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US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

travel.state.gov

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Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#141

Post by pandaman »

em-bee wrote: post #137
pandaman wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine countries, that stamp visas in the port of arrival are such but since US requires extensive checks and interview of a visa applicant, like many other countries, there is just no possible need for that. >not relevant because most countries simply don't need a consulate to renew visas. It's pretty relevant since what other institution is equipped to vet foreigners for visa eligibility?

what other institution is equipped to vet foreigners for visa eligibility? that would be the foreign ministry office in the country. in china i have my visa renewed once in a small countryside town. they were big enough to have an office there. every town has one. in germany too. the local government office has a branch of the foreign ministry. i have never had to leave a country to renew my visa. that's just insane.…

I think the confusion here is over "visa" vs "status". The OP in this thread is talking about getting a new visa stamp (a card with a picture glued onto a passport page), the USDOS link you post talks about extending your status in the country (they use "visa" term because most people confuse the status and visa, but the form I-539 on that page is the EOS form and does not do anything to the visa). The latter is possible anywhere, the former is only in a consulate.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#142

Post by em-bee »

pandaman wrote: post #141
em-bee wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what other institution is equipped to vet foreigners for visa eligibility? that would be the foreign ministry office in the country. in china i have my visa renewed once in a small countryside town. they were big enough to have an office there. every town has one. in germany too. the local government office has a branch of the foreign ministry. i have never had to leave a country to renew my visa. that's just insane.…

I think the confusion here is over "visa" vs "status". The OP in this thread is talking about getting a new visa stamp (a card with a picture glued onto a passport page), the USDOS link you post talks about extending your status in the country (they use "visa" term because most people confuse the status and visa, but the form I-539 on that page is the EOS form and does not do anything to the visa). The latter is poss…

the former is only in a consulate

there is no confusion, my argument is that this is only true for the US. according to my experience no other country does it that way because in most countries, visa and status are one and the same thing. no visa, no status. or, if there is a difference, then extending your status also extends your visa, or vice versa. and you do it in the country. not outside.

i also reject the claim that there is no one inside any country that could verify the status of a foreigner, only consulates outside the country could do that. that is straight out nonsense.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#143

Post by pandaman »

em-bee wrote: post #142
pandaman wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the confusion here is over "visa" vs "status". The OP in this thread is talking about getting a new visa stamp (a card with a picture glued onto a passport page), the USDOS link you post talks about extending your status in the country (they use "visa" term because most people confuse the status and visa, but the form I-539 on that page is the EOS form and does not do anything to the visa). The latter is poss…

the former is only in a consulate there is no confusion, my argument is that this is only true for the US. according to my experience no other country does it that way because in most countries, visa and status are one and the same thing. no visa, no status. or, if there is a difference, then extending your status also extends your visa, or vice versa. and you do it in the country. not outside. i also reject the clai…

How do you physically "extend" a visa? Do other countries have visas where you can print a new expiration date? You mentioned China, and I looked up images of a Chinese visa, there doesn't seem to be a place to put a new date, it has one field after 'Enter before', are you sure you got a new visa stamp with your extension of status?

i also reject the claim that there is no one inside any country that could verify the status of a foreigner

That's good since I haven't made such a claim!

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#144

Post by em-bee »

pandaman wrote: post #143
em-bee wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the former is only in a consulate there is no confusion, my argument is that this is only true for the US. according to my experience no other country does it that way because in most countries, visa and status are one and the same thing. no visa, no status. or, if there is a difference, then extending your status also extends your visa, or vice versa. and you do it in the country. not outside. i also reject the clai…

How do you physically "extend" a visa? Do other countries have visas where you can print a new expiration date? You mentioned China, and I looked up images of a Chinese visa, there doesn't seem to be a place to put a new date, it has one field after 'Enter before', are you sure you got a new visa stamp with your extension of status? i also reject the claim that there is no one inside any country that could verify the…

you get a new sticker. in some countries you just get a stamp.

you made two claims:

a visa stamp can only be issued by a consulate

what other institution [besides a consulate] is equipped to vet foreigners for visa eligibility? (implying that there are none)

both of those are not true.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#145

Post by pandaman »

em-bee wrote: post #144
pandaman wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you physically "extend" a visa? Do other countries have visas where you can print a new expiration date? You mentioned China, and I looked up images of a Chinese visa, there doesn't seem to be a place to put a new date, it has one field after 'Enter before', are you sure you got a new visa stamp with your extension of status? i also reject the claim that there is no one inside any country that could verify the…

you get a new sticker. in some countries you just get a stamp. you made two claims: a visa stamp can only be issued by a consulate what other institution [besides a consulate] is equipped to vet foreigners for visa eligibility? (implying that there are none) both of those are not true.

A US visa stamp is only issued in a consulate. It's true.

A question not being true is a novel concept to me. I was genuinely curious what country has an office equipped to interview and background check any foreigner in the world. But apparently it's not true, whatever that means.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#146

Post by em-bee »

pandaman wrote: post #145
em-bee wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you get a new sticker. in some countries you just get a stamp. you made two claims: a visa stamp can only be issued by a consulate what other institution [besides a consulate] is equipped to vet foreigners for visa eligibility? (implying that there are none) both of those are not true.

A US visa stamp is only issued in a consulate. It's true. A question not being true is a novel concept to me. I was genuinely curious what country has an office equipped to interview and background check any foreigner in the world. But apparently it's not true, whatever that means.

i was referring to the implication that no such place exists

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#147

Post by pandaman »

em-bee wrote: post #146
pandaman wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A US visa stamp is only issued in a consulate. It's true. A question not being true is a novel concept to me. I was genuinely curious what country has an office equipped to interview and background check any foreigner in the world. But apparently it's not true, whatever that means.

i was referring to the implication that no such place exists

You also proclaimed that one can "renew" a US visa in the country. You seem to be reading something that is not written and knowing something that is not true. Good luck with that!

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#148

Post by em-bee »

pandaman wrote: post #147
em-bee wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i was referring to the implication that no such place exists

You also proclaimed that one can "renew" a US visa in the country. You seem to be reading something that is not written and knowing something that is not true. Good luck with that!

are you referring to this? https://www.usa.gov/extend-visa

sorry, renew and extend don't really mean anything different to me, because the end result is the same: you get to stay longer. i don't see why they should be different and why that should matter.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#149

Post by viceconsole »

maxerickson wrote: post #93
viceconsole wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there is a statutory requirement that applicants who require an interview appear personally before a consular officer. So far, the State Department has interpreted this to mean "standing physically in front of". Having done tens of thousands of visa interviews, I do think the requirement of a physical appearance before an officer is important. I could quickly review a person's travel history by looking throug…

Is there a statutory requirement that the consular officer that conducts the interview make a decision without input from other people? Like it seems hilariously backwards in your example that the cheaters were able to make an end run around the system you praise, when it would be easy to have someone local taking a look at global applications. Or just applications that someone thought were odd.

99% or more of the visa applicants we interviewed in India were Indian. We interviewed them in India so that we had access to local staff who spoke all major Indian languages, a fraud unit well-versed in authenticating local documents, and connections to local authorities for more complex cases.

Nothing is "easy" when you have a line of hundreds of people who have been waiting months or over a year for their appointment and you have 120 seconds to deal with them in a fair and respectful way (which unfortunately does NOT always happen), while you also have personal job repercussions if you fail to properly vet their application and miss an important national security related detail.

As it turned out, we flagged enough of those cases as a patern for further review that did result in us consulting with our staff in the third country and discovering the issue. Also, visas that are issued can be revoked, or flagged for further scrutiny by CPB if necessary.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#150

Post by viceconsole »

daft_pink wrote: post #126
viceconsole wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's common for countries to require you to apply from your country of nationality or residence, and to prove lawful residence if you're not a national of the country you're applying in. I'm in the middle of a French visa application for my daughter right now, and she must apply in the U.S. where she's a citizen.

I’m not an expert at this, but is it true that the US is very unique in requiring interviews for all tourist visas and for almost every visa? I’m American and every visa I’ve had to apply for did not require my physical presence at the embassy and I used a third-party processing service to get everything done. Therefore, while I would need to apply to these countries from their US embassy because my physical presence…

I'm not aware of any other country besides the US that has a blanket policy of requiring at least one interview in almost all cases.

That said, back in the 2000s I had to apply in person at the French embassy for a student visa, in in the 2010s I had to apply in person at a Chilean consulate for a special visa.

Many countries have outsourced the bulk of their processing to contractors like VFS or TLS these days. But also, our experience as Americans is not representative as we generally have fewer visas we need to bother obtaining, and face less scrutiny when doing so.

I'm not sure if the US interview requirement makes it "harder" to get a US visa - it may be that getting a US visa is just harder than getting another country's visa, which might still be true even if we didn't interview people. The big thing that makes getting non-immigrant visas to the US difficult for many people is that, unless shown otherwise, US immigration law assumes you are an immigrant.

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