What steps can I take to improve my chances of a successful US B2 visa application?

# US B2 visa application

A few weeks ago I posted about some concerns I had regarding the application for a B2 visa being submitted by my wife. The original post: <[members only]/>. Some of the feedback I got in response was very useful. Thanks to Bob Haas and Robert Bob Howard especially, as following their comments I made sure my wife was prepared to dig deep on the topic of my, the husband. And I'm happy to report that yesterday her application was approved.

I am thankful for the comments that helped us prepare, so just thought I'd share this in case it's useful for anyone out there.

Our preparation:

Identified what the visa might even remotely be interested in and came up with loads of questions on each. My wife made sure she knew all the facts and practiced concise responses. She's not a natural in this sort of thing, so we practiced quite a bit. Mock interviews helped. Mock interviews with others (my friends) helped even more. We did not engage any company to help. I relied heavily on AI to help me come up with her 'training material', although that was certainly not without issue (isn't all AI!?)

I ensured that she had every document that could even remotely be useful. Judging by what I saw on Wireless Road, ours was way overkill. Not a second do I regret the effort put into this though. I'd rather have her carry way too much, than have her not carry that one document that would have made a critical difference.

Because of the time of day, we didn't want the anxiety of 'can we get a car', 'will traffic be horrible', and 'will she get car sick' and so we booked a hotel nearby. Great move. It got us away from our condo and thus away from distractions. We relaxed, did some soft rehearsals, walked over to the embassy just to see, and just hung out together. She went to sleep super early and we got up at 5:00 for an 8:30 booking: she wanted to do a few more rehearsals before the main event.

How did it go:

Arrived 15 minutes before the appointed time. It wasn't busy. She basically went straight in, and I went to collect our things from the hotel and settled in at a nearby coffee place we had agreed. I thought she was allowed to bring water but not her handbag. Turns out it was the other way around. Oh well.

The photo we included was not acceptable. And we hadn't thought to make sure to carry some cash, so she had to come out to get cash and then restart the process. As she went in a second time, I thought "if this added anxiety costs her the visa, I'm a dead man!" ... anyway, there is a photo machine inside. Takes 150 baht. Take used bills, new ones don't work. No change.

Inside everyone is packed like sardines. There is very little seating and you're constantly moving along in a queue. After security the first stop is, I guess, 'enrollment'. Thai agent checks docs, takes prints, asks a few basic questions and tells you your photo is no good and to go get a new one. Pass this and you go to a US agent who checks your fingerprint (I guess against the enrolled version?). People are grouped by interview time, and when the group is called you then queue single file towards the visa officers. You can hear every interview happening around you. My wife told me about some of the rejections she overheard that surprised her ("you make this much money and you've never traveled abroad? that doesn't make sense", "you say you traveled to Europe but you can't show me the passport with that visa"). We had read that 'people report getting calmer as they progress along the process', but this was not the case for my wife! Total time from in to eat (excluding the new photo bit) was about 1.5 hours.

The interview took 2 minutes. If that. Approved! My wife said all she wanted to do was run back to tell me the news and that her smile was so big it made her face hurt.

At the nearby coffee shop I was surrounded by people going to apply. Many of them were reciting their answers. Many excited returns from those who got approved applications. I was just getting another coffee when I saw her looking for me, and I already knew from her face her application was approved.

My wife has a B2 level of English. By no means fluent. We speak a mixture of Thai, English and my native language between us. Officers assume English, and their Thai is (according to my wife) pretty horrible. She heard very heavy accents, and their comprehension of answers given seemed basic to her as well.

Conclusion:

For any of our other visa applications, there is very little prep. I have a standard set of documents, we update, print, go over the details a few times over a coffee before the appointment time, she goes in, and done. It's all document-based, so who cares what the VFS people think.

This prep was intense. Maybe we overdid it, but we invested a lot of time as my wife is not used to this sort of thing. Halfway through, we agreed that had we known how much work this was going to be that we probably wouldn't have submitted. But we did. So we forged ahead.

And having been approved is of course a great reward. We're excited to go see our friends now.