U.s. Tourist Visa - Success!

[tweezer]

All,

First, a great many thanks to George and all the thaivisa people and posters, as this forum was my main consultant while preparing to get a Tourist visa to the US for my Thai fiance. We succeeded on the first try and in less than a week of getting our online pin number. For those of you also looking to get a tourist visa for you significant other, I would like to offer my story in hopes it will be useful to you as other stories here were to me.

We want to go visit my family and friends in the US for the coming christmas and new years for two weeks so applied for simple tourist visa.

She:

• my fiance of 1 year. (We meet about 1 1/2 yrs ago; we plan to get married before 2010 -- not rushing into it -- in Thailand.)
  
• 30 yrs old
  
• had school only through junior high
  
• no 'real' work history except some undocumented jobs in mall shops and undocumented work helping her mother run her karaoke restaurant and a few other small jobs like that.
  
• no assets except about 67K baht in a savings acount, and another savings account with less than 2000 baht but a lot of cash in and cash out transactions over the past year (thanks to me.)
  
• speaks excellent english and presents herself quite well.
  
• has a couple kids from a previous relationship; they live with her mother and aunt.
  

Me:

• 36 yrs old
  
• have been living and working legally and gainfully in Thailand for 11 years.
  
• own a car here but no land or condos or anything
  
• Have a steady and good looking banking history here.
  

So I was feeling we had a 50-50 shot. We did all the due diligence (mostly at Thaivisa.com!) and prepared the following documents:

Her documents:

• A letter from my mom inviting her over for the holidays
  
• A letter from me explaining who I am and why we want the visa
  
• her proof of name change documents
  
• a letter from her mother stating that she works part time as the assistant manager of her restaurant and her approximate salary (4-6K / month)
  
• her bank book with a meager balance of 2K baht but a healthy and steady cash flow for the past year
  
• her other bank account book with 67K baht accumulated over the past 2 years and no withdrawls
  
• her family's Bangkok house registration (tha-bien bahn) which has her name on it
  
• birth certificates of her children
  
• photos of her and her kids
  
• photos of our engagement party
  
• her old school documents
  
• the registration document from a (now defunct) small liquor distribution business she started several years ago (we wanted to use this to show some employment history.)
  

My documents:

• My passport, expired passport, work permit, and Thai tax ID.
  
• An affidavit from a good friend and neighbor (also american) verifying that he knows us and we've been together for a year and a half
  
• My local bank book and a full statement (i printed out 1 year of history...that's a lot!)
  
• a stamped and signed letter from my company VP saying that I work there, how long i've worked there and how much I make
  
• my last five pay slips
  
• a letter from my previous employer stating my length of employment there
  
• my car lease agreement
  

So each of us had a pile of support documents demonstrating our histories, ties and livliehoods here. We copied both stacks (everything) so we each had a set of originals and a set of copies. We put simple coversheets on each pile listing all the documents therein. Once we got all this together, we went to the embassy website and bought our pin, went to the post office and paid the visa processing fee, then booked our interview appointment online (the appointment was only six days later!)

On the application forms, we filled out everything appropriatly and I listed myself as the preparer. We went to the embassy an hour before our appointed time and went through all the pre-interview steps and took a number.

4 hours later (yes, 4 hours) they called our number. I walked up to the window with her; the interviewer asked me to have seat and he'd call me if he wanted to talk to me. According to her, he asked her (she chose an English interview) about:

• how and when we met
  
• how long we've been engaged
  
• when we're getting married
  
• why we want to go to the states
  
• what she does (she said 'housewife and sometimes help mom in her restaurant.')
  
• what I do here in thailand and how long I've been here
  
• and some other questions...i'm not sure exactly what.
  

Then they asked me to come up. He was a very nice and very friendly, polite guy. She stayed there with us. He asked me:

• how and when we met
  
• how long we've been engaged
  
• when we're getting married
  
• about my job (he knew the company I work for as he had interviewed some of our Thai employees to go to the states on business before)
  
• about our plans to buy any property (she had told him we plan to buy a house before we get married.)
  
• whether we have any plans to move back and settle in the US any time soon (no.)
  

I offered up all the documents we had prepared; he looked at the cover sheets through the glass and said no, he didn't need to review any of the details. I said "We did our homework." He replied, "Usually, those who are most prepared are those who are most qualified." He didn't see any problem in granting the visa. He explained that most of the time they look very critically at 'newer' relationships and may grant only as limited-time visa (if any) but in our case, given my 'permanance' here in Thailand, he didn't see any issue. So he granted her a 10-year multiple entry tourist visa!!!! While signing the paper work, he did say that if at any time we decide to move to the US, would we please come back to the embassy in bangkok and get the proper visa for that. Fair enough!!

So that's our story. Overall, we did our homework, we demonstrated that we will be coming back to Thailand and have no need or desire to not come back. We followed the process and everything went smoothly! I am, however, really curious why we had to wait 4 hours from our appointed time until the actual interview...background checks? observation of us in the waiting room? they're just busy? It seems like the call the queue numbers in no particular order at all. Regardless, after all, we got the visa!

Again, I must say many, many thanks to thaivisa.com for the forums... without this forum, I'm not sure we would have been as prepared or successful.... so thanks again George et al!!!!

Good luck,

tweezer

[Big A]

I suppose this old forum has its uses after all!!!

Best of luck!

[britmaveric]

Well done mate!!!

[mrbojangles]

Well done. It looks like the preparation paid off

[Krub]

Congratulation, well done

That is how it should be

[Carmine6]

Congratulations. I think it should work this way in a whole lot more cases.

[watchoutfarang]

Congratulations mate,

The guys on this forum know their stuff and in reality, if you have a genuine relationship and your papers together, then visas will be granted. Thanks to this forum and a little leg work I got a tourist visa for my tilak and it is no small part down to gburns57. A true gent.

Have a great time in the US

Cheers

watchoutfarang

Edited August 15, 2007 by watchoutfarang

[smilingjoe]

Tweezer,

I know its been a year since this post but I wanted to say Thank You for all this information. I used your experience and breakdown to organize my own documents to get my gf over to the US for a visit. Again, my thanks.