USA Visa for Thai Wife

Mel Malinowski said:
I cannot compare 20 years ago to today. Generally, the older we get, the more we are inclined to think things are getting worse. And we may be right! :smiley: But, as Sting sang "When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around..." I'll eventually report on how my wife's application to become a US citizen goes. I had no trouble getting 'Global Entry' status for her to ease our commute (allows bypassing lines for passport control on the way into US). Thailand has its own bureaucracy issues. I am getting nowhere in acquiring a 10 year LTV, although I am much overqualified. I just don't meet the exact criteria, and there is no flex available. In the USA, my wife's main obstacle will be passing the rather arbitrary 'English fluency' requirement. It just depends on the whim of the examiner, as her English is fractured but not bad.
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Well at least she can apply for citizenship in the US. You cannot do that in Thailand if you are a foreign man here. It is heart warming to see the contempt for foreigners is even extended to cashed up people wanting the special long term entry visa. You are a disliked foreigner and don't you ever forget it. If the groundswell of extreme disgust can tell you anything. that when foreigners were offered one rai of house land, is that you are not welcome here. Are you learning this yet Mel.
Those of us that have been here a long while choose to ignore it and accept it. As a foreigner you will never be given flex unless you pay for it.
 
Merlin said:
My wife has a Thai friend who will marry her American fiancé very soon. He's using an American visa service to help her obtain a visa to live with him in Hawaii. The process has been followed by them both for several months so far, and the volume of evidence required by the US Immigration department is way more onerous than that imposed on farang here to obtain a marriage extension to our non-O visas!

SO far, I have seen a detailed questionnaire asking how and where they have met (every occasion) four witness statements to corroborate the responses given to the questionnaire, a declaration of intent to marry letter from the Thai lady, an income declaration from him with details of his property in Hawaii, where they will live if she is granted a visa, his future career intentions, information about any intent she may have to work in the US, their intentions regarding travel in the US, and also a visa application form.

This website: https://th.usembassy.gov/visas/nonimmigrant-visas/ provides a decent guide. It seems intended for those applying for a short-term visitors visa (max 6 months stay) As these two people intend to marry (either here before she travels to the US, or after arriving in the US) there is more than one type of visa involved, depending on the circumstances as advised by the visa agent in the US. She intends living permanently in the US too.

Those are complicating factors, but I can't help feeling that the agent is making a meal of the application. He has told them that their information package (which includes more than 20 captioned colour photos of them both in Thailand detailing locations, dates and occasions, including friends they met here, when her fiancée travelled here in late 2021) must be sent to him in California for vetting before being forwarded to USCIS in Lewisville TX.

Applying for the visa through the US Embassy in Bangkok might seem a simpler option for them.

I'm sure that several American SF members will have experienced the system for themselves, and their comments would be welcome.
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I don't much like dependency on lawyers. Any reasonably well-educated person can read and understand most law. I wrote my own contracts in business for 35 years and never had an issue. So when it came to getting a fiancée visa for my Thai sweetheart, I read the regulations, and we did it ourselves without any agents. Why? Because as long as your fiancée is of good character with no criminal record, while the USA process is slow (ours took 6 months), they have no right to say no. If they do, you have a right of appeal. You cannot apply through the Embassy in Bangkok, to my knowledge; they are not interested and don't want to be bothered with a USCIS matter. You simply submit it all to the USCIS at the USA address they provide, and wait. It's both annoyingly thorough, requiring volumes of information, a thorough health exam, a Thai police report, and yet not all that hard. They are very strict about not getting married first in Thailand or elsewhere. IMHO, it's better anyway to only get married in your home country, as then the laws that apply in divorce are those of that country. I recommend a prenuptial agreement properly done just before you get married. That cost me several thousand USD, as to do it right so it will stand up in court requires lawyers.
 
The US are hard asses on letting Thai women into the states. Especially the ones that are recently 'married' and hubby wants to take her back home quickly. The reputation of Thailand precedes itself. I've seen that those who live here with the wife and are legally married for 2 or more years have an easier time of it. Those wives that have used the marriage tourist visa (good for 6 months at a time in the US) and have used it and gone back to Thailand a couple times without trying to scam the system and stay in the US have a much easier time when the couple eventually want to stay in the states for an extended period of time. Huge age differences are a red flag as well. (As in why the hell would this gorgeous twenty year old lass want to marry a 70 year old man? Love? Get real. :) )

Even if you have the money to throw at the issue it can take years and many hoops to jump through.
 
Cent said:
The US are hard asses on letting Thai women into the states. Especially the ones that are recently 'married' and hubby wants to take her back home quickly. The reputation of Thailand precedes itself. I've seen that those who live here with the wife and are legally married for 2 or more years have an easier time of it. Those wives that have used the marriage tourist visa (good for 6 months at a time in the US) and have used it and gone back to Thailand a couple times without trying to scam the system and stay in the US have a much easier time when the couple eventually want to stay in the states for an extended period of time. Huge age differences are a red flag as well. (As in why the hell would this gorgeous twenty year old lass want to marry a 70 year old man? Love? Get real. :) )

Even if you have the money to throw at the issue it can take years and many hoops to jump through.
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My wife and I were only married for 6 months when she was granted a 10 year mutable visa. Yes I'm an old fart. ;;haha;;
 
Mel Malinowski said:
I don't much like dependency on lawyers. Any reasonably well-educated person can read and understand most law. I wrote my own contracts in business for 35 years and never had an issue. So when it came to getting a fiancée visa for my Thai sweetheart, I read the regulations, and we did it ourselves without any agents. Why? Because as long as your fiancée is of good character with no criminal record, while the USA process is slow (ours took 6 months), they have no right to say no. If they do, you have a right of appeal. You cannot apply through the Embassy in Bangkok, to my knowledge; they are not interested and don't want to be bothered with a USCIS matter. You simply submit it all to the USCIS at the USA address they provide, and wait. It's both annoyingly thorough, requiring volumes of information, a thorough health exam, a Thai police report, and yet not all that hard. They are very strict about not getting married first in Thailand or elsewhere. IMHO, it's better anyway to only get married in your home country, as then the laws that apply in divorce are those of that country. I recommend a prenuptial agreement properly done just before you get married. That cost me several thousand USD, as to do it right so it will stand up in court requires lawyers.
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"they have no right to say no." True. But they can make it frustrating and difficult.

"They are very strict about not getting married first in Thailand or elsewhere."

I don't know why that is really. Seems to apply to some and not others. We were legally married here and registered the marriage with the embassy way back then (23 years ago, together 8 years before that). But I've never taken my wife back to the states as of yet. Had to get a legal divorce from the first wife (amicable enough) and we waited until my youngest son was out of school and on his own. Neither of us wanted the courts to tell us how to raise our kids, what to pay in child support, where they could live and with who. So, I waited and my wife was very understanding. We did the village Buddhist wedding (which has no legal standing) and that kept her and the family happy until I got the divorce and went to Bangkok and made a legal marriage later.

I wanted to bring her back to the USA for a couple months holiday recently (3 years ago) and we were going to go to Bangkok to get her visa, but then the Covid hit and we said screw it. Wait until it is safe here and there in the states. We had done the police report and all that years ago, so no worries there, just need to get a new one, but neither she or I wanted to go live in the states back then (her business, daughter in school, and leaving her family. Me? I had no reason or desire to live back in the states then either and visited family and friends once or twice a year until the Covid hit). We'll get it done for a visit next year for a month or two. No rush, no biggie. We're happy as we are and content. We will likely do so in the next couple of years. She'll need to be in the states for 5 years to get my Social Security payments (50 or 60 %) after I pass. And I want to be near my VA hospital for my health care and such, as I am not getting any younger and will be needing some healthcare stability (free basically as a 'Vietnam era' veteran) and want to be around my own family, kids and grandkids as I age out of existence. :) She can stay or move back once I am gone and would likely move back to Thailand. She has no real need to be a US citizen, but could be a dual citizen with both passports, and is happy to be Thai. As I have never wanted to be a Thai citizen/permanent resident really. I'm a Yank and proud of it. I get by as it stands with little hassle.

P.S. My eldest son's GF is pregnant and will be having a daughter in August. He has 2 kids already, teens. My youngest son is in a long tern relationship and will likely be having kids one of these days as well. My daughter from the US is coming over Monday night to visit for 3 weeks. She has 2 daughters herself, teens. So I have 4 grandkids and one more on the way. 1 boy, 3 girls and another little gal on the way. Hoping youngest son can have boy. LOL

That's my story. 2 brothers and 2 sisters as well. Parents and aunts and uncles are all gone.
 
Cent said:
We're happy as we are and content. We will likely do so in the next couple of years. She'll need to be in the states for 5 years to get my Social Security payments (50 or 60 %) after I pass. And I want to be near my VA hospital for my health care and such, as I am not getting any younger and will be needing some healthcare stability (free basically as a 'Vietnam era' veteran) and want to be around my own family, kids and grandkids as I age out of existence. :) She can stay or move back once I am gone and would likely move back to Thailand. She has no real need to be a US citizen, but could be a dual citizen with both passports, and is happy to be Thai. As I have never wanted to be a Thai citizen/permanent resident really. I'm a Yank and proud of it. I get by as it stands with little hassle.
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Reads as though your Long Term Health Plan is in America (most likely Massacheusetts)...along with Waen's future monthly payout from social security when she reaches beneficiary age.

I surmise she's gonna love winter. :)
In which year do you plan on the 'Big Return'?

I wish you well. In retrospect I cannot see myself ever returning Stateside for an endgame.
 
Cent said:
No set times and dates. Whenever it comes and we make the decision. We will know when it is right.
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I know rules, legalities have changed however, do the homework, un*earth what infomation is required and, give the bast*rds 50% more.
Pat's visa application weighed 1.5 kg and, after she had some doccuments translated, was approved in 3 days by the Australian embassy.
Basically, R.T.F.Q, twice--read the fu*king question, it;s not rocket science.
 
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