My Fiancee wants to know if there is anyone here with information about the easiest/best way for getting a travel visa from Poland to the US.

"please mention about these reasons (what the best reason would be to get it) - going to fiancee, visiting friends, family, travelling...?"

Any hints/suggestions/stories/comments are welcome

Thanks.

Hello,

Well, my experience with this wasn't a good one. My fiancee and I tried to get her a travel visa last summer to come stay with me for a few months. We had what I thought was a TON of evidence that she has strong ties to Poland, I wrote a letter promising she would return, etc. We paid the $100 application fee, she took a long train ride to the embassy for the one-on-one interview, and a lady finally called her in. She spent 2 minutes looking at the information and told my fiancee something like, "I actually believe you, but because you aren't married or have kids or are in college, I can't be fully assured that you will return to Poland, so your travel visa is denied."

From what I read, there is a 35-40% refusal rate for travel visas in Poland right now (which now that they are a part of the EU seems to be pointlessly strict - but I digress). A young, unmarried man or woman has a difficult time unless they are in school, own property, have children, etc.

This was truly devastating to both of us... how ridiculous that she can't even VISIT the place I am asking her to move to and start a life. Pictures are just not adequate. She can't meet my family, see my house, or experience what life is like here. It is 2008, correct??

Can you tell I'm still pretty grumpy about this?

Sorry not to be able to give you more hope. If you can show strong enough ties, it is possible.

I wish you both good luck!

I honestly think its like a lottery. My husband was a student, had ties to show that he had to return to finish his studies. The officer only gave him the barely 2 minutes and asked him questions that had nothing to with *him*. He asked what is your mothers profession, what is your fathers profession. Visa denied, goodbye, NEXT! Both of his parents have stable long term jobs, so not sure what difference that made.

What I do think is, that they let more people go out of the Krakow embassy on tourist visa's then they do Warsaw (my husband was at Warsaw).

Yes it sucks, but unfortunately, except for paying the $131fee (not $100 anymore thanks to the dollar depreciating so much) theres nothing you can do but try.

As for what to tell the consul, I recommend telling them the truth, that she'll be coming to see her fiance. If she says she is coming to see friends, they will think she may not have enough money for the trip, possible hotel, food, etc. If she brings a I-134 with her (Polish people call this the "zaproszenie") this will guarantee your support of her while she's visiting, and that's about all you can do as the USC.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes

They don't care if you have something to support you when you're in the US. They only care if you will overstay or not. Having a fiance willing to support you would not deter that.

Yes they do care. I had a friend going for a tourist visa, that said he was visiting friends, and the consul said, show me the bank account with $5K in it to prove you can afford a trip like that.

I dont think you've had experiences with the consulates in Poland, and this is specifically what we are talking about.

Thank's all for your responses. I have had dealings with the Warsaw Consulate while I was there so I have an idea of what she will be dealing with (but only from a US citizen poit of view, which didn't realy matter there). I know that when she was in this program with CICD, the Warsaw J1 visas all had 2 year home residency restrictions and the Krakow visas didn't have such a restriction.

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

When I was applying for my visitor visa, I had already been to the US before on J1 and didn't overstay. I had no problems getting a visitor visa (went through Warsaw). I was in school, finishing up my degree in American Lit, so I just told them I needed to use libraries over there, which was (very partially) true. So no problems at the embassy, but tons of problems at PHL airport trying to get in, since by that time we were already in the middle of K1.

I want to believe that the system which they use to decide who gets a visa or not is not a lottery, but who knows. My Mom didn't have problems either, but as people before me said, that's not always the case. Unfortunately a lot of Polish people overstay in the US and that's why they are so hesitant about issuing visas. Which sucks for us with legitimate reasons.

I don't think it matters whether you go through Krakow or Warsaw as far as the 2-year restriction is concerned. I went through warsaw and didn't have a restriction on my J1. I think it depends how long J1 is valid for and what the purpose for it is. Mine was valid for only 4 or 5 months.