We are a small family: mother, sister and myself, the brother. I live in Canada on a PR, work in a tech job, and earn a fair amount. My mother has a small business back in India. But my sister, due to medical issues, has neither significant education or employment.
We have strong family ties in the US, and they are all US citizens. We had stayed with them during our prior trips when my sister and I were kids (in the early 2000s).
My mother and I both have US visas, and I've visited the US multiple times in the past year. We had applied for my sister's US visa, but she's unfortunately gotten rejected due to insufficient ties. I'm not sure if she was able to thoroughly communicate things with the officer - she speaks often in fragmented sentences in English -- or if the officer would have rejected this kind of application regardless.
I'm at a bit of a loss on how to overcome this rejection. She doesn't have strong ties due to the virtue of her condition, and there's little we can do about that. We do own property in an expensive area that we tried to demonstrate; we have a pet and she has a relationship that she wants to come back to. Not sure what else we can do.
Some available options now I believe are:
Aim to strengthen travel history by visiting Europe/UK and then applying again for US/Canada.
Applying to US again but claiming medical dependence so that mother can go inside with her. (But not sure if mother will be able to speak). Coaching her a little more so that she can talk a bit more fluently.
Applying for Canadian visitor visas - but those are notoriously hard to get for Indians, and the same issues will likely apply.
Applying for US Visa for medical purposes. My sister has had a lifelong ailment and perhaps we can have consultations with neurologist. By family in the US are all doctor's and they should be able to get us connected. But this, honestly, would be a little disingenuous since we aren't rich enough to get her treated in the US beyond a consultation.
If you have any experience with this sort of thing, any suggestions would be appreciated.
My hope was that she would get the US visa, and then get a Canadian visit visa, so that she could spend 5-6 weeks a year in US and Canada (combined), with extended family and myself. I guess that's not happening this year, for sure. But perhaps there's something I could work towards to make that a possibility next year? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
