The Unit­ed States Em­bassy in Trinidad and To­ba­go is not du­ty-bound to look at sup­port­ing doc­u­ments when re­view­ing an ap­pli­ca­tion for a non-im­mi­grant visa. Well-placed US diplo­mat­ic sources said con­sular of­fi­cers are not re­quired to look at an ap­pli­cant's sup­port­ing doc­u­ments. It was fur­ther ex­plained that the in­for­ma­tion on the ap­pli­ca­tion form and the in­for­ma­tion stat­ed by the ap­pli­cant dur­ing the in­ter­view are usu­al­ly all that are nec­es­sary to de­ter­mine an ap­pli­cant's el­i­gi­bil­i­ty un­der the law.

The sources said that all ap­pli­cants must qual­i­fy on their own mer­its and must not re­ly on the as­sur­ances of third par­ties, rel­a­tives or oth­er­wise. It was fur­ther ex­plained that Sec­tion 214 (b) of the US Im­mi­gra­tion and Na­tion­al­i­ty Act, com­mon­ly called INA, pre­sumes that every ap­pli­cant for a non-im­mi­grant visa is an in­tend­ing im­mi­grant to the Unit­ed States. That is, un­less he or she can pro­vide cred­i­ble ev­i­dence of strong fam­i­ly, so­cial, pro­fes­sion­al and eco­nom­ic ties that would com­pel him or her to leave the Unit­ed States af­ter a short stay.

Visa ap­pli­cants must demon­strate that they do not plan to aban­don their res­i­dence in Trinidad and To­ba­go, it was ex­plained. All ap­pli­cants must over­come that pre­sump­tion, re­gard­less of their rea­son for trav­el, the US sources said. Fur­ther, ap­pli­cants must qual­i­fy on their own mer­its.

At the in­ter­view, you do not over­come the pre­sump­tion of an in­tend­ing im­mi­grant, said the sources. Pre­vi­ous ap­pli­cants for visas are free to reap­ply, it was stat­ed. But his or her cir­cum­stances must have changed to war­rant a visa, the sources fur­ther said.