visa for Mother-in-law

[djain]

Hi,

My husband (Indian citizen with US green card) and I (American) want to bring my mother-in-law here for a visit (and hopefully she'll like it here enough to stay with us permanently, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it). We've heard that in her case it might be very difficult for her to get a visa though. She is a widow, and she has three married daughters and one son (my husband). Can anyone offer some tips/advice to us?

We plan on sponsoring her--we have a decent income, some money in savings, etc. My husband keeps putting it off though because he's so nervous that she'll be rejected. Please let me know what you guys think.

D. Jain

[peace]

I do not wish to dishearten you but wish to give you the true picture.
There is an overwhelming rush of visitor visa applicants in India, the interview process is not entirely rational, and there are preset situations that carry
a great likelihood for denial. .

Widows with no single children in India and only children/sons in US have a
very thin chance. They presume a widow in such a case would like to live
with her only son in US and will not return.She will really have to prove
by way of strong occupational ties (business, job, community position)
to India that she will return. Even then , it is going to be hard.

If your husband will become a citizen soon, he should wait for that and then apply for her immigrant visa right away. If there is still time before citizenship,
she can give it a try.

[djain]

Oh no...that is a bit disheartening. I guess it's worth a try though. My husband will get citizenship in probably about 2-3 years. So from what you've heard, it's easier to bring someone here as an immigrant rather than on a visa? We're both very concerned about the new immigration bill being discussed in Congress that might possibly make it much harder to do "family reunification," which is bad news for people like us who want to bring a parent here. I really hate to tell Mummy that she might have to wait such a long time, ugh...but like you said, it's worth a try I suppose.

[peace]

Yes, the new bill could be bad news but some say it will not pass in its present form. Hope it does not.

by the way, what is your MIL's education, what does she do in India,
and does she have any income of her own?

[djain]

Mummy has a bachelors degree in literature, but she was always a housewife. Now she lives near one of my didis and helps take care of her kids, but other than that she does not have a job. Oh, and she has some small income that my father-in-law left when he died, but it's not huge.

She is very devout Jain and visits the temple almost every day. I wonder if that could be one thing that she could say in the interview to prove that she'd be planning to go back to India--because here there are no Jain temples in this part of the country (sw VA). My husband thinks the interviewer won't care about that though.

[peace]

If she can still work, she could quailfy for an H-1b visa since she has a bachelor's in literature. For an H-1b , you do not have to prove an intent to return. And she could be in US for 6 years.

IN practice, there are 2 challenges with an H-1b, finding a job offer and meeting the yearly quota. If you know people in the local Indian community,
they could make use of her literary knowledge for their community center
and file an H-1 for her. Yearly cap can be met by applying early and anyway
they plan to increase the H-1b quotas.

If this is not possible and she will go for a B1/B2; get her to document a
responsible position in the local jain temple organization ; that might work.

[djain]

Thanks for those tips! I'll tell my husband and see what to do next. I appreciate your help!