Tourist/Visitor Visa for a Filipina

The Tourist/Visitor Visa for a Filipina

We get many inquiries about tourist/visitor visas. Just think about this for a moment, a properly prepared visa application with an applicant that meets all of the requirements only has a 70% chance of being approved. Now the U.S. Embassy took your money to do this visa and suddenly you have nothing but they have your money! Yes, you can reapply as many times as you want with a good possibility of the same outcome.

The tourist/visitor visa is VERY difficult for Filipinos to obtain. Most tourist visa applications in the Philippines are denied. The reason for this is there are currently over 300,000 Filipinos in the U.S that got there on a tourist visa, and stayed.

There are many factors the consul will look at when they interview a tourist visa applicant. The applicant’s age, sex, marital status, financial status, all will be considered when a consul looks at an application.

If the applicant is young, single, and female, it is guaranteed she will be denied unless she is from a wealthy family, a high ranking government official or a Philippine movie star and even they are frequently denied. If the applicant indicates he or she has a fiancé that is a U.S. citizen, it is guaranteed that the application will be denied and she will be advised to file a K-1 visa.

Consuls are instructed to assume a tourist B2 applicant is trying to use the tourist B2 visa to immigrate; it is up to the applicant to provide the proper documentation to prove that they have valid, compelling reasons to return to the Philippines.

This evidence must be in the form of strong ties to the Philippines. The applicant must demonstrate that they have NO REASON to want to stay in the U.S and compelling reasons to return to the Philippines. Home/property ownership, a successful business, a good paying job that the applicant has been on for a long time, strong family and community ties to the Philippines, such as being a Lions club or Rotary club member. All of this evidence must be shown before a visitor visa may be granted. Even then, there is no guarantee that a visa will be granted.

The owner of a very large firm here in Cebu city was denied a tourist visa to take his wife and three children to Disneyland for only 2 weeks, why? Because he had 5 million U.S dollars in his Philippine bank account, the consul told him that he was going to go to the states and stay with the money! Now this man has a business in Cebu that caters to American clients this is why he has all the U.S dollars, his business has many employees and he has been in business for many years, he owns a very beautiful home that is valued at 30 million pesos this is about $750,000.00 and he was still turned down.

Most of our clients apply for fiancée or spousal visas after being denied a tourist visa as this method is guaranteed for qualified applicants.

We recently had a client who had applied five times and was denied every time only because she did not properly answer the questions. With a little coaching her application was approved, they got the visa. Trust me this is not always the case but many of the applications say the wrong thing and are denied because of just plain dumb answers.

When you get to the interview the consul has already read you’re on line application and has made his decision. This is why many applicants tell us that the consul did not even look at my documents. The reason they do not look at your pile of documents proving your eligibility when you walk in for the interview is because your initial on line application was flawed and the consul has already made his decision.

In conclusion, let me say this if you want to try for a Tourist/Visitor visa get some professional help it can make all the difference.