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Trinidad Express (re: The Value of Documents) wrote:
I went to get my visa to go for a holiday in the US for about two weeks and paid my fee, had all my documents and they did not even open my file and take a look at the documents? When I went up to the window they just asked me questions, which I answered honestly, and they then said I have nothing that ties me to the country. How can that be so when they did not even look at my documents?
Sad in San Fernando
US Consul Responds:
Many people are confused when during their visa interview at the US Embassy the consular officer does not look at the many documents they brought, or gives them only a brief glance.
The first thing you need to know is that our consular officers are not required to look at your additional documents. In fact, the only documents you are required by US law to bring to an interview for a tourist visa are your passport, an application form (DS-156), your photo, the receipt from TTPost, and, for most men, the supplemental form (DS- 157).
Some other visa types, like student visas and work visas, have additional document requirements. Our officers are trained to evaluate an application using only the required documents, and then conduct an interview.
Most things that the officer needs to know about you can be discovered through the interview. Instead of shuffling through the stacks of paper that most applicants bring, the officer would rather just have a conversation with you about your travel plans and personal situation. For instance, most people know where they work and how much they earn. So if the officer asks you about your job and your salary, why would you need to show them a job letter?
Unless officers think you are not being truthful, they have no need to look at extra documents. You should not be offended, insulted, or concerned if the officer does not ask to see your documents; in fact, this usually means that the officer believed what you had to say.
All that said, remember that the burden of proof is on you to prove your qualifications for a visa. So if the officer does want to see additional proof, you will want to come prepared with any document that you think will demonstrate your ties to T&T, like job letters, bank statements, deeds, etc. Maybe the Officer will ask for these documents, or maybe he/she won’t, but you should be prepared one way or another.
Send your questions, comments, concerns to: askUSconsultrinidad@state.gov
Trinidad Express (re: What ties are sufficient to get a US Visa?) wrote:
I wish to voice my disappointment and confusion with regard to the requirements needed for a US visa.
It has been the continued and consistent view or explanation to those denied this visa that they ’need more ties to this country’. What exactly are ’more ties to the country’?
If one is gainfully employed (as per job letter), for a reasonable amount of time (say, more than ten years), is married, has a home, loans, savings, etc, what else will be required to tie one to the country?
I ask this so other unsuspecting individuals like myself will not bother to spend hard-earned cash, take time off from work to fulfil this appointment, just to be told: ’You do not have enough ties to the country.’
Maybe the Minister of Foreign Affairs can look into this and give the general public, through some form of media education, what ties one needs to have before even considering scheduling an appointment for a US visa.
Most confused and disturbed
Trinidad Express (re: Visa vexations) wrote:THE flood of complaints is astounding, the levels at which they are being raised and prosecuted, perhaps unprecedented. Certainly in terms of the willingness of interested parties to make them public. Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are simply crying foul against a new practice in the issuance of non-immigrant American visas from the embassy in Port of Spain.
Letters to the editor in the newspapers supporting the claim, of at least inconsistency, represent a mere peek into the hurricane of existing discontent on the matter.
Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are being virtually overwhelmed with complaints from citizens about what to them looks like a departure from the established visa policy. Charges of discrimination are being levelled at officials in the relevant unit at the embassy.
Staff at the embassy dealing with members of the public are reported to be confused and embarrassed at many of the complaints reaching them.
There is said to be a virtual breakdown of communication between local staff and the officials at the non-immigrant visa unit. A threat exists for the cancellation of the popular annual college fair, at which thousands of aspiring students shop for opportunities to attend colleges and universities in the US, in direct meetings with representatives of some of those schools.
Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon is said to have met on three occasions with embassy officials, the last meeting just over a week ago, on the mountain of complaints. Not satisfied with the responses she has gotten thus far, the Minister is reported to be putting together a case for a meeting with US Secretary of State Clinton.
In another case, it is reported that the Minister of Local Government, the wife of the Prime Minister, had been seeking on her own to get a meeting with some of these officials to address the issue. She has had no success just yet.
The Prime Minister is to be approached today by a group of students who attend the St George’s University in Grenada, on government scholarships, about what to them is the incomprehensible position of the embassy’s consular section in denying them visas.
The university was said also to be preparing to take the consular section in Port of Spain to court on the matter. One student was invited to a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Port of Spain last week to seek a hearing with an embassy official over some of these difficulties. The encounter did not go well, and the student left in greater frustration.
For more than 20 years, it is being reported, a policy has been in existence in which medical students in Grenada needing to pursue specialised studies in the US would do so on the basis of regular non-immigrant visas. Now they are being told they must seek student visas, which they don’t think they qualify for.
A bunch of other students enrolled at the University of the Southern Caribbean face a similar predicament. They follow the letter of what is prescribed in the student manual designed for these purposes, only to be frustrated by what is reported to be the embassy’s indifference.
In still another baffling case, a young woman started courses at COSTAATT, then went to Munroe College in New York. She then moved to St Lucia where she completed the programme and wished to return to New York for her school’s graduation. Her application was turned down.
The relative of a third Government Minister was on a student visa. He also had a regular non-immigrant visa. He had trouble with his grades, due reportedly to the death of his father. He came home for a period of cooling-off and was seeking to return to his studies. His application for a new student visa was denied. His regular non-immigrant visa was also cancelled. On the intervention of a second high-ranking family member, he was advised to return to the embassy, only to be denied a second time.
When he tried to query the cancellation of his regular visa, he was warned not to make a fuss, or he would be removed by the guards on duty.
To all of these concerns and others, Rebekah Drame, the head of the non-immigrant visa unit at the embassy, stuck to the party line. She is not permitted to discuss individual cases, but in any event, those allegations only represented one side of the story.
She insisted that more than 75 per cent of the visa applications from this country are granted. She said, however, that Trinidad and Tobago is in the ’top 15 per cent’’ of countries from which non-immigrant visa holders overstay their time in the US.
It was ’not true,’’ she said, that a stipulation requiring student visa applicants to provide proof of their own ability for upkeep, without reliance on ’third parties,’’ was a variation of established policy. Other staff at the embassy insist it is, however.
Trinidad Guardian (re: Survey shows lack of money cause of US visa denials) wrote:On the heels of the launch of weAvenue.com, Molepolole Incorporated has once again commanded the attention of the national public. Known for conducting ongoing polls and surveys, the company recently released the results of its latest poll which was conducted outside the United States Embassy, Marli Street, Port-of-Spain.
The poll, which was taken between May 27 and June 3, asked visa applicants leaving the embassy whether they were granted visas or not. The results revealed that 45 per cent of East Indian applicants were denied visas, followed by 25 per cent of Indo-African denials. When declined applicants were asked to provide reasons for denials the most common explanation given by Embassy officials was, “Not enough money,â€
Smokey wrote:look i hate to say this, but these US immigration officers are judging you 90% on your looks and personality.
Basically if you look like a freeloading people or neggah, inspite of the paper work, you gonna get blanked. unless you really have some impressive ties to trinidad.
Also, they are only alloted a quote of visas to distribute, as a result, people who really should get through are being denied.
Trinidad Express wrote:Non-immigrant visa officers working out of the United States Embassy in Port of Spain were being trained, up to February of this year, to refuse visas to certain groups of applicants.
Among those who had virtually no chance of getting a visa were pregnant women, women who already had a child in the US, and locals going to America for job training.
The actions of the US Embassy officials were illegal, according to an internal inspection done by the US State Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The visa officers were told to follow US visa application laws.
The investigation was done over a two-week period from late January. The inspection took place shortly after former US ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago Roy Austin completed his tenure.
The report, deemed ’sensitive but unclassified’, was published on the State Department’s website several months ago.
The embassy’s public affairs officer, Matthew Cassetta, told the Express that, since the report was written, State Department officials had visited and ’found that everything is functioning as it should in the consulate’.
The report detailed the daily operations of the embassy and commented on its strengths and weaknesses. The reported stated, ’Consular section management currently teaches non-immigrant visa officers to refuse visas to certain categories of applicants who should not be refused under visa law.’
It stated, ’Of special sensitivity are routine refusals for newly hired employees of known local and American companies going to the United States for training. These knee-jerk refusals have damaged relations with those companies, many of which do daily business with the embassy.’
The report found that consular management argued that applicants just out of school and/or starting first jobs ’are poor candidates for full-validity visas because they might leave those jobs and stay illegally in the US’.
’However, section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act clearly states that, ’every alien’ shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for admission, that he is entitled to a non-immigrant status’, the investigators stated.
’Further,... if you determine an applicant is qualified under the law for a visa, that decision should apply to future trips as well. Suspicion that an alien, after admission, may be swayed to remain in the United States because of more favourable living conditions is not a sufficient ground to refuse a visa as long as the alien’s current intent is to return to a foreign residence,’ the report stated.
The inspectors stated that immigration officers should issue a visa based on an applicant’s travel intentions and not what the application might do in future.
Last week Cassetta responded to the report. He stated, ’As an internal document, the report speaks for itself and thus we must limit our comments. It is important to note that the section, of the report, on consular operations opens by stating that the embassy serves as a model for effective consular management.
’Consistent with policy, the embassy in Port of Spain and all diplomatic missions overseas are constantly reviewing procedures and practices to assure uniformity and fairness.’
He stated, ’Since the report was written, the embassy has been visited by several officials from the US State Department’s Consular Bureau. They have found that everything is functioning as it should in the consulate.’
pimptacular wrote:that is BS..
what wrong with the united states trying to reduce the amount of possible illegal immigrants coming in the country?
’However, section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act clearly states that, ’every alien’ shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for admission, that he is entitled to a non-immigrant status’, the investigators stated.
Trinidad Express wrote:People who want to query the reason why they were refused a visa to go to the United States should contact the Consular Section of the US Embassy in Port of Spain.
This was the advice yesterday after a new wave of complaints by locals came in response to an exclusive Express article detailing the findings of a report done by the US State Department on the operations at the local embassy.
The report found that non-immigrant visa workers at the embassy were being trained, up to February this year, to refuse visas to certain groups of applicants.
Among those who were being refused-pregnant women, women who already had a child in the US, and locals working with multi-national corporations and going to America for job training.
The investigation was done by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General and deemed the actions of the office illegal.
The embassy’s public affairs officer, Matthew Cassetta, said since the report was written, the embassy had been visited by State Department officials who found that ’everything is functioning as it should in the consulate’.
But several unsuccessful visa applicants contacted the Express yesterday claiming their refusal was unjustified and unexplained.
The non-immigrant section (NIV) stated yesterday ’Please direct all persons with questions to enquire by sending an e-mail to ConsularPOS@state.gov.’
ABA Trading LTD wrote:hustla_ambition101 wrote:ingalook wrote:My bro get blank twice in one week with no reason given
$1700 down the drain
Poor fella just wanted to go on a cruise with our family
how he get blank twice in one week, don't they tell failed applicants to reapply in 6 months
Same thing I thought (6 month reapplication criteria)
But wasn't 100% sure
Please note that we do not review refused visa cases. Previously refused applicants are welcome to reapply, however they should only do so if there has been a significant change in their situations that may warrant visa issuance.
Gem_in_i wrote:ABA Trading LTD wrote:hustla_ambition101 wrote:ingalook wrote:My bro get blank twice in one week with no reason given
$1700 down the drain
Poor fella just wanted to go on a cruise with our family
how he get blank twice in one week, don't they tell failed applicants to reapply in 6 months
Same thing I thought (6 month reapplication criteria)
But wasn't 100% sure
this is from the email response posted previouslyPlease note that we do not review refused visa cases. Previously refused applicants are welcome to reapply, however they should only do so if there has been a significant change in their situations that may warrant visa issuance.
So as long as you feel situation changed and you want to reapply its up to you. No stated 6mths wait until next try.
Dear Sir or Madam:
Thank you for your inquiry.
Under section 222(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), visa records are confidential. Questions as to whether a visa application was made or a visa was issued or denied should be addressed to the applicant. In the interests of confidentiality and privacy, we do not comment on individual applications.
U.S. law states that every applicant for a nonimmigrant visa is presumed to be an intending immigrant unless he or she can prove otherwise. Visa applicants must demonstrate a residence abroad that they do not intend to abandon by providing credible evidence of sufficiently strong economic, professional, family and social ties that would compel them to leave the United States (U.S) at the end of a temporary non-working stay. Please note that all applicants for non-immigrant visas must qualify on their own merits and cannot rely on the assurances of third parties.
Please note that we do not review refused visa cases. Previously refused applicants are welcome to reapply, however they should only do so if there has been a significant change in their situations that may warrant visa issuance.
We hope this information is helpful.
Sincerely,
NIV Unit
Consular Section
U.S. Embassy
Port of Spain
link wrote:ABA Trading LTD wrote:firetruck....my 10 year US visa expiring next year
I turning 21 this week
Like i gonna get horrors to get it renewed?
yuh ar$e fix.........is ah 'single entry' u gettin' nex' time
dey do me dat too
rgds
Trinidad Express wrote:Leader of the Opposition, Basdeo Panday, yesterday called upon Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon to find out why legitimate non-immigrant visa applicants continue to be blanked at the United States Embassy without explanation.
He said the US Embassy in Port of Spain should clearly state its criteria for rejection or acceptance of applicants for visas.
Panday said it was time the Minister meet officials at the US Embassy to have the matter resolved.
Panday was responding to an exclusive report in the Express detailing the findings of a report done by the US State Department on the operations at the local embassy.
The report found that non-immigrant visa workers at the embassy were being trained up to February this year, to refuse visas to certain groups of applicants.
Among those who were being refused-pregnant women, women who already had a child in the US, and locals working with multinational corporation and going to America for job training.
Panday said: ’While it is recognised that a sovereign country has a right to determine who should enter its territory, such a right should be exercised with empathy in this global village, that is today’s world. Many of our citizens have families in the United States given the long history of our movement between the two countries.’
He said although it was their right to do so, the US Embassy was discriminating against those with families in the United States who were sick, dead or dying.
’This amounts to an act of cruelty,’ he said.
’One understands that US clamping down in the post-9/11 period and the calamities that have faced not only in America, but worldwide. However, it is insulting that dignified people in our society are being treated as if they were drug mules and criminals at the US Embassy here or when they arrive on American soil,’ Panday said.
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