B2 for Vietnamese with travel history

[JacksonNY 0]

hi there,

I am German citizen currently on a J1 in NY. I am 35 and

worked in Germany for 7-8 years and I'm going back after my J1.

Since 2012 I have a vietnamese girlfriend, she lives in Saigon and

just finished her Bachelor in Chemistry at the University.

We see each other 10-14 weeks a year, usually 4 weeks in Asia,

as she is allowed to travel most of South-East Asia, and 7-10 weeks

in Germany. She has been in Germany 2 times now.

She applied for the European Visum (Schengen Visum) successfully

twice with my sponsorship (thats how it works for EU).

Our future plans are to stay in Germany, she is currently learning advanced

german language and will apply for a student visum in Germany this summer.

Now, since I dont have much vacation here in the US, I would like to invite

her to the USA for a period of 1-3 months. See NY and maybe travel to

nearby attractions over the weekend.

Clearly, neither her or me have any intention to immigrate into the USA, as

our plans are actually to stay both of us in Germany, in a legal way with

studying and later marriage (we are a couple of 3 years, so we know what

we want).

To help her getting a B2, I do want to send an Invitation Letter and

a I-134, Affidavit of Support. As she doesnt have enough money to support

her trip. I understand that most people say, this is not helping.

If I look at the "refusal rate" here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_visa#Adjusted_Visa_refusal_Rate

For Vietnam it was 14.3% in 2014. That sounds promising.

1)

Her passport is full of stamps including Malaysia and Singapore

and 2 EU Visa for 2013 and 2014.

How much will that help to overcome the assumption of her to immigrate into the USA?

Does the interviewing officer even look through her passport?

Clearly, she has returned from any country without overstaying even 1 day.

2)

Will her certificates in german language help? She has achieved a german level

which allowes her to apply for a student visa in germany

3)

As she still requires more levels in german language (usually, this is done in Germany),

she could aswell apply for these courses here in New York, as there is actually an

official German Language Institute, and simply finish 1 course here (usually 8 weeks).

Is that a scenario that could work?

One more thing. She does have an uncle here in Alabama. But she doesnt really

want to visit him, just me. I was wondering if that could be a problem, i.e. "do you have relatives

in USA?"

Thanks for any ideas and feedback

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hi,

A visitor visa applicant has to overcome the presumption of immigration.

Your invitation letter and I-134 are irrelevant. No one can guarantee a visitor visa for another person. The application is hers, not yours. You have nothing to do with a visitor visa application from her.

1. Her prior travel pattern can help show she left VN and returned home. It can be indicative of her intent when visiting the U.S. It's not determinative, so no one can tell you her chances based on prior trips to other places.

2. No. Knowing German has nothing to do with overcoming the presumption of immigration.

3. That requires an F-1 student visa. She can not attend school on a visitor visa. Also, why travel to the U.S. for German classes? Should she be looking at a German speaking country?

Having relatives in the US is not necessarily a problem. Most Vietnamese getting visitor visas have at least one family member in the US.

Some of my Vietnamese relatives have received visas on their first try while others have been unsuccessful 2-3 times.

Best of luck.

Edited April 1, 2015 by aaron2020

[Boiler 43,381]

What is her Uncles status?

[JacksonNY 0]

Thanks aaron!

so for 1) it actually does give me some hope.

for 2) i was hoping this would demonstrate her intentions of going to Germany and NOT the US.

for 3) yes, it indeed does sound confusing. However, in our case, it does make perfect sense.

there are no advanced courses in Vietnam (C1-2), but they are offered in NY (and of course in Germany).

Instead of wasting 2-3 months in Vietnam and waiting for the next semester in Germany, she

would rather attend any German course that is available. And since I am not in Germany right now,

it could be just aswell in NY (with a F-1). This is just an idea.

@Boiler as far as I know her uncle has a US citizenship. However, as Vietnamese tend to do in the US,

he did try something fishy with a visum for a relative in Vietnam which failed. I am scared this could

backfire to us and don't really want him to be involved in the process.

[Boiler 43,381]

What is a visum?

Anyway you know the issues you are up against.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Thanks aaron!

so for 1) it actually does give me some hope.

for 2) i was hoping this would demonstrate her intentions of going to Germany and NOT the US.

for 3) yes, it indeed does sound confusing. However, in our case, it does make perfect sense.

there are no advanced courses in Vietnam (C1-2), but they are offered in NY (and of course in Germany).

Instead of wasting 2-3 months in Vietnam and waiting for the next semester in Germany, she

would rather attend any German course that is available. And since I am not in Germany right now,

it could be just aswell in NY (with a F-1). This is just an idea.

@Boiler as far as I know her uncle has a US citizenship. However, as Vietnamese tend to do in the US,

he did try something fishy with a visum for a relative in Vietnam which failed. I am scared this could

backfire to us and don't really want him to be involved in the process.

2. She is applying for a visa to the U.S. Knowing German would not show an intent to go to Germany when she is applying for a visa to the U.S.

3. A student visa is not quick or simple. It's much harder than getting a tourist visa. Right now student visas do not exist. It takes months.

-----

All she can do is apply for a visitor visa. There is nothing you can do to help her.

What is a visum?

Anyway you know the issues you are up against.

Stop being a smartasss. You know it's visa. Give people a break for typing errors.

[KierenHby 897]

"..Stop being a smartasss. You know it's visa. Give people a break for typing errors..."

Can't tell if sarcasm was involved.. but I had the same question while going thru this thread. Visa and visum are interspersed among OP's posts.

Wiki does show Visum to be a derivative of the term Visa.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/visum

[Boiler 43,381]

"..Stop being a smartasss. You know it's visa. Give people a break for typing errors..."

Can't tell if sarcasm was involved.. but I had the same question while going thru this thread. Visa and visum are interspersed among OP's posts.

Wiki does show Visum to be a derivative of the term Visa.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/visum

Odd that German is not mentioned. I would have ignored it if it looked like a one off or auto correct.

[JacksonNY 0]

@aaron - thanks for your input!

you are saying that any invitation letter and an affidavit of support are irrelevant for the B2 application.

however, I dont understand one thing: the embassy would want her to prove that she can actually afford this trip, no?

and as she cant afford it by herself, I would need to prove that I am able to afford all travel expenses and also offer accomodation, no?

another thing: we currently don't know which semester she will start in germany, Sep/2015 or March 2016.

as far as i understand a B2 is always valid 12 months (for Vietnam according to Wikipedia).

does that mean, IF she gets a B2 issued it will be valid for 12 months in any case?

however, the duration of stay handled seperatly? who decides how long she is allowed to stay?

We dont want to raise any suspisions and ask straight for 6 months, after all she might be able to stay only 6-8 weeks.

In any case, she will not stay longer than B2 allows. We would be more than happy to get 8 weeks.

Maybe it would be possible to extend the duration of stay once she arrived, in case she can stay lets say 3 months.

and yeah, some people say "visum" in german (singular) and "visa" (plural).

i forgot in english (and often in german too) most people just say "visa" in any case.

[Boiler 43,381]

In English Visa is singular.

You want that perennial favourite shack up with boyfriend visa which sadly does not exist.

So you are going for a tourist visa which means that you need to show of course that it is within your financial reach and that you will leave at the end as you would be silly to stay and work illegally like millions do.

Stating that you have no funds and that you need somebody in the US to pay your way does not help that.

Anyway all she can do is apply, not that much.

[Boiler 43,381]

There is the obvious solution if all else fails, J2.

[aaron2020 11,651]

You have way too many questions, brother.

You are putting the cart (what she can do with a visitor visa) before the horse (getting the visa).

You can submit your financials. While it answers the question of how she will pay for her trip, it does nothing to show a strong tie to VN. It shows a strong tie to a USC boyfriend. It doesn't move her closer to getting the visa. It moves her further away from getting the visa.

Apply for the visa first. Once she gets it, you can worry bout how much time she can spend here and when you want her to visit.

[KierenHby 897]

I believe OP is a German citizen.

[Boiler 43,381]

On a J1

[aaron2020 11,651]

Thanks for the correction.

The answer is the same. A J-1 boyfriend paying for her trip is not a strong tie to VN.