Hacker News Reader

> Not to mention that the US Visitor Visa will let you visit the US for up to 6 months at a time for the next 10 years for a reasonably modest fee of ~$200.

Except not everyone is lucky enough to get a 10 year visa. Applied for B1/B2 three times each time I got 1 year visa. It is a hassle to go the US embassy and beg for visa every couple of years. Also the lack of privacy in the consulate is appalling! A poor girl had to explain why she was arrested aloud everyone wating there could hear it!

Edit: typos

Which country are you from?

Most visitors are eligible for a 10 year visa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_Stat... (see section "Validity period").

Unfortunately, the treatment might not be the best. In that case, you can probably apply for a Canadian/UK/Schengen visa and get 80% of the effect without much of the hassle.

As for the girl, I'm not sure why she would think she would be let back in after being arrested in the US.

I am from India and have a permanent residence in one of the European countries and yet my application goes to administrative processing each time taking several weeks and affects my travel plans even after applying well in advance.

As for the girl it didn’t seem like a serious crime. But anyway I am only complaining about lack of privacy at the booths. And she was not arrested in the US. She was arrested in her country of residence. She had never been to US!

> And she was not arrested in the US. She was arrested in her country of residence. She had never been to US!

Isn't countries' embassies technically the territory of that country (as opposed to the country of whichever city it's located)?

That's the popular portrayal, but the reality is more complicated; the territory doesn't change hands, but the rights and responsibilities of the two states are governed by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, which exempts the premise from most controls of the recieving state (but, for instance, radios can only be installed on the premises with the permission of the receiving State.)

LOL that’s a paradox then you are entering the country to get the visa to enter into the country!

> Most visitors are eligible for a 10 year visa

It's up to the person in the embassy to decide. Just because you're eligible for it, doesn't mean you'll get it.

For my country, it's either 6 months or 10 years. I got a 10 year one, but a person in front of me got a six months one.

Usually arrests/criminal records are only problems if it would be an offence under US law. Getting arrested for drinking alcohol in Iran won’t/shouldn’t bother the US.

DUI isn’t a serious offence in the US, so that’s ok too.

"DUI isn’t a serious offence in the US, so that’s ok too."

It's definitively very serious, and can be enough to get a visa denied.

I'd like to agree with you, but I once found myself as the only person in a mid-sized firm who didn't have one on my record. It was an eye-opener.

And they all went through hassles and spent a lot of money to resume a normal life.

That's a highly understated way of putting it.

Very serious? Millions of people in the US have one with no serious effects on them whatsoever (I'm talking of DIU and being caught, not hitting someone on it). E.g.:

"The penalties for drunk driving vary among states and jurisdictions. It is not uncommon for the penalties to be different from county to county within any given state depending on the practices of the individual jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions require jail time and larger fines, even on a first offense. For instance, Ohio requires a mandatory 72-hour jail sentence for a first offense conviction; however, the jail time component is satisfied by attendance of the Ohio A.W.A.R.E. Program, which is a 72-hour alcohol-education program. Compared to many other countries, such as Sweden, penalties for drunk driving in the United States are considered less severe unless alcohol is involved in an incident causing injury or death of another, such DUI, DWI or OWI with Great Bodily Injury (GBI) or Vehicular Manslaughter."

"Wisconsin regards first offense drunk driving as a municipal offense, and New Jersey treats all drunk driving cases without serious injury or death as traffic violations."

You're talking about people already in the US (citizens/residents). If you're trying to get a US visa from your country and you have a DUI on your record, it makes it much more difficult to get approved.

FYI, a US citizen with a DUI will likely get denied entry into Canada -- you usually need to be deemed "rehabilitated" or be granted a temporary stay visa before allowed in.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/402/~/entering-...

You’re being pretty selective there. MANY states require an Ignition Interlock Device:

http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/state-ignition-i...

This not only costs thousands of dollars – a very significant amount of money to the vast majority of Americans – but it also SEVERELY limits an individual’s ability to drive a work vehicle.

Yes, prison time is not always involved, but the financial cost of a DUI can be quite serious.

We're talking about people trying to visit/immigrate. The US is a very different country if you're a Citizen or not.

Got my H1B with a wet reckless offense (still a DUI I think). No question asked at the embassy. I even figured out later that I went to the embassy while having a warrant (lawyer never went to court because he died 2 days before).

It doesn’t mean you need to drink and drive or that it will apply to you, I think I just went crazy lucky that day at the embassy.

Yeah it's probably not 100% hit for sure. Some people in my University had questions when renewing their (student) visa because they got a DUI driving a bicycle.

Canada sometimes denies entry to US citizens who have been convicted of DUI. They have a data sharing system in place and can check US criminal records on the spot.

Yep a friend of mine is banned from Canada for that.

If you’ve got the money, there are a couple of good ways around that. This article seemed to explain it pretty well:

https://www.adamgreenmanlaw.com/blog/can-you-go-to-canada-wi...

Iranian nationals are currently barred from travelling to the US, so I imagine a criminal record is not even necessary to get the visa denied.

From personal experience, depends a lot on the age of the applicant. My wife got a 1 year visa. My in-laws got 10 year visas even though they applied together.

Older people find it easy to get for one simple reason. They don't stay for long. And if they do, they are already old. So they won't abscond or go missing to stay as illegal immigrants.

Young people are likely to stay for long, some times even tear their passports and throw away to become illegal immigrants.

Also there have been cases when elderly people from India visit the US on a B1/B2 Visa, and then work hourly wages as nannies.

One of my India friend has applied for a B1/B2 visa for multiple times and did not get approved, even though he had already traveled to quite a lot countries.

I also got rejected a B1/B2 visa for 3 times (I'm holding China passport), and I finally flew and moved to U.S. after my company sponsored me a H1B visa.

The B1/B2 visa is truly the hardest visa to get for most third world people.

That visa is hard to get not specifically based on third world status, but based on the statistics of overstaying those visas. Substantial home country ties, such as a business or owning property vastly increase the chance of getting that visa.

Having other long-term visas and not overstaying them also helps.

>One of my India friend has applied for a B1/B2 visa for multiple times and did not get approved, even though he had already traveled to quite a lot countries.

Even though? Or precisely because of this? Which countries those were might have mattered...

It likely would have been simpler - being single for example is almost and automatic deny.

Cc

Wow I never would’ve thought this. As a Canadian, when I travel to the US for work / vacations I sometimes get my passport stamped with a B1/B2 visa (it is very common to cross the border with no Visa stamp in your passport).

I found this stamp more of an annoyance!

Canada is easily considered a first-world / powerful passport country.

https://www.passportindex.org/comparebyPassport.php?p1=ca&p2...

Canada is fairly special for entering the US since they don’t even fingerprint you.

This assumes B1/B2 visitor visa is easy to get. I am a passport holder from a third world country. Currently, living in US. My wife got pregnant, and my parents wanted to be there when the baby was born. They were rejected for B1/B2 visa.

My father is retired, and we are not super rich so I assume the visa officer thought they will not return once they are here. On the other hand, parents of my friends who are from the same country, and retired but kind of super rich are coming in all the time just to have fun. Anyway, fortunately, my parents have no desire to live in US, and are living happily in their third world country.

As others have mentioned this all has to do with a probability of overstay. Somebody who's independently wealthy in a foreign country is going to generally have strong ties to that nation as well as property and other things that tie him to that nation. Poorer individuals have fewer ties and are going to be statistically more likely to overstay.

The individual from this blog has no employer, is a Thai national that writes more fluently in english than most natives, is carrying out part of his 'bucket list' -- traveling the world, writing about it on a personal page that's been mentioned by sites such as the BBC, and providing video including time lapse/high framerate footage shot from high definition AV equipment. There's an extremely high probability that he's rather well to do.

I'm guessing that being Muslim might have had something to do with it. I'm sorry they couldn't join you regardless.

It is in general very difficult for people from developing countries to get tourist visas for the US, including majority Christian countries.

The religion of the country makes a difference? Wow.

Huh? That’s not what I said.

What does the comment about ‘majority Christian countries’ mean?

I said "including" not "especially" or "exclusively".

Getting US Visitor visa is not that easy; All the decision making things are evaluated beforehand; & applicant is seen for 30 seconds only. Unmarried, less than 40, earning moderate money, does not help. I visited Schengen 10+ times, & in betweb those visits, US refused me twice on seperate occasions.

> your visa remains valid even if your passport expires and you get a new passport

This will soon be the case for me - can you explain how that works? Do I just bring my old and new passports to the border and show them both?

>A US B1/B2 Visitor Visa will generally get you into an additional dozen or so countries

It can work the other way too. Due to a mix up with dates I had to get one cancelled (and a new one issued) so the original in my passport has a huge red "Cancelled without prejudice" stamp across it. The border guard at Honduras was not happy - he figured if I wasn't allowed into the USA he didn't want me in his country. It took many, many hours to explain I had another perfectly valid USA visa.

Correct, you just show up with both.

For the second, generally make sure the documents you are using for entry are valid at time of entry; in particular a lot of countries require 6 months validity on passports.

Complicating things, some countries will not issue a new passport before confiscating the expired one.

I know multiple people who reported their expiring passport as stolen, just to be able to keep it (usually for purposes of having proof that they've held certain visas in the past).

> I know multiple people who reported their expiring passport as stolen, just to be able to keep it

Eh, you want to watch out doing that - some countries get real suspect if you have ever reported a passport stolen in the past.

Hmm, interesting. In my experience they just cut off a corner and put a large red EXPIRED stamp on the info page.

It varies per country. In the Netherlands you can request to keep the old document; it will be returned to you with a couple of ~12mm holes punched through it.

My girlfriend needed her old passport for travelling with an Interrail train ticket because the passport expired between the time of ordering the tickets (and submitting the document number) and travelling.

Well, your experience would be limited to the one or two countries you're a citizen of :)

It's definitely a thing across various ex-Soviet countries, and likely others as well.

My passport expired last year and I kept it with me for the US Visa. I just brought up with me 2 passports and they didn't ask me why. They realized that the one with the Visa is expired and just used it to check the visa and compare the name no questions asked.

> your visa remains valid even if your passport expires and you get a new passport

I've heard of people's visas getting denied because their passport would expire before the end of the visa.

The 6 month thing is a myth. My gf tried to come for 4 months in 2016 and they changed that for 1 month at the border. It was a pretty traumatic experience. Had to change tickets and get married.

Right, it's up to 6 months at the officer's discretion.

Unfortunately statistics are not in your favor; visiting your girlfriend has a much higher chance of overstay than a regular tourist, in such cases if you can present proof that you're returning for good after a certain time that might help.

For more detailed discussion see: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/61825/is-it-a-goo....

> Not to mention that the US Visitor Visa will let you visit the US for up to 6 months at a time for the next 10 years for a reasonably modest fee of ~$200.

It depends. A multi entry B1/B2 validity period may differ from 1 year (Belarus, Afghanistan, etc.) to 10 years [0]

And, yeah, I hold a very weak passport too.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_visa#Validity_period_and_dur...

-ss

> Also unlike other countries you don't need to document a plan to visit the US

Is it even feasable to enter on B2 without a return ticket?

I have no intention of overstaying my visa or even staying longer than a month, but I would love the flexibility of traveling in the US without a deadline or plans.

I've done a few times and no problem. I just told them I had no idea of the exact dates and thus will plan when I know. On one occasion, I did request the officer to stamp me for a 5+ month (the usual was 3 months) as I might be staying for that extended period. I flew back a day before the B2 expires.

By law US airlines are required to let you cancel your trip upto 24 hours after you book it for a full refund. See https://bkpk.me/easy-return-tickets-for-international-travel... for more info.

In the past I've used this to great advantage by booking the outward and return legs of the journey separately. You can then cancel the return leg ticket and book a replacement later.

At the airport present tickets of both the original outward and return legs; as long as you don't overstay a visa there shouldn't be a problem. Obligatory note that this should not be taken as legal advice.

a one way international ticket usually costs about 80-120% as an equivalent class round way ticket, due to different price buckets.

You have to be flexible somewhere - either on date or price.

Another option is traveling on a low-cost carrier who generally sell outbound and return segments separately.

Can't you change your return ticket once your there? As long as you don't overstay you should be fine.

Will it not cause you be banned indefinitely due to visa fraud?

Why so? There's no chargeback involved if you call the airline to change your return flight's date. At worse the airline will charge something extra for the trouble depending on the type of ticket you bought.

Very rarely, most of the times there is a hefty change fee unless you bought a refundable ticket.

>>US Visitor Visa will let you visit the US for up to 6 months at a time for the next 10 years

Its entirely at the discretion of the customs officer at the Airport.

Sometimes they don't give you anything more than a few weeks.