The State Department notes on their website that the vast majority of visa applications are approved. This refers to applicants going through consular processing outside of the United States and seeking entrance to the U.S. for either an immigrant or non-immigrant visa. Even though it is more commonplace to have ones visa accepted vs. denied, it is still possible to be issued a denial for many reasons. Here is a comprehensive list of the most common reasons that visas are denied to foreigners seeking entrance to the U.S:
1. The visa application is incomplete or the right burden of evidence has not been submitted to the consulate.
2. Immigrant intent. This applies for non-immigrant visa applicants who did not present strong enough evidence to a consular officer that they have strong ties to their home country, and therefore didn’t qualify for the visa.
3. Fraud. While completing your visa application and going through the consular process, an officer determines you lied or misrepresented yourself on official immigration forms or documents.
4. Unlawful presence. While applying for a visa, a consular officer determines that you previously overstayed a tourist visa by more than a year based on your CBP record. You are now ineligible for a visa because you have previously violated U.S. immigration laws.
If a consular officer determines that any of the above situations apply on your behalf, you become “ineligible” for the visa category you are applying for, regardless if it is employment or family-based. When this happens, you might be able to submit a waiver of ineligibility, but each circumstance is different and usually someone in this predicament should contact an attorney.
Re-Applying
Once you have been denied a visa, the State Department notes that anyone can re-apply for a visa, but in most cases they will need to submit completely new documentation, and pay the associated consular processing fees again associated with their visa application. The one exception is when a visa application was denied because the applicant failed to produce the right documents, or had an incomplete application. In this case, the applicant might simply be asked by a consular officer to produce such documents while their case in pending.
For anyone else, when you re-apply, you should take some time to understand why you were ineligible, and thus why your visa was denied. In the case of immigrant intent, you may need to do some additional work to produce the right kinds of documents, such as owned property or additional letters from family members, that you can attach to your application affirming ties to your home country.
Be sure to follow up with the consulate via email or by phone to ask why your visa was denied. For those who have more serious issues such as previously overstaying a visa, and thus having an unlawful presence in the U.S., a waiver will absolutely be needed in order to have any success in consular processing again.
For more information, please see the following link: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/waivers.html#waivers.
