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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawThings You Cannot Take to a US Visa Interview at the Embassy

Things You Cannot Take to a US Visa Interview at the Embassy

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Visa interviews. These are interviews held at US Embassies and Consulates abroad. We are going to be doing this from a standpoint that specifically looks at the US Embassy here in Bangkok but this information can be used in a more general sense for those who are watching this video; these are good for rules of thumb if you will.

A lot of folks ask me “What should I take to interview?” and we frequently assist clients with providing that information. A question that doesn't really come up that can cause problems at the interview because oftentimes we find the applicants are going alone and they may not have assistance of someone that is there with them or for various and sundry reasons, just the facilities of the Embassy may not allow them to deal with things that are brought in that are prohibited items that they then need to deal with before they can even get into their interview.

So the US Embassy here in Bangkok actually put this up the other day on their Twitter feed. We are going to go ahead and throw this up there. It says” Prohibited items: any food items; liquid and gels; e-cigarettes; cigarettes; cigars; matchboxes; lighters; any sharp objects such as scissors, pen knives and nail files; weapons or explosives material of any kind”. Let me be clear on that. Some things you bring like you got a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, I know fewer and fewer people smoke these days but let's say you have that on you that is very possible that the security team will allow that to be left in a safe location at their security desk. But if you have got weapons or explosives it is probably not a good idea to go to the US Embassy. In fact beyond even that, it is not a good idea at all to go to the US Embassy with weapons or explosives. "Any backpacks; oversized shoulder bags or purses; any briefcases, suitcases, oversized handbags or travel bags; any other battery operated or electronic devices such as computer tablets, pagers, cameras, audio video cassettes, MP3s, laptops, portable music players, smartwatch, headphones, tokens, calculators or power banks; only one cell phone allowed per applicant." 

So again some of this stuff you may be able to, if you have it on you, they may be able to sort of deal with it while you are there and sort of put in a safe space and hold it for you until you come back. I do know I have been going to the US Embassy for years now and when I do go down there and I have something, usually it is my headphones, I have got headphones on and they say "yeah you can't take that in." They usually are kind enough to hold them for me securely and then return it to me when I come back out. That stated, it is not the best idea to presume that. So it is a good idea if you now know these restrictions, good idea to just not take this stuff at all when you go. So if you are for example interviewing for something like a K-1 Visa, you have got your documentation associated with Packet 4, your Packet 3 documentation even, and you know all your documentation associated with proving up your relationship etc. that of course you are going to want to take. But if you have got for example a big briefcase maybe leave that behind, maybe put it in some kind of packet, an envelope and take it in that way. Again weapons or explosives material of any kind, yeah never take that to an Embassy of any kind or really much of anywhere if you can at all avoid it. The same would go for sharp objects, scissors, knives, I think you can pretty well argue it would be a good idea to not take that down there at all. But like I said, under certain circumstances they may allow you to securely store whatever prohibited item you have brought. For example oftentimes my headphones I find that to be the case. In the case of food and beverages, you might end up in a situation where you have to throw that away. 

So again good rule of thumb, now that you see this sort of prohibited list maybe just go ahead and omit bringing these objects to the Embassy at all.