A 27-year-old engineer from India was left feeling devastated after his visitor visa to the US was rejected on January 24, 2025. Taking to Reddit, the former Senior Data Analyst shared that he quit his job in December 2024 and will be pursuing an MBA from the Indian School of Business in April this year. During this "career break", he decided to go on vacation to the US in March 2025. While his parents and sister already have a US visa, the man shared that his visa was rejected under 214b.
He also shared the questions asked during his interview:
- What is the purpose of the visit? Vacation. My sister lives in Cali.
- What does your sister do? She is a housewife. Her husband works as an SDE.
- How long will you stay? 2-3 weeks.
- When does your B-school start? April'25
- What was your salary? (between 1700 to 2000 USD per month)
- What was your designation? Senior Data Analyst.
- Have you travelled internationally before? Yes. UAE in 2010, Spain in 2017, and Singapore in 2018.
According to the official website of the US Department of State, if you are refused a visa under section 214(b), it means that you:
- Did not sufficiently demonstrate to the consular officer that you qualify for the nonimmigrant visa category you applied for; and/or:
- Did not overcome the presumption of immigrant intent, required by law, by sufficiently demonstrating that you have strong ties to your home country that will compel you to leave the United States at the end of your temporary stay. (H-1B and L visa applicants, along with their spouse and any minor children, are excluded from this requirement.)
The engineer argued in the post that he "did have strong reasons to come back to India" for higher studies. "I had already made a payment of 7L to the B-school. I had carried all the receipts with me," he added.
B1/B2 Rejection for 27M India
byu/paranoid_android_0 inusvisascheduling
After feeling dejected, he asked people on Reddit to help with when he should apply for a visa again. Several Redditors tried to understand the reason for his visa rejection:
One user said, "I think you gave a contradictory answer to question 1. You should've stopped on vacation. The officer never asked who lives in the US. So what essentially happened was that the VO thought you were going to visit your family and may end up staying back longer and actually not vacation."
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Another wrote, "Extremely disappointing buddy. Seems like a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Really don't feel the background could be blamed, either the fear of staying back with a housewife sister is too high or they were just done with that day's quota."
A third suggested, "You should apply again. When you are in B-school, it will give them a solid reason for you to come back to India."
One explained, "You mentioning a career break did make the interviewer a bit sceptical. Also having a stable job in India makes them feel you will come back for sure. Maybe try applying with family members as it promotes the idea of a vacation."
