MMA2002

mahir just wrote to me to tell me about the interview....it turns out the consular officer was denying everyone and didn't even look at their documents....and they wasted $445 that the family does not have ($345 for the three visa interviews and $100 for the 8 hour bus ride)....now mahir's father is saying that he's so discouraged he doesn't even want to go back to ankara....how can that damn consular officer do that? she was not even looking at anything or listening to them when they were trying to tell her....i just don't know what to do right now....mahir will have noone here for our wedding.....supposed to be the happiest day of our lives.....

Noorah101

Oh, Allison....I'm sorry to hear about the visa denial for your in-laws. I am surprised...I was under the impression Turkish citizens could get tourist visas pretty easily! If it's any consoliation (which I doubt), Sadegh also had no one on his side at our own little wedding. It was still a happy day for us, but he felt very lonely on his wedding day.

Maybe they could re-apply without the younger son? If that's all that's holding them back, maybe it's worth a shot.

I wish you all the best, I hope it works out for them to come!

Rene

meauxna

Actually, sometimes you do. Depends on the Consulate and visa use/abuse history of the country involved.

Rete

It is unfortunate that your wedding day will be held without your fiancee's family present. I'm assuming you both thought it would be a cut and dried situation in their obtaining a tourist visa. Might have been easier if they had applied prior to his getting his Fiancee Visa so that they could have just put down vacation plans as their need.

1. It would not hurt to contact your political rep and see if they can do anything on their behalf.

2. When you are financially stable after the wedding, perhaps you might want to travel back to Turkey (with advance parole of course) and have a ceremony there for his family and friends. The anticipation of such a ceremony will do much to lighten his and their feelings about not being able to attend your stateside wedding and will make them part of your joining of lives.

Rete

brigeet

That's such a horrible situation. I'm sorry you guys! That happened to a friend of mine. He married a girl from China and they had a baby and the wife is really homesick all the time so they have been trying to get her parents a visitor visa and they have to trek out to the embassy and they have spent $$$ too and keep getting denied. Do you think it's a quota thing? Why? It's just awful.

Ranjini

The key to the denial probably lies here. Visa use/abuse history of the country involved. It's personally upsetting when the parties concerned have absolutely no intention of abusing the visa they have applied for. They want to attend the wedding of their son and return. It does not follow that every middle-aged couple wanting to visit would want to abandon everything they own and have worked for in pursuit of the 'American dream". But apparently the statistics are working against even genuine tourists from your country. Hopefully, the Senators Office can intervene with an assurance that the parties concerned will, in fact, return to their homeland at the end of their sojourn in the US. Good luck !!

cristina101

If you invite somebody to visit you in the USA then you have to file an Affidativ of Support form for that person, you need to prove somehow that whoever comes to visit you won't become a public charge

Ray, yeah you "don't need to" but sometimes you "have to"..

utopiacowboy

No, it's not a quota thing. It's a racist thing. The only people who are freely able to travel to the United States are citizens of white European countries. It is almost impossible for a citizen of a Third World country to get a tourist visa - my Colombian brother-in-law has been able to visit Australia and Europe with no problem but he was denied by the US even though he is an attorney and professor with a lot of property in Bogota. Little do we realize through these misguided policies that we alienate many people who would be our allies. Instead of encouraging tourism and allowing people to experience America we seem to go out of our way to stir up hatred and animosity towards our country.

jeffreyhy

Ranjini,

Nobody, not even a Senator, can possibly provide any "assurance that the parties concerned will, in fact, return to their homeland at the end of their sojourn in the US".

If said parties disappear from view after entering there is no way to hold the assuring party responsible for the disappearance or responsible for tracking down the missing people.

Assume for a moment that the Senator could provide such assurance - why would they risk the penalty, whatever it might be, to provide assurance for a group of people who they know nothing about? On what basis could a Senator or anyone else provide assurance for people who they do not know?

Regards, JEff

Ranjini

This is not true, in my experience. I come from South Asian country. I have family visiting me every couple of years. In a few weeks my Aunt and Uncle will be visiting. Their tourist visas were approved. They were approved last year when they came for my cousins wedding in California. Another cousin and her husband recently attended her husband's sisters graduation in San Francisco and they came for the wedding of her brother in California. They are a couple with a young child and both in their mid-thirties. She is a Professor of English in an University and he is in Banking. So your blanket statment has been proved false in my case....

Ranjini

Yep. You are absolutely right

jeffreyhy

cowboy,

Not true. The list of visa waiver countries includes Brunei, Monaco, Japan, and Singapore. These are not "white European countries".

Regards, JEff

utopiacowboy

Monaco is not a white European country? You're right - having Brunei, Japan and Singapore on the list really makes a difference.
Let's face it - our immigration and visa policies are racist. Why do you think the USCIS faces constant lawsuits from Latin American organizations. I am eagerly looking forward to the day when there are enough Latinos in this country that some of these policies get changed.

Leslie

I'll beg to differ with you on Monaco only.

Leslie

DOH! You beat me to it.