CondomKing Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 My wife and I were married in the US five years ago. She has a daughter by a previous marriage who is now nine years old. When we applied for the "fiance visa" my wife listed her daughter, as required, on her biographic form. When the fiance visa was approved in the US and she began processing in Bangkok the US Embassy issued her a letter that listed her daughter as a "traveling applicant". We did not pursue bring her to the US at that time. Although the letter is signed in type "Chief, Immigrant Visa Branch", it does not bear any signature. I am now considering contacting my wife's immigration lawyer here in NY to start the process of bringing my step daughter here. Before I do that I thought I'd post here to get any information or experience available. A couple of years ago this lawyer gave me some forms which I took to Bangkok only to be informed by the US Embassy there that the process would have to be initiated in the US. It went on the back burner for a while. My wife says that she told me about the letter from the embassy but I don't remember that conversation. The child, whose name is Mon, has been living in the north with her grandmother and attends a private school there. My wife and I see her as often as possible but there are long stretches when we are both in the US. We are planning to send her to an international school next year primarily to become fluent in english and begin studying under the "American" system with a view towards the future, possibly high school in the States, more likely college. I'm just not with her enough right now for the english that I speak with her to have any substantial effect. She does attend daily english class but the progress is slow. One of the reasons that we want her to visit the US is to help her learn english and, of course to spend more time with her and to introduce her to a new country where we would like her to attend college. I know that one of the requirements of my wife's "temporary" permanent status is that she must be in the US for a total of six months per year for the first two years and right now that wouldn't be possible for our daughter, or us. We just want her to visit during her school break, which is in April and May. Our lawyer has already pointed out to us that the US Embassy would be reluctant to issue a tourist visa since my wife already "lives" here, the concern would be that Mon would overstay. If we go ahead and start the permanent resident process the six month requirement just doesn't work for us right now. Any ideas, experience with this type of situation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Scrutinizer Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 CK, Would your legally adopting her affect her status and make this easier? This is something I'll be looking into soon. From what I have been told so far this isn't very hard or costly to do in Thailand once you are married to a Thai woman. Let me know if you hear anything on this possibility from your wife's immigration lawyer will ya? Cent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSTEACH Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 CK. This is a difficult question. Your now wife's daughter was issued a K-2 visa at the time your wife was issued her K-1, but the daughter did not travel to the US in the one year window allowed for a K-2, therefore that visa became null and void. If you wanted her to come her on a permanent basis, it would be a fairly straight forword proposition. There is one fly in the ointment that would have to be answered. Is she legally your daughter? That answer would determine how long it would take to process the I-130 by the USCIS. If she is legally your daughter and under the age of 21, the processing time for the I-130 through the Vermont Service Center is about 3 months.. processing I-130s with a notice date of December, 2004. On the other hand, if she is not a legal dependent but has to come through your wife's permanent resident status, the processing date is currently somewhere in 2001. On the other hand, if you only want her to come for a visit, B2 visa, you would have to convince the consular officer she would indeed return to Thailand. I would suggest you let the CA officer know that you and your wife are PT residents of Thailand and you do own a business here, maybe that would convinvce him she would return. If you go to the Thai-Falang Board, there is a US immigration attorney that posts there who has an office in Bangkok who deals with the embassy on a regular basis. Maybe he could offer advise on which way to go. Good Luck. HSTEACH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CondomKing Posted February 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 Thanks, guys. I will go to the Thai-Falang Board to locate the lawyer and set up an appointment for my wife to see him when she is in Bangkok next week to apply for Mon's passport. Right now she is not legally my adopted daughter but we have plans to do so, just haven't had time to get around to it. We only want Mon to come to NY for a visit while school is out. So, I guess, business documents, a letter from her school, and maybe a set of house plans and photos of the house we are building in Phrae, on family (house paper) land that my wife owns would all be evidence to show that Mon would be returning to Thailand by the time that school starts in June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 Cent said:CK, Would your legally adopting her affect her status and make this easier? This is something I'll be looking into soon. From what I have been told so far this isn't very hard or costly to do in Thailand once you are married to a Thai woman. Let me know if you hear anything on this possibility from your wife's immigration lawyer will ya? Cent Cent, we actually looked into it and found it to be a long process and a general pain in the ass. Now this was for a slightly different scenerio. My nieces had been adopted by my wife (we were already married for several years when this occured) when their parents died. No problem, quick and painless. I wanted to adopt them to get them Yank passports, but this is where the hassle and (as explained to me) yearlong+ process came in. We passed on it and just got them immigrant visas so they could go to school in the States. Pretty painless. CK: You may want to review a couple of old threads I posted part 1 and part 2. These detail my immigrant visa experience. PM if you have questions. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CondomKing Posted February 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 SD- OK, thanks for posting, I think I have this worked out, my situation I mean, at least I think so. :: I just reread the links to your posts of your Embassy experience, and now I do remember that the reason I was turned down at the BCIS office in Bangkok was because I couldn't prove residency, something, I guess, my lawyer in NY wasn't aware of (or maybe he thought I qualified?). Anyway, I never did file the papers when I got back to the States. So, now we want to try starting the process again and since my wife has an upcoming appointment for an interview with the INS to remove her conditions and we will be seeing the lawyer here soon, I guess, that would be a good time to file I-130 for the kid. I can see from the dates on your posts that it took you three months to complete the process. I already know that it will take longer filing the I-130 in the States. So, the next time my wife is in Thailand (she's there more often than I am) she can file for K-4 Visa so that my stepdaughter can come over and we can finish the process here. I know that we have to wait to receive a "notice of action" and then file that with an I-129. Here's link regarding K Visas. I was wrong about the 6 month conditions on my wife's conditional permanent resident status. Someone at the Thai/Falang board informed me that the 6 month condition applies to eventual naturalization not to removal of "conditions". Anyway, we learn as we go. With this new information and given the fact that I would like to bring the kid here now for her time off from school which starts at the end of March, I think we will apply for a tourist visa next week when my wife is in Bangkok obtaining Mon's passport. I guess the objective would be to present as much evidence as possible to prove that Mon would be returning to school in June. Entry stamps on my wife's passport might even help since she's out of the country for only a couple of months at a time and barely fulfills the 6 months in US requirement. What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSTEACH Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 CK, I think you are a little confused about the K visas. Your wife to be came to the US on a K-1..fiance visa and the attached K-2 for any childern on your then fiance. The K-3 visa is for a legally wed woman or man that legally married a US citizen in the country of the alien's home country for the purpose of waiting in the US for the approval of the I-130 instead of waiting in their home country for the approval of the I-130. He or she is already legally married to the US citizen, therefore the visa classification is a K-3. Children of the K-3 holder are eligible to travel to the states on a K-4 visa. Since your wife has already adjusted status in the states, the K-3/K-4 route is now not an option. If you wanted to bring your wife's daughter to the states, she would have to come via a I-130 petition filed in the US, not in Thailand. Since you are a resident of the US and not a permanent resident of Thailand, the I-130 would be filed in the US, adjudicated by the USCIS at the service center with jurisdiction over the state where you live. The big problem is who is the legal parent at the time the I-130 is filed. If you were, whiich you said you are not , the petition would have a fairly short adjudication. Maybe 4-6 months. Since you are not the legal parent , the petition would have to be filed by your wife as a permanent resident. You could not file for the child as you are not the legal parent. Instead of the 4-6 month window you as a US citizen would have until the petition is approved, forwarded to the embassy in BKK, and CR1 issued for the child, you would be looking at 3+ years if your wife files because petitions for citizens and permanent residents are adjudicated at different times. Current 130s filed by PRs are being processed with receipt dates in 2001 at the Vermont Center. I would still arrange an appointment with the American immigration in BKK to see what advise he would offer.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 HSTEACH said: The big problem is who is the legal parent at the time the I-130 is filed. If you were, whiich you said you are not , the petition would have a fairly short adjudication. Maybe 4-6 months. Since you are not the legal parent , the petition would have to be filed by your wife as a permanent resident. You could not file for the child as you are not the legal parent. Instead of the 4-6 month window you as a US citizen would have until the petition is approved, forwarded to the embassy in BKK, and CR1 issued for the child, you would be looking at 3+ years if your wife files because petitions for citizens and permanent residents are adjudicated at different times. Current 130s filed by PRs are being processed with receipt dates in 2001 at the Vermont Center. I know that you are well versed in this, but that was not my experience. With the nieces, all the BCIS cared about was me, not about my wife, even though all the paperwork we had listed her as the parent (adopted, but not important in this case), not me (I never went through the hassle of adopting them). We have been married for a long time, and wifey has unconditional PR status, so maybe this is why? Any ideas? Regards, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CondomKing Posted February 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 HS & SD - Thank you both for your advice. I'm sure HS is correct about the K Visa, I got the same reply info on the other board. Since I am already in NY and she is not my legally adopted daughter (w/Thai paperwork) and my wife and I will be seeing the lawyer soon, I might as well attempt to file an I-130 and see what happens. More immediately, we are planning to apply for a tourist visa (B-2?) for Mon when my wife brings her to Bangkok next week to get her Thai passport. Spoke with the wife a few hours ago and she was in Phrae at Mon's parent/teacher day at school. She called me because the school wanted to register her for next term, which I believe begins in June. We decided to go ahead and register her in that school, it is a good one, because right now we have no other options. Maybe international school next year, but, for us, it's too late to get the process started for the upcoming term. Anyway, I also asked my wife to get a letter from the teacher explaining that she was registered for next term and expected back in June. She will also bring our business papers and the papers for our two houses, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.