If you are in the U.S. and your visa application is denied, you will receive a decision notice that details why your petition or application was denied, and whether you have the ability to appeal the decision or reopen the case. If you are not provided the opportunity to appeal the decision or reopen the case, or have the opportunity to do so but do not want to, you must exit the U.S. in a timely manner if you do not have another status to fall back on.
Suppose you’re abroad and your application is denied at the embassy interview. In that case, the consular officer will give you a form explaining why the application was denied.
In many cases, you can apply for the visa again, and depending on the reason for denial, you may be eligible to apply for a waiver of inadmissibility.
Reasons for denying a visa application may include health reasons, a criminal background, prior issues with U.S. immigration, the officer not believing your intent to enter the U.S., or other reasons.
If the denial relates to a prior immigration history where you accrued unlawful presence in the U.S., your inadmissibility may be for 3 or 10 years, and a waiver may be available to allow you to obtain a visa sooner. However, some reasons for inadmissibility preclude you from ever getting a visa to the U.S. It is important to note waivers are available for non-immigrant and immigrant visa applications.
Non-immigrant visa waivers tend to be more simple and do not always require a special form or additional fees. In more simple cases, you only need to ask the consular officer to request that you be granted a waiver and provide supporting documentation for your request.
In this type of case, you will have to wait for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Admissibility Review Office to decide whether to grant you a waiver and how long the waiver will last.
On the other hand, waivers that allow otherwise inadmissible foreigners to get an immigrant visa are permanent, but the application process is more complicated and costly.
For purposes of immigrant visa waivers, K visas are treated like immigrant visas. You should hire an experienced immigration attorney to help you prepare your immigrant visa waiver request.
To apply for a waiver for an immigrant visa, depending on your circumstances, you may be eligible to apply for Form I-601 Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility.
However, even if you can apply for a waiver, your specific circumstances may not meet the requirements for granting the waiver and issuing you a visa. Sometimes, you may need to wait months or even years before you become eligible for a waiver. In addition, all waivers of inadmissibility are discretionary, so the visa may still be denied even if you have good evidence that you are eligible.
An attorney can help you determine whether to file an application for a waiver and how to present your specific situation convincingly.
If you are applying for a visa to be with family, such as a K visa, one of the most common reasons for granting a visa is extreme hardship to your family member in the U.S.
This type of waiver is only available if your inadmissibility to the U.S. would cause extreme hardship to an immediate family member such as your U.S. citizen spouse.
To be eligible for this type of waiver, you must prove that you are related to a U.S. citizen.
You may need to prove that you have stronger ties to the U.S. than to any foreign country or that it would cause financial, health-related, emotional, physical, cultural, safety, or other extreme problems for the U.S. citizen if the U.S. citizen had to leave the U.S.
Overall, depending on the reason your visa was denied and your specific situation, you may be able to reapply, or you may be eligible for a waiver of inadmissibility.
Reapplying for a U.S. Visa in Case of a Denial
In the case that your ineligibility for the visa is considered temporary, you can re-apply for a visa if your circumstances have changed.
The consular officer will decide based on the new information whether you are eligible for the visa or not.
Suppose your ineligibility is found permanent, but the consular officer considers that everything else is okay with your application and advises you to apply for a visa waiver. In that case, you still have a chance to get a visa.
Visa Fee Refunding
Unfortunately, when the visa application of the foreigner wishing to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. is denied, the applicant will not get back the money he or she paid for the application fee.
And upon reapplying, the government fee has to be paid again.
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