Complicated romantic situation -- what options exist?

[sbaxter]

Hello all.

I find these Visa questions confusing, but I am determined to somehow find our way through it. Here is our situation:

I am a U.S. citizen by birth who is involved in a romance (via e-mail and telephone so far) with a young woman living in New Delhi -- but she is not an Indian citizen but a Ugandan attending graduate school in India. We would very much like to have her visit me here in the U.S. for the purpose of her being able to see part of this country and to evaluate our relationship's long-term potential face to face. We are, of course, very deeply in love (why else would we do all this?) and searching for a way to see one another. She has no known relatives in the U.S., but we do not even know if her status as a non-Indian citizen makes her quest for a Visa more difficult, less difficult, or if it makes no difference.

As noted, she is a graduate student with several months to go in her education, but she would have to return to complete her final paper. The most compelling reason we have for wanting her to visit me here is that she has no job in New Delhi, so she can afford to stay with me for several weeks or even two months or longer. I do have a job here in the U.S., and the longest I could possibly visit her in India would be for two weeks, for although I have more saved vacation time than that, it is too much of a burden for my co-worker to work alone for any longer than that.

Can anyone tell us what options we may have? Any help or insight at all would be appreciated.

Thanks,

SSB

[immihelp]

You can sponsor her visitor visa. Details at https://www.immihelp.com/usa-visas/visitor

If you plan to marry her, you can get her fiancee visa. Details at https://www.immihelp.com/usa-visas/

[vjay]

Interesting situation!

SSB,

Her being a Ugandan citizen may help. The reason many Indians do not get visa is that unfortunately many of them do not go back and Visa officers know that. And that is why they tend to reject visa of Indian citizens.

Anyway, give it a try. Good luck!

[sbaxter]

I know I can sponsor her quest for a Visa, but I think she has been afraid that she will be denied because I am not her relative. I think that the odds I will marry her are extremely high -- I have not actually put a ring on her finger yet, but we talk of our future in terms of a married couple, so I would say I am going to marry her. However, in my reading at the U.S. State Department site, it seems a visa for that purpose will be granted only if we have had at least one face-to-face meeting within the last two years, which we have not.

I think she has just been fretting a bit because we want so much to see each other and she is impatient with any obstacles at this point. I shudder to think of the 22-hour plane trip one of us will have to endure, either way we go.

I was thinking that her being a Ugandan student might make things easier; the Indian government must surely figure that many of the foreign students who come into the country will depart after their education is finished.

Thanks for the help!

One further question: Given that I will write her invitation letter, should it include expressions of my love for her (while keeping it dignified and clean, of course), or should it be worded as if from one platonic friend to another and simply discuss tourism and such?

SSB

[sbaxter]

Stating this question again, in case it was missed: Given that I will write her invitation letter, should it include expressions of my love for her (while keeping it dignified and clean, of course), or should it be worded as if from one platonic friend to another and simply discuss tourism and such?

SSB

[immihelp]

Just write plain invitation letter.

[sbaxter]

Okay; I appreciate the help.

SSB

[sbaxter]

Okay, I have all the documents I need as listed elsewhere on the site EXCEPT a copy of my birth certificate. Is this REQUIRED? I'm having some trouble getting one because I was an adopted child -- the original birth certificate @#%$'t available to me, and I've had trouble explaining (to people who should know this already) that a "non-ID" birth certificate (so called because it doesn't list the names of my birth parents) does exist and is all I need. So is a birth certificate required?

Also, my girlfriend in India has gotten the impression that my invitation letter to her needs to be hand-written, though I have seen no indication of that here. If I cannot find out otherwise I will include a typed letter and a hand-written copy of same. Does anyone KNOW?

Thanks for any help provided,

SSB

[immihelp]

Invitation can be typed or computer printed also. It does NOT need to be hand written.