South african applying for tourist visa abroad

[Marine01 0]

Hi,

I am a South African citizen that is working and living abroad in Singapore. I am engaged to a US Citizen and we are presently looking to travel to the states so that i can meet her parents before we get married. We do not want to get married in the states and do not want to live there. We both have extremely good jobs, we have a lease together and i have just started studying again here in Singapore.

This leads me to my question, what is my best approach to applying for a tourist visa? I obviously know that i have to show strong ties to where i live. Should i mention that i am engaged to a US citizen or should i just try my luck on my own? We both do alot of traveling together and have hundreds of coinciding stamps in our passports showing that we just want to travel the world...

Big thing is our lease is on both of our names so i don’t think that is going to help if i just apply for a tourist visa alone.

This is not the first time that we have applied for a tourist visa. We tried two years back while we were living in Dubai and the visa got denied. During that time we were not engaged and not living together.

What do you guys think I should do?

[Marine01 0]

Any help would be much appreciated....

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

Since it will likely come up anyway during interview, and you should never lie to immigration ("Why do you want to travel to the US?"- "To meet my fiance's parents" or "Are you travelling with anyone"-"Yes, my fiance"), you may as well mention it from the outset. Having a lease will help, as well as enrollment in university, and you having travelled many places and returned. Since they will be concerned you will want to marry and adjust status in the USA, which would be illegal on a tourist visa, you may also want to show proof your US citizen fiance will return, such as a letter from his employer and HIS ties to the country.

[Marine01 0]

Thanks penguin for your reply... Being honest is always the better route.