Visitor Visa for ex-Army personnel

[vikki76]

Hello All,
My friend's father wants to apply for B-1 visa for tourism purpose. He is a senior retired defence personnel in India and now having successful post-retirement career as a education consultant. Will his Army background prove to be a detriment to his B-1 visa application?
DS-157 specifically asks for prior military training and knowledge of handling of firearms. All answers are affirmative in his case.
Does any one know if some one with this profile was able to get B-1/2 visitor visa

[shantanup]

My friend's father-in-law, a retired Indian army personnel, was able to obtain a visitor's visa to US and he did come and stayed with him for about 3-4 months. So, in short, retired Indian army personnel can get a visitor's visa and travel to US without any trouble.

[ram_nara303]

I don't think it is not a issue as my friend's father also a retired Navy personel with the INdian Navy had no issues. All he had to so is show that he is a retired personnel and may have to show proof that he is just coming to visit and not to stay back.

[chantu]

I have one question that I will post here. I do not want to open a new thread.

I am inviting my in-laws and I filled their DS156 forms online. After filling everything, it generated the pdf file of DS156. In that pdf file, there is one section in upper right hand corner called "DO NOT WRITE IN THIS SPACE". Under that section there is a line (fill in the blanks type) starting with "On ______ by _____ under section 214(b) 221(g) ".

Now after generating the pdf, the appointment date was automatically put into this section. Example: "On 01 January 2009 by ......".

I am worried why they put the date there and the date was not there when I took appointment for my parents. I also checked my collegues parents DS156, and the date was still not there. It is Mumbai consulate.

Can somebody please confirm if they had similar experience and they got their parent's or in-laws visa granted??

Thanks.

[smisachu]

This should pose no problem. My uncle who was also an ex Army officer got B1 to visit his kids here. I also have a friend who is retired from the Army and is now on H1 also waiting for GC. Only problem will be for Army personel of Rouge regimes like China, North Korea, Libiya, Iran, Some African countries and Kamer Rouge etc.

Originally Posted by vikki76

Hello All,
My friend's father wants to apply for B-1 visa for tourism purpose. He is a senior retired defence personnel in India and now having successful post-retirement career as a education consultant. Will his Army background prove to be a detriment to his B-1 visa application?
DS-157 specifically asks for prior military training and knowledge of handling of firearms. All answers are affirmative in his case.
Does any one know if some one with this profile was able to get B-1/2 visitor visa

[vikki76]

Thanks for replying everyone.I will forward this information .

[chantu]

Originally Posted by chantu

I have one question that I will post here. I do not want to open a new thread.

I am inviting my in-laws and I filled their DS156 forms online. After filling everything, it generated the pdf file of DS156. In that pdf file, there is one section in upper right hand corner called "DO NOT WRITE IN THIS SPACE". Under that section there is a line (fill in the blanks type) starting with "On ______ by _____ under section 214(b) 221(g) ".

Now after generating the pdf, the appointment date was automatically put into this section. Example: "On 01 January 2009 by ......".

I am worried why they put the date there and the date was not there when I took appointment for my parents. I also checked my collegues parents DS156, and the date was still not there. It is Mumbai consulate.

Can somebody please confirm if they had similar experience and they got their parent's or in-laws visa granted??

Thanks.

Can somebody throw light on this?

[sledge_hammer]

Since when did the regime in China become "rouge"?

Originally Posted by smisachu

This should pose no problem. My uncle who was also an ex Army officer got B1 to visit his kids here. I also have a friend who is retired from the Army and is now on H1 also waiting for GC. Only problem will be for Army personel of Rouge regimes like China, North Korea, Libiya, Iran, Some African countries and Kamer Rouge etc.

[nozerd]

Actually being a Defence employee is a positive. You can show proof of stronger connection to home country because of following.

1) Pension that is available every month for life.

2) Free treatment at Army Hospitals.

3) Subsidised cost at Military Canteen facilities for provisions etc.

[Pineapple]

Originally Posted by nozerd

Actually being a Defence employee is a positive. You can show proof of stronger connection to home country because of following.

1) Pension that is available every month for life.

2) Free treatment at Army Hospitals.

3) Subsidised cost at Military Canteen facilities for provisions etc.

In my opinion, the strongest proof of connection to the home country is that the person has put his/her life on the line in her (the home country's) defense..
(Obviously, my opinion does not matter to the consulate officers who give the visa )

[dnarwat]

Hi,
My sister is serving in the Army and is applying for a visitor visa. I have a question. while filling DS 160, It asks have you ever served in the military.....if we enter yes, it asks for start and end dates. she is still serving so is it ok to remove these details from the page and only have yes as an answer? otherwise, it does not let us submit without filling an end date.

she has obtained an NOC from her unit.