Yes, your girlfriend or boyfriend can apply for a B-2 visitor visa to see you while you study in the US on F-1. The State Department's own manual lists partners of students among the people a B-2 is meant for. Being unmarried does not disqualify anyone.
What decides the case is your partner's life in India. Under section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the consular officer has to presume that your partner intends to immigrate until your partner shows otherwise. Your I-20 and your OPT salary sit in the background of that decision. Their job, their family, their finances and their reason to be back in India on a fixed date sit in the foreground.
Plan a short visit with dates, and let your partner pay for as much of it as they honestly can. Keep your sponsor letter to one page of facts. A letter that promises too much does more harm than no letter at all.
Which F-1 couples this covers
One of you is an Indian citizen in the US in F-1 status, in coursework or working on CPT or OPT. The other lives in India and would apply at a US consulate there on an Indian passport. You are unmarried and you are not engaged.
If you are married, the F-2 dependent visa is the correct route and you can stop reading. If you are engaged, or a K-1 or spouse petition is somewhere in your plans, the sequencing questions change. I'd send you to our piece on getting a partner a B-2 without damaging a future K-1 or spouse visa.
The provision is 9 FAM 402.2-4(B)(5), in the Foreign Affairs Manual chapter on B visas. It says B-2 is the appropriate class for household members of a long-term nonimmigrant who cannot get derivative status, and it names "cohabitating partners" of students as an example.
That text was written mainly for a partner who moves with the student for the length of the programme. Most Indian couples I see are placed differently, because the partner has a job and a home in India. For them I would ask for two or three weeks. A short visit to see a partner is an ordinary B-2 purpose and needs no special provision.
What section 214(b) asks of an unmarried applicant in their twenties
Section 214(b) is a presumption, and it runs against the applicant. The manual's guidance on 214(b) puts the burden of proof on the person at the window, and an officer who is not convinced must refuse. Under 9 FAM 402.2-2(B), a B visa applicant must have a residence abroad that they do not intend to abandon, and must be coming for a limited period on a legitimate visit.
Young Indian applicants worry about the word "residence" because they live with their parents. They needn't. 9 FAM 401.1-3(E) says an applicant does not have to maintain an independent household. The parental home counts. The same section tells officers what to look for, which is "permanent employment, meaningful business or financial connections, close family ties, or social or cultural associations".
Consider the file as the officer sees it. The applicant is 26 and unmarried, and the person they love lives in New Jersey. That relationship is a pull towards the US, so the proof needed on the India side goes up. A partner in the US combined with a thin life in India is the pattern that gets refused.
The ties audit, one document at a time
I dislike checklists that say "carry bank statements" without saying why. Each paper answers one question and is silent on the rest. This is how I read the four that matter most.
| Document | What it proves | What it leaves unanswered |
|---|---|---|
| Employer letter with approved leave and a rejoining date | Someone in India expects your partner back at a desk on a named day | Whether the job is worth coming back to. Salary slips and tenure answer that. |
| Income tax returns and salary credits for two years or more | A working life that predates the trip, and the means to pay for it | Anything about intent. A large balance has never proved return. |
| Proof of commitments, such as a home loan in their name or parents who depend on them | Obligations that continue after the return flight | Very little, if the papers were created last month |
| Earlier visas to the UK or the Schengen area, with exit stamps | A record of leaving other countries on time | How they will behave when a partner lives in the destination country |
The audit sometimes gives an answer people don't want. If your partner resigned last month, or is waiting on US university admits of their own, I would hold the application. A refusal collected in a weak month has to be declared on every future DS-160.
What your letter should say, and four promises to leave out
The State Department is blunt about sponsor papers. Its visitor visa page says a letter of invitation or Affidavit of Support is not needed to apply, and that if you bring one, it is not one of the factors used in deciding the visa. It goes further.
Visa applicants must qualify based on their ties abroad/to their home country, rather than assurances from U.S. family and friends.
I still ask for a letter. Its job is modest. It fixes the facts of the trip in one place, so the DS-160 and the interview answers agree.
A good letter from an F-1 student gives your full name, your university and programme, your current status with its end date, and your address. It names the relationship in plain words and gives the dates of the visit. It says what you are providing, which is usually a room in your apartment.
Attach your I-20, your visa, your I-94 record, and your EAD if you are on OPT. Those attachments prove that the host is in lawful status. They say nothing about your partner's return.
These are the promises I strike out of drafts.
- "I guarantee she will return to India." You can't guarantee another adult's conduct. The manual tells officers at 9 FAM 402.2-2(B) that an applicant cannot settle doubts about return by offering to leave a dependent behind. A boyfriend's assurance carries even less weight.
- "She may stay up to six months." An open-ended stay with a partner reads as a trial move. Give dates.
- "I will bear all expenses." On a teaching assistant stipend or an early OPT salary, that claim invites arithmetic. Say what you are covering and let your partner's own account show the remainder.
- Anything about the future. A line about marriage plans or her GRE score hands the officer a reason to doubt that the visit is temporary.
The DS-160 fields where partners trip
The form has no box for a boyfriend. On the US Point of Contact page, the relationship menu offers Relative, Spouse, Friend, Business Associate, Employer, School Official and Other. I choose Friend, because it is true and the form offers nothing closer. Then I prepare the applicant to say "he is my boyfriend, he is doing his master's in Indiana" the moment the officer asks who they are visiting.
The family page asks about immediate relatives in the United States, and the form's own definition of that term includes a fiancé or fiancée. A boyfriend or girlfriend doesn't belong there. Do not promote the relationship to make it sound serious, and do not demote it to "family friend" to make it sound harmless.
Two more fields. Under the person paying for the trip, your partner should select Self wherever that is honest. Under the address of stay, they should enter your apartment. I have seen applicants name a hotel to hide the relationship and then stumble when asked about three weeks in a college town.
The reason for this care is the difference between two kinds of refusal. A 214(b) refusal carries no permanent bar, and the manual says it can be overcome on a later application. A finding of wilful misrepresentation under section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) is a permanent ineligibility. The manual's chapter on misrepresentation treats silence about something nobody asked differently from a false answer to a direct question, and only the second is misrepresentation.
Booking against a queue that runs close to a year
As of September 2026, the wait for a B1/B2 interview in India is long. The State Department's mid-September update put the next available appointment at about 12 months in Hyderabad, 11.5 in Mumbai, 10 in New Delhi, 7.5 in Chennai and 6.5 in Kolkata. The figures are revised monthly on the official wait times page, so check on the day you book.
Your partner should apply in India. Since September 2025 the State Department has asked nonimmigrant applicants to book in their country of residence or nationality, and the US Embassy in India's visa pages say the same. A first B-2 means an interview in person. The application fee is $185 (as of September 2026). A separate $250 Visa Integrity Fee was written into law in 2025 and its collection has been uneven through 2026, so read the fee notice when you pay.
If you want your partner at your convocation in May, the booking should already exist. Check your own dates too. A visit that falls after your programme end date, or while an OPT or H-1B filing is pending, makes every fact in your letter uncertain.
How I would run a partner's B-2 file at SaathiVisa
I start in India. Before anyone opens the DS-160, I sit with the applicant and go through the audit above. I also ask what their week looks like after they land back in Mumbai or Bengaluru.
Next I draft the DS-160 with both of you on a call. Your address and your status dates have to match the letter, and couples are often working from different versions of the plan. Then I edit the letter down to a page. Most of my edits are deletions.
Your partner then practises four answers until each comes out in a sentence. They cover who they are visiting, for how long, who is paying, and what brings them back. Officers often decide without asking for a single paper, so the answers have to stand without the folder.
When a partner's B-2 should not be filed alone
A prior 214(b) refusal is the first, since the next officer will see the earlier record and expect something to have changed. An earlier DS-160 that described the relationship differently is another. So is an applicant with F-1 plans of their own for next year, because a visitor application and a student application six months apart tell two stories.
If you are waiting on a STEM extension or moving to H-1B, the letter has to be written around a status that is still changing. And if the visit is tied to your graduation, with the queue near a year, there is no room for a refusal and a second attempt. For how refusals are recorded and why the slip explains so little, read why visas get refused.
Three questions F-1 students ask me about a partner's B-2
Should my partner say "boyfriend" at the interview, or just "friend"?
Say boyfriend or girlfriend. The officer can see an unrelated person of similar age listed as the contact, and will ask. A direct answer in one sentence sounds like someone with nothing to manage. A false one risks a misrepresentation finding that never expires.
I'm earning on OPT. Should I file Form I-134 for my girlfriend?
I wouldn't, unless the consulate asks for it. Form I-134 is a USCIS declaration in which you agree to support someone financially during a temporary stay. The State Department says an Affidavit of Support is not a factor in the visitor visa decision. A signed undertaking from a student on a time-limited work permit also suggests that the applicant can't fund a three-week holiday. Your partner's own savings make a better case.
If the B-2 is refused, does it touch my F-1 or my future H-1B?
No. The refusal is recorded against your partner's application, and your SEVIS record and your status are unaffected. Your partner will have to disclose it on every later US visa form. They can reapply at any time, paying the fee again. A second interview within weeks on identical facts usually ends the same way. Reapply when something real has changed, such as a confirmed job or a completed degree.