Bobluckynova

I live in Chiang Mai.  I had done the reporting by email successfully but now have shifted to going to immigration near the airport, where there is a drive through service, or to the immigration office in Promenada which is set up for 90 day reporting.  They both were pleasant and quick.  I found it was too easy to miss the date when I did it online and the offices here give a nice receipt with the due date of the next report stamped clearly on it.

I recently went to CM immigration to extend my retirement visa based on the 800k in the bank.  I was told by the first agent that I needed one year of statement from the bank.  I went to get it but BKK Bank said they only do six month statements but if I made a booking for it, in 3 to 5 working days I could get a one year statement.  I decided to try with only the six month of statements and a photocopy of the entire passbook going back one year.  That time, nothing further was said about needing a one year statement, so the six months with passbook copy etc was good enough.  It makes me wonder if it depends on luck of the draw with which officer one gets.  I went at 09:30 and the queue was huge, if I had gone at 11:00 I would have gotten in very quickly.

About 11 years ago, my unofficially married Thai wife was rejected on her first visa attempt after I had submitted lots of evidence with her of my taking financial responsibility for her trip etc.  They said she had not provided enough evidence she would return to Thailand - funny as no way would she consider living in the USA. 

The second attempt, a year later, I kept myself out of it except to give my address there where we would stay, and she emphasized her ties to Thailand (farm, a child, a house, etc).  She got the 10 year visa which expires this year.  That was in Bangkok.  

We applied online for a new visa for her about a month ago in Chiang Mai.  Her English is not fluent, so I filled out the form for her, saying in the online application that I would travel with her and am her "partner" and stating that I had filled out the form with her.  I was afraid that any talk of official marriage would raise more suspicions that she would want to stay there.  We paid the fee at the Krungsri bank in Central Airport and that worked out well as the lady there knew exactly what was required.   The queue for an interview was about a month.  Last week she had the interview. She took her old passports to show how many times she'd gone to the USA and returned (about once per year on average) and her last visa.  She took copies of my passport and retirement visa but they did not ask to see them but just asked her how long I'd been here, how long we'd known each other, and whether we have a house here (we do).  The interviewer asked when we were planning to get married and she said she did not know.  She got the verbal visa approval quickly, although we are waiting for it to arrive in the mail, so I'm not sure if Trump has changed from the former 10 year multiple entry.  A woman in front of her who emphasized that she had lots of family living in the US was rejected, I assume because they were suspicious she would stay there beyond the visa, although who really knows?  Interesting to read the other accounts of success and failure in the applications.  I think the second visa is a pretty sure thing if the applicant has not overstayed or anything problematic with the first one.