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Unraveling the complicated visa interview process

Because government visa officers can stay busy interviewing anywhere from 100 - 400 applicants per day, they don’t have a lot of time to spend giving much detail when they issue denials. Which is why our next guest and his partners, all ex-visa officers and diplomats in U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, decided to open a visa advisory service. Mike Switzer interviews Chris Richardson, co-founder of Argo Visa in Greenville, SC.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.