visa's again..k-1 or tourist, student, etc.

[anono]

i briefly went through the subjects here to find an answer to this question but i didn't see it if it's there.

i have a friend who wants to bring his girl (who he barely knows) to the usa but he does not want to do the k-1 because he refuses to turn over his tax returns.

he is under the impression that if he pressures local politicians, he can get her here on a student visa.

rumor also has it that you can obtain tourist, student or other types of visa's for a ukrainian lady these days much easier than it has been in the past.

i do not know of anyone bringing in a lady on other types of visa's (with marriage maybe the exception).

does anyone know of a way to bring a lady here without the k-1? possibly a sponsored tourist visit of some kind?

[jb]

anono,

I wish your friend well, but I have my doubts if his dreams will come true.

Re the tax returns, why is your friend reluctant to show copies of a form he filed with one Gov't agency to another agency of the same Gov't?  Doesn't make sense.

if he pressures local politicians,

Local politicians usually have no influence or bearing on a school's enrollment policies.  

Student visas are doable if he starts well in advance of the school year,,, like now, to get her accepted into the fall semister of next year.  All she has to do is apply to, and be accepted by a university.  Of course, she will probably have to demonstrate a sufficently good set of English skills to be able to pull that off, and there is the "out-of-state" tution that must be paid, also I think there is probably a minimum number of courses she would have to sign up for to get the school to take her application seriously.  You could ask KenC about this, I think he did bring his Lena over on a student visa originally.

However, a k-1 visa would probably be quicker than a student visa.

possibly a sponsored tourist visit of some kind?

No such critter exists to the best of my knowledge. Tourist visas are granted to the individual based on the merits of the person appling, no sponsors are needed for a tourist visa.  She either has the money in the bank to fund such a trip, as well as firm enough ties to her homeland, (owns property, has a good job, etc.,) to make the adjudicating CO think she will return to Ukraine and not overstay her visa, or she won't qualify.

If he wants to marry the girl then a k-Class visa is the best way, the accepted way, the smiled upon way.  Anything else is going to smell fishy and will probably backfire of him.  As I said, I wish him well, but trying to get around the system, to not "play by the rules", is not generally a good way to go.

[KenC]

Anno,

All my information is about obtaining a student visa for a Russian and not Ukrainian and is 7 years old.  This is what I did:

I got some very good friends to sponser Lena's student visa.  My thought process was that it would be much more favorable for a family to sponser her rather than a single man.  My friends had to submit their last two years tax returns in order to prove they could handle the financial burden of the visit.  I enrolled Lena in a private English school.  All tuition had to be prepaid.

Lena went to the embassy for her interview and her "pitch" was that she had a wonderful opportunity to spend some time in the US and improve her English abilities.  The clerk asked her "why America?" and she answered, "If I had the same opportunity in England, I would go to England, but my opportunity came from the US."  The embassy issued her visa that same day.  There was no waiting period.  Her visa was good for as long as she attended school full time and it allowed for multiple entries.  She was free to come and go home as she wished.

jb wrote:

"However, a k-1 visa would probably be quicker than a student visa."  As you can see from my information, this is simply not true.

KenC

[philb]

The woman I will be marrying this February,  just returned to Ukraine last month after visiting me on a tourist visa. This was her first trip to the USA. She applied for and was issued the visa in July.  It is a five year multiple entry visa.

Things that I assume worked in her favor were her job, age (42), owning property, and the fact that she has traveled throughout Western Europe.

 About 75% percent of all visa apps received by the US Consulate in Kiev are approved.  Of this 75% about half are in categories that are approved virtually 100% of the time. This means the approval rate for all remaining apps falls to about 58%.  The actual percentage of tourist visa apps approved would be even lower.

When someone applies for a tourist visa the bottom line is, "what reason does this person have to return to Ukraine?".  Owning an apartment really doesn't mean a whole lot, nor does having children that will be staying in Ukraine.  There are large numbers of men and women working throughout western  Europe and the USA (think Mexico) that send their paychecks home to support their families.

I think that far more important is job and the ability to support yourself during your travels.  If you have a good job and thus a good life in Ukraine you would be much less likely to give all of that up and stay in the USA illegally.

As far as pressuring local politicians, I believe it would be a waste of time.  The politician might be able to speed things up, but as far as being able to influence the approval process, I rather doubt it.  I mean just think about it