A B2 visa is a non immigrant visa that permits tourists to visit the United States temporarily. B2 visa holders are permitted to sightsee, visit family and friends or receive medical treatment in the US.
B2 Requirements:
A B2 visa can only be applied for outside of the US and applicants must show that the purpose of their trip is for pleasure, tourism or medical treatment.
Applicants must demonstrate they intend to remain in the US temporarily and that they will return to their home country at the end of their stay. B2 visa applicants may be required to show that they have sufficient funds to support themselves during their stay. Applicants may also be required to meet certain health and character requirements.
A B2 visa usually allows the holder to remain in the US for a maximum of six (6) months while some B2 visa holders may be granted a stay of up to one year.
The process to actually apply for your visa will cost you, especially if you don't have a US consulate in your city. In Australia there are three main consulates where you can apply for your visa, Melbourne and Sydney and Perth. For us that meant a flight to Sydney with accommodation for two nights.
Your application is done online and must be accompanied with the appropriate passport photo. US passport photo's are not the same as Australian ones, the US Consulate site has a list of photo shops that can take your photo in the approved format. These photo's are not cheap about $45-00 each for a set of four. The online form is quite lengthy and will take some time to work through, tip save it regularly. Your application must include a digital copy of your passport photo. The site is strict on the size and quality of the photo, in fact it does a test to confirm its appropriateness.
When first starting your application you are asked which consulate you wish to visit, we chose Melbourne, however due to personal circumstances had to change it to Sydney. This was no great problem it just meant booking our appointment in Sydney. Our application was then transferred online from Melbourne to Sydney on our interview day, a slight delay. To book your interview you must sign up to a third party site, from memory about $30-00 each. Booking and submitting your application are closely linked and one can't be done without the other, in our case that interview was now in Sydney. You must pay for your application at the the time of submission and it is vital you keep your receipts and any confirmations you get as you will need them later. The cost for your visa application is $160-00 US each. Don't leave it to the last minute to apply as we found out that large blocks of days can be blocked out, we waited six weeks for our appointment.
So for the next six weeks we gathered our documentation:
Letter of employment
Rate notice
Bank statements
Payslips
Proof of our leave entitlements
A brief itinerary and outline of our trip
And any other documentation that we thought would support our application and put minds at rest that we always intend to return home to Australia.
It was even suggested to take photo's of our grand children.
The next step is a visit to the consulate.
- Posted by RnR on their IPad
Location:Brisbane
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