Then there is this “J” who thinks he is the luckiest person in the world. He probably (or most likely) got into the US though luck (as a lowly-paid OFW on H-1 visa or through a family-based petition that has been lodged more than 20 years ago).

Do not lose your self-respect just because you were denied a visa. Most of you applicants are better-educated than the pencil-pusher behind those tills.

Non-immigrant visa issuance is always based on quota, or supply and demand. For example, if only 1,000,000 tourist visas are authorized for 2010, and assume that 50,000 is allocated to the Philippines, consular officers are simply constrained to use their most educated guess to grant or deny. If this allocation is used up, it does not matter if you are a bonafide traveler or not — you will not get a visa.

The biggest shocker is when you ever get to the US. It is not as pretty as what you see in Hollywood movies. The Philippines, sans corruption and social desparity, is way better when it comes to natural resources and family values.

Yes, we still have to find a better word (for the lack of one) for those Filipinos who pretend to not have gone through the agony of “begging” for a visa.

To those who really have the legitimate reasons to go to the US, especially to those fiance(e)s and spouses, good luck and keep trying. Don’t let a mere civil servant kill your dreams.

For those who can afford it, look to Europe for a better vacation experience. I will tell you for sure, most Americans who visit Europe do have a hard time at first because either they do not have class or cannot afford the cost.

Good work Ajay!

As a former Consular Officer in Manila (now in Beijing), we do not look at your documents because we assume that they’re all fake (even though they’re real). Those assumptions were based on the rampant selling of fraudulent documents in the Philippines. We were trained to detect who will be the REAL tourists in the U.S. or who will stay there as a potential immigrant and we were trained how to detect liars based on their answers. The American Embassy in Manila is the worst one that I have ever been to. Good luck to you. Pray for me as I am currently in the process of trying to bring my Filipino wife here to the U.S.A..

1) Every visa applicant is presumed to be an intending immigrant.

Very few applicants know of this simple fact that they never even take the effort to make the presentation of their case strong enough to even warrant a minute of attention. This means that the burden of proof lies on our part to disprove this negative presumption which is basically a government policy. And as with all policy, consular officers just like anybody else must comply with rather than question. A lot of our kababayans are, sad to say lacking the necessary information or simply don’t meet the criteria that they need in order to satisfy even the minimum criteria that the officers normally need to know to even give an applicant a higher than average likelihood of getting a favorable outcome and these factors are as follows;

a) Economic Ties
b) Social ties
c). Emotional Ties

2) Most consular officers are pressured on the job since they have to evaluate so many applicants in a single day that they cannot really afford to spend so much time on any single case that’s why that “window of opportunity” only lasts for a couple of seconds to a few minutes. All the more reason to strengthen one’s case to tilt the odds in one’s favor. The reason why they sometimes don’t even bother to look at documents is either they already caught some inconsistencies and hallmarks of fraud during the pre-assessment stage that by the time the applicant faces the consul his case was already “filtered out” or segregated from the not so risky cases.

3) Very few applicants ever get a visa on the first try. The most likely reason is that if your case fits the profile and the officers are quite unsure of themselves, they’ll deny you outright, knowing fully well that they will test you on your second attempt to see if you are honest and consistent with answers in relation with your previous effort just so they can validate or disprove their hunches about your character. In effect you could say that it’s like indirectly undergoing a lie-detector test on paper.

4). The US Embassy can only issue a limited number of non-immigrant and in most cases immigrant visas for an entire year. This being a fact, visa applicants should already assume that they have a very slim chance of getting an approval based solely on the odds alone which are, sad to say, aren’t in their favor to begin with and that not even the best of efforts would suffice if the “quota” is already exhausted.

5) Last but not least “familiarity with the Philippines” means the level of fraud especially with public documents. This policy is applied to all countries that the US has diplomatic relations with and is constantly upgraded to reflect the most recent data available. It also clearly says though indirectly that they have hard data on the our country’s risk profile and track record with regards to visa violations. So one shouldn’t keep his/her hopes up high.

6). If the consular officers denied you and they conducted themselves professionally all throughout the interview then there really is no reason to complain, just take the whole thing with a grain of salt and learn from the experience. But if they were rude and all then that’s something else that should be addressed with at the proper channel. Just remember that inspite of everything mentioned above bottom line is, there is no clear cut way of getting an assurance of a visa issuance not unless you are probably that well connected with the corridors of power in the US and also due mainly to the highly discretionary powers bestowed upon the man behind the glass pane.

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helllo pls help me about this….still have some issues with my Embassy Interview, knowing that my Hubby is ill and he needs to retire from his work, just recently, if i had my interview b4 i will no problem because he still working as a Mental Health Officer but since the MEdical Result took me two months to go, and my hubby got really sick he quit his job prior to my visa appoiment …ooh boy really a mess, will i be given visa even if he is no longer working because of his chemo theraphy?..by the way he was awarded by VA and SS for pension, is this fine…will i be granted for visa//..ty

If she would be denied based on bogus assumptions, I maybe the first to sue to US Embassy (don’t know if there is a case or I have a case). But I am willing to go bankrupt to change this system.