My wife has applied for a US tourist visa 3 times and been denied 3 times. All we wanted was to travel together for a vacation and for my wife to meet my mother, who is elderly and unable to travel. The first denial was before we were married so I wasn’t able to introduce her to my family.

I really thought that as the wife of a citizen they might be inclined to approve the visa. No such luck. We also fulfilled all the various requirements and were given what seemed at the time to be vague reasons for the denial.  I wrote a couple letters and called Visa Services but to no avail. The strange thing is that when I contacted Visa Services, the woman told me that I should just petition for a Spouse Visa as that is rarely denied. That struck me as odd because the tourist visa denials are based on the pretense that they might stay permanently.

About 1000 visa applications each day are processed at the Manila Consulate alone. How’s that for a cash cow. $131(about to increase to $140) X 1000 = $131,000 a day or an annual take of over $31 million. All with no obligation to approve a single ap. It sounds amazing (I’m not sure I believe it) but I was told that less than 1% are approved. Whatever the obviously low approval percentage is, it keeps people applying over and over. As for the spouse visa, the costs are considerably higher.

My issue with the suggestion to apply for a spouse visa is that I would have to falsify the application and claim that we would reside in the US when we have no such intentions. Besides, I would have to establish a permanent residence (or the appearance of one) and submit the petition from the States. To get caught in these lies could mean a permanent denial for my wife. I’m not willing to take that risk, no matter how small.