Ask a Consular Officer - B1/B2 Visa - U.S. Embassy in Qatar

hi everyone how are you welcome to our life facebook chat today we're going to be talking about business and tourism visas this video is actually being recorded live but it will stay on our YouTube channel so you'll be able to access it through our YouTube page our US Embassy in Qatar YouTube page or any of our social media handles today we'll be answering some of the visa questions that you all have submitted and here with us today is Amelia one of our consular officers at the Embassy and she'll be answering your questions so how about we get started let's do it so one of the first questions that we have from our viewers is how do you apply for a visa how do I apply for a visa that's a great question to start with and we try to make it easy we generally succeed but we do try there are four basic steps that you need to remember when you decide you want to apply for a US visa the first step is going to be to go online to the internet and fill out what's called the ds-160 it's basically the application form you want to fill it out completely you want to make sure that everything in there is accurate and if you're working with maybe a travel agent or you're having somebody help you fill it out maybe your computer skills aren't that good maybe you're a little bit nervous you want to have somebody for you just make sure that what they're putting in there is accurate as well okay that's the first step the second step is you have to pay for the application so what you want to do is you want to go to any commercial bank branch in Doha and pay the fee there that's - number three is you need to go back online and make an appointment to come see us at the Embassy we try to give a lot of different dates and times for people to come to see us so you can pick what's best for you and finally you need to come see us at the Embassy for your interview that's number four we try great so now that we know how to I witness the earliest possible date that someone can apply for anything that's a great question because we get really really busy during holidays and the summer so it's good to plan your travel in advance and think about when you're gonna be wanting to travel to the United States we recommend that you apply three months before you want to travel okay this means you know if you need to get sick you miss your appointment you can make it up and it'll also give you the most options for getting the time and date of the appointment that you want but I think especially around those holidays and Christmas times apply early travel yes yes thank you let's see so one of our viewers wants to know if the person is not comfortable speaking English really you don't know will there be so that's a great question in our concept section we have staff who speak up to ten different languages so Arabic Urdu Hindi French Spanish but if you think maybe the language that I'm most comfortable in or the language that I speak maybe they don't have it send us an email and we can work with you to maybe have you bring an interpreter hello again to everyone who just joined us we're having a life chat about business and tourism visas if you missed a couple of our earlier questions no worries everything is saved and this video you'll be able to watch the game on our YouTube site so I guess you actually have one interesting question in there Amelia and it is so say you're coming to the your interview and you already submitted a like or your the communication do you need to bring extra documents what documents should a grant or should I not bring that's a great question and we see people show up with the gamut so people who come in with just their passport and keepo come in with binders full of documents what I want to tell you and this is a common myth is that there's no magic document that if you have it you're automatically going to get a visa that said there are some documents that you can consider bringing if they fit your circumstances so for example if you're employed you could perhaps consider bringing from your employer that explains how much money that you make or for example if you're planning on going to the United States maybe for a medical treatment you might want to consider bringing a note not only from a physician here but maybe also our record of your hospital appointments in the United States so just some things to think about but like I said there's no magic document that's automatically gonna get you that visa so our next question is how long does it take to get a visa that's when we get a lot as well so if your application is approved it usually takes about two days so you would come see us for the interview you get the great news that your application is approved and then inshallah two days later you get a text message saying congratulations your passport and visa are ready to pick up now that said sometimes there are cases where even if the officer intends to issue the visa there's some additional processing that may be required every circumstance is different and if you're one of those people don't worry the consular officer will explain it to you and give you a sheet as well that gives you additional contact information so that you can reach out and ask the status so apply early just in case yeah that's gonna be the mantra today as applied okay so the next question that we got is so could you talk a little bit about the reasons as to why a visa is denied I know this is a very sensitive but a very popular well and it's also an important question to explain fully because I think our laws are very strict but I think that understanding them can provide a little bit of context so u.s. immigration law requires the consular officer to assume that the applicant immigrant until the applicant can prove otherwise so that's a pretty heavy burden of proof every case is different and that's why we interview people and during the interview we look at a range of factors so everything from your family your community your profession your salary what other countries you travel to do you have friends and family in the United States to a property a whole host of things sometimes visas are not approved what I can tell you is that if your application is denied we recommend that you don't apply again right away until you have a significant life change so something that would give the consular officer a reason to reconsider those factors that we talked about that may have been the basis for your previous denial so yeah it's a tough question but one we have to talk about Thanks so one of our viewers wanted to know if I already have a u.s. visa and it's in my old passport but it's expired and now I have a new passport do I need to apply for a new visa mm-hmm this is a great question and one that we get here and cut her a lot because sometimes visas are valid for longer than passports are and I have good news for you if you have a valid visa in an expired passport and your new passport you are welcome to travel with both of them together okay so you have the valid visa and a valid passport they're just not in the same place that's okay just put it both in your wallet you're good to go I will add one caveat sometimes when you get a new passport if you've changed any of the information in that passport so I'm not talking about the passport number I'm talking about your date of birth your place of birth maybe a middle initial we've had a slight name change if any of that information has changed you will need to come and get a new visa and you should also consider maybe bringing some information that would explain why that changed in your biometric data has occurred a marriage certificate yeah or a certificate of name change if your family decided that they were going to make a name change maybe a corrected birth certificate if there's been a change in your place of birth so something like that okay just a follow up question say I don't want to travel with two possums I just wanted to carry a new passport Kent are you able to transfer the old visa into my new password that's a great question we don't transfer visas so if you decide you're just a little bit nervous about traveling with both of them I understand completely you're welcome to go ahead and apply for a new visa that we would put in that new passport what I would recommend that you do in that case is bring your old passport with the old visa in it just so we can cancel it so one of our viewers submitted this question and it is the following so say my family is visiting me here in Qatar can they come to the embassy and apply for a visa that's a great question particularly when we have so many people from different countries living here in Qatar and maybe their families want to come visit and then you start planning a trip to Disney World they're welcome to apply but I would say that one thing to consider is that sometimes it can be a little bit harder to qualify for a visa if you're not applying in the country that you usually reside you're welcome to apply at any consulate or embassy worldwide but it's just something to take into consideration when you make that choice our next question is if I'm filling out my application and I have some questions about the application process or if I kind of trouble scheduling an appointment online it's there somebody who can help me with this mm-hmm yeah so I'm not terribly tech-savvy so I would definitely be asking this question if you have any issues with the application or scheduling appointment or you know you're just not sure where to begin we have a dedicated call center but for great people who are ready and willing to help you they are open every single day from 7:00 a.m. in the morning to 7:00 p.m. at night so if you check out our website you can get their number and give them a call they're happy to help so another question that we have that's very popular that we got submitted a couple of times was so say I am from a country that's affected by the presidential innovation can I still come and apply for a visa and how does that work so Naturals from countries listed in the presidential proclamation are still welcome to apply for visas what I would recommend doing in advance though is checking out our website that has a lot more information every case is different and you might find something on the website that pertains to your particular case first so I'm just quickly hi everyone again if you're just joining us we're having a quick facebook like chat session here to talk with our consular officer amelia about business and tourism V's us just remember that if you didn't join us earlier it's fine this video is gonna stay on our YouTube and also in our on our social media handles so you'll be able to rewatch it as many times as you want I will continue asking and answering a couple of questions and please feel free to also follow us and engage with us through social media so I mean you know I have a couple more questions actually I'll pass it to first this is a question that one of our viewers asked do I need an invitation from a family member or friend who's living in the United States do I need an invitation from them to apply for a visa or to visit the United States so it's not required this kind of goes back to the conversation that we had about documents what documents do I need to bring is there any particular document that I have to have and the answer's no if your friend or relative wants to send you a nice invitation that's great you're welcome to bring it but there's no guarantee that the consular officer will want to look at it so our next question is so can you tell us a little bit about the interview waiver what is that how does it work so the interview waiver is our attempt to make sure that those who don't need to come in for an interview don't have to do so so when you go online to make your appointment there will be several different questions that you will be asked answer those correctly and if you're qualified for an interview waiver you'll get the computer will let you know so for example most of our interview waivers are available to people who have previously had pieces that were issued here in Doha by our consular section and those would have been theses that were good for 10 years so if that's you you might be in our target audience for interview waiver another big group that we try to reach out and do interview Weaver is children of those individuals who are already qualified for any good labor so again if you've got a visa it's good for ten years it was you should care in Doha and you want to take your kids to the United States with you it's likely that they are going to be eligible for interview waiver as well but the best thing to do is just really pay attention to those questions when you are answering them in order to make your appointment and they'll let you know if you're eligible for a fee waiver our next question is about emergencies so say an applicant needs to travel really soon urgently to the United States for an emergency it's very wait for them to get a faster appointment and not have to wait a long time so we do our best to always make sure that applicants have appointments open to them in the next day or two that said as we've talked about it a couple times we get really busy during the holidays and the summer so sometimes we do have a bit of a longer wait time when that happens if your circumstances demand it you are welcome to apply for an emergency appointment if it's urgent and medical travel unplanned and surprise business travel these are the things that maybe qualify for an emergency appointment okay I do want to caution you though if you've known about a trip for a very very very long time and just forgot to apply for the visa that would probably not be eligible for an emergency appointment the other thing that I want to remind people about an emergency appointment is that all it does is it brings you in earlier for your interview except in really exceptional circumstances it doesn't mean that the visa is processed any faster we have to give our our systems time to do their work so still count on those two days if you're qualified before the visa would be ready and if you have any issues figuring out how to make that request for an emergency appointment online our call center is ready to help so if I wanted to apply for an emergency appointment should I request the appointment first or should I submit an application go through all those four steps that we talked about at the beginning and then make an emergency appointment request to basically bring your appointment that might be a week or two in advance for work question that we have is saying my visa is damaged what do I do you have at that point or first up I sympathize because I once spilled coffee on the passport but the bad news is you're gonna have to come in and apply for a new one with us if you know you run it through the washer and dryer or the dog chews it up you're just gonna have to apply for anyone with us sorry we'll try our nips plane can I bring my stick employee with me to the United States say I'm going to Disney World and I want to bring that's a great question you can it's a little bit tricky first off your domestic employee would have to be qualified for a visa just like you are and second they would have to have a valid contract that is good under the US labor law and if you have more questions about that you can check out our website so still so one question and I know some people sometimes have this question so okay answer to the felony can you talk a little bit about the diversity what is that like what short explain it a little bit so the diversity visa it you're going to excuse me because I'm not an immigrant visa expert but I'll try so diversity visa is an immigrant visa where citizens from certain regional or countries of the world that traditionally or historically have large immigrant populations in the United States and who have and when the applicants have certain education levels or skilled labor levels in their particular job set they can apply to basically enterprise I applaud eree and perhaps be qualified to immigrate to the United States got a lot more information about it on our website so we couple more minutes and I want to do to give us a little bit of a few tips I guess if I'm a nurse if you can't worry buy some more information to kind of sum up yeah the process and the requirements so interesting yeah so best tip that I can give and I know we've talked about this again I'm sorry but I sound like a broken record but it's apply early okay give us the time to help you give yourself the time to make your vacation plans at your leisure so you're not rushed and frantic and nervous at the last minute we always recommend that you don't make any final plane ticket sales or hotel reservations until you've got that visa in hand so just don't take the risk apply early you'll sleep so much better through the night for it the other thing is on the ds-160 when you're filling that out make sure you answering every question accurately sometimes we have cases where the ds-160 says unemployed and we ask the applicant what do you do they say well I want to bank and it's like it's amazing you should have put that application so just be sure to really take the time and make that application as good a reflection of you as you can Thank You Amelia all of this information and I think that's it for our life chat about business and tourism visas let us know below if you found this section helpful and visit our website for all of the information and I'll up to that so we'll keep this video on our YouTube channel so you can access it as often as you like you're also able to access this video through our social media platform whether it's Twitter Instagram and obviously YouTube so please follow us like us subscribe to our videos and we hope that you've enjoyed the session

Channel: U.S. Embassy Doha

Views: 42,495

Keywords: Visa, Travel, America, USA, Tourist

Id: 7sOiavtKiXc

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 11 2018