In-depth visa application guides, interview tips, and document checklists.
If your startup is a Delaware C-corp but an Indian subsidiary pays your salary, name the Indian company as your DS-160 employer and disclose the US parent in your duties. Listing the US entity as employer reads as US work and invites a 214(b) refusal.
On a B-1 you can pitch investors, negotiate and sign a term sheet or SAFE, and attend your board meeting in San Francisco. You cannot draw a US salary, manage US staff, or stay on after the round closes to start operations.
Forming and owning a Delaware C-corp is permitted on a B-1, as are board and investor meetings. Running it from the US is not. Since Delaware needs no residency and EINs come by phone, incorporate remotely first and travel for meetings.
You can usually take a genuine B-1 trip while an O-1 is pending. The DS-160 only asks about immigrant petitions, so an O-1 alone is a No. The real risk is a 214(b) refusal that the O-1 officer later reads.
Appendix V applies the same Standard Visitor test to a grandmother-in-law as to a parent. Your file must prove the relationship with a document chain, name the occasion, show her life in India and who pays. Priority, £500 for 5 working days from biometrics, changes only the speed.
A Skilled Worker can support a parent's UK Standard Visitor visa, but only as an informal third party under Appendix V. The letter should cover relationship, dates, address, the cost split and your eVisa share code. Promises they will leave, or funding you cannot show, hurt the file.
A sibling can visit you on a B-2, but a 22 to 35 year old is judged harder than a parent under 214(b) because their life in India is still being built. It works with a sanctioned-leave job or an exam calendar, an occasion with dates, and an honest answer on sponsorship.
A long-serving nanny or cook can join an L-1, H-1B, O-1 or E-2 family in the US on a B-1 domestic-worker visa under 9 FAM 402.2-5(D), if she has worked for you a year, the contract promises US wages and free board, and she proves her own ties. Green card holders cannot use it.
Interview together before the move if you can. If the vendor booked only the L-1, the spouse and children can still apply alone with copies of the I-797 or endorsed I-129S, his visa and I-94, and the marriage and birth certificates. Pick the post by slot and keep every story identical.
Say who actually pays on the DS-160, prefer parents who can fund themselves, and leave Form I-134 out unless the consulate asks or the applicant has no money of their own. The law is the same for in-laws and parents, and the in-law folder must lean harder on their own household in India.
Retirement does not disqualify Indian parents from a US B-2 visa. The manual lists employment as one of four kinds of ties. The file has to show a life that continues in India, ranked from people who depend on you down to property, with a short first trip and no six-month stays.
Parents refused a B-2 under 214(b) can reapply with no waiting period, and should not until the arc of the trip changes: a fixed occasion, a short stay, their own words and real obligations at home. With Indian interview queues at 6 to 12 months, one wasted attempt costs a year.
Name your wife, the daughter on H-4, as the US point of contact and record her status as Nonimmigrant. Put the parents' own Indian bank statements first. Your H-1B payslips only show the house can hold them; under 214(b) the officer decides on the applicants' own ties.
Grandparents apply for a B-2 as a family visit around the birth, with dates. Never write childcare or medical. Indian interview queues ran 6.5 to 12 months in September 2026, so book the week the pregnancy is confirmed, at the shortest-queue post, and buy insurance.
For a May 2027 ceremony, parents in India with no US visa need an interview booked by late September 2026, because visitor visa waits run 6.5 to 12 months. A graduation does not qualify for an expedited appointment, so early booking and slot watching do the work.
Your I-140 is a petition for you, so your parents answer No to the DS-160 immigrant petition question unless someone has filed for them. An H-1B holder cannot sponsor parents. The real test is 214(b), judged on their own ties to India.
Yes, an unmarried partner in India can get a B-2 to visit you while you are on F-1. The officer decides under section 214(b) on your partner's own ties in India, mainly their job and finances. Your letter is not a deciding factor, so keep it short and factual.
Yes, your fiancée can apply for a B-2 while you are on H-1B, and yes, she should write "fiancée" honestly on the DS-160. The refusal risk sits elsewhere: an open-ended stay, thin ties of her own in India, and two people describing the same trip differently.
Your partner can apply for a B-2 while you are on OPT or CPT, and an honest one will not damage a later spouse visa. But on OPT you cannot file a K-1 at all, and the DS-160 line naming the relationship is what decides your second application.
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