I am an American citizen but I have not lived in the US for more than 20 years. My girlfriend is not an American, and is not eligible for VWP (though less than 5% of the visa applications from her country are rejected, from what I understand). We would like to visit the US some time to visit my family (she has never been to the US), though we don't have definite plans yet (maybe this summer). We definitely don't have any plans to immigrate to the US.
Some questions about the process:
Should she volunteer that her boyfriend is American and she wants to visit his family (if she's not asked directly about that), or is that likely to be seen as an red flag for intent to immigrate? Would it help to volunteer that information, even if she's not asked anything that would require disclosing that? Should she just say she's coming for tourism (unless asked directly, of course)?
She has a high paying job but she just started a new job a month ago. Should she wait a few months before applying for the visa so that she can show that she has several months of pay slips, or does that not matter?
Is there anything I can do as an American citizen to help her visa application process, or should I just stay out of it? Is there anything my family in the US can do (like sending a letter of sponsorship or something like that)?