Woohoo -Parents got visa in 2nd attempt at chennai consulte(telugu)

[priya55]

My parents got visa at chennai consulate on June 9th(telugu). This is their 2nd attempt. Their visa got visa rejected on Jan 05 2006. The only questions asked last time was
1. where are you going?
Father: To visit our younger daughter and for tourism
2. Is your son staying with you?
Father: No. we have another daughter, she got married and staying in India.

That's it visa was denied.
I took the appointment Immediately after 3 days and got for June 9th. Since Jan 5th 2006 I am reading Immihelp daily(first thing I do after coming to work is opening these 2 sites and reading discussion form and Visitor visa do' and don'ts) collecting questions and looking how the trend is.

I wrote 2 page letter to consulate highlighing the family ties my parents has in INDIA and asked my parents to keep that letter on top of Sposor documents. I also got letter from my local sentor. Don't which one worked.

Questions asked:

1. Where are you going?
Father: TO visit my daughter
2. How much land do you own?
Father: XX acres
3. what is your annual income?
Father: XX
4. Show me your bank pass book?
Father: Father said we don't have bank account
5. Show me your ration card?
Father:we have ration card but we didn't bring
( I read in this forum that they are asking ration card but i explicitly told my parents not to take because my parents told that my grand parents are staying with them but actually they are staying in village and so my parents ration card didn't include my grand parents names so to avoid risk told them not to take)
6. They asked to show sponsor douments.
(I think they asked the following questions after reading my letter to Consulate i got the sample letter from this forum from Kashyap 4 months back)
7. Do you stay in your own home?
Father: no we stay in Rented house. We have our own house in Village.
8. Who will take of your parents while you are gone?
Father: My parents will stay in my sisters house
9. Where does your other daughter stay?
Fatehr: She stays in HYd (mom said we have grand daughter too).

Thats it Vo officer asked my father to pay the fees. No questions were asked to my mom.

- While my parents are waiting for the Interview one American Officer explained the entire process itseems. He told to answer only what was asked and also told if sponsor documents were asked give only sponser documents ( I told my parents to give the entire bunch if asked for any doucments but after listening to him they separated into 2 sets and when asked they gave only sponser docs they didn't asked for my parents docs)

- They were like 9 people in front of my parents,out of 9 they gave visa for 8 which is really good to hear. Hope this trend continue.

- I didn't include my newborn details in I-134 so i was really tensed but VO officer didn't asked anything abt me. To avoid risk I thought of Including my daughters detail but didn't have time to send. One suggestion if you have question whether to include or not while sending sponsor docs send 2 copies of I-134 one with child details and other without then you can decide till the day before of interview which form to include.

I thank Sree_abc,Murali,Dahlia for answering my queries.

Thanks,
Priya

[SuCo]

Can you post your letter to the consulate regarding ties in india... Congratulations to your parents for the visa!!!

Thanks,
S

[rcmax]

Congrats Priya. I'll appreciate if you can answer the following questions:

(1) Did the senator's office send their letter directly to Chennai consulate or
they sent it to you?

(2) How many days before the interview did you contact the senator's office?

[priya55]

Hi rcmax,

I contacted senators office in April first week. when you call to Senators office you can tell when you are planning to send the documents to India . According to that they will send letter 10 days before you are planning to send.

They asked me 2 options -
1. Either to fax letter to consulate to reconsider the application(since its been rejected)
2. or send a letter of support

1 st option is to reconsider the rejected application(when our parents haven't planned to reapplied again) which i believe is not much helpful.
when i told my parents are reappearing in June then she said she will send letter of support.

Priya

[priya55]

Hi Suco,

This is the sample letter i started with and modified to accordingly.

Date:
From:



To:
The American Consulate General,
Chennai, India.


Sir/Madam,

Subject: Request for grant of a US visitor visa to my mother.

Paragraph 1 - My introduction with my address and where I work and that I would like to invite my mom to visit me here.

Paragraph 2 - Occupation of both of us and that we get only 3 weeks to visit our parents every 2 years and we would like to spend more time with them. Also mentioned that we had my parents-in-law visit us 3 years ago for the same reason.

Paragraph 3 - My mom had applied for visa in Oct, which was rejected... We wanted her to come in December so that we could show her all the Christmas decorations, and New Year. We also wanted her to see the snow and the snow covered gorgeous mountains....

Paragraph 4 - list the strong reasons why my mother will return to India before the visa expires
1. My father is staying back in India because he has to take care of their property (papers attached - mention the place and nature of property)
2. They have their own place to stay (if they do) (house/apt etc) (papers attached)
3. Their bank statements (papers enclosed)
4. Family ties (brothers, sisters, friends, social clubs etc) proving that they have great life back in India and they have no intentions of giving up that life to come here and settle down.

Paragraph 5 - listed the places we took my in-laws to and mentioned that they were very happy to see all that and we want my mom to experience the same things. We listed their passport #s & visa #s and mentioned that they returned well before their 6 months stay period.

Paragraph 6 - assuring that I'll take care of all her expenses including airfare, insurance, boarding & lodging while she is here, etc.


Enclosures:
Notarized Affidavit of Support, Form I-134.
Letter of employment form.
Copies of my Bank Account verification letter and Bank statements.
Copies of last two salary statements.
Copy of W2 statement for 2005.
Copy of my US permanent resident card.
Copy of my passport.
Copy of my birth certificate.
Copies of property papers in India.
Copies of my mothers¡¦ bank statements

[rcmax]

Hi Priya,
thanks for your quick response. So the senator's office sent a letter of support directly to the Chennai consulate in your case. Did they send you also a copy of that letter?

[swetharao]

Congrats Priya!

[SuCo]

Thanks Priya!!!

[priya55]

When i called to senator officer they asked me to fax details regarding my parents ties, date of appointment, dob, name and age etc.

I faxed Property affidavit and cover letter mentioning all teh details and within a week they MAILED ME the supporting letter. They didn't mailed any letter to consulate.

Priya

[rcmax]

Interesting. That means the parents are supposed to show the letter to the Visa Officer at time of the interview and it is very well possible they may not be able to becoz they brief the applicants to show only those documents that are asked for. Probably they may have to give it to VO as soon as they go the window.

[msr]

Which senator office was it Priya?

[rcmax]

MSR
you should contact your local state senator's offiice. You will find their contact information on the web.

[priya55]

I stay in MI, searched in google for senators in MI and found one senators website. In senators website there is an option for Immigration issues and in that i entered my house address and the issue (that my parents visa got rejected in so and so date i need help...) within a week i got letter from senators office in washington. in that they specified to contact xxx person in local office.

[msr]

Thanks Priya!

[VisaChief001]

Senator's letter has no role in determining the decision to issue the visa by the Consular Officer.