified (to make sure you’re the same person who gave their prints to the in-take person a bit earlier - the ol’ switch-aroo in the waiting room has been tried before). They might ask for any supporting documentation you didn’t already provide to the local staff member who checked you in, which you will slide through the little opening at the bottom of the window. They

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will very quickly review what you’ve submitted, and will begin asking you questions based on your application - which they can see on the computer screen in front of them - and any documents you submit. These interviews last around three minutes on average, and you normally find out by the end whether the consular officer is going to grant or deny you a visa. If they grant it, they’ll tell you when you can come back to pick up your passport, which will have the visa inserted. This is most often the next day. If they deny your application, they’ll give you a pro-forma document with legal verbiage that purports to tell you why you were denied, but really gives very little indication. If you are denied, you should politely ask for a detailed explanation so you can try to remedy any defect before applying again (more on this in the next section) - the consular officer will normally explain their reasoning in denying you. Sometimes the consular officer will ask that a person submit additional documentation (like school records, a pay statement or a marriage license), which you can normally physically submit or mail/fax back to the embassy or consulate. 2. Don’t let the place scare you U.S. embassies and consulates can be intimidating places. Most have a big wall about 100 yards from the actual building, and you have to go through several layers of security, including a metal detector, to get in to the consular section. To be sure, it can look and feel like you’re entering some kind of fortress. U.S. embassies and consulates employ these austere-seeming security measures because they face very real threats. Don’t let this get to you. The last thing you want is to appear intimidated during your interview, which could make the consular officer suspect you’re hiding something. And maybe even more importantly, if you’re exceptionally

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nervous you won’t be able to articulate why you want to go to the U.S., and what it is in your home country that makes it likely that you’ll return. Just try not to let the surroundings throw you off; stay cool and focus on the task at hand, and not on the atmosphere of the place. 3. Bring documents that demonstrate your ties to your country As mentioned previously, one of the main things the consular officer is looking for is the kind of ties to your country that make it likely that you’ll return, as opposed to staying longer than you’re supposed to in the U.S. You should bring documents (copies are usually fine) that help answer the question “what does this person have going on in their life that they wouldn’t want to give up?” Examples of useful supporting documents include: ●

Transcripts or a letter saying you’re enrolled in the present (or next) semester if you’re a student;

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A letter from your employer describing your position and saying how much you earn and how long you’ve been with the company, and also saying that you’ve been granted however much vacation time you’ll need for your trip to the U.S. - pay stubs from the last several months are also very helpful;

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Marriage certificate if you’re married and birth certificates for kids if you have them (but this only helps if they’re not traveling with you);

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Title to a house (or some kind of mortgage document) or other property in your country;

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A bank statement showing you’ve got more than enough money in your account to pay for your air-fare and to cover costs for your time in the U.S.; and

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Documents confirming your membership and active participation from any social, religious or extracurricular organizations to which you belong.

The examples above aren’t meant to be exhaustive, and obviously not each one applies to everyone. But you get the point - bring documents that show you’ve got a lot going on in your country that would make you want to return. You should check the website of the embassy or consulate where your interview is being held, as they sometimes list specific documents that you should bring. An important note: when I say “your country,” I don’t actually mean the country in which you were born or whose citizenship you hold. You should actually apply to an embassy or consulate in the country in which you’re currently living, as long as you’ve been there over about a month - that’s where your ties are now. If you’re a college student studying in a country that is not your own, you can usually get away with applying in and demonstrating ties to the country you’re originally from, but otherwise it’s best to apply where you’re presently living. 4. Hit the high points - show that you’ve got a lot to return to This is probably the most important pointer in this article - you’ve got to highlight during your interview all the things in your country that will compel you to return, as opposed to staying in the U.S. longer than you’re supposed to stay. The overwhelming majority of refusals for nonimmigrant visa applicants are based on the fact that the consular officer thinks that the applicant is likely

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to over stay their visa and/or work illegally in the U.S. United States immigration law actually requires the consular officer to refuse a person when this appears likely. The previous point discussed documents you should bring to try to demonstrate your ties to your country, but doing so isn’t enough by itself. This is because, while normally helpful, people can pretty easily forge documents, and some consular officers will hardly give documents you produce a glance. They’re much more interested in what you say than in what documents you provide (this owing to the fact that it’s much easier to assess someone’s credibility in a face-to-face conversation than it is through the documents they give to you; note that consular officers receive special training in interviewing and lie detecting). It is therefore incumbent on you to paint a picture of a life that you wouldn’t want to leave behind for good. The consular officer makes this relatively easy for you by asking questions like “tell me about your job,” “do you own any property, and with whom do you live,” or “are you married,” but it really is up to you to expound and to show that you’ve got commitments in your country and/or the kind of things going on that a normal person wouldn’t want to abandon. If you feel like there’s something that’s clearly in your favor that the consular officer doesn’t ask you about - for example, maybe your sister is getting married in a couple months and you’re in the wedding, or you are the primary caregiver for an elderly relative - don’t hesitate to bring it up yourself. These are the kind of things that make it more likely that you’ll return, which very well could impact the decision. You must go out of your way to discuss these sorts of things. This isn’t the time to be shy or passive - your trip to the U.S. might depend on it.

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5. Be pleasant - a smile will get you far Understand that consular officers go through many interviews during a given day - over 100 in some embassies and consulates - and have to deal with a lot of lying. Consular work can be a real grind. This makes consular officers really, really appreciate when an applicant is particularly pleasant. Being pleasant smiling, being accommodating and upbeat (without going overboard) - can really help to put the consular officer in a good mood; this can only work to your benefit. In border-line cases, where the consular officer isn’t quite sure which way to go (as in, whether to give you a visa or deny you, based on your qualifications for the visa), as a matter of human psychology it’s much better to have them inclined to like you personally than to see as just another applicant who’s standing between them and being done for the day. So be nice. Act like you’re glad to be there. Smile. 6. Be up front and honest With visa interviews, the adage that honesty is the best policy holds true. You’ll notice in filling out the application that there are some questions that basically boil down to “have you ever done anything bad?” Be honest. The fact that you’ve got something less than honorable in your past doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be denied a visa. While answering, “yes” to a few of these questions is an automatic disqualifier (like the one about belonging to a terrorist group), this isn’t the case for most of them. For minor things, like a run-in with the law for something quite innocent, there likely won’t be a problem. But lying about it can possibly make you permanently ineligible for a visa. How, you might ask, could they possibly know about something from my past? It’s not a given that they will, but there’s a chance. Authorities in many countries share information with the U.S., and any legal issues you’ve had in the U.S. on prior trips are likely to be brought to the consular officer’s attention.

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Additionally, the consular officer has been trained to spot lies. You may get caught, you may not - better, in this former consular officer’s opinion, to be truthful and explain the circumstances than to risk a permanent ban from the U.S. You’ll have a chance to explain what happened and why. Even if something in your past makes you technically ineligible for a visa under U.S. immigration law, waivers exist for most things. To process an application for a waiver, the consular officer will send the information for your case over to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including notes about the interview and a recommendation as to whether DHS (who has the ultimate decision) should grant the waiver. It’s probable that being upfront and honest about the incident(s) will make the consular officer more likely to recommend that a waiver be granted and to portray the incident and you in a favorable light. You definitely want them on your side if a waiver is needed.

7. Come clean - literally This may seem obvious, but believe me, not everyone gets this one - show up to your visa interview physically clean. You’d be surprised how many folks come looking disheveled, and indeed, how many smell like they don’t have exactly the best personal hygiene habits. It just doesn’t leave a good impression. You want the consular officer to be thinking about your qualifications for a visa, and not your appearance or odor (there’s a small opening at the bottom of the window through which smells can get vacuumed by the air current, right in to

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the consular officer’s face - it can be most unpleasant). Just look (and smell) relatively clean and well-kept; it’ll help. Don’t worry too much about what you wear. Definitely no need to go out of your way to get a suit or some really nice clothes. If you’re a college student or a truck driver, it’ll actually look a little strange if you show up in some super fancy duds. I recommend keeping it simple but relatively sharp. Jeans and a button-up shirt/blouse is fine. Just try to avoid overly-wrinkled or stained clothes. Esperanza’s Swimsuit Affair in El Salvador Consular legend has it that a twenty-something woman named Esperanza once showed up to her visa interview in San Salvador a bikini. She apparently had a loose-fitting dress on over it when she entered the building, but took it off right when her number was called as she headed up to the interview window. The consular officer was reportedly befuddled. When he asked why she decided to wear a bikini, she said she wanted to demonstrate to him just how ready she was for her planned trip to Miami. Esperanza was refused. It’s not clear whether her attire – which led to a guard coming over and asking her to put her clothes back on (which she did) – had anything to do with it, but one can’t help but think that it was probably at least somewhat of a distraction to the consular officer. I advise wearing something a bit more modest, or at least more in line with cultural norms for your country.

And that’s it. Your interview is finito. Just follow these tips and you’ll very likely become the proud new owner of a U.S. visa.

Knowing Who’s on the Other Side of the Glass This sub-section speaks to an important point from the previous section, knowing what you’re getting into with respect to your visa interview. Knowing more about the person who will be interviewing you can be a real benefit. To that end, here’s some inside info on consular officers…..

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You’re in the crowded waiting room of a U.S. embassy or consulate, listening for your name to be called or your number to come up, signaling that it’s time for your three minute interview with a consular officer, who will decide whether you will receive the visa that will allow you to travel to the U.S. You carefully filled out the visa application form and you’ve thought all about what you want to say in the interview to show your strong ties to your country (a must for most nonimmigrant visa classifications), but have you considered with whom you’ll be speaking? As a former consular officer, I strongly recommend that you heed the advice of the ancient Chinese warrior Sun Tzu, who urged his disciples in The Art of War to “know your enemy” before heading into battle. Okay, so the consular officer isn’t necessarily your enemy (and this isn’t a battle), but make no mistake, she’s your adversary - (usually) the only thing standing between you and your United States visa. She’ll be quizzing you to probe for possible ineligibilities and sizing you up to see whether you’re the kind of person who’s likely to overstay their visa or otherwise violate its terms. There can be no doubt that understanding who you’re dealing with will serve as a benefit to you. It’ll give you confidence going into your interview - we’re more confident with the known than the unknown - which will in turn keep you cool and collected and allow you to convey exactly why it is you’re qualified for the visa you seek. Knowing with whom you’re dealing may also help the more conversationally savvy interviewee know how to best respond to certain questions and, indeed, to even steer the discussion in a way that’s beneficial to your interests. Here’s a snapshot that will help you better prepare for your visa interview:

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The Consular Officer - Demystified Diplomats Consular officers work for the U.S. Department of State, which is, as you know by now, the organization that runs U.S. embassies and consulates abroad and is responsible for issuing visas. It’s also the United States’ lead foreign affairs agency, meaning it handles the U.S.’s relationship with other countries. The term “consular officer” is used to describe the position of the person with whom you’ll have your visa interview, but that person’s actual title within the State Department is Foreign Service Officer (FSO). An FSO is a U.S. diplomat. Yes, the person on the other side of the glass at the interview window is an actual diplomat, with a black diplomatic passport, diplomatic immunity and special diplomatic license plates on their car, who attends the occasional glamorous cocktail party and mingles with your government’s officials and your country’s movers and shakers. A Diverse Group FSOs come from all walks of life. Some enter the Foreign Service coming straight out of college, but most have several years of work experience and many have advanced degrees. They are former school teachers and geologists, lawyers and salespersons, engineers and artists - they really do run the gamut in terms of past training and experience. Most have a strong interest in foreign affairs (that’s why they wanted to become diplomats), and almost all of them have spent extensive time abroad and speak one or more foreign languages at least fairly well. They’re also diverse in terms of race, and many even grew up in other countries (you have to be an American citizen to be an FSO, but you don’t necessarily

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have to have ever even lived in the United States.) The median age of a new FSO is probably early-to-mid 30s; most consular officers doing visa interviews are relatively new to the State Department, meaning they’re usually in that age range. So you’re usually not dealing with some young kid, and usually not with someone who seems like a grandparent. A Sharp Crowd Consular officers are usually pretty smart. This is important to remember probably not a good plan to think you can easily fool them. In addition to normally being very well-educated, FSOs usually have good instincts and are just generally sharp. It’s a very, very competitive process to become a Foreign Service Officer, so the people that end up making it usually really are quite impressive and very bright. Depending on the State Department’s hiring plans at any given time (which are dependent on its funding from congress), the acceptance rate of applicants trying to become an FSO ranges from around 1 to 5 percent. Suffice it to say that you’re going to be dealing with someone who is pretty smart and accomplished, so you probably shouldn’t count on trying to pull one over on them.

Not Their Ideal Job Another crucial thing to know about consular officers is that most of them don’t want to be working as a consular officer. When someone joins the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer they select one of five career paths: political (pretty self explanatory; these FSOs do the typical political diplomacy that one envisions when one thinks about the work of a diplomat); economic (similar to what a political officer does, but with more of an emphasis on economic and

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business affairs); public affairs (these are the people who try to pump up the image of the U.S. abroad through various outreach and media-oriented programs); management (people who handle the actual running of the embassy or consulate, taking care of things like human resources and financial management, as well as taking care of logistics and helping embassy/consulate employees out with various things such as housing matters); and consular (the people who work in the consular section, dealing with visas and passports, among other things, and helping U.S. citizens who are in the country when they’re in a tough spot, like in jail or when they get sick or injured). Of these five career paths, consular is the next-to-least-popular, coming in ahead of only the management career path. This means that the vast majority of FSOs really have little to no interest in doing consular work, which includes visa interviews. But there is a much higher demand for consular officers than there is supply from the pool of persons who’ve chosen that as their career path within the Foreign Service. There just simply aren’t enough consular career path officers to meet the United States’ consular needs, so officers get borrowed from the other career paths. In fact, all FSOs are required to do consular work early in their career. At present, an officer must do at least one year of consular work during their first two tours (the first two tours are two years each, meaning one out of an FSO’s first four years will be spent as a consular officer). In practice, though, due to the way the assignments work out because of the significant need for consular work, most people end up doing way more: it’s much more common for an officer to do three of four, or even all four years, of their first two tours in a consular position than it is for a person to do just one year. What happens, then, is that someone who came in to the Foreign Service wanting to work primarily in one of the other four career paths ends up on the visa line for several years. This is enough to make a person quite unhappy.

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Remember, then, that many of the people doing visa interviews are feeling a bit professionally disappointed, and really don’t want to be doing visa interviews. A Frustrating Routine Also, applicants should be aware that doing visa interviews can just plain stink sometimes. Even FSOs who are in the consular career path can get fed up with doing one hundred and something interviews a day (which is not all uncommon at larger embassies or consulates) and, in many places, having to be the bearer of bad news (“sorry sir, I am denying your application for a visa...”) and being lied to over and over again. The point is, you might well find a consular officer to not be in the best mood in the world, so you really should go out of your way to (i) be extra polite and pleasant, and (ii) have your paperwork in order and your story straight so as to move things along expeditiously.

Not Necessarily Legal Scholars or Business Savvy Folks Finally, you should go into your visa interview aware that consular officers, though they’ve received specialized training in applying relevant immigration laws and regulations, usually aren’t lawyers and don’t always know all the intricacies of the more complicated visa matters. They shouldn’t have a problem applying the relevant laws and regulations to a standard B-1 tourist visa application, but some other classifications can get really complicated, making it necessary for you to clearly articulate why you’re qualified under the law. You’ve got to show a lot more if you’re applying for an H-1B visa or an E visa than if you just want to go visit Aunt Mildred in Wisconsin on a tourist visa, and some consular officers don’t see these kinds of applications all that

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often - it’s up to you to clearly articulate how you meet the qualifications for those visas. You can do this by hiring an immigration attorney to lay out your case for you, or you can try to do it on your own. If you choose the latter, I suggest you write a one-page letter that references the qualifications stated in the Foreign Affairs Manual (this is, as has been mentioned previously, what the consular officer uses as a reference and is indeed their rulebook; it’s available to the public here: http://www.state.gov/m/a/dir/regs/fam/c22167.htm) and explaining how you meet each requirement. On a related note, it’s important to understand that most consular officers don’t have a strong business background. You therefore need to explain things in lay terms that a non-businessperson can understand if you’re applying for a work visa. Now that you know more about who you’re dealing with for your visa interview you can tailor your approach accordingly. At the very least, you’ll go in to your interview knowing something more about this mystifying endeavor than most applicants do. And when it comes to preparing for your United States visa interview, every little bit helps.

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V. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR VISA INTERVIEW DOESN’T GO YOUR WAY (Read this before your visa interview!) “I’m sorry Mr./Ms. (insert last name here), you don’t qualify today under U.S. immigration law for a visa.” Those words (or others very much like them) are dreaded by applicants for a nonimmigrant (meaning temporary) U.S. visa around the world. It’s exactly what you don’t want to hear after you’ve undertaken the long, painstaking and expensive visa application process. You may have traveled far from your home to the U.S. embassy or consulate for your interview (it’s not uncommon in some countries for applicants to have to travel over night), and you probably feel like you didn’t get a fair shake - after all, the decision that you’re not fit to travel to the U.S. was made after only around three minutes of chatting with you; hardly enough time to really get to know someone, right? But don’t lose heart. There’s a chance you might be able to get that visa after all, either right away or possibly a bit further down the road. Be prepared to follow these steps in the event that you’re turned down at your visa interview. Read this section carefully before your visa interview.

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An Eleven Point Plan for Overcoming A Refusal 1. Ask why you were refused You should politely (seriously - remember to be polite; this may be tough, given that you’re probably severely disappointed and may be shocked, but it’s important) ask why you were refused. The consular officer will likely give you a sheet of paper, probably both in English and the language of the country in which you’re applying, that purports to explain why you were rejected. In reality, it’s a bunch of obscure-sounding legalese that cites the provision of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act under which you were refused. Nine times out of ten, the reason for a nonimmigrant visa refusal is a provision of the law that requires the consular officer to refuse your application if you don’t demonstrate that you have the kind of ties to your country that make it very likely you’ll return upon the end of your visit to the U.S. But don’t settle for just the letter - you need to actually ask, “can you please explain in as much detail as possible why I am not qualified?” Remember that consular officers are normally very, very busy. They may, depending on the country, be doing well over 100 visa interviews a day, and that’s in addition to paperwork and various other aspects of the job. So they’re not going to take a ton of time to tell you why you were rejected, but they are instructed by their superiors to practice good customer service, meaning you should be able to get something meaningful from them. It’s true that they sometimes just give you a non-answer, saying you’re simply not qualified, but my experience as a consular officer shows that most of the time, these folks are willing to engage you and shoot straight with you. The consular officer will hopefully tell you the reason (which, again, is usually that you didn’t demonstrate the kind of ties to your country that indicate you’ll

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return instead of staying illegally in the U.S.), and will also tell you why they reached that conclusion based on the documents you submitted (the answers in your application matter most) and what you said during the interview. For example, the officer might say something like “I’m sorry, you don’t have the kind of ties to X to overcome Section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. (that’s the provision that says you’re assumed to be an intending immigrant, and thus ineligible for a nonimmigrant visa, unless you can demonstrate very strong ties to your country). You said that you don’t have a job, you’re not in school, you’re not married, you don’t own any property, and you’ve never traveled outside of your country before.” This information can be useful for applying again in the future - it might help you know what to do differently or how to show stronger ties to your country. In the very best case scenario, the consular officer’s explanation will reveal a simple misunderstanding that, once corrected, could lead to the officer changing their mind and issuing a visa right away. This doesn’t happen too terribly often, but sometimes there will simply be something that gets lost in translation or otherwise flubbed such that the consular officer thinks something that’s not actually the case, and it ends up hurting you. For example, in telling you why they don’t think you have the kind of ties you need to demonstrate to be eligible for the visa, the officer might say something like “the fact that your cousin whom you want to visit and stay within the U.S. owns a small construction company and your profession here as a construction worker makes me think you might want to stay in the U.S. and work for your cousin, which would be illegal.” In reality, the visa applicant might have actually said that they presently work for their cousin’s construction company in their own country, and that they’re traveling with that cousin to go see some other family in the U.S. The consular officer might have just been confused, thinking the cousin was in the United States. This kind of mix-up could happen

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because of a language barrier, because the applicant wasn’t very clear in explaining the details because they were nervous, or because the consular officer’s head was elsewhere during the discussion. Whatever the cause, this kind of mix-up can really hurt an applicant’s chances of getting a visa. Again, these kind of misunderstandings don’t happen all that often, but they do occur. This is the sort of thing that if it does happen, you finding out the reason for the denial right away and explaining further or correcting a misconception might make the consular officer change their mind on the spot. It’s therefore highly recommended that you ask the consular officer at the end of the interview to explain to you their reasoning in denying you. If you forget to ask at the end of your interview why you were refused, you can do so afterward by e-mail. You won’t be able to get the e-mail address of the actual consular officer who interviewed you (and indeed won’t even know their name), but you can just send an e-mail to the consular section’s general e-mail address. You can find this on the embassy or consulate’s website, which you can find on the State Department’s website at http://www.usembassy.gov/. As long as you include your name and the date of your interview, they won’t have any problem routing your inquiry to the appropriate consular officer. 2. Ask what you can do to increase your chances of being granted a visa if you apply again After the consular officer has explained to you why they refused your visa application, ask them what you can do to present a stronger case in the future. Consular officers will usually be straight-forward with applicants and will normally give tips, if asked, for future applications.

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For example, a consular officer might tell you that the documents you submitted just don’t help demonstrate your strong ties to your country - ask what specific documents you could bring next time that might do a better job of showing these ties. Or another example; it’s often the case that an applicant could have a better chance of getting a visa if they were to just apply in a different country. This happens sometimes with students. A person from country X might go to country Y for college, and apply just a few weeks in to their very first semester in country Y for a visa to go to the United States. This person might be told that they should apply in their home country, country X, where they have more ties, such as family, friends and the like. The consular officer in country Y, where the applicant is going to college, might not feel comfortable evaluating the person’s qualifications and could think that the person just came to country Y so they wouldn’t have to apply in their home country (people have reasons for doing this - they often think a consular officer in another country won’t know about prior refusals in their own country, which of course isn’t the case at all), and might think that a consular officer in the applicant’s home country, country X, could do a better job because they’re more familiar with the country to which the applicant has the greatest ties. The consular officer will be taking notes about your case that the next person who interviews you will see, no matter where in the world you apply. You want to be able to demonstrate to the new interviewing officer that you took care of whatever it was that kept you from getting the visa the first time; remember, you’re not starting anew - they’ll know what the concerns of the first consular officer were. Explicitly asking at the end of your interview, if you get rejected, what you can do to increase your chances of success next time will allow you to focus on overcoming the problem, of which all future interviewers will be aware. 3. Find out whether it’s a “hard” refusal or a “soft” refusal

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Sometimes a consular officer will tell an applicant that they are being refused temporarily, or give to an applicant a letter that says they are being put in “221(g)” status. This is what’s referred to as a “soft” refusal; it means the applicant isn’t really refused, but rather, that the consular officer just can’t make a decision either way at the present time. This most commonly happens when the consular officer wants the applicant to submit some documentation that will help the officer decide whether the applicant is qualified. They may want, for example, to see a letter from the applicant’s employer saying how long the person has worked for the company, how much money they make, and confirming the person has been granted time off of work for their trip to the U.S. The consular officer will put a person’s case in limbo, neither granting the visa nor denying the application, but rather just holding it in suspense until they get the documents or other information they’ve requested. Sometimes a case is put in this status not because the officer needs to see anything further from the applicant, but rather for security-related reasons. When you apply for a visa your personal information - fingerprints, name, date of birth, certain associations, etc. - get checked through some systems to ensure you’re not a terrorist, criminal, or otherwise ineligible based on certain laws. This process can take time. There are lots of near-matches. For example, a person with your same birthday and a name that’s spelled slightly different than yours might be on a list of persons for whom security concerns exist. This requires some further checking up on. In these situations, various departments or agencies might have to look in to the matter to try and figure out whether it’s in fact an actual match. Unfortunately, this process can take a lot of time. Sometimes many months. When the consular officer realizes during the interview that this kind of security check is going to be necessary (they can see on the computer screen

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whether there may be an issue with this, in which case they can’t issue the visa right away), they’ll likely tell you that there’s some “administrative processing” that needs to be done on your application, and that they’ll get back to you when they know something more. If this happens and you plan to travel soon, let the consular officer know - sometimes they can speed things up at least a little by letting all the parties involved in these clearances know that the applicant needs the visa by a certain date. It doesn’t always help, but sometimes does so it’s worth letting the consular officer know. It’s a good idea to get in touch with the embassy or consulate at least every month when your case is pending due to “administrative processing” - sometimes a clearance will come in, but the consular officer or local staff will accidentally lose track of your case and forget to let you know that the clearance has been received. Also, they can send a note to the parties involved in the clearance process, asking them for an update on the status of the process. It’s important to understand before you leave the embassy or consulate whether your refusal is a soft refusal or a hard one, so that you don’t attempt to apply again if it’s only a soft refusal. This sometimes happens; an applicant will be asked to provide some kind of documentation or told that they don’t need to do anything and that their case will be undergoing administrative processing, but they think they’ve been outright refused and go ahead and unnecessarily submit a whole new application, including paying the fee and setting up a new interview appointment. If the consular officer tells you at the end of the interview that you’re not going to be issued a visa, make sure that you’re clear on whether you’re being refused outright (a hard refusal), or whether, alternatively, you just need to submit something else so the consular officer can make a decision or whether your case is still open but undergoing administrative processing. Put differently, seek clarity from the consular officer on precisely where you stand if it’s at all unclear at the end of the interview.

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4. Ask the consular officer to re-consider the decision Asking the consular officer to re-consider the decision while you’re still at the window is almost sure to be a losing cause, but waiting a day or two and then following up gives you at least some chance for success. You have to understand that it’s unlikely that this will work, but it may be worth a shot if you feel like you for whatever reason weren’t able to adequately present your case during your interview. Bear in mind that the consular officer isn’t required in any way to re-consider their decision - it’s a completely optional thing from their end, and sometimes they won’t even give your case a second thought. Just saying “I really want to go to the U.S., will you please change your mind and give me a visa” isn’t enough - you have to present some kind of new information that is relevant to your qualifications for the type of visa you are seeking, or to explain why it is you believe the consular officer erred in applying relevant laws or regulations in your case. An example of the former, presenting new information that actually matters but didn’t come up in your application or the interview, would be you informing the officer of the fact that you have to come back to your country to defend your PhD dissertation. During the interview, a person in this situation may have told the officer that they’re done with all their schooling, including university, because their classes are all done. But if they have to come back to the country soon to actually defend their dissertation, this could really bode in their favor if the consular officer denied them because he didn’t think the person was going to come back (or at least not on time). It’s unlikely that a person would go through all the trouble of finishing everything for a PhD except the defense of the dissertation, only to give it all up at the last minute.

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This is the sort of thing that just might change the consular officer’s mind about your ties to your country if it was a close call in denying you to begin with. The latter, an applicant showing how a consular officer erred in applying the law or relevant regulations, happens most often with H and L visas (which are for non-permanent employment). For these visas there’s no requirement that the applicant demonstrate a residence abroad (i.e., ties to their home country), but consular officers sometimes forget this. They learn about this in their training, but at some posts they rarely handle these kind of visa applications, so they forget that this particular rule doesn’t apply to these kinds of visas. If you believe this is why your application for an H or L visa was denied - because you didn’t demonstrate strong enough ties to your country or because you made it clear you would like to remain in the U.S. long-term - you should definitely raise this with the officer. Misapplications of law (as is the case in this example) are subject to review by the Department of State, meaning you can demand that the case is brought to the attention of persons in pay-grades higher than the consular officer. You may request that a consular officer re-consider their decision by e-mail or calling the embassy or consulate, but I recommend e-mail. If you call, there’s a chance a local staff member will answer and not put you through to the consular officer, saying they’re busy, and even if you do get through to the consular officer, they’re unlikely to be happy to discuss your case with you over the phone. They’ll have to pull up on their computer your case notes, which they probably won’t want to do while on the phone with you. It’s less intrusive and less confrontational to send an e-mail. Remember to be polite - you catch more bees with honey than vinegar. And also, try to be concise. These people are busy, and don’t want to spend all day reading your e-mail. Try to stick mainly to the facts; they’ve heard all kinds of

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sob stories from all kinds of applicants, so going with an emotional appeal isn’t usually the best way forward. But by all means, if you’ve got something moving to say, then go ahead include it - just don’t let it be the focus of your appeal for the officer to change her mind. 5. Try to talk to the consular officer’s boss, the consul If you’ve already tried to get the consular officer to re-consider her decision and haven’t been successful (including if you just don’t hear anything back on the email you sent to the consular section’s e-mail address), you can try going up the chain of command. The person with whom you need to speak at the embassy or consulate is the consul, or for very large posts, the nonimmigrant visa chief will do (at big posts the consul may be really tough to get in touch with). You’d basically want to make the same argument to this person that you’ve already made to the consular officer. You’re even less likely, though, to have success than you were with the consular officer unless you can make a good case that the law wasn’t applied properly to your case. A consul is unlikely to ask a consular officer to overturn a refusal that involved a judgment call, such as when the officer just doesn’t think your ties to your country are very strong, or doubts your credibility (i.e., thinks you’re lying about something, which is good enough reason under the law to deny you, based on the reasoning that if you simply aren’t a credible person, you might be lying when you say you’ll leave at the end of your authorized period in the U.S.). Don’t try going over the consul’s head, such as by attempting to get in touch with the Ambassador. Even if you can somehow get a phone number or e-mail address for the Ambassador’s office, they’ll almost certainly just pass the inquiry down to the consular section without the Ambassador ever having really looked in to it closely (and in many cases, without having even known

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about your inquiry at all). It’s better, then, not to upset the folks in the consular section by trying to go over their head within the embassy, especially when it’s almost a sure thing that it won’t help. Ambassadors only get involved in consular affairs in the rarest of occasions, and a routine visa denial isn’t of them. 6. Have your contact in the U.S. write their representative in congress Having your contact in the U.S. get in touch with their congressman’s office (either a senator or a representative works fine) about your case might help you in some instances. But this should only be tried if you do in fact have a contact in the U.S. who’s inviting you to come visit (whether family or friend) - a congressman won’t give a second look to an inquiry by someone from out of their district (and as a non-U.S. citizen living in another country, you’re definitely not in their district). They should be the one getting in touch with the congressman, not you. You would want to have your contact in the U.S. explain to them the circumstances of the case and lay out, as you did for the consular officer and consul, why it is that you’re entitled to the visa you seek. Your U.S. contact probably won’t actually talk to the senator/representative, but rather will just be in touch with a staffer, who will in turn send an e-mail or letter to the State Department. That inquiry gets forwarded to the embassy or consulate where you had your interview. The State Department has a policy under which posts (meaning embassies or consulates) are supposed to respond to these congressional inquiries within two days. This at least means your case will be brought to the attention of the consular officer, and possibly the consul. It doesn’t mean, though, that anything will necessarily change just because a congressman is interested in the case. The congressman, actually, probably really isn’t too interested in the case, and is just inquiring about it as a service for her constituents, sort of in a perfunctory manner.

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It’s more likely than not that the consular officer will just send an e-mail back to the congressman’s staffer re-hashing the basic facts of the case and citing the provision of law under which you were denied. Sometimes they don’t even recite the facts of the case or try to apply them to the law - they just cite the applicable provision of the law, basically saying “the person didn’t demonstrate a residence abroad as is required under the law, they’re welcome to apply again when their circumstances have changed.” Usually that’s the end of the matter, but you can see if the staffer will follow up and ask for a more detailed explanation. If they do, and the consular officer obliges, this might at least help you to better understand why you were refused, so that you can take steps to correct the problem before applying again. But sometimes these congressional inquiries can make a real difference, and even possibly get the denial overturned. At a minimum, it’ll get your case looked at again. It’s important to remember that a congressman can’t make the consular officer or the consul issue you a visa. Only people in the State Department above the consul on the organizational chart can reverse a decision of a consular officer, and only then when a misapplication of law or the regulations is involved. So consular officers don’t start shaking in their proverbial boots when they get one of these inquiries or anything, but it is a serious enough thing for them to at least look again at your case - this is a good thing for you. If you’ve got a good argument for why you deserve the visa, you just might be successful going this route. 7. Consider engaging an immigration lawyer This option should be a last resort, and in most cases, it is, to be perfectly honest, probably going to be a waste of your money, especially if you’re just applying for a tourist visa. But for more complex cases, such as when someone

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is applying for an E nonimmigrant visa or another visa classification that requires the consular officer to apply the facts to a fairly complicated set of regulations, it can be worth having an immigration lawyer e-mail or call the embassy or consulate (again, e-mailing is probably preferable to calling) to explain why you should be granted the visa. Sometimes a well-written letter from a lawyer can lay out in clear terms for the consular officer the legal reasoning that should be employed in deciding your case under the applicable laws and regulations. The benefits of hiring an immigration lawyer are that (i) they can probably explain to the consular officer better than you can precisely why the law is on your side, and (ii) sometimes getting a letter or e-mail from a lawyer just encourages a person to get serious. It’s almost certain that you won’t be able to actually sue a consular officer or the government for denying your tourist visa application, but hearing from a lawyer might help encourage them to re-assess your case, which is good for you if you’ve got a good argument as to why they were in error in refusing you in the first place.

Engaging a lawyer may also be

Watch Out for Unscrupulous Attorneys or “Specialists”

appropriate if your

Many, many people report being ripped off by immigration attorneys who either charge an exorbitant amount or are just plain incompetent, or being swindled by someone claiming to be an expert in immigration matters but who really isn’t even an attorney. I urge you to read the section in the Appendix to this guide that lists questions you should ask before hiring an immigration attorney. Your immigration matter is just too important to trust to a non-attorney or to a lawyer who’s shady or incompetent.

application for an immigrant visa (meaning, you applied to move to the U.S. as a permanent resident)

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was denied. These applications are rarely denied, but when it does happen, there’s likely to be some kind of legal or technical reason that a lawyer might be able to help you address. If you do decide to talk to or hire an attorney, make sure it’s someone who specializes in immigration law. United States immigration law is a highly complex field, so you’re probably better off going with someone who dedicates most, if not all, of their legal practice to this area of law - they’re more likely to have developed a real expertise than someone who just dabbles in immigration law. 8. Think carefully about whether it’s worth your time and money to re-apply You hopefully got a good enough sense from the consular officer at the end of your interview of what it was that kept you from getting a visa, and what you can do to increase your chances of getting a visa in the future. Sometimes, unfortunately, the outlook is so bleak that you’d be better off spending your time and money on something other than another visa application. To be sure, I’ve personally issued visas to people who have been refused multiple times before but who are able to demonstrate that their circumstances have changed such that they’re now eligible for a visa, but there are some cases where a decision to apply again amounts to folly. For example, if you don’t have a job and aren’t in school, you’ve only been living in the country in which you’re applying for a visa for a few months, most of your family is in the U.S., and you’ve overstayed your visa in the past in the U.S., it’s almost certain you won’t be getting a tourist visa any time soon. This is a situation where you’d probably be better off not even trying again for a long, long time. Of those factors just listed, the prior overstay is the biggest deal-breaker - a consular officer is very unlikely to give a visa to someone who

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has violated the terms of their prior admission to the United States (and leaving by the time you’re supposed to leave is one of those terms), unless it happened many years ago and the person had a really good excuse. For example, the officer wouldn’t probably hold an overstay against a person who traveled to the U.S. as a child with their parents - it’s not their fault that their parents decided not to leave on time. You’re also unlikely to get a visa any time soon if you’ve applied for a waiver for an ineligibility and had your application turned down. There are many ineligibilities that can be waived, and the Department of Homeland Security does indeed issue them to many worthy, deserving applicants. But if they’ve already turned you down once, it’s very, very unlikely they’ll change their mind and give you a waiver anytime soon. It is of course ultimately a judgment call as to whether it’s worth applying again, and if so, when, after you’ve been rejected. It generally doesn’t hurt to apply again if there’s even a glimmer of hope that you’ll be successful with the next go, but applicants should take a sober look at the situation and examine whether it’s really worth it in light of their unique circumstances. 9. Wait at least six months before re-applying You should normally wait at least six months after being refused for a nonimmigrant visa, especially if you were refused because you didn’t demonstrate strong enough ties to your country. This is because, at least in the eyes of consular officers, there’s just no way you can develop these kinds of ties in just a few weeks or months. Applying again shortly after you’re refused will only hurt your cause - you’ll likely be rejected again, and will then have two refusals on your record (not your legal record, but rather in the State Department’s system), which looks worse than one.

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Some embassies and consulates have their own guidelines about how long an applicant should wait before applying again for a visa. You should ask about this, either at the end of the interview in which you were refused originally, or by e-mail afterward. If they recommend more than six months, go by that timeline. If they say less than six months or tell you they don’t have a specific recommendation, I still suggest waiting six months. This is, of course, just a general rule of thumb. It’s acceptable to apply again sooner if you’ve got a pressing reason to want to be in the U.S. by a certain date. For example, if you really want to go to your cousin’s wedding in four months, it’s acceptable to apply again in time to be there by the big date. 10. Do whatever you can to establish stronger ties to your country before applying again Waiting six months to apply again after being refused isn’t recommend just for the sake of letting time pass - that’s part of it, but the real point is that it’ll give you time to actually establish stronger ties to your country. You will be in the same position you were in last time if you don’t do anything to enhance your ties to your country, and will therefore likely get the same result - rejection. You need to do whatever you can in the interim to be able to demonstrate that you are firmly rooted in your city and country, and that you’ve got so much going on that you’d be crazy to give it up and stay permanently in the U.S. Join social, civic or religious clubs or organizations. Start a class, such as something at a vo-tech or community college or the like, that meets once a week or whatever and will continue meeting well beyond the time you’re planning to return from your trip to the United States. If you’ve been thinking about buying property, this would be a good time. I wouldn’t recommend purchasing a home or other property just for the purpose of trying to convince

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a consular officer that you’re here to stay, but if you were going to do it anyway in the near future, it might be worth considering taking the leap sooner rather than later. All of these things could help make you a stronger applicant your next time around. Another way to enhance your credentials before applying again for a visa is to travel to other countries. Prior travel is generally valued by consular officers, the idea being that if you’ve been to other countries and have returned and haven’t had any problems, then you’re likely to do the same with respect to your trip to the United States. This is especially true when it involves travel to countries that are more developed (i.e., richer) than the applicant’s country. This is because the main reason people want to stay in the U.S. even though they’re not supposed to is because it’s an affluent country that can provide a higher standard of living than the applicant’s home country; people often think they can go to the U.S. and get a good job. If you’ve traveled recently to a nice, developed country, you allay this concern - it makes it look like you’re not trying to get to the U.S. so you can stay and work, because if you really wanted to stay and work in a country nicer than your own you could have done it wherever you recently went. You choosing not to do so provides confidence that you likewise won’t try to stay and work illegally in the U.S. For this reason, it may be worth checking in to whether there are any wealthy countries you can visit, even if only for a few days, before applying again for your U.S. visa. The consular officer should see that you traveled in your application - there’s a question that asks which countries you’ve visited, and you should also get a stamp (and maybe even a visa, if necessary) in your passport, which consular officers normally peruse. But it’s still a good idea to work it into the conversation at your next visa interview; just to make sure it isn’t missed.

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11. Come back with documentation showing your situation has actually changed All of the efforts you’ve taken to make yourself a stronger applicant for a visa to the United States will be in vain if you don’t let the consular officer know about them at your next interview. You need to bring to your interview documentation - like letters and official records - proof that you’ve done whatever it is you say you’ve done to strengthen your ties to your country or otherwise overcome the reason for your past refusal. Having been refused once already, the consular officer isn’t going to just take you at your word - you have to prove that your circumstances have changed significantly.

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VI. CONCLUSION If you’ve read this guide up to this point (without skipping!) you’re undoubtedly more likely to secure a visa now than you were when you began this undertaking. The proverbial veil has been lifted, so to speak, allowing you to see things from the consular officer’s perspective. You now have a better sense of what visa you should apply for and where, how to actually go about filling out the visa application, and definitely most importantly, what to expect at your visa interview and how to handle yourself so as to put your best foot forward and show that you’re qualified for the visa you seek. You’ve also learned what you can do in the event that you’re refused to give yourself a chance of having the decision reversed immediately, or at least of being successful the next time around. I wish you the best of luck in applying for your visa to visit the United States. It’s a truly fascinating country with much to offer – I hope you get the chance to experience it all. Please continue reading for more information that might be useful to you in preparing to apply for a U.S. visa or in selecting an immigration attorney, should that be necessary. Again, good luck, and enjoy your time in the States.

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VII. APPENDIX Online Visa Resources The following are online resources you may find useful in trying to better educate yourself about United States visas and immigration matters more generally. Some of the links appear above in the body of this guide, but most do not.

Ø State Department’s home page for visas: http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_1750.html Ø State Department chart of all different visa classifications, useful for figuring out for which kind of visa you must apply, as determined by your purpose of travel. You can click on the blue letter/number on the right to get to a page with more information about that visa classification: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1286.html Ø State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual: the consular officer’s rulebook: http://www.state.gov/m/a/dir/regs/fam Ø State Department pamphlet setting out your rights as a visitor to the United States: http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/Pamphlet-Order.pdf Ø USCIS: this is the branch that handles immigration affairs once you’re already in the country, and they also handle waivers sought by persons outside the country. A very good resource on working in the U.S.: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89 243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60 aRCRD&vgnextchannel=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCR D Ø USCIS information on extending your stay once you’re in the U.S. or changing your nonimmigrant visa classification:

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http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89 243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=6f723e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60 aRCRD&vgnextchannel=6f723e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRC RD Ø Univ. of Washington’s Law Library, links to lots of good immigration resources: http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/immigration.html#admdec Ø Bender’s Immigration Bulletin Daily, keep abreast of happenings in the world of immigration law here: http://bibdaily.com/ Ø DHS 2009 (released August 2010) Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/20 09/ois_yb_2009.pdf

Frequently Asked Visa Questions Some of the most frequently asked questions about U.S. visas and their answers are below. A few are addressed in the body of the this guide, above, but are mentioned again here for the reader’s ease in locating them. Q: What’s a visa, and who needs one? A: A visa is essentially a stamp that goes in a passport that allows non-U.S. citizens and non-permanent residents to enter the United States. It technically only allows you to apply for permission to enter the U.S. (i.e., to show up at an airport, port or border crossing) - a Customs and Border Patrol officer can still deny you entry, even if you have a visa - but in reality, if you’ve got a valid visa, you’re almost sure to be let in the country. If you’re not a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, and you’re not a passport holder of a visa waiver country (check out this link for more info on

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the Visa Waiver Program: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html), then you need a visa to come to the U.S. You can apply for one at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate in your country. To find the one closest to you, click here: http://www.usembassy.gov/. Q: What’s the difference between an immigrant visa and a nonimmigrant visa? A: An immigrant visa is issued to people abroad who will be coming to the U.S. to live permanently. It allows someone who qualifies to enter the country and apply for a green card. The person can then live and work permanently in the U.S. A nonimmigrant visa, on the other hand, is issued to people abroad who will be coming to the U.S. for a limited period. These usually go to tourists and people coming short-term for business. Q: How can I find out which type of visa is right for me? A: There are many classifications of visas, and to get one you’ve got to prove that you’re qualified for it based on your purpose of travel to the U.S. and the laws and regulations related to U.S. immigration law. Knowing which one fits you can be tough, but on-line resources and immigration attorneys can point you in the right direction. Check out the following list of different visa classifications for people coming short-term to the U.S.: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1286.html. For those planning on moving permanently to the U.S., see this page for a list of immigrant visa classifications: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1326.html. The most commonly issued visa, by far, is a B1/B2, which allows a person to come to the U.S. for a temporary period for tourism or business. It should be noted, though,

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that you can’t actually work in the U.S. (you can hold meetings and the like related to a company you work for that is based abroad, but you can’t actually hold any kind of job in the U.S.) on this kind of visa. For info on what kind of visa you would need to actually work in the U.S., and how to go about getting it, see this page on the U.S. Citizenship and Services website: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a 7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgne xtchannel=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

Q: I picked up my passport containing my visa, but have no idea what all the stuff on it means – how do I read my visa? A: The State Department has a good illustration that shows you what each item on your visa means. Click here, http://travel.state.gov/visa/questions/questions_1253.html, and then scroll down until you see the picture of the visa. Q: For how long is my visa valid? A: Anywhere from one month to ten years, but you have to look at your visa to figure this out. On the lower right side of the visa you’ll see the words “Expiration Date.” The date listed below represents the last day on which you can enter the U.S. on your visa. Show up a day letter and you’ll be sent back. The outer limit of the validity period is determined by State Department policy (they decide to give some countries’ passport holders 10 year validity, and some much less), and can be shortened by the consular officer who issues your visa. If they feel comfortable giving you a visa but still aren’t completely sure you should receive one they might limit its validity to a single month, or maybe 3 months, to create a sort of “testing period.” If you’ve received a U.S. visa in

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the past (and didn’t overstay it or otherwise have problems in the U.S.), it’s likely your next one will be for the full validity period for your country. Q: My visa is set to expire while I’m in the United States – do I have to leave the country before that date? A: No. The expiration date in your visa doesn’t determine when you must leave the country; it only tells you the latest date at which you can show up and seek entrance into the United States. A form you’ll get from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) when I arrive, called an I-94, tells you how long you can stay in the country – you definitely want to leave in accordance with that document, as not doing so can mean real problems for you later. Q: How long can I stay in the United States on my nonimmigrant visa? A: It depends on what CBP decides to grant you when you arrive, but in general, they normally give people six months in the U.S., per trip. But be sure to check your I-94 right when you get it to see what they’ve granted you – it could be much less than six months. Q: I have a valid U.S. visa but it’s in my old, expired passport – can I still use it, or do I need to get a new visa to go in my current passport? A: You can use the visa in your old passport; you don’t need to apply for a new one. As long as your expired passport is still intact – meaning the page containing your picture and biographical information isn’t somehow messed up and the thing isn’t falling apart – and the visa itself is in fine shape, you’ll be fine. You just need to bring both passports – your expired one, containing the valid visa, and your new passport – with you when arrive in the U.S. to show the immigration authorities.

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Q: As long as my visa is valid, can I go to the U.S. on it as many times as I want? A: On the left side of the visa, just to the right of your picture, you’ll see the word “Entries.” Below that word there will either be an “M,” or a “1.” “M” means you can enter the U.S. on your visa multiple times, as where the “1” means it’s only good for one entry. In the case of the former you can enter as many times as you want during the visa’s validity period, as where with the latter you’ll have to apply for a new visa after your first visit if you want to go back to the United States. But to enter multiple times on the same visa you’ve got to be going to the U.S. to do a kind of activity that’s authorized for your particular visa classification. If you get a multiple entry B-1/B-2 visa, you can enter for either pleasure (like tourism or visiting family/friends, etc., or for business purposes) as many times as you want as long as the visa is valid. But note that if you’ve done something that could make you ineligible since your last visit, you could well be Q: My visa is about to expire – can I renew it? A: You unfortunately can’t renew a visa – you have to apply again for a new one. You have to start from the beginning, meaning you have to do the DS-160 application online, pay the fee, and have another visa interview. The good news, though, is that if you’ve already been granted a nonimmigrant visa once and traveled to the U.S., you’re pretty likely to be successful in seeking another (unless you had legal or other problems while in the U.S. or in your country or your circumstances have changed significantly). Q: I’m engaged to marry someone from another country and I want to have them come to the U.S. so we can get married, and then I want them to live in

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the U.S. with me - which visa will they need, and how do they get it? A: Your fiancé will need what’s commonly referred to as a fiancé visa, which they get at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate in their home country. But before they can apply for the visa interview, you have to submit a petition for them with USCIS, and they have to approve it. The basic requirements are that you’re both currently single, that you intend to marry within 90 days of your fiancé coming to the U.S., and that the two of you have met in person at least once within the last two years. After you get married, you can apply for your spouse to get a green card through a process called adjustment of status. For more info about this process, click here: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a 7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=640a3e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgn extchannel=640a3e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD. Q: My fiancé is a foreigner and we want to get married and have him/her stay with me in the U.S., and he/she is already in the U.S. - do they still need a fiancé visa? A: No. If your fiancé is already in the U.S. (for example, on a tourist or student visa), you can go ahead and get legally married, and then you can apply for your spouse to get a green card through a process called adjustment of status. Q: I want to go work in the U.S. - what kind of visa do I need? A: You’ll need a work visa. The particular kind you will need will be determined by what you plan to do, and how long you plan to do it. In general, you will usually need someone in the U.S. to submit a petition to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (and sometimes to the Department of Labor) for you to come work for their company, and once it’s approved, you

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will then need to apply for a visa at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate in your country. Only a certain number of work visas are issued each year, by classification, and it’s up to you to prove that you are fit for one of the specific visa classifications based on your experience and other qualifications. Generally, those with more education and experience in highly specialized fields have the best chance of getting a work visa. It’s possible to get a short-term work visa, but it’s also possible to get an immigrant visa (which will lead to a green card) for work in the U.S. For more information about work visas, check out this page: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a 7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgne xtchannel=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD. Note the links on the left side of the page that lead to more detailed info about each different visa classification. Q: I’ve heard the term “consular processing” - what is it, and who can benefit from it? A: It refers to the process by which a person who is overseas gets an immigrant visa to come to the U.S. to live permanently, at which time they can apply for a green card. Generally, a family member or business in the U.S. has to file a petition on the person’s behalf with USCIS; once it’s approved, the person overseas has to apply for an immigrant visa at the Embassy or Consulate in their country, which consists of submitting certain documentation and having an interview. For more info on consular processing including a good overview of the process, click here: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a 7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=62280a5659083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgn extchannel=62280a5659083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

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Q: I was refused a visa and told I was ineligible – is a waiver available? How do I apply for one? A: Waivers are available for most ineligibilities in the nonimmigrant visa context, and for fewer ineligibilities when it comes to immigrant visa applicants. For waivers in the immigrant visa context, you’ll need to fill out Form I-601. Here are the (long and complicated) instructions: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-601instr.pdf. The instructions, though dense, do a fairly decent job of explaining which ineligibilities can be waived, but it can still be tough to sort through – you may want to consult an immigration attorney. To apply for the waiver you’ll need to fill out the form and submit it, along with a fee, to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate where you applied for the visa (you will need to apply before you can seek a waiver). It’s then routed straight to the Department of Homeland Security (but sometimes with a non-binding opinion from the Consular Officer at the Embassy/Consulate who handled your visa application). You’ll get a letter from DHS regarding the outcome, but it may take several months. For waivers in the nonimmigrant context, you don’t have to submit Form I-601. You simply tell the embassy or consulate to which you’re applying for your visa that you want to seek a waiver for your ineligibility. The Department of State will first decide whether they want to support you in seeking the waiver. If they don’t, you’ll be denied outright. If they do, they’ll send the application to the Department of Homeland Security, which will have its say. Again, it can take months to get the final decision. Q: My relative in the United States has submitted a petition for me to get a green card, but it’s going to take a long time and I want to visit the U.S. before that happens – will this circumstance hurt my chances of receiving a nonimmigrant visa?

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A: Probably. The fact that you’re in process of ultimately moving to the United States to live permanently is usually taken as a sign by consular officers that you are an intending immigrant, and that you might try to just stay in the U.S. once you get there on your nonimmigrant visa (which would be illegal). If they believe this, they’re supposed to deny your nonimmigrant visa application. It’s unfortunate, but it happens all the time. You may be able to overcome this bias by demonstrating especially strong ties to your present country, but it’ll be tough. This kind of thing also occurs when you have someone in the U.S. who could petition for you to come the United States but hasn’t yet done so Q: What can I expect at my visa interview? A: Your interview will probably last only a few minutes – generally between three and five – and will consist of the Consular Officer asking you about why you want to go to the U.S., what you plan to do there, and about your ties to the country in which you’re applying. The main thing he/she is looking for is whether an applicant really intends to return to their country when they’re supposed to, rather than staying illegally in the U.S. The burden is on the visa applicant to show the kind of ties to their home country (or any country other than U.S., technically), that suggest they will return there and won’t try to stay in the U.S. This is mainly what the Consular Officer is likely to ask you about. You can demonstrate these kinds of ties by showing, for example, that you have a steady job or are making progress in school, that you have family in the country in which you’re applying for the visa, that you own property, and that you’re involved in social activities (like a religious, social or charitable organization). Not everyone has all of these, but showing as many as you can is advisable. It also helps to have firm plans for your trip – knowing before your interview when you plan to travel, how you’ll pay for the trip, where you’ll

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stay, how long you’ll be there, and generally what you’ll be doing in the U.S. is a good idea. Q: What should I bring to my visa interview? A: You should check the website of the Embassy/Consulate where you will have your interview – they usually give advice about what to bring. For a list of Embassies/Consulates, from which you can find their websites, click here: http://www.usembassy.gov/. You should definitely bring your passport, confirmation that you’ve completed the online visa application and that you’ve paid the application fee, and any other documents that help demonstrate your ties to your country. For example, bringing a copy of the deed to a house you own, or supplying copies of pay slips or your bank records showing payments to you by your employer over a period of time can be helpful. Some Consular Officers like to see a letter from an applicant’s employer saying that the person is employed and stating how long they’ve worked for the company, what their salary is, and that the company is allowing them to take time off for their trip to the U.S. Since some Embassies/Consulates value documents in general more than others, and because some really want to see specific types of documents, you should check out the website of the Embassy or Consulate where you’ll have your interview for specific guidance. Q: I was told at my visa interview that my application is undergoing “administrative processing,” and that they would contact me once they had a final decision on my application – what does this mean? A: “Administrative processing” is usually code for “security screening.” The U.S. government understandably wants to keep out terrorists and the like, and needs to know if someone has something in their past that might make them ineligible for a visa. There are screening procedures in place for this purpose.

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This screening process can take a while, sometimes months. Just know that it’s usually nothing personal – chances are you’ll get your visa eventually, as most of the time this administrative processing leads to the conclusion that the applicant is not someone the government wants to keep out of the country. You should check in with the embassy or consulate where you applied every month or so to see where things stand – sometimes they hear back from the people who are looking into the issue but just forget to contact you.

Ten Questions to Ask When Selecting an Immigration Lawyer Considering hiring an immigration lawyer? Proceed with caution: there are some bad ones out there, and your immigration matter is just too important to trust to someone who can’t effectively advocate for you. With so many options available, it can be hard to sort through the clutter. Here are 10 critical questions to ask when trying to figure out who to engage to help you: ●

Are you in fact a lawyer? It may seem rudimentary, but you’d be surprised by how many people offering immigration law-related services aren’t actually attorneys. Reports about so-called “consultants” or “notaries” taking cases and damaging their clients’ interests abound. These people generally don’t have the same training or experience as a licensed attorney and aren’t held to the same standards concerning ethics and continuing education requirements. To ensure the person you’re speaking with is in fact a licensed lawyer, ask what state bar association they belong to. You can verify by following up with that state’s bar association.

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Have you ever been disciplined by a court or state bar association or had ethics complaints filed against you?

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Allowing an immigration lawyer who’s had ethics complaints lodged against them or been disciplined for an ethics violation is just asking for trouble. You can check up on this yourself by contacting the state bar association to which the lawyer belongs; most states will share information about disciplinary action taken against a lawyer. ●

How do you communicate with your clients - can they call or e-mail you freely? One of the most common complaints from clients about their attorneys is a lack of communication on the part of the attorney. Your immigration lawyer shouldn’t keep you in the dark - they should give you regular updates about your case, and you should be able to contact them whenever you want to ask questions or express concerns. It’s important, then, that your lawyer has a policy that ensures you’ll be kept up to speed and that you can speak with the lawyer regularly. You should also ask whether the lawyer has a policy for calling clients back - do they pledge to get back to you within a day or two of your call?

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Will my case be assigned to one particular attorney? A major problem for many clients is being passed around from attorney to attorney, such that they don’t know who they should be reaching out to with questions or issues. This happens frequently; one attorney starts out as the main point of contact for a case, but the client then gets shuffled around to other attorneys in the firm. It will be easier on you and your case will be less likely to be neglected due to a miscommunication - if you just have one attorney assigned to you for

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the entire duration of your case. Going with a firm that will guarantee you’ll be looked after by just one attorney is a good idea. ●

Do you practice regularly in immigration law? Immigration law is roundly regarded as one of the most complex areas of U.S. law - it takes some serious dedication to understand it and to keep up with changes in the field. You therefore want to be represented by someone who has experience in this area and practices in the field regularly. These attorneys are much more likely to better understand the system and to be able to more effectively advocate for you than someone who has limited experience in this complicated area of law or who only dabbles in it. You’re likely better off going with someone who dedicates most, if not all, of their practice to immigration law than using an attorney who only dabbles in it.

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Will you personally closely monitor my case, or will a paralegal handle it? You’re paying for an attorney to handle your case - you should demand that one does, as opposed to going with a lawyer who has a paralegal or secretary monitor and control your matter. All too often paralegals make mistakes that a trained immigration lawyer is unlikely to make. Ensuring that an attorney is committed to actively handling your case, and that they won’t pass this responsibility to someone else, before you hire them as your immigration attorney is advisable.

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How are your fees structured - flat rate or hourly?

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Most immigration attorneys charge a flat rate for a particular service, meaning you know ahead of time how much you’ll ultimately be charged for a given matter. But some charge an hourly fee, meaning you get a bill after it’s all said and done (or every month if your case is ongoing) that tells you how much you owe based on how many hours the person spent working on your case. This arrangement, as you can imagine, leaves plenty of room for abuse - lawyers can exaggerate or flatout lie about the number of hours they spent on your case, and you can’t verify whether what they report is accurate. Even where the attorney is ethical and doesn’t do this, it’s likely that the hourly fee billing structure will end up costing a person more than what they would have paid for the same work under a flat fee arrangement. We therefore recommend going with an immigration attorney that charges on a flat fee basis. ●

Are your fees listed publicly? Having the fees an attorney charges listed on their website is a good sign that the person is open and will deal transparently with you - this is very important in any attorney-client relationship. It’s an indicator that the lawyer doesn’t have anything to hide; it suggests they’re not going to try to lure you in and only at the last moment drop exceptionally high fees on you.

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How do your fees compare to what other immigration law firms charge? Some immigration lawyers charge way, way more than others - one might charge $300 for an initial, 30-minute consultation just to learn about your situation, while others do this for free. Charging for an initial consultation isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you should confirm that

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what you’re being charged for this, as for all legal services, is at least somewhat comparable to what other firms charge. An attorney shouldn’t be afraid to discuss with you how their fees compare to those of other immigration lawyers; if they are, that’s a bad sign. If a firm’s fees are significantly lower than those of other firms, you may want to ask how they can afford it - you want to be sure that they don’t make their money by running a high volume of cases through the pipeline while paying very little attention to them. But if a firm with low fees can convince you that they don’t skimp on cases, and that they are able to have low fees because they leverage technology well and have good business processes, then it’s all the better. You can also do an internet search of immigration law firms and compare for yourself (this is admittedly a bit tough, as most firms unfortunately don’t list their fees on their websites). ●

What exactly is included in the fees you quote? It’s important to find out exactly what is and is not covered by a fee you’re quoted for a service. Two lawyers might quote a given price for a service but actually end up charging you two very different prices. For example, one might include in the price they quote you filing fees, postage and printing costs, or any other number of things, while the other lawyer might charge you for those in addition to the price they quoted you. It’s wise to ask what is and isn’t covered - in addition to the price the lawyer quotes, is there a chance you’ll have to pay for other things, or is that the amount you’ll actually pay? Likewise, does the fee cover related legal matters, like necessary motions that will be filed throughout a proceeding, or an appeal if the government rules against you on something? Don’t be afraid to ask the immigration attorney to be explicit about what their quoted fees cover - if they try to duck the

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question or have a long list of expenses that you’ll have to pay in addition to the fee you’re quoted, you might want to look elsewhere.