What is the best way for a single young Chinese woman to get a tourist visa to the US?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, I returned from my long period of study in China, and aside from learning some Chinese and getting the change in perspective that travel to a new place always brings, I also managed to fall head over feet for a wonderful local girl. Unlike most of these types of relationships, I’m actually pretty serious about it; I’ve known her for a couple of years (though we’ve been dating for about 10 months) I’ve already been back to China once to see her again, I’ve met her family, and I’m happier than I’ve been in quite a while.

This summer, she is graduating from her college, and she wants to visit my hometown to get to know my family, and see if America is the kind of place that she could stand to live, assuming we are still together when we reach marrying age (I’m almost 23, she’s 21), and just have a little fun. She has absolutely no intention of staying in America past her visa, and I’m actually planning to eventually go over to China and work for some months later this year until I start Grad School.

Anyway, she just got her passport, and she is about to apply for a visa in Shanghai. I’ve heard that the interview is a really tough and arbitrary process, and I’ve gotten a lot of conflicting advice from different people about what she should tell them, if she should say she is going to see her boyfriend or if she should talk more about seeing Disneyland, or what. Her mother is also considering coming with her, and I don’t know if that helps or not.

Her family runs a pretty successful business, so they are not lacking for money, she has work waiting for her when she gets back, and I have enough to support them for the few weeks they are here. Can anyone give me some pointers about what she could tell them about why she is coming to the US, what documents I can send for her to present at the interview, and basically just help me get a tourist visa for someone (and maybe her mother) just intending to be a tourist?

Thanks!

2

Not gonna happen, bud. Unless you go for the fiancee visa…which also might not happen. Sorry to break it to you. You two should just get married, that makes things alot easier.

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What, even just to visit the U.S. as a tourist?

4

What makes you say that?

I don’t have first hand experience with the visa process, but I know at least a dozen Chinese mainlanders who Ive met and have been here doing tourist stuff. Probably ten or so i met while living in DC, and another few living in Ohio and NC, and i wasn’t looking out for them… So it seems possible (although looking back, i met a LOT more japanese and english, even other types of european tourists. Economics, maybe?)

5

Yeah, it is basically impossible.

They only give tourist visas to people who have extremely compelling reasons to return to China- like a spouse, children, a successful business, etc. Even then, it’s nowhere near a sure thing. A young unmarried college grad visiting her boyfriend (meaning, likely to get married) with her mother? There is basically no chance.

Seriously. I know MARRIED couples who have had to wait years for their spouse to join them in America.

Unless she can get into and pay for grad school in America, your only real option is to go back and marry her.

6

I would definitely not reveal the boyfriend part. Come up with some other compelling reason for her to come. I don’t know it that would be much better, but it sounds like it might give her more of a chance.

I must admit that every person I know who has a girlfriend/boyfriend abroad has wound up marrying them to get them over here. Granted, that’s only a handful of couples, at best, but still.

7

30 years of being an American, 10 years of living in China, 5 years of being married to a Chinese citizen. I have experience in this area, believe you me.

Yes, even to the visit the US as a tourist if you are coming from a place like China. Unless you have an immediate relative who is an American citizen.

8

Ok, chances are slim to none. What your girlfriend needs to do is demonstrate overwhelming documentation on why she is coming back to China. That’s not a typo.

The overwhelming job of the embassy is to not give out a visa to anyone with the slightest risk of staying in the US and becomming an illegal immigrant and burden on US taxpayers. A 21 year old single woman without a job or attending school in China would be considered very high risk. Nothing personal but that’s what the profile says.

Provide documentation that she has a job in China, is going to grad school in china, or any other overwhelming reason that would convince a jaded US civil servant that she is low risk of staying in the US. And she has maybe 2 minutes to do this. I had friends that were the jaded civil servants in the US consulate in Shanghai and they explained that these civil servants have very little flexibility or real decision making power.

Don’t mention the boyfriend angle as there is a fiance visa for that. and don’t go that route unless you’re getting married as she’ll probably never ever be able to get a visa again if she doesn’t get married.

I got to spend about 5 hours once in the visa section when the Shanghai US consulate was fucking with me about my daughters visa (there’s a pit thread somewhere on this from 7-8 years ago). American citizens are not normally allowed in the section for foreign nationals applying for US visas. I understand why it is what it is but the experience I had was frankly appalling.

It’s like visiting someone in prison or a bank teller in China. The US civil servant is elevated behind a glass partition and IIRC use a speaker.

I watched a guy who had been accepted to grad school somewhere in the US. The US civil servant asked him a gruff questions he didn’t quite catch, he was nervous as hell, and sorta stumbled on his first reply. In less than 2 minutes from the start, the civil servant simply said “sorry” shut the curtain on the interview and turned off the speaker. I watched him simply collapse as his entire future that he obviously worked harder than most of you could imagine was thrown in the toilet in a matter of seconds with absolutely no second chances. Once you are denied a visa, then it’s virtually impossible to get one later in the future.

I watched a lot of scenes like the above one unfold during those 5 hours while the US citizen consulate personnel were teaching me my own lesson. At least with me, a US citizen with a US citizen child, we all knew it was a charade and after being chastized suffiently, they would grant the pro forma visa I was there for. But, it was a very sobering lesson.

Best of luck. Explain to your girlfriend that she’s entering a lottery, and if she doesn’t win the prize that it is absolutely not personally directed at her. And if she gets denied, that America is a better country than what she sees at the consulate, and Americans are better people than the civil servants she will likely deal with.

9

Wow. I’ve been considering a trip to China and was kinda pissed off by the fact that American visas cost more than 3 times as much as visas for every other country, but that fact makes a whole lot more sense now. I’ll remember that poor student as I pay my 150 bucks.:frowning:

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Amazing, huh? For much of the world visiting America is simply not a possibility.

I’ve been told on good authority that the Cameroonian minister of finance- a top government official- was denied a tourist visa. There are whole countries where basically nobody gets a visa ever, no matter who they are. Our doors are pretty firmly shut to most of the people on this planet.

It’s my understanding (which may be wrong) that foreign service officials are personally accountable if someone they issue a visa to skips out, gets married or otherwise finds a way to stay in America.

Unmarried people are considered especially risky because if they get married in America there is no way to kick them out and they can begin to bring other family members in. My Chinese school sends visiting professors to America to teach for a semester, and they won’t even consider unmarried candidates because there is no way they will ever get a visa.

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Well, this is all pretty disheartening, but thank you for your replies. I’ve read this message board pretty much every day I’ve had internet since my join date, and although I largely stopped posting when it went to pay (all for the best; I read those old posts and cringe) it’s always nice to know I have this little community when I need it.

I wonder if she could join a tour group for the flight over. I guess she needs to pay them a deposit, but it’s China, so I’m sure I can work something out.

She can provide documents that she has money in China and a job there pretty easily, although since she does waimao (Import/Export) her personal income is still almost all commission. So I guess she should just emphasize the tourist part, and not say she knows anyone. My family is Mexican, so I have experience with people dealing with the US embassy, but this seems to be even more difficult. People have told me to say she knows my sister, as this is considered more safe. I also got advice to write a letter to my congresswoman asking for, well, a letter of recommendation, I suppose. hmmm

So, I guess the plan is for her to go to the interview, not mention she knows anyone in America, show she has a good job waiting for her and money in the bank to pay for the trip a few times over, say that her and her mother want to see some tourist sites for a reason TBD, that they have the airplane tickets bought to go and come back, and show reservations for hotels along the way. How about that? Should she speak Chinese? Her mother can’t speak English, unfortunately.
Tanaqui, apply for the best visa you can. Sometimes they are nice; right now I have a Year Multi-Entry, and they all cost the same.

12

even sven, I have also heard that. My girlfriend’s uncle is a professor in Holland and he eventually had to take Dutch citizenship so that he could actually go to conferences in the US that weren’t scheduled more than ten years in advance.

Hmm, I wonder if he could help? He might even actually be near my hometown in those weeks because of his research. “I’m going to California to visit my Dutch uncle.” Sounds pretty good wouldn’t you say?

13

Aside from all the difficulties mentioned that may be specific to China (as well as numerous other countries), it is important to understand that a tourist visa implies no intention of staying in the country. I know you said that under no circumstances would she stay longer than the visa allowed but even the slightest suspicion that she is there to see “if it is the kind of place she’s like to live” would be an immediate denial. Even if you provided a mountain of evidence of ties to bring her back to China you would need to be careful not to bring up this point.

An ex-colleague of mine was denied a visa to visit as a tourist, most probably because he was a single man admitting to visiting his ex-girlfriend. By far the most unfriendly experience for me was applying at the Cape Town consulate for a visa - it was as described above, with the little windows and speakers and for the most part unfriendly staff. My experiences with USCIS and ICE while actually in the country, while slow, have mostly been quite friendly in comparison.

14

quid pro quo. China charges Americans the same as what Americans charge chinese…

15

I would suggest showing an overwhelming mountain of evidence why her mother would come back to china. play up meeting her brother (girlfriends uncle), not speaking English. The dutiful confucian daughter is going to help Mom translate, get an American experience that will help with her job in China/the family business.

Check with tour agencies to see iwhat they say on the visa. Being part of a group is probably better.

16

Slightly OT, but I know a guy, a Chinese guy, who actually did get a US tourist visa (it’s not impossible, just ridiculously difficult) but ended up not being able to use it due to a death in the family and some other family issues. China Guy, I know you’re not a diplomat, but what’s your opinion on him being able to get another in the future? Would it work in his favor that he was approved before or would it be a black mark against him in that he let it expire without using it?

17

My experience was pre-9/11/2001, so the pessimistic answers posted by others may be much more correct than mine. But the ties to China she can demonstrate should have been enough in the 1990’s. Consider hiring a lawyer who might know the ropes.

Our experience was frustrating. For a fiancee/marriage visa the spouse has to commit to permanent residence and demonstrate no reason to leave U.S., but visitor’s visa is just the opposite! No middle-ground for people like us, who wanted to be able to migrate freely back and forth. (My wife eventually got a provisional permanent green card which she then had to surrender to get a visitor’s visa. :smack: :frowning: … long story for another thread, in another, angrier forum.)

18

Reconsidering… My wife was Thai and Thailand is a “close U.S. ally”. Perhaps visas from China, “the strategic enemy,” are indeed much harder. (Sorry for blowing smoke out of my arse! :eek: )

By the way, I had an American friend in the 1980’s whose white-skinned foreign wife had forfeited her green card. They then met in Canada and rowed across the border somewhere! Once in the U.S. a foreign visitor would almost never be asked for papers in the 1990’s, but I don’t know about post-2001 Amerika.

19

I feel confident in saying that in 2010 America (that is, IN America, not at the airport or border or whatever) you would almost never be asked for papers of any kind (a DL or ID maybe in certain specific circumstances) if you were white. But if you’re Black, Asian, or Hispanic? Well…

ETA: and, for the record, I think that sucks. Don’t get me wrong.

20

This is disheartening to me even as one who doesn’t have a personal interest. Considering snips of what I’ve read in this thread–“not gonna happen, Butd”–“doors firmly closed” – "chances likely better with a tourist group (no doubt under a close watch, just like when when we visit China and other countries of whose political system we so strongly disapproved). What is this, the Hermit Empire?