Girlfriend's visa rejected; options?

[sbaxter]

I had posted here a couple of months ago concerning my girlfriend's visa application. Yesterday, she finally had her interview and her application was rejected -- summarily and arbitrarily, it seemed to me from this end.

Background: Sarah is not an Indian citizen; she is a Ugandan studying in India as a graduate student and should finish her degree by the end of this calendar year. She is living in New Delhi, but was told that, as a foreign national, she would have to go to Mumbai to apply, so she did. At her interview, the woman conducting same told her that she wasn't convinced she had enough "ties to India." This makes no sense; she would have to return to complete her degree, which is almost done. On top of that, she @#%$'t Indian, so her student visa will REQUIRE her to leave the country upon completetion of her degree. She attempted to explain this to the interviewer but was told, "I've made my decision and it is final."

Right or wrong, that is the situation, so we are trying to evaluate our options now. We know she can reapply within three days, but I have questions about that:

1. If she reapplies, will she have to do anything more than pay a new app fee and submit her own application form again? If everything must be submitted anew, it doesn't seem realistic -- there is no possible way I could gather all my support documents again and get them to her in less than 48 hours.

2. If she reapplies within the three-day limit, will she still have to wait the same amount of time for an interview as if she were applying the first time? It was about a month the first time, and if it takes that long again we'd have to alter our plans and try to have her travel after her education is finished. otherwise, she wouldn't be able to stay here more than a couple of weeks before she'd have to go back to finish her degree.

3. I suppose another option would be to have her finish her degree and attempt to find a job here and come over on an employment visa. She could, of course, apply later for a vistor's visa. And she could also simply finish her degree and return to Uganda and apply from there, but we have no idea how that would go. Opinions? By the way, the marriage visa is not an option as we have never met face-to-face.

4. If she reapplies now and is approved, how long can she wait to travel? If she waits until after her degree is finished, will it cause conflicts with her return under her student visa, or do those usually have a period of time she could remain in India before returning home to Uganda? I'm concerned that she would not be allowed to return to India if the timing @#%$'t right!

Any opinions are desperately needed and would be greatly appreciated.

SSB

[vjay]

girlfriend's visa rejected

Let me try to answer your questions. I am of course not an expert and so be cautious about all your steps.

1. I don't think you need to gather all the documents all over again if she is going to reapply shortly. However, generally people wait for atleast a month, and most of the time, quite a few months before reapplying. You are right. Besides new application fee and new application, nothing new is needed if she is going to reapply soon. If it gets older by 3 or 4 months, I recommend you send her new documents.

2. Yes, she will have to wait and be in line once again. The interview dates may not be available for another month. However, because the winter season is approaching, the number of applicants might have reduced and the wait may not be that long. I have noticed that online interview dates are much father away than what she can get by going to the consulate personally. It seems that the best option for you will be to have her finish the studies and then reapply. That way few months would have passed, and the application would have new basis of reasons and future plans for the interview.

3. Applying for an employment in the US from a foreign country is quite difficult, may be impossible. I think it would be better to have her apply for visitor's visa from her own country, Uganda.

4. She can travel the very next day after she gets the visa. Ofcourse, the visa approval on her passport will provide the date range within which she should travel.

I am not familiar with the rules of Indian visa. I would defer this question to the experts. My common sense says this - I don't think you should be concerned about her ability to return to India. As long as she has appropriate visa approval (which provides the range of dates she can stay or travel to India) from the Indian government on her passport, there is nothing to worry about.

Good luck