According to the American laws, if an applicant wants to be eligible, he or she must go to the American embassy or consulate in his or her country. There, the applicant will have to answer a series of questions that will help the interviewer decide whether the visa will be approved or not.
The Homeland Security department claims that most of visa applications are approved.
However, applicants are not always that lucky. There are certain aspects that can cost an applicant the approval of his or her visa.
For example, if the Consular Officer or the representative in the Embassy does not have the necessary information to determine the eligibility of the applicant, the former will not be able to evaluate him or her positively.
Another reason is that the applicant may have brought some kind of inadmissible or alarming information that is against the law.
Be it illegal activities and links to drugs or violent acts will lead to the denial of the applicant’s visa.
It is important to highlight that, if the visa was denied once, the applicant may get it later through a new application.
Denied visas
- Being ineligible is one of the most common reasons why a visa is denied.
This usually happens when the partner of a person who legally lives in the United States applies for a visa. It also happens when the applicant does not have enough evidence to prove that he or she will return to his or her country of origin or when the applicant is suspected of intending to stay in the United States permanently.
The foreign applicants can be ineligible due to different reasons. It is important to know the exact reason and then correct it. Otherwise, the applicant will waste his or her time and money when 
the second application is filed, for there will be no refunds whatsoever.
- The visa may also be denied due to the following reasons:
-Illegal stay in the United States (3 to 10 years of punishment)
-Deportation
-Frauds related to passports, green cards and fake visas
-A criminal record (drugs, domestic violence, murder…)
The best piece of advice: tell the truth, and do not submit fake documents or more papers than required by the Embassy or Consulate.
Another good piece of advice is to turn to qualified legal advisors. If the applicant has some sort of legal problems, all these procedures are easier to manage when a well-prepared attorney supports him or her. In Beltran Brito LLP we have wide experience at guiding applicants through the process for getting a visa or a green card.
Recommendations
Many people cannot control their nerves or their anxiety during the visa interview. Here are some tips:
- Try to sleep well the night before the interview. It is important to be relaxed and restored.
- Be punctual. That says a lot about you. Try to be half an hour before the appointment.
- Be precise and concise when giving answers.
- The questions about dates must be answered by giving the month and the year. Take your time and calculate well if you are asked something like “How long have you been living in this address?”
- It is not necessary to be formally dressed, but try to be presentable.
- Give the necessary information, no more, no less.
Note:
If the applicant who was previously denied is finally considered eligible, he or she will have to give evidence of significant changes undergone in his or her life since the last application.