US tourist visa denied in Singapore

[FireMedic]

Hi everyone and good evening. My Thai wife and I live in Singapore. I work full time at a major company with an Employment pass. She is in school full time but also has a Dependent Pass. We used a visa service here in Singapore and all of our documents were 100%(letter from my work,pay slips, house papers, bank papers, insurance papers, invitation letter..everything required) the interviewer asked all the normal questions until at the end she said "how can you guarantee you will leave the US and return to Singapore?" My wife says "Well we both live here, my husbands job is here, my school is here, we have business class tickets to the US and back to Singapore." The interviewer says "Well return tickets don't guarantee you're coming back...you could simply cancel the tickets or not show up for the flight and stay in the US". Handed her passport back with the standard rejection letter. We went and spoke to the boss of the visa company and laid out all the paper work, went through all the questions and all the answers. The boss and the agent said they will call and inquire about what happened, however we will still have to re-apply and get another appointment. So my question is, how in the world do you answer that question other than what she said? 

[theoldgit]

What is your nationality?


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[kevin612]

1 hour ago, theoldgit said:

What is your nationality?


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

great question

[FireMedic]

Yes I'm sorry for not including....I'm American. 

[FireMedic]

I'm gonna guess this is a tough one and the fat bitch interviewer was just having a bad day..........

[JLCrab]

57 minutes ago, FireMedic said:

I'm gonna guess this is a tough one and the fat bitch interviewer was just having a bad day..........

Well maybe just as you say else maybe there was something to make her think that, as long as you could bring your Thai wife with you, you would happily relocate to USA.

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

Don’t bother. Well qualified Thai friend was denied a tourist visa twice to visit Hawaii with her Korean husband, his idea by the way to go there.

 

Third time she got the visa. In HNL she was separated from her husband, interrogated and all but called a prostitute. ICE left her in a room with no info for two hours then let her in after telling her not to “run away”.

 

(I have heard stories from other Thai women about getting the US tourist visa after multiple tries).

[FireMedic]

The visa company called me back today. They said they have an email that we can write to and they will give an explanation......but the lady flat out told her why she wasn't getting it before she left. Still have to re-apply and scheduled for a week or so away. 

[55Jay]

At this point, I think the Consular pretty much has his/her mind made up before the interview.   But one blip can snowball and tube the whole thing, and it may have a lot to do with the Consular's attitude in general, or on that day.

 

My wife has been through 3 US Visa interviews - 2 outside Thailand and the last one at AMEMB BKK earlier this year. 

 

She got a 1-year the first time, then 5-years, then the 10-year from BKK.

 

As far as the prep work, we (meaning me) stuck with the KISS approach.  Never used a visa agent.   Wife doesn't work.  Doesn't have phat bank accounts.  No LoI.  I've never written a supporting letter about me, because it's not about me.  I've never purchased air tickets before the visa process because I thought that appeared overly-eager or presumptive to a jaded government flunky.   Never provided copies of house/car books, bank statements, and she's never been asked for it during her interviews.

 

Mate of mine used an agent for his wife's application at BKK a few months before my wife did her last one.  He wrote a letter about himself and the agent cut down a tree's worth of documentation.   She got the 10-year visa.   Who knows..... ?

 

[GinBoy2]

Before we got my wife's green card and moved back to the US, tried twice for a tourist visa, for nothing more sinister than I wanted to visit my daughters for 2 weeks.

At the time I had no thought's of moving back home.

Both times she got rejected after about three questions.

US tourist visa's are notoriously tough, regardless it seems of personal circumstances.

If I had to speculate why, I can only imagine that the consular officer doing the interview starts from the assumption that all Thai women are, or have been hookers!

[55Jay]

5 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Before we got my wife's green card and moved back to the US, tried twice for a tourist visa, for nothing more sinister than I wanted to visit my daughters for 2 weeks.

At the time I had no thought's of moving back home.

Both times she got rejected after about three questions.

US tourist visa's are notoriously tough, regardless it seems of personal circumstances.

If I had to speculate why, I can only imagine that the consular officer doing the interview starts from the assumption that all Thai women are, or have been hookers!

Jeez, that's so random.  Ref to your other thread, then she sailed through the system on the subsequent IR1 filing?

[FireMedic]

29 minutes ago, andy said:

Do you have a fixed-term expat type contract in Singapore, and if so, how much time was left on the contract & visa?

I am not a contract employee. I'm full time staff and government employment passes have to be renewed every 2 years. My employment pass and her dependent pass were just renewed a couple of weeks ago and both were included in her and my paperwork. So they would be renewed again in July 2020. 

[GinBoy2]

6 hours ago, 55Jay said:

Jeez, that's so random.  Ref to your other thread, then she sailed through the system on the subsequent IR1 filing?

I just didn’t get it.

 

My wife had been in the US years ago on a student visa when she was at college in Chicago. I thought, wrongly, that would have made it easier. Maybe they figured she knew the US, and therefore was more likely not to return! Who knows.

 

Still, don’t need to worry about it anymore, that green card was/is a Godsend in the immigration world

 

 

[Coconut Kidd]

I would try BKK and triple check the information on the DS-160 for accuracy.

 

Make sure your wife understands ALL of the information on the DS-160 and then triple check it again.

 

My GF applied there and received a 10 year B2 Visa right out of the gate. Not much in the bank, owned her own business and has two kids. The following year we applied for the kids and got 10 year B2s for both of them without any problems.

 

We have traveled back several times in the past 6 years, with not much more than a few simple questions asked both in HNL and SEA. As a matter of fact, I would say the immigration staff have been quite friendly and helpful.

 

[FireMedic]

18 hours ago, andy said:

In that case I am really surprised about the denial and I wouldn't bother applying in Singapore again.  May I suggest applying in Bangkok for the next try as the embassy in Sing is obviously full of it and is not going to be a user friendly option.

Yeah well I'm not sure either. The visa company already made another appointment and redid the application etc......I also wrote the consulate directly, copied Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's office, both Senators in Florida, and the Congresswoman who's district that my entire family lives in.......they all emailed her too.  

[Chou Anou]

On 8/8/2018 at 10:07 PM, FireMedic said:

I'm gonna guess this is a tough one and the fat bitch interviewer was just having a bad day..........

I know this is ThaiVisa so the bar is set REALLY low, but your level of seething misogyny is still pretty striking. I feel sorry for your girlfriend, and I sincerely hope she gains some self-esteem someday so she'll know to flee toxic <deleted> when she sees it.

[FireMedic]

2 minutes ago, Chou Anou said:

I know this is ThaiVisa so the bar is set REALLY low, but your level of seething misogyny is still pretty striking. I feel sorry for your girlfriend, and I sincerely hope she gains some self-esteem someday so she'll know to flee toxic <deleted> when she sees it.

Funny you say that......I never saw or talked to the fat bitch. My wife came out and said "that fat bitch must be having a bad day.....or her husband is gay".....if I remember correctly.   But I certainly appreciate your attempted white knighting. We all see your virtue flag waving high and we will all admit you're better than us. 

[FireMedic]

I forgot to update this last week....The visa agent was able to secure another appointment on Monday. Again, all the paperwork was triple checked by the bosses and I. All the questions were run through...everything. We will see what happens on Monday. During last week I wrote an email explaining the situation to my Congresswoman, both of my Senators, the Consulate, and the State Department. Surprisingly I got replies from almost everyone. 

[FireMedic]

Well, she was denied again. She went in, sat with a new person and he asked why she wanted to go to the US.  She said again "We want to visit my husband's family for Christmas". The guy took her passport, asked for her Dependent Pass, and went over and chatted with the girl who had refused her a few weeks ago. He sat down at a computer, made her wait 20 minutes while he went through her application..........and handed her stuff back and said it was refused. So I have no idea what to do. The visa agent said maybe to wait a few months and try to make an appointment in December at the BKK office with all her Thai info and maybe get it before the scheduled flight on the 22nd. 

[Poppadom]

When we were doing my L1 visa, the appointed law firm said that we should go for interview to the Budapest US Embassy and not the BKK or let alone to the SG one. Deputy consul didn't really ask anything from her (Thai wife, got married one month before the interview) perhaps just what are you going to do while in the US? My wife's answer was really cute and honest... Same day in the afternoon they couriered our passports back to us.

 

Needless to say NY HR messed up things, missed a deadline and I could not start: the transfer didn't work out - got compensated though.

Living happily in Phuket ever since. ? The Royal Thai embassy's got this "kiasu" reputation, too. 

[GinBoy2]

13 minutes ago, FireMedic said:

Well, she was denied again. She went in, sat with a new person and he asked why she wanted to go to the US.  She said again "We want to visit my husband's family for Christmas". The guy took her passport, asked for her Dependent Pass, and went over and chatted with the girl who had refused her a few weeks ago. He sat down at a computer, made her wait 20 minutes while he went through her application..........and handed her stuff back and said it was refused. So I have no idea what to do. The visa agent said maybe to wait a few months and try to make an appointment in December at the BKK office with all her Thai info and maybe get it before the scheduled flight on the 22nd. 

This is one of those threads where I think many of us wish we could give advice, but in reality all we can do is commiserate. 

 

Honestly, before I petitioned for my wife to get an immigrant visa, after two rejections for tourist visa’s, I just gave up. Like you all I wanted to was visit my daughters for a couple of weeks, nothing too sinister in that I thought.

 

Try sending your rep or better still your Senator’s office an email, they actually can help surprisingly enough

 

I have a friend who actually got our local Senator (Thune) to fix an immigration issue for his Thai wife.

 

Maybe it’ll help, but it can’t hurt

 

 

[ChiangMaiLightning2143]

Try again after one year.

The good Thai lady friend I posted about applied every Summer for a US tourist visa to go to Hawaii three years in a row and was accepted the third time. The times they could not get her visa husband took her to Saipan instead, what does not require a US visa but is under CBP control.