Immigration Corner | Can my daughter appeal her visa denial?

Dear Mrs Walker-Huntington,

My family, which includes me, my wife, and two daughters (ages 15 and 19), have been travelling to the United States since their birth. We have never had an issue and they have done renewals since their first travel. My 19-year-old daughter’s visa expired during COVID and she had to wait until this year to get an appointment for renewal. At the appointment, she was asked what she was doing now, and she responded that she is a first-year student at a local university. She was then denied the renewal based on the premise that she does not have enough ties to the country. Can we appeal?

Concerned Dad

Dear Concerned Dad,

There is no appeal from the denial of a non-immigrant US visa. A visa is issued at the discretion of the consular officer and no applicant is entitled to a visa. All non-immigrant US visa applicants must overcome the presumption that they intend to go to the United States and not return home. This burden of proof is often hard to meet because each applicant is dependent on the consular officer’s subjective impressions. We are told that the officer is trained to determine who is at risk of not returning after an intended visit to America and can make those decisions in a short period of time. Needless to say, the officers get it wrong at times – both ways.

So often there are persons with significant ties to their home country – home, job, spouse, children, financial obligations, etc, and they are still denied a non-immigrant visa. And on the other hand, there are persons with very few ties to their home and they are granted visas. This presumption to migrate extends to each entry that a non-immigrant makes at the border of the United States and accounts for questions sometimes asked of a traveller at the point of entry into the US. The non-immigrant visa gives the holder permission to travel to the US border and seek entry.

At age 19, your daughter is considered a person with very few ties to Jamaica, and although she may have no reason to want to go to America and become undocumented, the officer views her in this light. As there is no appeal, she should wait another year and apply again, showing her continued enrollment in school. Anything else that she could do to help cement her ties to Jamaica should be considered – e.g., a part-time job.

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq. is a Jamaican-American attorney who practises immigration law in the United States; and family, criminal and international law in Florida. She is a diversity and inclusion consultant, mediator and former special magistrate and hearing officer in Broward County, Florida. info@walkerhuntington.com