B1/B2 Visa Refused London

[Patk]

Hi all. I am Venezuelan with permanent UK residence on the basis of my marriage to a UK citizen. Also I have a 8-year old from a previous relationship. I applied recently for my son and I for B1/B2 visas, and got rejected. As for myself, it was my first time applying, although I went to the US when I was my son's age (27 years ago). As for my son, it was his second time; the first time he lived with my mother in our home country and she was his guardian and because she had a visa herself, she thought she could apply for one for him, but got rejected. It's really a rather long story, and the only reason I mention some of it is to give you perhaps some background on our circumstances, which may or may have not affected our visa applications. So I'm just going to skip it to the application from UK, which is where we live now- me for 5 years and my son for 6 months. I went to the Embassy in London, and the interview went like this:

VO: good morning
Me: good morning sir
VO: what is the reason of your visit?
Me: to visit my sister and see the parks
VO: Disney?
Me: we were thinking more Universal in Orlando
VO: ok, so you want to visit your sister or go to the parks?
Me: well, both
VO: (looking on the screen) I see here you work as a cleaner?
Me: yes sir, for the local council
VO: how much do you earn?
Me: 800 a month
VO: 800 pounds a month?
Me: yes
VO: is your husband a British citizen?
Me: yes sir
VO: what does he do?
Me: he has 2 jobs
VO: what are they:
Me: he works at xxx as a customer service assistant and at...
VO: how much does he earn?
Me: I'd say about same as me
VO: 800 pounds?
Me: yes
VO (handing me passports): sorry, but you are not elegible, I can't give you a visa today
Me (paralysed from the shock): thanks.

Like that. Didn't give me a reason for the refusal, I didn't ask for it either. I feel scammed, angry, sad. All I wanted was to go with my husband, who by the way had applied for and been authorised an ESTA (few days before my appointment) and my kid to visit my sister (she and her husband and kid applied for asylum about 6 months ago and are awaiting for their appointments).

A lot of possible reasons keep popping in my head: is it cause of my sister's status? But I HAD to mention her in the DS-160, right? I didn't tell a single lie, that's how I have always conducted myself on immigration matters. Is it cause I mentioned her as our reason to visit? But if I hadn't mentioned her, wouldn't it have seemed suspicious? My mother says I should just have mentioned the parks. I don't know. Or was it cause of my salary? I have a part time, so I don't earn a lot. The VO seemed very focused on that, maybe I'm wrong. Yet didn't ask if we owned a property or rented (we own) Is it my son's previous application? My mother was his guardian at the time, she already had a visa and just wanted to take him to visit. Is it cause he has been in the UK 6 months? But he's going to school and I have a letter from them confirming it, which the VO didn't ask to see. He didn't ask me to see anything, and I took everything to the interview.

Can anyone please tell me your thoughts?

Sorry for the length, I needed to vent my frustration and maybe get some insight and answers as to why our applications were rejected. My family and I are heartbroken as we were planning to meet there.

Thanks for reading me.

[daggit]

Sister's asylum sounds like a huge red flag. As a Venezuelan, you too could've been viewed as an asylum risk by the VO.
They were obviously not convinced of the strength of your ties to the UK.

[rcmax]

To me it looks like your lower earning and a son to support on it is the main reason, VO could have viewed you as a potential economic migrant. You have permanent residence in UK so the likelihood of seeking asylum in US is zero. Your sister's status probably did not play a role IMO. if you were from some dangerous war torn country VO could have viewed you from the asylum angle.