HappyExPat:

While many do think that it is "good business" for US Embassies to deny visas so they can make further profits with multiple tries, the truth is really one in which the fault really lies with the petitioner, not the grantee. How many bother to read the rules and procedures required to request a visa prior to embarking on that task? I just helped a very dear friend petition and obtain a 10 year non immigrant tourist visa to the USA at the US Consulate in Guangzhou. First thing I did was to access their website, and read carefully the whole process. I found that you do not go to the Consulate to request a visa, there is an approved visa agency that will provide and receive all paperwork required. The application is available on line, and once filled, it is submitted electronically. You must write all answers in English, except only where you are asked to write your name in your native language characters. You are given 20 minutes to fill the petition, if not done when time is over, you must start again. Of course you must have supporting documents, like bank statements, car ownership papers, real estate ownership papers, invitation letter, etc. And if not in English, notarized translations attached to each document. And, it goes without saying, pay the fee for the visa. Once all your documentation is reviewed, you will receive a notification from the Consulate with an appointment for the interview. Now, the interview IS NOT for you to submit documents, but for the Consulate Official interviewing you to clarify any doubts in his/her mind about you intending a one way trip, or a round trip. If the Official has no doubts, maybe will ask one or two questions, request the passport, and grant you the visa. If there are any doubts, he/she will ask appropiate questions, even request supporting specific documentation, but will not allow you to submit anything at your will. In the case I helped, she had her passport with visits to other foreign countries, like Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Macau. Bank statements showing a balance of over 180,000 kuai in her name for over 6 months; full ownership of one apartment, and papers showing a 50 % downpayment and a mortage on another, plus a car registration papers. All in Mandarin with notarized English translations for each. And of course, a letter of invitation from me. Attached to her application, a letter from her clearly stating some facts about her life. She is divorced, has a daughter in Middle School who lives with her, and owns a store selling health care products. When she went for her interview, she was asked no questions, just for her passport so her visa could be attached. She was less than 10 minutes inside the Consulate. My advise to all requesting visas to the US is to find out and follow the rules of the procedure. If you do not, the message you will be sending is that by not following the rules while requesting the visa, you may not also follow the rule that you must return, thus you visa request will be rejacted.

Hotwater:

@ Happyexpat. That's a superb answer! Can I suggest you post it as a separate reply so it is clear for all to see?

I've done exactly what you stated a number of times now for my wife to get UK & Schengen visas (we weren't married when she got her first UK visa). The best advice to everyone, as you say, is to go onto the website, READ thoroughly he guidelines & instructions for applying for visa and if in doubt, give them MORE information than they ask for in support of the application. I even created my own lists of what was required & ticked off each item as we'd completed it. 

WanderingTeacher:

@HappyExPat

I don't agree with you on this one. I don't think the majority of these people are not following the rules. I think there's something else going on. Because first of all, I filled out the application online for my friend, because it would've been faster for me to do so than for him. I followed all the steps, paid the fee, made the appoint, etc. Also i don't know what 20 minute time limit you're talking about, because on the ceac.state.gov when you first begin the application, it tells you the estimate completion time for the application is 75 minutes and advises you on how to save the application and return to it later if necessary. So i don't know what you're talking about.

Anyways, He got all the documents, included statements for 2 separate bank accounts, with more than 5,000,000rmb in each account, certificates of government bonds that his wife has purchased, also in excess of 5,000,000rmb, and all properties he owns, etc. They didn't look at ANY of these documents. I think his only fault is that he hasn't traveled to other countries, in case of your friend, however, that's not a general rule, because again, my fiance had never traveled to another country before and got a 10 year US tourist visa last october. He's 32 and unmarried, so how can a relatively young person, who has less money than my business partner, and less social and economical ties to China that would compel him to return to China, be granted a visa, and not my rich 41 year old married friend who owns multiple businesses and properties in China????? It doesn't make any sense at all. No mistake was made on his application. The only thing that we didn't do, which we should have done, is said we had a planned itinerary for his first trip. We said we didn't because the truth of the matter is that we didn't. And on the consulate website, it states that you are not required to have an itinerary or specific travel plan to obtain a visa. This time I got him an itinerary, flight and hotel confirmations, and I wrote an invitation letter to him and an invitation letter addressed to the embassy, and filled out a I-134 Affidavit of Support Form, to sponsor his application. We'll see what happens next week at the interview. This time if they don't give him the visa, I swear to God, you guys will see me on CCTV "American goes ape-shit at American Embassy in Beijing"

Both of you keep talking about having good documents and preparing more documents to prove your case, but you both keep missing the point. THEY DON'T LOOK AT THE DOCUMENTS!!! Maybe the embassy in Guangzhou works differently than the one of Beijing or other cities. But seriously, they don't look at your documents at all. You said your friend was inside for 10 minutes? The whole process in Beijing took almost 3 hours. It took him 30 minuties to get inside the first building, another 30minute to get through the coutyard between the first and second building, and then he was inside for almost 2 hours, but the interview only lasted a minute. So again, I'm assuming either you didn't do this process with your friend recently, or the embassies work and operate differently in different cities.

My business partner was inside the interview part of the building for over 2 hours and was watching what happened to everyone. and again, within those 2 hours, he only saw 2 people that were asked for a document, the student, and the business man who said he had been invited to America. Everyone else was either approved or denied, mostly denied, based on the 1 minute interview, and the officer never looking at ANY of their documents. AND THEN on top of that, when they deny you, they don't give you an actual real reason as for why you were denied. They give everyone the same Section 214(b) denial paper. Which is very vague, stating: 

As each person's situation is different, there is no single reason that explains all refusals.  The most common reason for being refused is that the officer decided, based on your interview, that your social, family, economic or other ties to China are not strong enough to overcome the presumption of immigrant intent and qualify for a visa. 

"Ties" are the various aspects of life that bind you to China , such as family relationships, employment commitments, possessions and other factors.

Another common reason for a refusal is that during the interview, you did not demonstrate to the officer's satisfaction that you meet the qualifications for the visa category, or that your planned activities in the U.S. are allowed by that category."

How can they make that decision, without looking at the documents, which proves social and economical ties? Then they say that the reason can also be because you applied for the wrong visa? So which one is it? You didn't prove your ties, or you applied for the wrong visa or your are not qualified for that category???? And the reason is important for you to know, because if you reapply, you have to tell them why you were denied the first time and prove that you rectified that default or that your circumstances have changed enough to warrant your reapplication. So again, if you don't know the reason you were denied, then how can you reapply?
 

I don't know about all the other Chinese people and what the they did or did not do, but I doubt they were denied because they did not read the information

dongbeiren:

It is true that they often do not look at the documents - this happened to my fiancee (at the time) when she first applied for a tourist visa. We painstakingly prepared documents and the consular officer refused to look at them, instead rejecting her after a 1 minute interview. 4,000 U.S. dollars for an immigration lawyer later and another 600 rmb for interview coachingand she was granted her tourist visa. Funny part is, I don't even know if the consulate looked at the document from the lawyer. He did send it to the consulate and she had a copy but they didn't ask to see it. So maybe that was 4,000 bucks was thrown away. Actually I'm pretty sure it was anyway as that lawyer was a useless SOB whose letter had enough grammar mistakes to make it look like my non-native English speaking fiancee had written it herself. Good thing I edited it. But the result was positive, she's been back a second time, we just got married and we're going back again this summer.

WanderingTeacher:

Congrats Dongbeirenn!!! Yeah I don't understand these lawyers and interview coaching things. Honestly it feels like to me it just depends on the mood of the officer you get that day. But  I swear to god I will go ape shit if they don't grant his visa next week, I mean ABSOLUTELY ape shit. I will exercise my right to protest and assembly right there in the embassy, considering it's "American Soil". Obama will have to come and personally remove me from the building. I'm sure all the other Chinese people will join in, my business partner said people were throwing shoes at the consular officer's windows when they got denied.

Where did you two get married? Have any plans to move to the states or will you stay in China long term. I just got engaged recently. We will get married around August 3rd in Europe.

dongbeiren:

Thanks man! We recently registered to marry here in China and we're planning to have a wedding in her hometown in July. My parents will attend the ceremony and then we're all flying back to the states together and bringing her mom. I don't see us staying in China for more than a couple more years - I've been putting off grad school and I really need to get on that before I turn 30 :). But for now, we're in a good situation job wise  and as long as it stays that way I'm not rushing out the door either. 

Congrats on getting engaged! I thought I remembered you saying you were gay (maybe it was a different account, if so my bad). I'm really curious if you're having a same sex wedding and if so, how that will work when you return to China. I can't imagine China would recognize a same sex couple, in fact one of my good friends is planning on moving to the states so he can marry his Chinese boyfriend. If I remembered wrong, please ignore my question haha. 

WanderingTeacher:

Hahaha yes, I am gay. And it doesn't matter if China recognizes the marriage or not. We are going to Denmark in August and will have our wedding there. The American government only requires that your marriage be legal in the country in which is was performed. So technically we could go to any country that recognizes same sex marriage, including America, and get married. But since he already has a tourist visa, going to the States on a tourist visa, with the intention of getting married, is technically illegal, because you should get a fiance visa instead, so we didn't wanna do that, too much work and too many lies we would both have to keep up with, so we just choose Europe. Denmark makes it super easy to get married, and it's not expensive. So yeah Denmark will issue us a marriage license, and then once we return we will start the immigration process with the embassy in Guangzhou. Then once in America we will have the real wedding ceremony so our my friends and family and his friends and possibly, but highly doubtful, his parents can attend.

I would advise your friend to do something similar. Because if he plans on ever having his Chinese boyfriend immigrate to America, they are going to ask both of them how and when they met. So if they tell the truth that they met him China, and got married in America, they will ask the Chinese boyfriend if he came to America on a tourist visa and if he says yes, and they will already know this answer, then he's committed visa fraud and he can kiss his green card goodbye. You can only get married on a tourist visa, if you just so happened to have met your now spouse, while you were in the states traveling and decide to get married before you left. So they need to make another plan, or get ready to make up a good believable story and repeat it to themselves over and over again so it sounds like the truth. If I were him, I wouldn't risk anything. A quick and easy marriage in another country is perfectly acceptable for the embassy to do the immigration.