GarrettB

Strange question. Your ties are what they are. You can’t manufacture a spouse or owning a home etc… The CO will either believe that you’ll return home, or not. Responsibly using a visa in the past and the fact that they seem to look at employment ties is helpful. Hopefully it will be enough.

I am self employed.  I did not provide an employment letter.  My father provided one and tons of info-- bank statements, several years of tax returns, proof of income from other sources, etc.  At the interview, all they wanted was the I-134 form.  They didn't even want any of that documentation or the employment letter!   I asked "Do you need any of this"  "Nope".  The process was far easier than I thought.   I don't know about other embassies but Moscow was not hard.  Everything took 2.5 hours including waiting in a huge line.   We were done by lunch time.

I am self employed.  I did not provide an employment letter.  My father provided one and tons of info-- bank statements, several years of tax returns, proof of income from other sources, etc.  At the interview, all they wanted was the I-134 form.  They didn't even want any of that documentation or the employment letter!   I asked "Do you need any of this"  "Nope".  The process was far easier than I thought.   I don't know about other embassies but Moscow was not hard.  Everything took 2.5 hours including waiting in a huge line.   We were done by lunch time.

It took about 2 weeks to receive the visa from Pony Express after our interview.  Pony Express is not a very good company.   They couldn't figure out how to deliver to her house, so we went and picked it up.  Must have taken 2 hours on the phone calling and calling to finally get someone who said  it was okay to pick up.  Once we found the place it took 2 minutes, it was just there on the desk.  

I didn't have to make a formal request or anything.  When I called the embassy to ask about something else,  I said I was coming with my fiancee and they said that was fine.     Once you have an interview appointment you can just call them and tell them, just to be safe.   

The interview was realitively easy and we were approved.    It was realitively fast, the whole process was about 2.5 hour.  We arrived at 7 and were near the front of the line, the line behind us was 1/2 of a block long.    Definitely leave phones at hotel, the van that stores your phone wants a ridiculous about of money to hold your phone for a few hours.   Most of the time was spent waiting.  The actual interview itself was about 10 minutes and the woman spoke perfectly English and Russian was was friendly.  The medical appointment was a lot longer and more difficult than the interview   We are glad it's over!

The interview was realitively easy and we were approved.    It was realitively fast, the whole process was about 2.5 hour.  We arrived at 7 and were near the front of the line, the line behind us was 1/2 of a block long.    Definitely leave phones at hotel, the van that stores your phone wants a ridiculous about of money to hold your phone for a few hours.   Most of the time was spent waiting.  The actual interview itself was about 10 minutes and the woman spoke perfectly English and Russian was was friendly.  The medical appointment was a lot longer and more difficult than the interview   We are glad it's over!

Currently it says "Administrative Processing" still.   And that the passport hasn't been sent. It's only been a few days (interview was Friday)

We were able to get an appointment.  As soon as we were "unlocked",  a calendar with a bunch of dates showed up, from the 6-13, we chose the 13.   Did not experiece the "no appoinments available" with the caldendar.     As for the link to the Telegram group, I don't know how to send it.  It was Visa in USA (Gofortravel)  "Visa in USA" written in Russian