My wife and I want to visit the USA this month for Christmas and New Year.
My wife is a permanent Australian resident but still holds a Philippines passport. What is the quickest and easiest way to apply for a tourist visa for her and is it likely to be approved? She has a sister already living in the United States. Also, will it be easy for myself and my son who are both Australian citizens?
Finally, are there any reasonably priced flights to the West Coast at the moment?
Cheers.
<checks calendar>
I needed a US Visa at short notice when in the UK, and first booking was far off.
So I made a distant booking, showed up at the embassy waving my booking at the first line of defence.
That got me past the grunts to someone with authority who gave me the visa. Worth a try.
The power of self entitlement. You may have had a good reason, but imagine if everyone cottoned on to basically bullying our way to the outcome we wanted. Oh, that's right, ……America.
There was a lot more to the story, but it isn't as fascinating as you imagine. Just bureaucracy.
@bargaino: Not fascinating.If anything typical & predictable.Even in non-urgent situations, this is becoming the default attitude.
"Me first".
One of my friends missed a few business trips due to this when he was a PR. OP better to plan ahead.
She is an Australian resident and has a permanent visa in Australia but still has a Philippines passport. So not an Australian citizen.
yeah, it was same for my friend, not Philippines though. Now he got an Australian passport and pretty happy.
We are based in Adelaide. Do they do interviews there? How long is the wait time?
From a quick search, Philippines isn't part of the US Visa Waiver program, so you she will have to apply for a visa - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-…
You and your son will be able to apply for an ESTA online.
reasonably priced flights to the West Coast
There was a guy on here recently selling his USA tickets for 10% discount for financial reasons.
American Tourist Visa for Wife
So many great trade offers in the forums recently. Thanks, but I already have a wife.
I think you have misinterpreted the post. OP already has a wife, so I guess they would be looking to swap THEIR wife for YOUR visa. Hope this helps.
How long has she been PR for? You are probably best to wait till she is a citizen to visit the US.
I doubt you’ll be able to do it this year. Maybe plan for next year instead.
And take out travel insurance wear Maga caps
Ask Trump if you can bring her in as an illegal alien
Long wait times for US travel visas here in Australia. I did hear of people (who urgently needed it) flying to Fiji, walking up to the US embassy there and getting it in one or two days, but this was about a year ago so things could have changed.
Is it different in an embassy? How about the embassy in Canberra? Or are they more lenient in the Fiji embassy?
Not sure it was the embassy or just visa processing facility there - but basically wait times were less than a day in Fiji so people would fly there to get them. There was a whole facebook group dedicated to people in Australia getting US visas so might be worth checking out what people are doing now.
Do you have a link to the group?
@BluebirdV: Can't recall it, I think I found it off the US Embassy in Australia website with people pleading for acceleration of visas but can't locate it now.
What a joke. I can imagine Trumpy Wumpy will be castrating that cosy scam, when he gets into the big white mafia man-cave in Washington.
My wife and I want to visit the USA this month for Christmas and New Year.
Finally, are there any reasonably priced flights to the West Coast at the moment?
LOL So its the 9th of Dec and you haven't booked flights or arranged a visa?
Yeah not going to happen.
Hopefully without sounding too dumb, how is it managed if you have to travel urgently, e.g for a dying relative? Is there an urgent option?
Pro tip, Mexican Border.Hurry!
What the heck did you leave it until freaking December to figure this out? You planning to sell your plane tickets away last-minute as well?
We haven't bought plane tickets.
I dont like your chance. You generally need to make an appointment to attend physical interview and slots are booked well in advance. For instance, current waiting time for melbourne is 3 months and 6 months for sydney.