America has always attracted Russian citizens with its interesting life. Each year, tens of thousands of people come to the United States for different purposes: to solve business issues regarding business and work, to visit relatives and friends, or to drive to local attractions. But one thing that unites them all is obtaining an American visa.
For citizens of the Russian Federation, the presence of a visa in a foreign passport is a mandatory criterion for crossing the border. However, getting it is not as easy as it seems, if you look at a number of points put forward by the United States. But despite this, it is not necessary to contact the visa centers for help, since you can figure out all the documents yourself. This article will describe the detailed procedure for issuing a tourist visa on their own.
Another important factor must be taken into account - the successful completion of all mandatory points does not guarantee entry into the country, because the border guard officer has the last word, upon arrival in an American city who should receive the correct answer to the question about the visit’s intentions.
What criteria should be observed when applying for a visa?
A regular US tourist visa is called B-1 / B-2. The difference in numbers gives only a decoding for border services. So, the number one will indicate that a person is sent to the country for business purposes, holding negotiations, conferences or participating in exhibitions and so on. The number two refers to those who have exclusively tourist intentions, or who turn to a medical institution for medical care. Both options always go together and are indicated in pairs in the visa itself as well.
A tourist visa in the USA does not give rights for its holders to do business in the states or to conduct other open commercial activities. That is, a person with such a visa cannot officially get a job and receive wages from American employers. But, having arrived as a delegate from a foreign company, he can carry out his work activities within the established framework of the law.
In order to receive B-1 / B-2, the applicant must prepare a package of documents. For a tourist visa to the United States, it is necessary to provide all the available evidence that his candidacy complies with all the specified points of the American immigration law. Why is that? Because initially a foreign citizen is seen as a potential immigrant. It is in his interest to prove the opposite. After all, everyone knows that many people leave for the United States and remain to live and work illegally after the expiration of the visa regime, thereby violating the laws of the country.
What evidence can be provided:
- Firstly, it is to announce the purpose of the visit as short-term, having only a tourist inclination and a certain period.
- Secondly, a stay in the country should also have a clear period of time, the best proof is a return ticket home (upon presentation at the passport control).
- Thirdly, the availability of funds in sufficient equivalent to ensure their stay in the United States.
- Fourth, the availability of their own real estate, or permanent living space in their home country, as well as strong economic and social relations, which will guarantee the return to their homeland.
It is equally important to clearly and correctly explain your goals at the interview when applying for a tourist visa in the United States. It takes into account past trips abroad, and visas received, and the purpose of staying in these countries.
Documents
A tourist visa to the USA for a Russian citizen is requested on the basis of the following documents:
- Non-immigrant visa application form completed, form DS-160. Registration of the questionnaire is made in electronic form on the official website of the US Consulate.
- A passport with a validity period of at least six months after the applicant’s return from the United States. If other persons are entered in the passport, for example, children who will accompany the person on a trip, then a separate application form is attached for each with the attachment of a personal photo (on the criteria for the photos, description below).
- Invitation for an interview. It is sent to the email address after accepting the questionnaire and paying the state fee. This letter is a confirmation of the entry to the employee of the consulate.
- Other additional documents that will be assistants for obtaining a tourist visa to the USA (for example, confirming the purpose of the visit).
Since each candidate is a separate case, the consideration of all documents will be an individual work. Employees of the consular service take into account absolutely everything, including professional skills and social status. Great importance is given to marital status, having a family, property abroad, official employment, and so on.
The filing of any documents must be approached with great responsibility, since any fraud or falsification guarantees a ban on obtaining a visa not only at this stage, but also in the future. The ban will apply to all types of visas, and re-application will be rejected. If the individual has documents with the status of secrecy, then you can give them in a sealed envelope, in turn, the employee of the service is obliged to maintain the confidentiality of all provided papers.
In addition to the main documents, the applicant can provide, for example:
- An extract from the accounts of the bank in which they are open, information on the ownership of property, on tax assessments, which will show the financial independence and security of the applicant.
- Records of the planned route or a description of the specific purpose of the trip, any explanation on the account of your trip.
- Certificate of employment, indicating his position, name, salary for the last three months, confirmation of vacation or business trip.
- Open information about any court cases, detentions and so on. Regardless of which sentence was passed. Thus, the openness of human intentions will be shown.
- If the individual is the head of a private firm, then a paper confirming the position and describing the amount of income received may be required of him.
- Tourists traveling at the invitation of loved ones can provide ordinary copies of documents confirming kinship (notarization is not necessary).
- Those who have previously come to the United States can attach documents about their past journey.
Application procedure for a tourist visa in the USA
In order not to get confused, you need to remember step-by-step actions. How to apply for a tourist visa in the USA:
- The consular fee is 160 US dollars, the amount usually depends on the exchange rate and may vary. The fee at the time of filing is indicated on the official website. Keep in mind that this fee for applying for a tourist visa to the USA is irrevocable for Russians.
- Enter the correct information on the B-1 / B-2 visa application form exclusively in electronic form and send it for confirmation. A photograph attached in an electronic document must not be older than six months. After successful approval, a confirmation email will be sent to the email, which must be printed and saved.
- Take a rendezvous. After the first two points, you will be able to make an appointment for an interview, which is made on the basis of the passport number where you will paste the visa, the receipt number (issued after payment of the consular fee) and the confirmation number described in the second paragraph, consisting of ten digits.
- Take an interview. You need to come to the consulate with the whole package of documents prepared for obtaining a tourist visa to the USA: a passport suitable for the description in this article, a printed confirmation and an invitation to an interview also in printed form. People older than 80 years old, children under 14 years of age, persons holding certain positions and tourists applying for a visa again can be exempted from the interview (if you have not expired 11 months after the previous one, then you need to re-interview).
The period of a tourist visa in the USA for citizens of the Russian Federation is three full years.
Consular fee, what is it?
The question of how to get a tourist visa in the USA always starts with the cost aspect. One of the main points is the payment of the consular fee. It covers the costs of obtaining a tourist visa to the United States from Russia and the work of the consular department.
For each individual, the fee is paid separately, including children under the age of majority. The fee is made in MRV or machine-readable visa format, in case of refusal, the amount is not refundable, it can not be transferred to third parties.
But for Russian applicants for a tourist visa in the USA, the visa fee and the special fee for applying for and issuing a non-immigrant visa have been canceled.
Consular fee payment options
There are two types of consular fee payment. The amount of payment will vary depending on the current dollar to ruble exchange rate, however, payment will be made in local currency. In addition, on the official website, the transfer of 160 dollars into rubles takes place not at the official rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, but at the internal consular rate. You can make a payment for a tourist visa in the United States online, through any plastic card and at a postal or bank branch.
To pay outside the "walls" of the Internet, you must download from the official website and correctly fill out the receipt, provide it at the Russian Post Office or bank branch. After making the payment, the cashier will issue a certified check, which will indicate the individual registration number of the payment. It must be preserved and brought along with all the necessary documents for a tourist visa in the United States.
To pay the fee on the spot, you must follow the link provided on the official website of the consulate. The partner bank page of the Embassy of America opens. In order to make a payment, you need to check the consent of the irrevocability of the payment. Further, the applicant fills in all the columns according to the information of the used plastic card.
Important! On the website of the consulate’s site, in the place of description and the cost of the fee, there is a table that indicates the time of acceptance of the payment, it must be carefully read so that there are no unnecessary questions. After the payment has been processed, a receipt in pdf format is received by e-mail, it must be attached to the main documents upon request of a tourist visa to the USA, which were mentioned earlier.
If a person uses Apple devices, then for correct viewing it is necessary to install Adobe Rider, otherwise the document will be displayed distorted. Also, the individual number on the electronic check will differ in the number of digits, there are 16 of them.
How to sign up for an interview
After receiving confirmation of the acceptance of the application and payment of the consular fee, it is time to make an appointment for an interview. The entry will open on the same day on which the electronic payment was accepted, within three business hours, and every other day if it was made through the cashier.
You can apply for a tourist visa in the USA in two ways:
- Call a toll-free number in a call center. For information, the operator needs to indicate the number of the receipt of payment of the fee, the number of the foreign passport, which is indicated in all the documentation and the barcode number of the application submitted (confirmation of form DS-160).
- In the personal account on the consulate's website, open the tab for recording an interview and select any suitable day in the calendar that appears. Sometimes not all days may be available for recording, in which case the numbers will not be clickable. After you need to decide on the time that is offered to choose from. It’s best to sign up for the earliest hours (8:00 a.m.), since in the morning the stream moves faster, although there are a lot of people gathering (usually the line is built on the street before the consulate’s working day).
Filling out the form on the official website
About how to get a tourist visa in the United States, it has become less clear, now you need to understand the rules for filling out the questionnaire. For convenient filling out the DS-160 form on the site, it is recommended to use the Internet Explorer browser. For the convenience of the applicant, you can change the site language to Russian. The language of filling out the form for obtaining a tourist visa to the United States is English, respectively, the use of the Cyrillic alphabet is prohibited, except for lines in which you need to enter your full name in your native language.
Initially, the country from which the application is submitted is selected. Next, the questionnaire is assigned a number, Application ID, which, together with a secret question, can be printed or written down. With this number you can always go to the unfinished area of ​​the questionnaire and continue to enter data.
All details must be filled in according to the foreign passport, in the line Given Name the middle name is indicated in Latin letters.
If the applicant stops working with the form for 20 minutes, the session will automatically end and all the entered data will have to be re-entered, to prevent such cases, you must periodically click the "Save" button.
It is necessary to take a fresh photograph in electronic form during the determination of which documents for a tourist visa to the USA must be collected by the applicant. It is inserted into the DS-160 form and has its own criteria, which are usually known in photo salons. A printed photo may be needed only in one case, if downloading online on the technical problems of the site is temporarily impossible, then the photo is attached to all other documents and transmitted to the consul.
Filling in the column on the dates of arrival: you can enter the approximate numbers on which the applicant plans to visit the country. Official representatives of America categorically do not recommend purchasing tickets until the final decision on issuing a tourist visa to the United States. Independently fill out all the Internet pages of the questionnaire, without spaces or hiding information. The column on residence in the United States indicates the place that will be the first in the travel list (if several are expected). It is recommended to make a reservation in which there is no need to indicate credit card information for freezing funds.
Next to the graphs is explanatory information, it is highlighted with the inscription Help. The first page is filling out personal data. Here you can find questions such as "Did you have names in the form of a telecode" and "Your marital status". The second page is also the provision of personal data, but in the format of nationality and citizenship.
The third page contains questions about the place of residence and phone numbers. It is important to provide address information in the format of the house number; Street name; apartment number. The fourth page is the data of the passport. If in the column “Place of receipt” the applicant does not know what to enter (since the Russian passports often write the number of the Federal Migration Service in Russian), then “Does not apply” can be indicated.
The fifth page is dedicated to travel. It indicates the purpose, type of visa and the presence / absence of a tourist route. The address of the proposed hotel is written in the same format as the home one. At the end there is the item "Who pays for the trip / sponsor", here it is necessary to note the person at whose expense the banquet. If it is the applicant himself, then this is the information that needs to be provided.
On the sixth page, it’s a big plus to point out another person who might go with the applicant, or maybe just be his friend, who already has an American visa. In any case, this increases the chance of obtaining a visa.
The seventh page asks for data on previous trips to the United States of America. Only the last should be indicated, in case of repeated visits to the country. The following is the issue of previously issued US visas. The information will need to indicate the number of the previous visa, it is located in the lower right in the form of eight red numbers. The consulate is also interested in previous refusals, if any.
The tenth and eleventh pages ask the applicant about the inviting party and relatives. (, ), , ( ). - . , / ( ).
At the end of the questionnaire, important security questions are presented, for some they will seem strange, but consular officers take them very seriously, so you need to answer clearly and correctly, because the main goal is to get a tourist visa to the USA. How to answer the questions yourself if you do not have enough knowledge of the English language? Logically, of course, knowledge should be at the appropriate level, however, if the situation is the opposite, then you can turn to good online translators on the Internet, through which you can understand what the text says.
After finishing work on the DS-160 form, you need to send a copy to your email address and directly to the consulate for verification.
Photo Requirements
Given that the duration of a tourist visa in the United States is three years, then the photograph should also display a fresh face. The maximum prescription photo can not be more than six months. It should be designed in color format with a resolution of at least 600 by 600 dpi, but not exceed 1200 by 1200 dots. The size of the photo is 5 by 5 centimeters. Fifty percent of the seventy in the photo area should be the applicant’s head, and the head height itself should be at least twenty-five millimeters (maximum thirty-five millimeters).
The background of the head is light or white. The eyes in the photo should be open, the face without visible emotions, without smiles, clothing style - everyday, but not vivid on the background in bright color. In the questionnaire on the photo insertion page there is a special program for checking the suitability of the photo according to the requested data. If it does not go through the parameters, it will be rejected, like the application.
What to be prepared for when visiting the US Consulate
No changes have yet been introduced regarding the formal requirements for obtaining a tourist visa to the United States in 2018. Before entering the building it will be announced that it is forbidden to carry mobile phones and any other radio devices, headphones and electronics, bags and large luggage, lighters, weapons and explosives, food and liquids in glass containers. You can take with you only the necessary documents for an interview. Everything else is handed over to the storage room, the mobile phone will be asked to turn off (with the proof provided - by pressing the unlock button).
Next, visitors will find two-phase control with a metal detector frame and security staff. After all the checks, a live queue is arranged for the first number, which will lead the applicant to fingerprints. The procedure takes place without the use of ink, using a digital scanner, so it lasts quite quickly.
You can pass the time sitting on a chair in the waiting room. After the prints are issued, another number is issued, which indicates the room where the interview itself will take place. In this room there is a large electronic display, on it is displayed the number of the person waiting and the number of the window to which you need to approach.
Consulate interview procedure
At the interview you must have all the documents collected in advance: an invitation letter, a confirmation of the application form (DS-160), a valid passport, and if available, previously issued too), a photograph (in the case described in the paragraph on photo requirements), as well any additional materials - invitations from relatives, hotel reservations, documents about finances and property, and so on.
Since the main task of the officer is to prevent illegal immigration, some questions may seem unusual, for example, about the financial situation. You need to answer everything calmly and confidently. It is possible that during the conversation the consul will look at the monitor of his computer, and not towards the applicant. This is their tricky move, allowing you to follow the gestures and facial expressions of the defendant. Therefore, you need to behave naturally, not to get nervous and not to fuss. It is better to omit jokes, since American and Russian cultures have significant differences and the officer may not understand the specifics of humor.
Predicting questions about the purpose of the visit, it is better to study in advance information about the sights that a person is interested in. Do not go into details when telling, brevity is the sister of talent. It is necessary to provide only those documents that are required by the consul; At the end of the conversation, if the consul picks up a passport, then the answer is yes and you can clarify how much a tourist visa to the USA is given to the applicant.
Failure Options
It happens that a visa is refused, and most often no one explains the reasons. But there are a number of options that can be avoided if you initially approach the issue of design seriously.
For example, a refusal may result if the applicant has not provided any necessary data, or additional time is required to verify the information by the officer, in such cases the process of registration is suspended until the circumstances are clarified, or until the applicant collects the full material. The reason is section 221 (g) of U.S. immigration law. The term is given up to twelve months.
The second case is paragraph 214 (b) of a similar law, according to which the consul may doubt the veracity of evidence. That is, the officer will not have enough of the information that the applicant provided as a guarantor of his return to his homeland. Therefore, with such questions it is always necessary to talk about the family, about official work and good earnings and about real estate.
A refusal may follow if the applicant has a criminal record, in particular, if she was not paid off at the time of the interview, charges of serious and especially serious crimes may also be the reason for the refusal. And the applicant will be refused forever in case of presentation of fake papers.
How long can I get a passport with a ready visa?
In Russia, all applications are reviewed and processed very quickly. But it is better to submit documents in advance - before the expected date of departure abroad at least three months in advance. Such caution is needed when a possible extension of the deadlines. In normal mode, the visa is usually ready 1-3 days after the passport.
To track readiness, you must enter the passport number on the official website of the consulate in your personal account. When the message indicates readiness, you can go pick it up at one of the Pony express offices, which is indicated in advance in the personal data. There is also the option of delivering a finished passport with a home visa. If the applicant has not taken the passport within fifteen days, he will be returned back to the consulate.
The applicant will learn directly how much you can be on a tourist visa to the United States in the territory of this country directly at the passport control in the city of arrival. Usually they set a deadline of six months, if the visa is coming to an end, then only the date of arrival on the territory is entered, but other periods can be set at the discretion of the border control officer.