Can a U.S. Transit Visa allow a stay of up to 29 days or can a US Tourist Visa application be done from a country other than that of your citizenship?

2/29/2016 6:38:43 PM

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is the US embassy in Taiwan in all but name (they have a “director” receives the same rank and benefits as US ambassadors in other countries; they are staffed by State Department employees; they have a website that looks the same as US embassy websites; they handle the same functions a normal US embassy would). Many countries maintain such “embassies in all but name” in Taiwan. It’s a diplomatic pretend game — everybody knows it’s a US embassy, but the PRC is satisfied that it’s not officially called such.

Conversely, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices (TECO) are the embassy and consulates, respectively, of the Republic of China in the US and other countries, in all but name. They can’t call it embassy and consulates, but everybody knows what they are.

2/29/2016 1:50:45 PM

The reason there is no US embassy in Taiwan is because the US does not recognise the Republic of China (the government of Taiwan) as the legitimate government of China – it recognises the People’s Republic of China (mainland China).

The offical US embassy site notes:

*Taiwan Note: The U.S. maintains unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a private nonprofit corporation, which performs citizen and consular services similar to those at diplomatic posts. See AIT’s website www.ait.org.tw/en/ for details.

This is also supported by the State Deparment’s page on Taiwan (see the “Consular Services” section.

You can find more about applying for visas on the relevant page of the AIT’s website.

Coming to visit you, especially for a long period is not permitted on a Transit visa. Under the “”Travel purposes not permitted on a Transit (C) Visa – Examples:” list on the State Department website, it says this:

A foreign citizen whose layover in the United States is for a primary purpose other than to transit, for example to visit friends or sightsee, requires a visitor (B) visa.

Some other answers on this site indicate that short diversions to visit family say, overnight are often tolerated. By inference, 3 weeks probably would not be.
Traveling in US while transit visa

2/29/2016 1:55:38 PM

According to official US information (https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country/taiwan.html), the American Institute in Taipei performs “consular services similar to those at embassies”. Your sister-in-law should be apply to apply for a US visa from there.

Also, a transit visa is intended to be used for a “brief layover in the United States when the only reason for entering the United States is to transit.” A stay of three weeks is unlikely to make the US immigration officer happy, even if it occurs on-route to or from Taiwan.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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