Parents' Trip to the U.S. - U.S. Visa Application
This content was automatically generated by gpt-4o-mini (No human review). The original post is in Chinese.
It has been 20 days since the last two blog posts, and a lot has happened during this time, both in life and work, to the point that my parents’ trip to the U.S. feels like it was a long time ago. When my parents and younger brother just returned to China, I felt like I was on a high for two weeks, as if my 2024 had just begun. I made new year plans, and various ideas popped up, filling my life with energy. The main reason for this was that during my parents’ stay in the U.S., I suppressed many of my personal needs and thoughts, always feeling like I had to spend time with them, sacrificing a lot of my own life. So after they left, I felt liberated both mentally and in terms of time. However, later on, due to complicated interpersonal relationships, work pressure, commuting, and accommodation issues, I suddenly felt anxious and depressed for two weeks. It wasn’t until last Saturday when I fell and had to stay home to recover this week, unable to do any exercise, that I finally had time to write this blog post. I felt that if I delayed any longer, I would never write it.
My parents and younger brother coming to the U.S. was a significant event in my life, almost like my first job. We prepared for their trip to the U.S. for nearly a year (over a span of time), investing countless hours and money. During their time in the U.S., I regarded accompanying them as the most important thing, as it wasn’t easy for them to make the trip.
This blog mainly discusses the visa application process for my parents.
DS160 Visa Interview Appointment
The earliest attempt to get a U.S. visa for my parents and younger brother was in 2019. At that time, I had already prepared the visa materials and submitted three DS160 forms, scheduling an interview in Shanghai after the 2020 Spring Festival. I was still a PhD student at UCSD, and the plan was for my parents and brother to come to the U.S. for a vacation in the summer of 2020. However, when the pandemic broke out in early 2020, I didn’t dare to take the risk of going to Shanghai, so I canceled their interview. This cancellation delayed the process for more than three years, during which many things happened, including my master’s graduation and even starting my second job.
At the beginning of 2023, the pandemic in China finally subsided, so I began to restart the travel arrangements to the U.S., planning for them to come before Christmas in 2023. At the end of January, I started to resubmit the DS160 forms for my parents (filling out three lengthy DS160 forms was really painful, mainly because the application website was extremely difficult to use), prepared the visa materials again (the previous materials had expired due to the long time), and scheduled an interview in Beijing for early March (since I couldn’t get an appointment in Shanghai for March). It was just in time for a few days of travel in Beijing, thinking that if the visa didn’t get approved, at least it wouldn’t be a wasted trip.
Visa Material Preparation
My parents and younger brother applied for a B2 travel visa. For material preparation, refer to this link: https://www.ustraveldocs.com/cn/zh/business-visa
Some questions about the visa materials:
- Do we need to book flight tickets?
- We didn’t buy flight tickets because we plan to come to the U.S. in December and apply for the visa in March; buying tickets too early isn’t practical. However, we took screenshots of the round-trip tickets we plan to purchase.
- Who will cover the travel expenses?
- The travel expenses are listed as being covered by me, not my parents, which is the actual situation.
- How detailed should the travel plan and invitation letter be?
- Below is my material preparation checklist, travel plan, and invitation letter.
On the Day of the Interview
I bought plane tickets for my parents to Beijing, booked hotel accommodations, arranged a travel itinerary, and went over the visa materials with them several times via video call.
The interview went smoothly; the questions were few and simple, and there were no tricky questions. Most of the materials we prepared were not used; it seemed they only looked at my I-20 and asked about the relationship between my parents and my brother (since my brother was born after the two-child policy was implemented, there is a significant age gap between him and my parents). After the interview, they received the blue paper indicating the visa approval (as shown below), and soon after, all three of them received a 10-year U.S. tourist visa.
To add some background about my family, my parents are in their 50s and still working, and my brother was not yet 6 years old at the time. They are from Fujian, and none of them had traveled abroad before (they had blank passports). This trip to Beijing was also my mom’s and brother’s first time flying. So, I am really happy that they were able to successfully obtain the 10-year visa!
Beijing Travel Itinerary
Here is their actual itinerary for the trip to Beijing:
2/28 Tuesday:
- Fuzhou Changle Airport - Beijing Daxing Airport, arriving at 21:55
- Accommodation: Yongxing Hotel (Beijing Daxing International Airport Branch)
3/1 Wednesday
- Activities: National Museum, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City
- Accommodation: Home Inn - Beijing Xuanwumen Branch
3/2 Thursday
- Activities: Temple of Heaven Park, Beijing Zoo
- Accommodation: Fuyin Fashion Hotel (Beijing Yansha Embassy Area Branch)
3/3 Friday
- Morning: Visa interview
- Afternoon activities: Summer Palace, Peking University + Tsinghua University (at the school gate)
- Accommodation: Fuyin Fashion Hotel (Beijing Yansha Embassy Area Branch)
3/4 Saturday
- Activities: Mutianyu Great Wall
- Accommodation: Fuyin Fashion Hotel (Beijing Yansha Embassy Area Branch)
3/5 Sunday
- High-speed train from Beijing South Station back home at 8:00 am
In the end, they had a great time in Beijing, and all the time spent on their planned activities was worthwhile!
