Hypertweeky

I do not know! Do you?
I know more examples

meauxna

I suspect it is because of a history of abuse of visitor visa terms. Part of the equation is relative income of the home country; ie, the lower the per capita income, the more likely the residents will up stakes if possible.
Greece is also not a member of the VWP. There is a long pattern of economic/family based migration and visa abuse from Greece to the US and until recently, little to no income opportunity in Greece. B1/B2 are still pretty difficult to get for Greeks.

I don't consider this so much a racist policy as a practical one.

Back to Romanians, they are now a Greek "problem" the same way Mexican/C Americans are here. They have to sneak in to Greece to do crap jobs that they are happy to have at 3 euro/hour vs the less than 1 euro/hour that is the going rate in their own country. The beautiful irony of it is, the Greeks won't take those jobs anyway, and someone has to clean up after all those package tourists.

Hypertweeky

Hey Meauxna!

I know Romania is very poor because my brother's gilfriend is from there, she came to Spain last year and she has been in Spain since then.
Our queen "Sofia"is greek, Greece and Spain have a very good relation
Thanks for the explanation!!

utopiacowboy

Here is why it is not just practicality. If you are a Colombian and apply for a tourist visa you will be denied simply because you are Colombian. It does not matter how much property you own, what your profession is, how likely it is that you are going to stay in the US etc. They do not even look at the supporting documentation. If they were making these decisions based on an examination of the applicant's circumstances, I would have no problem with it but they don't. They simply look at one factor and the entire decision is based on that.

Ranjini

When people are waiting as long they have to these days, it may appear that you are being singled out. But the fact is, that most are probably waiting as long as you. To me my 60 days of waiting back then, seemed like an eternity. So I do understand the frustrations all round.
The immigration process is not as haphazard as it appears. When all this is over, you'll wonder what you were on about. Hang in there. I'm sure she'll get her visa in due course. Hopefully, sooner than later.
To my mind racism is an ugly word. As somone on this newsgroup said a few weeks back "it is the disease of fools". Try to look beyond....
Good luck!!

Marjeta

Low life standard. High (illegal) immigration rate.

Something to think about: Why is Slovenia (ex YU country - also happens to be my home country) in the VWP and not Slovakia, or Poland... Any country that is not in the VWP could "feel" discriminated against, but this isn't a matter of discrimination. It is about bilateral agreements as well as national profiling. A country probably has to have a certain standard, good immigration history (i.e. very little illegal immigration and abuse), advanced border control, and positive relations with the US. There are probably many factors that the US gov uses to determine how safe is a country immigration-wise and "treats" its citizens accordigly in the visa process. Not to mention that politics always play a role as well.
If you call that racist, then I guess I'll agree. And I really feel bad for the OP's family because they are victims of the system.

meauxna

I know you have much more direct knowledge of Colombia than I do; I've only had the one visit and you have family connections there. I don't even dispute that some Consular posts don't follow all the rules that they are supposed to. But are you saying that there is NO B1/B2 visa issued out of Colombia?

Bogota's Consular website has in-depth instructions on applying for a B2, more than many of the sister sites I've looked at. Why would they put the effort into pretending that they will entertain visitor visa applications if they in fact do not look at anyone's application?

I'm not being hostile or nitpicky, just discussing. Perhaps I use the word "racist" differently than you do.

meauxna

Agreed, M. Thank you for your thoughts!

jeffreyhy

Marjeta,

Good discussion, I agree with you up until your closing point.

Is the OP's family (or cowboy's) victims of this system? Or are they part of the problem that the system tries to deal with? I don't know the posters or their families, so I can't and won't take a position either way.

The consulates, however, cannot step back from the question as I can - they must make a decision. As you eloquently discussed, experience weighs heavily on their minds. Nobody wants to be the one to make a mistake and let the wrong person into the country.

Regards, JEff

utopiacowboy

Actually I do know someone who did receive a tourist visa from Bogota. I met her on her way back from visiting her sister in Miami. She had no other family in Colombia, no property and no job - it made me wonder why she was going back to Colombia.

The application fee for the visa is $100. There are an estimated 200 applications a day and about 5 to 10 are approved. It is well known in Colombia that getting a tourist visa from the consulate is like gambling.

They do have an excellent web site with a lot of useful information.

utopiacowboy

My wife has had her K-3 visa for some time now. This is not a personal issue. I agree that racism is an ugly word - maybe if our great nation practiced the principles upon which it was founded, we could once again become a beacon for the rest of the world instead of the pariah that we have become by treating the rest of the world's citizens with contempt and disdain.

Ranjini

Now that is a sentiment that I endorse, Utopia. We have our work cut out for us as far as re-establishing good relations with the rest of the world. How they intend to do that, remains to be seen. With good leadership it is not impossible....

MMA2002

now that my original post has turned into this incredible posting about being racist and whether my inlaws are the problem which THEY ARE NOT JEFFREYHY....my inlaws do not speak english, do not have any intention of staying and have never done anything illegally....since when is it wrong to want to be at the wedding of your own son?! we are victims of the system....the system that i am embarassed to be a citizen of because of the way these people were treated....the consular officer denied EVERYONE without even looking at their documents.....i detest where this posting has gone.....i came here for support from people who have been nothing but supportive throughout this process and it turned into a discussion over racism and quotas and questioning whether my inlaws are part of the problem here....my inlaws are not the problem - they are victims.....the consular officer had it in her head that morning that she was going to deny everyone and that is ridiculous....all these people wanted to do was come for the wedding.....this is not a discussion of racism or not - it is a discussion about something terrible happening because the us government hires people who don't want to listen to those people it should....she didn't even give them a chance....they had plenty of proof with jobs, a house, a business, and all the family....and to spend $450 out of a $2000 bank account that is all they have just to get denied is ridiculous....and i do not need an affidavit of support for people who are coming for two weeks....i work 1 floor above USCIS and have asked all the questions from them....

cristina101

We've just sent an invitation to my parents to come and visit us in the USA. I searched on line to know what are the papers that we need to send to my parents. I found a website immihelp.com that was very helpful. I don't know who was that very smart person from the USCIS to tell you that you don't need to file an Affidativ of Support form whether your future in-laws would come for 2 weeks or longer than that. My mother also called the US Embassy in her country and the visa officer told her that they will need a notarized affidativ of support from us when applying for their tourist visas. My mother and my dad would also need to show proof that they have strong ties with their home country, however we still had to send the embassy a proof that whether my parents would come and stay only 2 weeks they still won't become a charge to the US government.

You know, that $2000 in their account is not enough when considering the fact that they would need to buy their airplane tickets, short term health insurance, they would need money to spend in the USA and they would need to have a place to stay and food to it..how are you helping with that ? did you only write about those things in your invitation letter to your future in-laws or you really sent them the evidence of your providing with whatever they need while they would be in the U.S. ?
YES, they had proof of strong ties to their country but they lacked the most important paper from you to proove that they would not be a charge to the U.S. government.

Did your future in-laws call the embassy and did they found out what were the documents that are needed to present when applying for the tourist visas ? Did they actually informed themselves about that before going to the visa interview ?

MMA2002

they are coming for 2 weeks....1. do not need health insurance.....2. it doesn't matter about the plane tickets - we were going to pay for those anyway.......3. no affidavit of support is needed for a person coming for a visit - my fiance came 3 times with a tourist visa and never needed an affidavit of support.......there is no charge to the US government for someone coming for 2 weeks......whoever told you an affidavit of support is necessary did not know what they're talking about.....food and lodging and plane tickets is none of anyone's business except the people.....i don't need to tell them who's going to buy them food and plane tickets....they only needed to know where they were going to stay which is at our house.....noone needs an affidavit of support for a tourist visa - tourist = short time - cannot apply for unemployment or any of that and why would they for going back?! i have been involved in the application of several tourist visas and not one required any more information than what we provided.....if they were coming to go to disney world there wouldn't be an affidavit of support......and no letter has ever been necessary for me to submit with them.....same thing, no letter would be there from mickey mouse inviting them to disney world.....same difference