B-2 Visa Denial - Tbilisi - Russian Citizen

[Delta7 9]

Good afternoon,

 

My wife and I want her parents to visit us here in the US for 3 weeks this fall, and we had our sightseeing trips all planned (NYC, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Boston). However, they were denied a Visa today in Tbilisi, Georgia. I was curious if anyone could help us make sense of this decision.

I met my wife while she was on a J1 Visa a few summers back, and we just instantly hit it off. We're still happily married to this day, and have since been to Russia to introduce me to her family. We filed for her adjustment of status during the 30 day grace period of her J1 Visa expiring, and she got her two year green card ~ 6 months after we filed.

 

Her parents both work (father owns a business, and her mom works in a dentists office). They also own a home as well as a car, and have close family nearby. Obviously the CO doesn't know this, but I have asked them if they would want to immigrate here if my wife becomes a US Citizen, and they said they did not think so. They want to stay in Russia, but they just want to be able to see where their daughter moved to, and meet my family, the way I met theirs. 

 

The only thing I can think of is that the CO saw that my wife immigrated here while on a visa, and instantly shot it down. Other than that, I'm at a loss of why it would be rejected.

 

They said they will try again. I would be willing to buy the plane tickets before the interview so they see the flight itinerary to prove they will go back, but I don't want to buy tickets only to have the next application refused again. 

[SalishSea 16,817]

2 minutes ago, Delta7 said:

Good afternoon,

 

My wife and I want her parents to visit us here in the US for 3 weeks this fall, and we had our sightseeing trips all planned (NYC, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Boston). However, they were denied a Visa today in Tbilisi, Georgia. I was curious if anyone could help us make sense of this decision.

I met my wife while she was on a J1 Visa a few summers back, and we just instantly hit it off. We're still happily married to this day, and have since been to Russia to introduce me to her family. We filed for her adjustment of status during the 30 day grace period of her J1 Visa expiring, and she got her two year green card ~ 6 months after we filed.

 

Her parents both work (father owns a business, and her mom works in a dentists office). They also own a home as well as a car, and have close family nearby. Obviously the CO doesn't know this, but I have asked them if they would want to immigrate here if my wife becomes a US Citizen, and they said they did not think so. They want to stay in Russia, but they just want to be able to see where their daughter moved to, and meet my family, the way I met theirs. 

 

The only thing I can think of is that the CO saw that my wife immigrated here while on a visa, and instantly shot it down. Other than that, I'm at a loss of why it would be rejected.

 

They said they will try again. I would be willing to buy the plane tickets before the interview so they see the flight itinerary to prove they will go back, but I don't want to buy tickets only to have the next application refused again. 

Definitely do not buy tickets before a visa is issued!  People lose money that way.

 

They can certainly apply again, but unless their situation (ties to home) have changed, approval is unlikely.

[Delta7 9]

Yeah I know, that's why we didn't buy any tickets this time 😆.

 

When you say their situation (ties to home) have changed, what do you mean?  How can two people in their 50's change their ties to home? They have never been here, and we want to show them a bunch of places here, you know, things tourists do lol. 

[Delta7 9]

A big thing that worries me further is when we have children. The thought of them not even being able to see their only grandchildren here haunts me. Sure, we can visit them. However, it's crazy that they won't be allowed to visit. 

[SalishSea 16,817]

1 minute ago, Delta7 said:

Yeah I know, that's why we didn't buy any tickets this time 😆.

 

When you say their situation (ties to home) have changed, what do you mean?  How can two people in their 50's change their ties to home? They have never been here, and we want to show them a bunch of places here, you know, things tourists do lol. 

COs are required by law to suspect immigrant intent for B visa applicants, so the burden is on the applicant to show evidence of their intention to return home and not overstay or try to immigrate.

 

What other ties besides jobs and family do they have?

[SalishSea 16,817]

3 minutes ago, Delta7 said:

A big thing that worries me further is when we have children. The thought of them not even being able to see their only grandchildren here haunts me. Sure, we can visit them. However, it's crazy that they won't be allowed to visit. 

Unfortunately, this is one of the many potential realities of marrying someone from another country.

[Delta7 9]

1 minute ago, Jorgedig said:

COs are required by law to suspect immigrant intent for B visa applicants, so the burden is on the applicant to show evidence of their intention to return home and not overstay or try to immigrate.

 

What other ties besides jobs and family do they have?

They own a home and car in the city they live in. What else is needed? Her father owns a business and he can't be away for too long at a time anyways. We even talked about possibly him traveling back to Russia a week before her mom returns. 

[Ben&Zian 4,397]

Agreed. They can apply as soon as they want, and as many times as they want, but don't do that. The more attempts it makes people seem 'desperate' to get to the US. While we obviously don't know the whole circumstance of this, the CO again has to make the call on if they feel they would misuse the visa. Having the daughter now a LPR, after being on an internship visa... the CO again has to make a judgment call. As with above, unfortunately that is the risk of marrying a foreigner in sense of family separation (if that is important to you anyways).

 

Search top right corner in the search bar for things like "B2 denied" and just read the countless threads of denials. It's very common. Just applying is not guarantee. Even having the B2 visa doesn't guarantee entry to the US, just the chance. They can still be denied at immigrations during clearance.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Ben&Zian

[SalishSea 16,817]

1 minute ago, Delta7 said:

They own a home and car in the city they live in. What else is needed? Her father owns a business and he can't be away for too long at a time anyways. We even talked about possibly him traveling back to Russia a week before her mom returns. 

There must have been something else in their applications or interviews that made the CO think they were high risk for overstay.

 

Why did they interview in Georgia instead of Russia?

[Pinkrlion 2,610]

Your spouse already showed that she violated the terms of her J1, so their B1/2 will be denied with the same concern. 

[Delta7 9]

Just now, Jorgedig said:

There must have been something else in their applications or interviews that made the CO think they were high risk for overstay.

 

Why did they interview in Georgia instead of Russia?

I'll check to see if they have a copy of their papers.

 

The current wait time for an interview in Russia is 300 days due to the country only having one US Consulate left (Moscow). There have been stories of people waiting for an interview and the interview has exceeded the year long time window, requiring them to resubmit their application again. Whereas the wait time in Georgia is 28 days. 

[SalishSea 16,817]

2 minutes ago, Ben&Zian said:

Agreed. They can apply as soon as they want, and as many times as they want, but don't do that. The more attempts it makes people seem 'desperate' to get to the US. While we obviously don't know the whole circumstance of this, the CO again has to make the call on if they feel they would misuse the visa. Having the daughter now a LPR, after being on an internship visa... the CO again has to make a judgment call. As with above, unfortunately that is the risk of marrying a foreigner in sense of family separation (if that is important to you anyways).

Good point.  The fact that she stayed and adjusted from a non-immigrant visa could very well have worked against them.  One of the drawbacks of jumping the queue.

[Delta7 9]

Just now, Jorgedig said:

Good point.  The fact that she stayed and adjusted from a non-immigrant visa could very well have worked against them.  One of the drawbacks of jumping the queue.

That's really the only thing we can think of. To be completely honest, we wanted to do the K1 Visa application that summer (2017) but literally as we were filing out papers and doing research, Trump and Putin began their peeing contest closing each others consulates. So we didn't want to risk a scenario where it took > 3 years for a process that was under 1 before. 

[SalishSea 16,817]

Just now, Delta7 said:

That's really the only thing we can think of. To be completely honest, we wanted to do the K1 Visa application that summer (2017) but literally as we were filing out papers and doing research, Trump and Putin began their peeing contest closing each others consulates. So we didn't want to risk a scenario where it took > 3 years for a process that was under 1 before. 

No one likes to wait in line and be separated from our partners, but most of us have had to.....

 

 

[Delta7 9]

7 minutes ago, Ben&Zian said:

Agreed. They can apply as soon as they want, and as many times as they want, but don't do that. The more attempts it makes people seem 'desperate' to get to the US. While we obviously don't know the whole circumstance of this, the CO again has to make the call on if they feel they would misuse the visa. Having the daughter now a LPR, after being on an internship visa... the CO again has to make a judgment call. As with above, unfortunately that is the risk of marrying a foreigner in sense of family separation (if that is important to you anyways).

 

Search top right corner in the search bar for things like "B2 denied" and just read the countless threads of denials. It's very common. Just applying is not guarantee. Even having the B2 visa doesn't guarantee entry to the US, just the chance. They can still be denied at immigrations during clearance.

Valid points, I appreciate the feedback. Yeah, I've been reading a few today, and our first initial reaction this morning when we found out was shock and thought that it was a mistake or her parents did something wrong. I didn't know tourist visas refusal rates were as high as they are.