Any advice on getting a tourist visa for fiances sister to come to the wedding?

[Sarah Rose Allen 0]

We are finally getting closer to getting all of the visa stuff done and are now starting to think wedding!

I really want to try and bring my fiancees older sister (age 33) to the wedding since he has absolutely no family members in the US and only speaks spanish and my whole family basically only English.

Does anyone have any tips on ways to facilitate a tourist visa to bring family members to the wedding?

We are planning on showing her house deeds, she has a small business, is married and has kids. I know that the main burden of proof is to show ties to her home country. Would it help to put money in a bank account?

[Yodrak 7]

Sarah Rose Allen,

Money in the bank does not show ties to one's home country, especially money that suddenly appears out of nowhere. The money can be gone again just as quickly.

And even if money in the bank has been legitimately saved by the visa applicant over time it can still be withdrawn on the way to the airport to be taken to the USA to bankroll one's new life here after gaining entry.

Yodrak

.....

I really want to try and bring my fiancees older sister (age 33) to the wedding ...... I know that the main burden of proof is to show ties to her home country. Would it help to put money in a bank account?

[aliciaandfran 0]

I'm not exactly sure. Fran and I tried in May to get him a tourist visa and the embassy in Managua denied him

( b/c he has absolutely nothing tying him to his pais only his job). I think you might have a better chance with her. Maybe you could get your parents to write a letter of invitation explaining that it would only be for her to come down to the wedding. I don't know... She does have children and a business to go back to. Keep us posted please.

[CzechMate 16]

We are finally getting closer to getting all of the visa stuff done and are now starting to think wedding!

I really want to try and bring my fiancees older sister (age 33) to the wedding since he has absolutely no family members in the US and only speaks spanish and my whole family basically only English.

Does anyone have any tips on ways to facilitate a tourist visa to bring family members to the wedding?

We are planning on showing her house deeds, she has a small business, is married and has kids. I know that the main burden of proof is to show ties to her home country. Would it help to put money in a bank account?

Write a letter inviting her specifically to the wedding and explain in excrutiating detail when the wedding will be, how she will get there, how she will get back, who will be responsible for her while she is there, what she will do while she is there and how long you want her to stay. And then when she does her DS-156 the length of stay on that form should match exactly what is in the letter. She should also memorize every detail of the letter that you write for her as she will be questioned about it at the interview and any inconsistency will raise a red flag.

And some money in the bank wouldnt hurt because it will show that she has money to support herself if you folks cant, but make the deposits over time so it doesnt look like its been just dumped in there all at once.

There are actually two burdens of proof, evidence of strong ties (strong enough that she would not want to stay in the US illegally) and economic stability (that she has enough money to take care of her self and to get herself back home if something goes wrong so as not to be a burden on the US)

It sounds pretty intense I guess but consulate interviewers' main job is to deny people that want to come to the US and stay illegally and usually they are very good at it but sometimes its the case where you get an interviewer that is just a jerk. So by having all your ducks in a row, even the jerks cant argue much.

With the docs she has already plus the letter and money (shown across bank statements), I doubt she will have any trouble at all.

CM

PS -- A fancy wedding invitation accompanying the letter would be good too.

[Yodrak 7]

Gentle Readers,

CM make two excellent points in this post that most people overlook.

First is a strong showing of the purpose of the visit, which is the flip side of the coin from 'ties to the home country'. It can be important to show a specific purpose to accomplish on a visit after which there is no reason to remain in the USA. (This side of the coin is particularly important to the people who want to apply for B2 visas while their K1, K3, or immigrant process is in progress, because for those people the ties to the home country are meaningless.) 'No reason to stay' + 'good reasons to go home' is stronger than 'good reasons to go home' by itself.

Also the point about money in the bank. Most people think of money in the bank as a tie to the home country. It isn't. But it is important that a visa applicant be able to show that they can afford their trip to and stay in the USA. This requires a certain amount of money. (Same public charge issue that K-visa applicants face.)

Yodrak

We are finally getting closer to getting all of the visa stuff done and are now starting to think wedding!

I really want to try and bring my fiancees older sister (age 33) to the wedding since he has absolutely no family members in the US and only speaks spanish and my whole family basically only English.

Does anyone have any tips on ways to facilitate a tourist visa to bring family members to the wedding?

We are planning on showing her house deeds, she has a small business, is married and has kids. I know that the main burden of proof is to show ties to her home country. Would it help to put money in a bank account?

Write a letter inviting her specifically to the wedding and explain in excrutiating detail when the wedding will be, how she will get there, how she will get back, who will be responsible for her while she is there, what she will do while she is there and how long you want her to stay. And then when she does her DS-156 the length of stay on that form should match exactly what is in the letter. She should also memorize every detail of the letter that you write for her as she will be questioned about it at the interview and any inconsistency will raise a red flag.

And some money in the bank wouldnt hurt because it will show that she has money to support herself if you folks cant, but make the deposits over time so it doesnt look like its been just dumped in there all at once.

There are actually two burdens of proof, evidence of strong ties (strong enough that she would not want to stay in the US illegally) and economic stability (that she has enough money to take care of her self and to get herself back home if something goes wrong so as not to be a burden on the US)

.....

CM

PS -- A fancy wedding invitation accompanying the letter would be good too.

[Mononoke28 134]

I've had family members go for tourist visas and be denied flat out. They've got their own businesses, own their own homes and two of them even went to college and showed letters from the university to the interview. They also had notarized invitation letters along with AOS. The COs denied their visas without even looking at the stuff they had brought with them and simply said they were denied.

On the other hand, I had 2 cousins who had no paperwork besides an invitation letter from my parents and tax returns and were granted their visas. Funny thing is, the CO never asked to see any of the paperwork they had ready for him.

So it's a gamble. It's a very good thing to be ready, bring all kinds of documentation, bank statements, letters of invitation, etc. But they also have to be ready for a denial because it might happen, especially if they live in a Latin American country.

[eric_and_teresa 10]

It's not about being from Nicaragua, like others said, it's about showing them that your future SIL has enough ties in her country to come back. If she can prove them that she has a job, assets, credit cards, bank accounts, etc. they will grant her the visa. Make sure she also brings an invitation to the wedding to the Embassy appointment.