Your visa questions to US embassy

i applied for an american visa in nigeria and during the interview i was asked the last time i was in america i told them and that i had a baby i was asked to show that i did not use public funds i should my bills receipt and hospital discharge certificate i did ,then he asked why i had the baby in america i told him i was on vacation and the baby came early i showed him the ultra sound certificate which hadd my edd etc still not satistisfied he said that if the baby came early there should be complication and that the bill of 4000usd was too small and itold him that i had a normal delivery at 35weeks in nigeria babies are normal its only in the states they consider them early still not satisfied he asked that i should bring a letter from the doctor an iteamized bill etc sayingthat the baby came early which he allowed me time to get it i emailed the doctor he sent me the letter and when my my husband went to submit all he was asked to bring the man said he was not going to give the visa to us because in the previuos interview i said the baby came at 7 months not 8 months and my husband said a month early ment 8 months not 7 and that was it and he said we should go and apply later when our status has changed

I am a naturalized American. I have had many relatives who have tried to obtain a visa to the United States. I must say that the decisions are random and the treatment is shockingly rude. The US embassy is not an exception. I found the British embassy to be the same (if not worse).

My son waited for the US Visa in Ireland to start his flight training in Florida for nearly three months until his Irish visa was running out. It became necessary at great expense to bring my son home to Sierra Leone and re-apply for both Visas again. At the interview in Freetown he was informed the visa was ready in Dublin, Ireland. On arriving in Ireland muy son sent his passport for the issuance of the Visa and he was again required to submit his I-20 by which time it was late to confirm attendance on the course. My son has to wait for a new I-20 to be raised for the next start date two months away

It takes blood, sweat and lots of money only to be turned away several times. There is a general assumption that an African is an asylum seeker unless he/she is very wealthy, has a job and property. The US and British visa offices have pre-programmed procedures when it comes to issuing visas, if you do not fit that template criteria, which most Africans do not, then you will waste countless visa application fees, other transactions fees necessary for you to go through the visa process and a lot of precious time. Do not apply for a visa if,
1) you are employed in the informal sector
2) you are not employed, above 18 and someone else is meeting your travel cost
3) if your family leaves overseas, they say CHANCES are you will not return
4) if you have applied before and was denied, its downhill from there until they choose to forget about it
5) If you are going to make the visa officer aware of his robotic attitude towards your application process
6) if you call your father's brother 'father' and this makes absolutely no sense to the visa officer and you have to explain
7) If you have green a passport

The African context is different and requires a different approach which will probably cut down significant amounts of bogus travelers. Most Visa processing agents need to push numbers therefore will submit a person's visa application without significant vetting.

Waoooo! geting a visa to U.S now is like a man trying
to pass through the eye of a needle. Why???. because oned one
donot
meet the so called 'legibility' requirements. Even when
you are qualify, you are not still sure because there are too much protocol,
questions,scrutiny,investigations,and even your financial
statusco verified. For what??? Just to travel to U.S
Notwithstanding, people are still crossing the huddles.
i am graduate of International Relations intending to do
my masters there.. i feel legibility form sometimes and was
told not qualify for study visa. S A embasssy,What is really
wrong?????.

Two questions here:
1) Why do Europeans (for instance, UK citizens) have less onerous requirements to enter the US - they simply buy the ticket and off they go, no criminal checks (even though loads of Al Quaida fighters have originated from there), no salary checks, no education checks from the US authorities etc.
Whereas as a South African citizen, even though I may be more educated and have more money, have no criminal record than the average UK traveller, I have to go to the US embassy to apply (and pay a ridiculous amount of money) and then wait weeks for a visa. And to add insult to injury, I'm not aware of Al Quaida training cells in SA compared to the UK.
2) If South Africa applied the same draconian requirements to US ciitzens visiting South Africa, would the US complain?

It is the most difficult visa to get in the world.My 53 year old mother was frustrated 5 times before she gave up the whole idea of going to the US to visit her brother.

Permit me rephrase Jesus' statment by saying "How hard it is for Africans to get a US or UK visa than for a kamel to go through the eye of a needle" because some times it just seem impossible.
I was scared once when i saw my friend went pale within two weeks after he was denied the UK visa... boy! it's like you've failed an entrance exam.
I just have one question for the UK and US embassy and it's not about what it takes to get these visas or what requirements you need to meet to succeed but how can you gamble to know your lucky day?

Travel rules to the West from Sub Saharan Africa has racial and economic status discrimination. It is so easy for US citizens to Travel to the UK, any country in Europe, Canada, and to Australia. Skills and Capital flows easily too because of this relationship. Ideal would be world with no boarders. With the current man made structures of travel limitation it lowers our global productivity. When Africa is lacking skills the US has a very high unemployment rate. When Construction is picking up in Africa, equipments are rusting idle in the UK.
Humanity and the west approach to this issue is that of a small people, cruel, and barbarous.

Two years ago I applied for a tourist Visa to US from Finland where I have lived for almost 7yrs now. Got denied. I am married to a Finnish, with one 2yr old boy, and a morgage we had been paying for, for about 2yrs. Was in my second year of studies that lasts 3.5 years, and had a parmanent job. More to that education in Finland is free of charge. My wife and I had about 3'000€ in savings, and all the flights hotel and the seminar I was to attend had been paid for. Reason for denial: I needed to be in Finland a bit longer and establish stronger ties with Finland. Two years previously, I attended the same kind of seminar in London, and had only 600€ in savings, no kid to look after, and hadn't started school, and didn't have a morgage. I as for one, it's hard to know exactly what the US embassy requires from us.

Steve

I travel on an SA passport. My company transferred me to the UK and during a business trip to Hong Kong was asked to travel to the US on a business trip to develop a new opportunity in collaboration with a US-domiciled company.

I went to the US Embassy in Hong Kong on Cotton Tree Drive and presented them with copious amounts of substantiation, documentation and in fact somewhat of an overkill in terms of supporting evidence.

I was summarily and bizarrely advised that I had to apply for a visa in my country of origin alternatively domicile thereby rendering the rationale of a visa office utterly superfluous and demonstrating flagrant ignorance of the rigours of business travel and its vagaries.

I appealed and was advised to apply. I waited in HK for 48 hours, went back and through a plate glass window was handed back my passport with a RED stamp on it rejecting my application and in the process highlighted in bright colours that I was thus perceived to be an undesirable visitor. When, in my utter outrage I queried why this arrogance resulted in my passport actually being marked/endorsed, I was not given an answer and was patronisingly shown the door by a Marine.

(In passing I had to "lose" this passport and obtain another rather than carrying around this unwarranted and frankly unnecessary 'stigma'.)

I should point out that the company for whom I worked owns significant assets in the US and as a Western company which adds value to the US economy and further noting I had travelled extensively to the US previously, could not fathom the autistic, robotic and unhelpful ineptitude of the US consulate.

I would therefore like an answer as to why the obsessive commitment to "Homeland Security" bludgeons the genuine applicants and that there is simply no appreciation of flexibility in being able to recognise genuine cases.

Suffice to say, the 'front office' image and perception of the US is increasingly seen as bullying, unconscionably arrogant and abusive, and I have gone from being a friend of the values you purport to model to being cynical and angry.

Is this what you want?????

One more point - as we have seen recently with the visit of Premier Hu from China to the USA, the imbalance of trade is staggeringly weighted against the USA due to admittedly Yuan manipulation but also due to the sustained less-competitive nature (and often quality) of US made product - I admit much of this is a perception, however when the likes of businessmen such as myself have viable business plans to EXPORT US product thwarted by visa wonks, does the consulate not see any correlation?

Even a repressive regime such as the PRC is easier to get into - what gives??

Induna's complaints are lamentable to say the best...whether the US, the UK,Canada, North Africa, or China, or elsewhere, applications for visas requesting entry into any country requires the process to be done from the applicant's country of origins (ie the country which is the issuer of the passport one travels under.) Perhpas the next time this person wants to travel from point A to point Z, he (or she) should log into the host country's web sites to ascertain what the requirements are for obtaining a visa. The US State Department has a huge section devoted to visa issues, as do most other countries.

Oh and one more little suggestion: Try to remember that you are asking to be a guest in whatever country your are requesting entry. There are rules for being good guests just as there are rules for being a good host.

whts in america?