Denied visa

Versión en español

If your non-immigrant visa has been denied by the consular officer during the interview, you must request a new appointment, pay the new visa application fee, and follow the same procedures as the first time. Please do not call nor send a fax requesting that your denied visa be granted, because the decision to give or deny a visa is made on the basis of the interview. Do not call nor send a fax requesting an earlier interview appointment date for your second application, because these exceptions are not made for anyone whose visa has been denied.

An applicant who comes to the Embassy for the second interview is generally not interviewed by the same consular officer who denied the visa.

Whoever wishes to reapply for a visa should know that most visa denials are due to a lack of family or economic ties to Colombia, to show that he/she will return from the U.S. after visiting or studying there. Under U.S. law every non-immigrant visa applicant is considered an intending immigrant, therefore he/she is considered ineligible for a non-immigrant visa unless the opposite is proven during the interview. Consequently, the applicant whose visa has been denied due to a lack of family or economic ties to Colombia, should wait until he/she is better established and can prove this, before reapplying.

If your visa has been denied twice within a 12-month period, we suggest that you do not request another appointment until a year after the first denial, when your family, economic, and professional situation may be more stable.

Review of Decision

There is no formal appeal process for visas which have been refused after an interview with a Consular Officer. A Supervisory Consular Officer reviews every refusal. Applicants may reapply following the normal application procedures, However, we do not encourage applicants to reapply unless there have been significant changes in their economic and/or professional situations, or they are better able to demonstrate their credibility for Non-immigrant visa issuance.

Third Party Requests

Review requests from third parties will not be accepted. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended, states in section 222(f) (8 U.S.C. 1202 (f)) that "...records of the Department of State and diplomatic and consular offices of the United States pertaining to the issuance or refusal of visas or permits to enter the United States shall be considered confidential and shall be used only for the formulation, amendment, administration, or enforcement of the immigration, nationality, and other laws of the United States..." It has been determined that visa records and information contained in a visa applicant's file are statutorily exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act provisions.

It is strictly prohibited for an Embassy employee to make a recommendation or seek assistance on behalf of a visa applicant. We invite you to use our Visa Information Call Center for more information on visa requirements.