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I am an Indian citizen currently living in Germany.
I intend to apply for a tourist visa to the US for attending my brother's graduation ceremony. Has anyone here recently applied for such a visa and can let me know for how long such a visa is valid. Can I expect to receive a visa that is valid for 10 years and permits multiple entry or should I ask the visa officer to issue such a visa?
For Indian citizens, the US almost always issues B-1/B-2 visas for 10 years with multiple entries. In order to receive something with shorter validity, there would have to be some sort of special concern for the consular official which would cause him to place restrictions on the visa, rather than simply refuse it outright. For virtually anyone who can afford to travel to the US, has strong ties to India or their country of residence, and who isn't on a terrorist watch list, this is unlikely and you should expect to receive the full validity visa.
There are default visa validities depending on visa type and the applicant's nationality. Regarding B visas, the default for Indians is 10-year multi visas. In contrast, for F (student) visas it's 5-year multi visas
If the consular official has concerns regarding you, but not enough to refuse you a visa, they can shorten the validity or restrict it to a single entry. However, this is rather uncommon, and if granted a visa you'll normally get the default one.
