The United States Visa System Is a Scam and I Said What I Said

I am a lawyer. I choose my words carefully. So when I say the United States visa system is a scam, I mean it in the most precise, considered, legally informed sense of the word.

Here is what happened to me.

I applied for a US visa to travel to California to write the bar exam. I had a legitimate purpose. I had documentation. I had a registration confirmation from the State Bar of California. I paid the visa application fee, which is non-refundable regardless of outcome. I attended my interview, or tried to. And I was denied, not because of anything I did, but because of a travel ban that applies to my nationality.

They kept the fee.

Let me say that again. They kept the fee. I paid for the opportunity to be considered, and when the consideration went against me for reasons entirely outside my control, they kept the money and sent me home.

This is the part where someone will say: "That is just how it works." And I understand that. I understand that the non-refundable visa fee is policy, that it is disclosed in the application process, that applicants are technically informed. But understanding how something works does not make it right. And as a lawyer, I think it is worth asking whether it is legal, or at least whether it should be.

When a service provider collects a fee and fails to deliver the service, that is, in most jurisdictions, a breach of contract or unjust enrichment. The US government would argue that the fee is for processing, not for approval, and that processing occurred. But when the denial is based on a blanket policy rather than an individual assessment, when the outcome was predetermined before the interview began, the argument that a genuine service was rendered becomes very thin.

I am not the only person this has happened to. There are thousands of people across the world who have paid visa fees, been denied under blanket bans or arbitrary discretion, and received nothing back. No refund. No explanation beyond a form letter. No recourse.

If there is an international court or forum where this can be challenged, I want to know about it. Not because I expect to win. But because someone should say it out loud: this system is designed to extract money from people who have no power, and it hides behind the language of sovereignty to avoid accountability.

I said what I said.