An Indian tech worker who earns more than Rs 1 crore in salary, had a solid background and reason was denied a US B1/B2 tourist visa in less than a minute.
The man shared his experience on Reddit and asked users to tell him what went wrong.
In the now deleted post he wrote, “I had my B1/B2 visa interview at the US Embassy today in Delhi, and I was rejected in less than a minute after just three questions. I’m trying to understand what went wrong and how I can improve for next time.”
The man shared the details of the interview process and the swift denial he got.
The officers only asked him three questions, and he was handed a rejection immediately. The questions concerned his reason for travelling, his prior international travels, and whether he had any family or acquaintances in the US.
When he was asked about his reasons, he mentioned that he was interested in travelling to Atlanta, Georgia, for the Kubecon + Cloudnative Con 2025. “I am a senior tech lead at a company, and my day-to-day work is on Cloud Native technologies. It is important that I attend this conference to stay up to date on the latest events or movements in this field,” he said.
He also spoke about his travel experiences and how he had been to Lithuania, the Maldives, and Indonesia. When he was asked if he had friends or family in America, he said “No”. Shortly afterwards, they handed him a 214(b) refusal slip.
The man expressed his surprise at the quick denial, which happened even with his solid professional and personal background.
“I’m employed in India with a stable job for the last 11 years. I make close to a crore annually and have an eight-month-old daughter, so I had very strong motivations to come back to India,”
He also said that he had already made reservations for the Atlanta Conference and booked hotel rooms, and planned an extensive schedule. “The conference wasn’t available for live streaming, so I had planned everything to attend it in person,” he said.
Section 214(b) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act is the most common reason for being given a tourist visa refusal. It is given when an applicant fails to convince the consular officer that they will return to their home country after visiting the US.
In a media note, The US Department of State announced that the ‘U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right.’ the department said that they would use all available information in their visa screening and vetting to identify individuals who are inadmissible to the US. |
