Obtaining a US VISA

[Guest]

How difficult is it to obtain a 6 month tourist visa for my Thai GF?

What documents should I bring with us when applying for a visa at the US embassy in Bkk?

Any other helpful info would be greatly appreciated

-Brian

[Guest]

Brian --

This is a question that has generated a lot of replies.. Use the search function and you'll find many very informative posts regarding the necesary paperwork and the interview process at the Embassy.

--UPSer

[Guest]

Brian -

For all practical purposes, you can forget about obtaining a brief-visit visa to USA for a Thai lady, unless she is the daughter of Thai aristocracy, or is accepted as a student into into a US university.

If you marry her, or if you are engaged to be married, you can apply for an immigrant visa - the process takes a LONG time - think in terms of 6-9 months.

The responsibility of the US embassy staff in BKK appears to be to ensure that no Thai women reach the US except those whom it is politically impossible to exclude.

'Sorry for the bad news.

"Let the good times roll!"

BB

[Guest]

Brian,

As UPSer said, do back search on this topic and you should find plenty of info. concerning this matter.

Trying to get your GF into USA is doable but it all depends on her background and her chances of returning to Thailand before her visa expires.

If she's a prostitute(bargirl,freelancer, etc.) than it's impossible due to American(and other countries as well) law prohibiting them from coming over under any circumstances. Hence, ALL sponsors and applicants lies to embassy staff concerning her occupation. I'm only saying this because good majority of relationships/marriages are between prostitutes and sex-tourists/sexpats.

If she's respectable Thai girl from descent family and/or with college degree or with good job with some money in the bank with a house registration then it's definately obtainable to get an American visa.

American visa in general is hardest to get then most other countries because we have millions and millions of illegal aliens, visa violators, workers without work-permit, foreign criminals, suicide terrorists, and so on.

If you have sincere intentions with your GF and willing to work hard to get her a visa with proper documents and support, then it can be done, even if she's a prostitute(by changing her occupation to "cashier, maid, sales clerk, student, waitress, receptionist, travel agent, etc" as most do). Embassy staff knows this, they deal with these kinds of things everyday for decades. They want to see you are able to support her rather then her being a burden to American taxpayers after arriving in the US.

[Guest]

Brain -

Let me be more specific. Since the WTC attacks, immigration rules have been tightened considerably.

I work for a multi-national company with offices throughout Asia, with local offices providing field maintenance support to factory equipment installed in each country. Recently, I was responsible for organizing and coordinating for a new-equipment training session to be held in Minnesota USA for one senior technician from each of four Asian offices.

To make a long story short, the technicians from Singapore and Malaysia were granted visas - the technicians from Thailand and Manila were rejected.

The rejected technicians were male college graduates in mid-20's, with well-paying jobs,working overseas for a US-owned company. In both cases, the visa rejections were reported to me too late for me to intervene. Otherwise, I would have taken it up the supervisory chain at the embassies involved. Looking back over the situation, I learned that both the rejected technicians had no prior history oftravel outside their own country, while the Singapore and Malaysian technicians had long histories of intermnational travel. I'm sure that was part of it.

I am doubtful that any of the other posters in this thread have direct experience trying to obtain a tourist visa to US for a young Thai citizen since September 11th. If they do, then I stand corrected.

My suggestion to increase yourchances would be to first take your gf on several brief trips outside Thailand to high-priced countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, or Japan - to build up in her passport a record of having departed and returned to Thailand recently. Next, when she does try to apply for a US visa, have her apply outside Thailand - Singapore is possibly a good jump-off point. New Zealand or Malaysia might also work.

Good luck, but its an uphill fight.

"Let the good times roll!"

B-Fly BKK

[Guest]

A correction to the above post: you cannot apply for a US visa at a US embassy outside your home country unless you are there on a working visa or in some other official capacity.

[Guest]

All--

For comparision purposes, we have about 65 or so Thai national employees in our BKK metro facility.. As a "perk" of company employment is travel on our cargo jets for business and personal/vacation travel (space available basis)..

In November I went with two of our clerks(one male 36yrs married w/ house and one female, single 28 w/ apt) to the Embassy to help them with the application process for a tourist visa..

Normally our office manager does this but she was busy so I volunteered.

At the embassy they asked for all the normal paperwork, but also asked that UPS (World HQ office in Atlanta, GA) send DIRECT to the Embassy in Bangkok a letter of employment certification (how long worked, pay rate and promise of return transportation) verifying all the data that was initially supplied on the application form..

Once the letter arrived (2 days later) the visa was approved... 1 year multi-entrance.

As many previous posters have noted, it IS possible to get a visa (tourist) for a thai but is VERY difficult even with "good" papers and verifiable background data.

--UPSer

[ January 03, 2002: Message edited by: UPSer ]

[Guest]

To add my 2 cents worth, for comparison purposes...

Whem my wife/her mother/her cousin went to apply for a US visa at the same time; both my wife and her mother recieved 10 yrs multi entry visa (each entry has a max. 3 month duration) and her cousin was rejected because the US embassy believed he did not have secure work and would attempt to illegally work in US.

At the time of applying for the visa, my wife was a student in a university in BKK, her mother works for the government and the cousin was a salesman....and my wifes sister was already in America studying (10 year government scholarship)

Sanukboot.

[ January 03, 2002: Message edited by: SanukBoot ]

[ January 03, 2002: Message edited by: SanukBoot ]

[HSTEACH]

Tourist visas are hard but not impossible to get. My Thai-Chinese girlfriend went after 9/11 and was granted a 10 year, multi-entry tourist visa. She does work for multinational corp. in an upper management position. She had no problems at all. For the poster replying about visas originating outside Thailand, those generally apply to K-1, K-2, K-3, and K-4 visas. Those are the fiance and new spousal visas. All visitor's visas to the US are originated in Bangkok.

[HSTEACH]

I just reread one of the above poster's messages. Tourist visas do have to be granted in the country in which they reside. For a Thai to be granted a tourist ( B2) visa, that application would have to be filed at the embassy in Bangkok or the consulate in CM. The K series have to filed in the US by the proposed fiance or husband of the beneficiary. Sorry for the mix up, jet lag still has me by the balls.