Maryland Criminal & Immigration Lawyer Blog
The majority of the non-English-speaking world calls it football, while most of the English-speaking world calls it soccer. Whatever you call it, it is the most popular team sport on the planet. The sport’s crown jewel event — the World Cup — is coming to the USA (as well as Canada and Mexico) next year. The volume of international travelers visiting the USA next year will be massive. For many, attending the World Cup will require navigating the often intricate and complicated world of travel visas. Whether you need a travel visa or another type of visa, ensuring you complete your application correctly the first time is crucial, which is why having representation from a Maryland travel visa lawyer is a must.
According to the FIFA (soccer’s governing body) website, nine of the top 16 national teams in the world call Europe home. South America is the second most represented continent, with four squads. Asia has one (Japan), and Africa has one (Morocco.) If you live in Japan or any of those nine European countries and want to attend World Cup matches in person, traveling to the USA is a comparatively simple process. Japan, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Croatia are among the 37 nations that participate in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP).
Citizens of these countries may spend up to 90 days in the USA without obtaining a visa. To travel without a visa, you must have approval from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) before you embark on your journey. ESTA is an automated online tool that assesses your eligibility to travel to the USA.
The process is substantially more involved for Brazilians, Colombians, Argentinians, Uruguayans, or Moroccans. These five nations are not among the 37 who are a part of the VWP, meaning that citizens of these countries must obtain a visa before entering the USA.
The B-2 Visa Process
Generally, most of these football fanatics will need a B-2 visa. A B-2 visa allows a non-immigrant foreign national to come to the USA for tourism, pleasure, or visiting. Visitors to the USA should understand that entry under the VWP and entry via a B-2 visa differ in some noteworthy ways. For one, entry under the VWP allows you to stay for only 90 days maximum. Under a B-2 visa, you can stay for as long as six months.
To obtain a B-2 visa, you must fill out Form DS-160. Before you do that, however, you should check your passport… specifically, your passport’s expiration date. To get a B-2 visa, your passport must expire six months or more after your last day in the USA. The federal government may ask some applicants for additional supporting documentation to answer questions like (a) why you are coming, (b) when you will leave, and (c) how you will pay for your trip.
As with any visa application, responding to a request for additional supporting information should be done comprehensively and precisely to avoid unnecessary delays or denials. As this blog discussed last month, a failure to do this is one of the most readily avoidable ways to derail or kill your visa application.
Earlier this week, ESPN reported on the problem of “sluggish” visa processing times. According to the U.S. Department of State, the wait time for a B-2 visa “can run up to 700 days” — or about 23 months — for citizens of countries like Colombia. Given these slow processing times, efficiency in completing the visa application process is paramount. To help you sidestep these and other avoidable barriers, contact the experienced Maryland travel visa attorneys at Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC. Call us at (301) 519-2801 or reach out to us through our online contact form today.