Thanks Tom
"Under Section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), applicants are presumed to be intending immigrants unless they credibly demonstrate, to the consular officer's satisfaction, that their economic, family, and social ties outside the United States are strong enough that they will depart at the end of ..."
We understood before attending the interview that we may be required to prove our financial status plus how we are established, our shipping booking etc so we took along 4 folders of documented information to prove the various scenarios, but were never at any point asked to prove anything at all so we assumed the interview was going well. He was though as brusque as any US border official we have come across.
I think that if he had asked and we failed to provide enough evidence to support our application then so be it, but in hindsight it is obvious he made up his mind early in the interview that he didn't have to go through the whole procedure but had to carry out a minimum of appearing to interview us.
Yes, his first question was purpose of visit. As tourists was the answer and that we were in the process of shipping our motorhome to the US providing we received our visas. Also that I understood the motorhome had to be exported within 12 months of arriving, so by the 1 December 2023 as I said the proposed arrival date was 4 December 2022.
I guess you are correct that he assumed we planned to stay and live in our motorhome and over stay, but why? It wasn't from information he had from anything we said as he didn't hardly ask a question.
We absolutely love visiting the US, but we feel European and are very happy living in Europe, so not even subconscious signals could have been transmitted.
If we had made a mistake and that caused a refusal then ok, but to refuse to answer the reason for his judgement decision is not to me acceptable but probably it's his right.
I'm no longer sure if his refusal to issue a visa will now apply across the board into our ESTA visas. Or even if we still have our ESTAs, go to renew them when due and if there is a question of "have you ever been refused a visa?".
At the moment it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, that as a representative of the USA he is saying the USA doesn't want or trust us to visit, so we wont.
In the future we'll get over the not wanted part I'm sure, but we have 10 months of work, money spent and above all planning behind us aimed at this moment so not a good feeling.