Most Common Reasons for U.S. Business Visitor Visa Denial

Business is serious - it’s all about deadlines, meetings, and work. Sometimes you need to settle an estate overseas, negotiate a contract, make an investment, consult a business associate, attend a business event or participate in a short training course. Applying for the B1 visa is not a complicated process but it is difficult for the ones facing it for the first time. Let’s go over the top reasons why the U.S. business visitor visa is denied to make sure you know how to avoid them.

1. You don’t have enough funds to cover your stay in the United States.

Show that you have at least the minimum of the required amount of money to pay for your travel to the United States. Apply through VisaExpress and learn from your personal visa consultant just how much that would be. This should cover everything you’ll need while being there - transportation, accommodation, and daily living expenses. It would be great if the company, organization, or institution that you work for sponsors your trip so you could fulfill this requirement for the U.S. business visa without your individual contribution.

2. You didn’t have an Employment Authorization Document issued for people who applied for the U.S. business visa as domestic helpers.

We advise you to consult with one of our visa consultants on this first, but you generally need an Employment Authorization Document if you belong to one of these categories:

• You’re hired help, travelling together with your employer in the United States.
• You’re hired help employed by a U.S. citizen who lives outside the United States and visits the country from time to time.
• You’re employed by a foreign airline.

3. You overstayed your last stay in the United States on another visa.

Kindly note that you need to leave the United States before your valid visa expires. Otherwise, the Consular Officer might see your overstay as a big sign that your potential future stay in the United States will be beyond the limits of the B1 visa.

4. Your application documentation was not complete.

Ensure you have collected and submitted the complete documentation. You never know which document will play a decisive role in your visa approval. When you go to our official Visitor visa page and apply with our help, your personal visa consultant provides you with the list of documents you’ll need to attach alongside your visa application form, and makes sure you have all the necessary documentation ready.

5. Your visa interview didn’t go as planned.

Surely you want to have a perfect interview. However, maybe you talked too much and didn’t provide focused answers. Perhaps you were nervous so you didn’t answer directly. Or it could be that you were too confident in your answers and didn’t establish a professional relationship with the Consular Officer who interviewed you. Pay attention to your well-balanced appearance and setting your story straight by the time you attend your visa interview. We help you prepare for the interview with detailed advice, instructions, and additional guides and brochures, to make sure you are 100% ready for success.

6. You didn’t have a travel itinerary.

It is not required that you have a definite date for your travel to the United States. However, it would be helpful to have a general idea of why you want to travel. It is expected you’re traveling with a clear assignment, and have your trip planned to the best extent.

7. You have close relatives in the United States.

You will be asked this a lot and with good reason. The Consular Officer wants to know if there is a chance you will attempt to immigrate to the United States while holding the U.S. business visa.

8. Your past application was denied so you applied for a new visa too soon with different travel intent.

Let’s say you applied for the U.S. student visa and got denied. Within the next month or two you applied for the U.S. business visa and had a different travel purpose. It might seem you want to reach the U.S. territory regardless of the way you’re going to do it.

9. Your story was not in line with the provided documents.

Everything you say during your interview will be taken into account. Imagine you apply for the U.S. business visa and during your interview you state you want to study in the United States. Your story needs to match the documents you provide.

10. You had a pending immigrant visa application.

You can’t have it both ways. When you apply for the U.S. business visa, you cannot have two simultaneous visa application processes. In other words, the U.S. business visa means you want to visit the U.S. to complete your assignment and come back home. You apply for a U.S. immigrant visa when you want to move to the U.S. and get a Green Card. We can help you in both scenarios, all you need to do is contact us and we’ll get back to you in the shortest time possible.

11. You needed an interpreter to communicate with the Consular Officer but you didn’t ask for one in advance.

To have meaningful communication with the Consular Officer, you need to understand the language first. If the communication is not in a language you speak, don’t hesitate to ask for an interpreter to help you reply to the interview questions.

12. You didn’t demonstrate to have strong ties to your country.

The Consular Officer would like to know if there is anything that keeps you close to a territory outside the United States. If you have relatives, mention them. If you are a real estate owner, it is good to highlight that. If you have a job to come back to, children going to school back home, or any other ongoing arrangement that you need to attend to, do make a clear statement.

13. The Consular Officer misjudged you because you belong to a group where someone got their visa denied already

This is an unfortunate case of being “guilty by association”. If one or more visa applicants from your group didn’t get their visa approval, it is possible that your visa was denied simply because the Consular Officer interviewing all of you decided on that.

14. You are pregnant and you will give birth very soon.

The Consular Officer might think you want to give birth to a child on U.S. territory. Consequently and according to U.S. law, your child would automatically become a U.S. citizen. Being pregnant doesn’t disqualify you from traveling to the U.S., however, if you’ve applied for the business visa and you’re in the late stage of your pregnancy, consider this explanation of your possible visa denial.

15. You own real estate in the United States.

This could mean that you’re planning to immigrate while you’re in the U.S. on the business visa. Having real estate in the United States could signal your loose ties to a country outside of the United States.

Thank you for making it until the end of this list! VisaExpress is here to help you prevent each point from the list of visa denials from coming true. Save your time and effort, and apply for your U.S. business visa with our help. We’ll be more than happy to help you reach your goal!