Help With US Visa?
Hello everyone, I'm new here and I have a few questions about US visa that hopefully someone with experience might be able to help me with.
To summarize:
- I have been in a LDR for a little over a year
- I am from the US, the guy is from Argentina
- I went to meet him this past summer
- Now I am saving up money for him to come visit me here in the states
When I went to Argentina, I did not have to acquire a visa because my stay was less than 90 days - so I am not very familiar with visa and policies.
As I understand it, to visit he needs a passport (check!) and a non-immigrant visa, or a B-2 visa. He then has to fill out the DS-160 form to apply for the visa. Supposedly there is also an interview and some sort of $160 fee involved as well, but everywhere I have been reading online likes to sprinkle the information around to make it difficult.
My questions are:
- Can I fill out the form for him or help him fill it out?
- Can I pay the fee for him from my personal finances, or does he have to pay it?
- How soon in advance of the date of the trip should I have him apply for his visa?
- After the visa is accepted, does its validity start immediately or can we choose?
- When should we buy the airline ticket? (They are cheapest 3 or more months in advance so I'd like to buy it early, but they are non-refundable so I don't want to mess up big time
)
- How many interviews are involved, where are they, and what are they like?
- How can we be sure the visa will get accepted, or how long will it take?
I appreciate your responses from anyone who has experience dealing with visa. Also if you could direct me to any helpful links or resources I would greatly appreciate that as well.
My sources:
travel dot state dot gov (visas info)
ceac dot state dot gov
To summarize:
- I have been in a LDR for a little over a year
- I am from the US, the guy is from Argentina
- I went to meet him this past summer
- Now I am saving up money for him to come visit me here in the states
When I went to Argentina, I did not have to acquire a visa because my stay was less than 90 days - so I am not very familiar with visa and policies.
As I understand it, to visit he needs a passport (check!) and a non-immigrant visa, or a B-2 visa. He then has to fill out the DS-160 form to apply for the visa. Supposedly there is also an interview and some sort of $160 fee involved as well, but everywhere I have been reading online likes to sprinkle the information around to make it difficult.
My questions are:
- Can I fill out the form for him or help him fill it out?
- Can I pay the fee for him from my personal finances, or does he have to pay it?
- How soon in advance of the date of the trip should I have him apply for his visa?
- After the visa is accepted, does its validity start immediately or can we choose?
- When should we buy the airline ticket? (They are cheapest 3 or more months in advance so I'd like to buy it early, but they are non-refundable so I don't want to mess up big time
)- How many interviews are involved, where are they, and what are they like?
- How can we be sure the visa will get accepted, or how long will it take?
I appreciate your responses from anyone who has experience dealing with visa. Also if you could direct me to any helpful links or resources I would greatly appreciate that as well.
My sources:
travel dot state dot gov (visas info)
ceac dot state dot gov
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