I ask this question because I wonder, if it is relatively easy, why those Mexicans who go through so much cost and effort to enter the US illegally don’t simply get tourist visas and then once they are in the US just not go back.
The United States doesn’t make it easy at all for Latin Americans to get tourist visas, basically because Washington is concerned that Latin Americans will overstay their visas and work, both of which you can’t do on a tourist visa.
I think you’ve answered your own question. It is extremely difficult for people from most countries- outside a few highly developed countries that we have agreements with- to get tourist visas to visit America.
In most cases, someone from a developing country would be expected to prove that they have enough ties to their home country that they would be unlikely not to return. This means they need to show proof of stuff like owning large amounts of property,lots of money in domestic bank accounts, running a business or having a high position, leaving behind a solid family, having show proof of previous international travel, etc. The people who decide whether or not to grant a visas are very educated and highly trained people who are on to pretty much any trick you can think up to get past them.
So yeah, your average guy is not going to have much of a chance at all of getting a tourist visa. We are in that sense one of the more closed countries in the world.
The process of getting a Visa to visit the United States is one I would not wish on my worst enemy.
Says alot for the United States that people are still willing to try.
Having met one in the flesh, I can attest that some consular officials may also have deep psychological issues. Something along the lines of “I knew they were trying to take advantage of me because they thought that I was the weak, meek girl in the visa section… I showed them”
Yeah…It was an ugly incident involving legos and a ferris wheel.
My Mexican, property-owning, non-criminal, good-credit-having, medical-professional wife (at the time she wasn’t my wife) was unable to get a tourist visa twice. This was pre-9/11. Her parents had had lifetime visas (although the government invalidated all lifetime visas for renewable 10-year visas).
I’m wondering now how hard it is for a Mexican to get a Canadian visa. As of this week with only 48 hours notice, the government of Canada suddenly decided that all Mexicans would need a Canadian visa should they want to enter Canada – 48 hours notice! We have a Mexican friend coming up next week to visit us in Michigan. In a way I’m glad of the new rule, because I don’t want to have to go to Niagara Falls yet again (automatic stop for Mexicans, it seems).
I’ve never quite been able to figure out how it works for day trips. I’ve seen plenty of cars with Chihuahuan plates in southern New Mexico and west Texas over the years, presumably mostly coming from the Juarez area. Being an American citizen with little wish to go to Juarez (and this was back when it was still safe to do so), the question never came up other than to bring a book to read during the wait to make it back across the river.
So, if I can extend the question, how do you get into the US for the day to visit relatives and go shopping in El Paso?
About 15 years ago my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and a brain tumor. Her father owned a small farm in Mexico. My father and the local Congressman, Gary Condit, had several mutual business acquaintances. My father met with Condit and my grandfather got a visa a very short time later.