Possibility of bringing friend from India to USA

[trudi]

While on family vacations in India my son (16yrs old) become friends
with a young man from Andhra Pradesh who is a Sumo Driver.
The young man and my son write and call eachother and
have maintained a friendship for almost a year. My son would
like to bring his friend to America for a visit. I told him I would look
into it but I thought his prospects of getting a visa are near impossible.
He is young -- 22 and only educated to the 10th standard. He lives at home with his parents-- faher seems to have a good job. We are willing
to sponsor him -- pay for his airplane ticket and his expenses while visiting.
He has no family here -- would be coming to America purely because of
the friendship with our family, and we are not Indian, nor do we have any indian relatives. Is there anything we can do to help him get a visa or is this an impossible dream?

Thanks for any help you can give us.

[peace]

A visitor visa requires a non-immigrant intent. So, getting him one would be impossible for the simple reason that he is young, single( I assume), not educated and not rich. He would be very suspect by the interviewing officer not to return to India if he is given a visitor visa.

On the other hand, getting an immigrant visa may be possible for him under the employment category EB-3, if he is willing to migrate permanently and if you are willing to help him through the process.

While on family vacations in India my son (16yrs old) become friends
with a young man from Andhra Pradesh who is a Sumo Driver.
The young man and my son write and call eachother and
have maintained a friendship for almost a year. My son would
like to bring his friend to America for a visit. I told him I would look
into it but I thought his prospects of getting a visa are near impossible.
He is young -- 22 and only educated to the 10th standard. He lives at home with his parents-- faher seems to have a good job. We are willing
to sponsor him -- pay for his airplane ticket and his expenses while visiting.
He has no family here -- would be coming to America purely because of
the friendship with our family, and we are not Indian, nor do we have any indian relatives. Is there anything we can do to help him get a visa or is this an impossible dream?

Thanks for any help you can give us.

[trudi]

RE: helping indian friend come to usa

A visitor visa requires a non-immigrant intent. So, getting him one would be impossible for the simple reason that he is young, single( I assume), not educated and not rich. He would be very suspect by the interviewing officer not to return to India if he is given a visitor visa.

On the other hand, getting an immigrant visa may be possible for him under the employment category EB-3, if he is willing to migrate permanently and if you are willing to help him through the process.

Thank you so much for your reply. I am completely new to any of this.
This is very disappointing for my son and his friend as to them it seemed a relatively simple desire -- to bring a friend over for a visit. It was a simple procedure for us to get a visa to visit India so they assumed the same for him to visit us. I had heard about the diffiulties somewhat so had told them not to get their hopes up.

In regards to our friend migrating for employment, I 'm sure he would be interested but I thought that would be an even bigger impossibility seeing there is not much of a need for Sumo Drivers here and I assumed the only ones getting employment visas would be Doctors, nurses, engineers and other degree holders. But as I said this is all completely new to me.
What exactly is and employment category EB-3 visa. How would I be able to help him at all with this process?

Thank you for your help.

[peace]

Yes, I understand your point of view. It is a simple process for US citizens to visit India, but the other way round, it is not that simple. Because too many people visiting US do not return home ,so the main concern of the officers is to deny visitor visa to any applicant that fits the profile of a potential immigrant.(young, single, poor, uneducated and going for a casual visit)

Immigrant visa requires effort, money and wait.
EB3 (employment based 3) is a category for permanent visas that also includes
"OTHER WORKERS", which need not have a degree and can work in a profession that requires less than 2 years experience.
He may not work as a driver but can work in other occupations of demand
e.g. in construction or in food business( eg.helpers in restaurants), if he
can get a few months' experience in INdia in one of those categories(get a complete list of such unskilled shortage occupations from a good immigration attorney).

The things to consider with this type of visas are;
1. An employer has to file a permanent visa petition for him. If you or someone you know can employ him in the occupation chosen,you can also file a petition for him. Or you will have to look for an employer for him.
2. You will need a good immigration attorney to manage the petition which will cost
some money.
3. After the approval of the petition(which is fast), there is a long wait for the visa (about 6 years for Indian citizens)

So, this visa requires motivation, planning, effort and money and the reason I suggested this was because the person is young . EVen if he gets the visa
6 years later, it will still be worth it.

Another option: A very fast way for you to bring him to US is to find him a US citizen spouse (if he believes in arranged marriage).

Thank you so much for your reply. I am completely new to any of this.
This is very disappointing for my son and his friend as to them it seemed a relatively simple desire -- to bring a friend over for a visit. It was a simple procedure for us to get a visa to visit India so they assumed the same for him to visit us. I had heard about the diffiulties somewhat so had told them not to get their hopes up.

In regards to our friend migrating for employment, I 'm sure he would be interested but I thought that would be an even bigger impossibility seeing there is not much of a need for Sumo Drivers here and I assumed the only ones getting employment visas would be Doctors, nurses, engineers and other degree holders. But as I said this is all completely new to me.
What exactly is and employment category EB-3 visa. How would I be able to help him at all with this process?

Thank you for your help.

[trudi]

bringing friend from USA to India

Yes, I understand your point of view. It is a simple process for US citizens to visit India, but the other way round, it is not that simple. Because too many people visiting US do not return home ,so the main concern of the officers is to deny visitor visa to any applicant that fits the profile of a potential immigrant.(young, single, poor, uneducated and going for a casual visit)

Immigrant visa requires effort, money and wait.
EB3 (employment based 3) is a category for permanent visas that also includes
"OTHER WORKERS", which need not have a degree and can work in a profession that requires less than 2 years experience.
He may not work as a driver but can work in other occupations of demand
e.g. in construction or in food business( eg.helpers in restaurants), if he
can get a few months' experience in INdia in one of those categories(get a complete list of such unskilled shortage occupations from a good immigration attorney).

The things to consider with this type of visas are;
1. An employer has to file a permanent visa petition for him. If you or someone you know can employ him in the occupation chosen,you can also file a petition for him. Or you will have to look for an employer for him.
2. You will need a good immigration attorney to manage the petition which will cost
some money.
3. After the approval of the petition(which is fast), there is a long wait for the visa (about 6 years for Indian citizens)

So, this visa requires motivation, planning, effort and money and the reason I suggested this was because the person is young . EVen if he gets the visa
6 years later, it will still be worth it.

Another option: A very fast way for you to bring him to US is to find him a US citizen spouse (if he believes in arranged marriage).

Wow, that is complicated.
The thing I'm having a hard time understanding is how I would ever find an employer that would be willing to wait 6 years for an employee. I do have friends that have small family construction business that might be interested in hiring him -- but to know what their needs would be 6 years from now would be impossible. I don't understand how a petition for employment that would not happen for another 6 years would be granted -- It is all very confusing to me.

I'd like to help this young man -- he has become very special to my family but it looks like our ability to help him would be very limited. I wondered about helping him (financially) finish some schooling in India-- it seems to me that may improve his life even if he never comes to America. Is there also such a long wait time for visas for skilled workers? What are the possibilities of returning to school in India once you drop out in grade 10. Here in America there are programs to help get you a GED and people often go back to college and get degrees into their 20's and 30's -- some even older. Is that possible in India too?

I really appreciate all your help this has been quite a learning experience for us.

[peace]

Yes, Immigration laws are quite complex.And it is a system with many ambiguties, like an employer waiting 6 years for the employee to get the visa but that is how it works. Actually, the petition is technically approved in the US within a year's time , but after the approval , it is the limited quota of visas /per year that takes the wait to 6 years. Till a couple of years ago, it took half this time. Most skilled worker employment visas have the same wait.

A lot of the skilled workers are already working for a US employer on a temp
work visa like H-1, so the employer also files an immigrant petition for them and does not mind waiting 6 years for their perm. visa. In other cases,
some employers wait that period to help out and bring a friend to US.

I am sorry I do not know about programs for drop-outs in India but there must be some, one can research on the net or enquire locally.

Since you have a friend in the construction business, it is a great opportunity I think. It does not hurt to talk to him. Ask him if he is facing
any shortage of unskilled labor in any area of his construction business.
And then tell him about your friend in India. If he agrees to file, the next step is to talk to a good immigration attorney discussing with him how many
months' experience would be enough for your friend in India for the offered occupation in US to file for EB-3 (sub category;OTHER WORKERS ).
After your friend in India has that experience, your friend in the construction
business can file the Immigrant petition in US for him.

Wow, that is complicated.
The thing I'm having a hard time understanding is how I would ever find an employer that would be willing to wait 6 years for an employee. I do have friends that have small family construction business that might be interested in hiring him -- but to know what their needs would be 6 years from now would be impossible. I don't understand how a petition for employment that would not happen for another 6 years would be granted -- It is all very confusing to me.

I'd like to help this young man -- he has become very special to my family but it looks like our ability to help him would be very limited. I wondered about helping him (financially) finish some schooling in India-- it seems to me that may improve his life even if he never comes to America. Is there also such a long wait time for visas for skilled workers? What are the possibilities of returning to school in India once you drop out in grade 10. Here in America there are programs to help get you a GED and people often go back to college and get degrees into their 20's and 30's -- some even older. Is that possible in India too?

I really appreciate all your help this has been quite a learning experience for us.