Q: A family member in the United States is sick. Why can’t I go there to help?
On occasion, applicants apply for nonimmigrant visas to visit or care for sick or dying relatives in the United States.
For example, a family member may want to travel to care for children while a mother recovers from giving birth or illness. Or an applicant may wish to accompany an elderly family member who is returning to the U.S. to help facilitate the relative’s travel. Often, the applicant comes to the visa interview with letters from U.S. doctors or medical facilities, or the family in the United States, that attest to the seriousness of the illness.
While caring for family members is certainly a valid reason to travel, each applicant must still independently qualify for the visa that he or she is applying for – regardless of the purpose of travel.
Under U.S. law, nonimmigrant visas are only issued to those applicants who are able to convince the interviewing officer that they will return to Guyana after visiting the United States. As every applicant is assumed to be an intending immigrant until they prove that they are not, the consular officer will look at the social and economic ties of the applicant to make a determination about whether they believe the applicant will return.
Since each applicant must demonstrate their own qualifications for U.S. nonimmigrant visas, the support and qualifications of hosts, friends or family in the United States are not relevant. Therefore, letters from medical facilities or from a sick friend do not help the applicant qualify for the visa. As previously stated, U.S. law requires that decisions regarding nonimmigrant visas are based on the situation of the applicant, not the friends or family that might need their assistance.
“Ask the Consul” is a weekly column from the U.S. Embassy answering questions about U.S. immigration law and visa issues. If you have a general question about visa policy please email it to us at AskGeorge@state.gov. We select questions each week and publish the answers in Stabroek News and on our website at http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/guyana/ask_con.html. For more information about visas please see http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov or http://georgetown.usembassy.gov/.
Other than the questions we select, we DO NOT respond to questions sent to Ask the Consul. Please contact the visa inquiries unit (email visageorge@state. gov or call 225-7965 between 8 am- 12 pm and 1 pm- 4 pm Monday through Friday) if you have questions about a specific case.
