For sponsors in the US, UK and Canada · September 2026
Everything you are doing to help may be what gets her refused.
You wrote the invitation letter. You attached your bank statements and your pay stubs. You offered to cover the flights, the hotel, everything. You explained how much she means to you and that you will take responsibility for her the whole time she is there.
Every one of those things is generous. Almost none of them helps, and two of them actively hurt. This is the part nobody explains before the refusal.
The letter you wrote does not count
Start here, because it is the single most common piece of wasted effort in this entire process. For a US visitor visa, an invitation letter is not a factor in the decision.
That is not our opinion. American universities publish it in their own guidance to staff and students, because they spent years watching families put their faith in a letter that the consulate does not weigh. Applicants must qualify on their own residence and their own ties abroad — not on assurances from somebody in the United States.
The US State Department does not treat invitation letters as a factor in a B-2 decision. American universities tell their own staff this in writing, because they got tired of families being told otherwise. Write one if you like — it is not what the visa turns on, and it will not rescue a weak file.
Why your money can work against her
The instinct is obvious: prove there is money, prove she will be looked after, remove every possible objection about cost. In most transactions that is exactly right.
A visitor visa is not that transaction. Nobody is asking whether the trip can be afforded. They are asking one question, and it is about her, not about you.
Look at where your contributions land. A partner waiting for her, somewhere to live, no need to earn while she is there — those are all reasons a person might stay. You have spent weeks building the left column, and the decision is made by reading the right one.
What the officer is actually deciding
Under US law every visitor applicant is presumed to be intending to immigrate until they show otherwise. That is the starting position, before she has said a word. A refusal under section 214(b) — the most common refusal there is — means simply that she did not overcome that presumption.
The UK and Canada phrase it differently but ask the same thing. The officer is not judging whether she is a good person or whether your relationship is real. They are judging one thing: is there enough waiting for her at home that she will go back to it?
Work she would lose
Employment she cannot walk away from, with a letter confirming her role, her salary and her approved leave dates. Self-employment counts, but it has to be shown properly.
A home and obligations
Property, a tenancy, a mortgage, anything that has to be returned to. Recurring commitments in her own name.
People who depend on her
Children, parents she supports, a business with staff. Dependents are among the strongest ties there are.
A history of coming back
Previous travel where she went and returned on time. This is worth more than any document you can write for her.
Notice that not one of those is something you can supply. That is the uncomfortable heart of it: this is her application, and the strongest thing you can do is stop trying to make it yours.
The relationship question, and why lying is fatal
Here is where people talk themselves into disaster. Having understood that a partner in the US counts against her, the temptation is to leave you out. Say it is a holiday. Say she is visiting a friend. Do not mention that you have been together two years.
Do not do this. A refusal for weak ties is a setback she can come back from. A finding that she misrepresented something is a different order of problem entirely, it attaches to her permanently, and it follows her into every future application to every country that asks whether she has ever been refused or misled an immigration authority.
Officers ask about relationships directly, and they are experienced at it. Messages, prior travel, social media and previous applications are all visible to them. A relationship that is disclosed plainly is an ordinary fact. The same relationship discovered after being hidden is evidence that the whole application cannot be trusted.
The honest position is also the strongest one available: yes, there is a relationship, and here is everything in her life that she is returning to regardless.
If she is Nigerian, there is now a bond
This is recent enough that most people planning a visit have not heard about it, and it changes the budget significantly.
US visitor visas for Nigerian nationals now require a refundable bond of USD 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000.
The amount is set by the consular officer at interview. The visa is not issued until the bond is paid. It is returned in full if she complies with her visa terms and departs on time, or properly files to extend or change status.
Nigeria was added to the programme in January 2026, alongside roughly fifty other countries, many of them African. What began as a twelve-month pilot was made permanent by the State Department on 3 August 2026 — and the amounts went up at the same time, from a 5,000 to 15,000 range to a 10,000 to 20,000 one. This is not a temporary measure to wait out.
There is a second condition that catches people even when the bond is paid: travellers on a bonded visa must enter and leave the United States through one of nine designated ports. Booking a flight into an airport that is not on that list is a straightforward way to ruin an approved trip, and it is exactly the sort of detail that never comes up until somebody is at check-in.
What actually helps
Having removed most of what you were planning to do, here is what is genuinely worth your effort.
Build her file, not yours
Every hour spent on her employment letter, her financial history and her obligations at home is worth more than a day spent on your own paperwork.
Make the trip specific and finite
Real dates, a real reason, a return she is booked onto. Vague plans of indefinite length read as an intention to see how it goes.
Let her pay what she can
If she funds a meaningful part of the trip from her own account, that is a small signal of independence. Total sponsorship removes it.
Prepare her for the interview honestly
She should be able to describe her job, her return date and her reason for going without hesitating. Rehearsed answers are obvious; understood answers are not.
Fix the contradictions first
Dates that disagree, funds that do not match the plan, a letter that says one thing while the booking says another. Officers find these quickly, and they are fatal in a way people underestimate.
When a visitor visa is the wrong instrument
One last thing, and it matters more than everything above.
If the actual plan is that she comes and stays — that you marry, that she does not go back — then a visitor visa is not the route, and using it as one is misrepresentation whatever anybody on a forum tells you. There are proper routes for people intending to live together, they take longer, and they exist precisely for this.
A visitor visa is for a visit. If what you want is a life together, ask for that instead — and be told honestly whether it is realistic.
We will tell you before you pay us if we think a visit will not be approved, and we will say so plainly rather than take the money and let the consulate deliver the news. That is not us being cautious. It is that a refusal sits on her record and makes the next attempt harder, and nobody should be sold one for the sake of a sale.
Have the file looked at before she applies.
We build the application around her ties, not your sponsorship — and tell you honestly what the file looks like before anything is submitted.
Continue Reading
When Your Documents Disagree
The contradictions that sink files, and how officers find them.
Income That Never Touches a Bank
How to evidence real money that does not look like a payslip.
Reading a Refusal Notice
What the wording actually means, and what to do next.