B1 / B2 Visa Denials

Each type of visa has a specific purpose. An immigrant visa is issued for the purpose of allowing the immigrant to remain permanently in the US. The purpose of a B1 Business Visa or B2 Tourist Visa is to allow the traveler a limited amount of time to visit America. It is not intended to allow the applicant a chance to become a student or to open a business in the US.

Immigration officers at the port of entry are trained to notice what the actual intent of the traveler is. The traveler may claim to be coming to the US as a tourist, but it may be clear to the immigration officer that the traveler has some other purpose in mind.

At the US Consulate in Saigon, officers are also trained to discover the real reason for a person’s visa application. And, they are trained to use a very wide variety of government websites to obtain information about people who have visited the States in the past.

In any immigration matter, telling the truth is always the best path. For example, CIS will sometimes allow a tourist to change from Tourist Visa to a student visa after arrival in the US, but only if the traveler states his intention to the immigration officer when he arrives at the airport. He might tell the officer he wants to check out some schools before deciding if he wants to study in the US.

 

On the other hand, the immigration officer would be justified if he asked the traveler why he did not apply for a student visa while still in Vietnam. Was it because he thought it would be too difficult to get a student visa?

This situation requires a judgment call by the immigration officer. He has the choice of allowing the traveler to enter the US or forcing him to return to Vietnam.

Everything depends on what the officer at the airport perceives or feels about the intention of the traveler. And we need to keep in mind that although the US Consulate in Saigon may issue a visa, the final decision is up to the immigration officer at the port of entry. He is the person who decides if the traveler can enter the US, and how long he can stay in the US.

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Q.1. Miss “A” went to the US on a B2 visa last year and returned to Vietnam before her six month visa expired. She recently applied for another B2 visa but was denied because the officer suspected that she violated the terms of her previous visa by working while in the US. Why would the officer say something like that?
A.1. The officer might have seen that Miss “A’s” name appeared on a tax return filed in the US, or in the records of the Social Security Administration. Or the officer might have discovered someone else by the same name as Miss “A”. The easiest choice for the officer was to deny the visa. In this case, there is nothing that Miss “A” can do to prove that the officer was wrong. She’s just out of luck.

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Q.2. Mrs. “B” arrived at the Los Angeles airport, carrying $20,000 in cash. She declared the money to Customs and told the officer that she wanted to have a good time, do a lot of shopping in the US, and didn’t like to use credit cards. Why were officials at the airport suspicious?
A.2. They doubted Mrs. “B’s” statement because she also brought three very large suitcases filled with both summer and winter clothing, and a lot of family photos and other mementos from Vietnam. It appeared to the officer that she was planning to remain in the US for a very long time, and perhaps intended to invest in a business in America. She was not allowed to leave the airport and had to return to Vietnam the same day that she arrived in the US.