Inviting Your Parents to Visit the U.S.

We frequently receive questions from Chinese students, workers, and residents in the U.S. who want to know how their parents can qualify to receive visas to enter the U.S. for tourism. In our experience, many of these applicants are eligible for visas, but a significant number overstay or fail to return.

In adjudicating visitor visa applications for parents of Chinese students, workers, and residents, our visa officers tend to focus on factors that help us determine whether the applicants possess compelling ties to China:

If the applicants have traveled to the U.S. previously, how long did they stay? If they stayed longer than 6 months, did they have INS approval to do so? (Note: Please have the applicants bring their INS extension approval notices to their interview).
If the applicants have traveled to the U.S. previously, how long have they been back in China?
How many children and grandchildren do the applicants have in China?
Have the relatives in the U.S. ever returned to China to visit their families as is normal for foreign students, workers, and residents in the U.S.?
Are the parents active professionally in China; if so, what is their income and the nature of their work?

The answers to these questions relate to whether applicants can fulfill the statutory requirement in Section 101 (a)(15)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to show that they have a permanent residence in a foreign country that they have no intention of abandoning. In other words, persons who are absent from China for periods of a year or so may have trouble showing that they possess social or professional obligations in China that are sufficiently powerful to ensure that they will go home following a temporary stay abroad. Applicants are advised to be ready to address these issues during their visa interviews.

Often, older applicants do not understand why their applications to return to the U.S. a second time are denied, even though INS approved an extension of stay during their previous visit. Usually, these applicants stayed in the U.S. for a year or more and have been back in China only a short while. Under these circumstances, the applicants have great difficulty establishing that they have compelling social or professional obligations in China sufficient to ensure that they will return to China, thereby making them ineligible to receive another visa. Parents who find themselves in this situation may wish instead to invite their U.S. relatives to visit them here in China.

For additional information please visit the Department of State's web site at www.travel.state.gov or contact the Visa Information Call Center. People calling from within China may dial toll free number 4008-872-333 or Shanghai local phone (021) 3881-4611 while those calling from overseas should dial (86-21) 3881-4611. Please note that charges for domestic or international long-distance calls are solely the responsibility of the caller. Press here for more detailed information on the Visa Information Call Center.