daboyz1

I have no problem paying a little more for a bigger taxi if I have a lot of luggage. However, I will not let them screw me, to charge 600 to 700 baht. That is BS.

But you have no problem paying the airline an extra 5 or 6 hundred dollars to carry your bags.

Sometimes best to think before opening.

You should take your own advice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Pheu Thai voters

"Thanks Mac. Unfortunately, the girl's mother died last year and the father is out of the picture. "

Is there an immediate relative sort of watching over her? Grandparents? Aunt, uncle?

Mac

She's living at and attending a private school in Chiang Mai. My wife is going to try and get some sort of guardianship over her, although I'm not sure why since we live in Texas. The grandparents live in Si Saket, so they're not much help. Since she's 16 an adoption and visa to the U.S. is out of the question(16 ages out in cases of adoption.) The whole thing is kind of a mess at the moment. We plan on moving back to Thailand permanently in roughly 5-6 years, but until then, everything remains the status quo.

No time for her to get a passport, it only takes a few days, depending on where you're staying, of course.

Absent a passport, she should be able to get the normal Thai "border pass" there near the bridge in Nong Khai.

You should take along:

-- permission slip signed by both her parents allowing the trip and naming both you and your wife as temporary guardians.

-- signed copies of both parent's ID cards

-- signed copy of parent's blue tambien ban

-- the girl's birthcertificate

Mac

Thanks Mac. Unfortunately, the girl's mother died last year and the father is out of the picture.

My wife called the Thai immigration folks and they said that it would be ok to take her for the day, but that she could not stay overnight in Laos.

My wife and I would like to take my niece to Laos for a couple days while I'm here in Thailand on vacation. I have a U.S. passport and my wife is a dual Thai/U.S. citizen with both passports. However, my niece only has a Thai ID card and no passport. Is it possible for her to visit Vientiane for a couple days accompanied by us without a passport?

Thanks in advance for all helpful replies.

I never thought I would defend taxi drivers, BUT, it seems a valid reason to reject a customer if they have to return the taxi and fear they will miss the deadline (assuming its the truth). I for one would support financial help such as a lease to buy system for taxi drivers to purchase their own cars and eradicate such excuses and at the same time reduce the number of wealthy individuals/firms who own fleets of taxis, one would hope you would also see a drastic improvement in driving if they actually own their vehicle.

Can't they turn off the light that displays they are for hire?

Like I have done in the past and in many other cases the falang will come to the rescue and pay out. It could be classed as stupidity but I think you have to except this in many thai-falang relationships

Since when is a piece of fruit able to come to the rescue and pay someone's debt, and when did Thais start having relationships with pieces of fruit. I'm sure meant FARANG didn't you?

farang and falang are the same thing. The slang term is derived from the name for the fruit.

Like I have done in the past and in many other cases the falang will come to the rescue and pay out. It could be classed as stupidity but I think you have to except this in many thai-falang relationships

When you do that, you set a precedent. This means that they can continue to be irresponsible with their finances and they will be bailed out by a farang. It encourages bad behavior and in reality it helps no one but actually hurts them. Cut them off and trust me they'll find a way, or do without. Been doing it long before you showed up and will be doing it long after you're gone.

Ok understand the difference now as you are a Thai citizen. On the official website for the USCIS I think, it mentions wanting to see a record of immunizations before allowing entry to America. My girlfriend has had them all done, but not the paper work from 30 years ago to prove it. And of course no village records either. So does USCIS then require to have some of them done again ? That would not really make sense , especially from a medical standpoint.. Just curious....

For the immunizations, she can either get a titer test done to prove she had the vaccinations, or get the first shot in the series of vaccinations. My wife did the latter and just got the shots. My wife got it done as part of the medical back in 2008. I think it was an extra 3000 THB at McCormick in Chiang Mai. Of course Bumrungrad will be a bit more expensive if ou decide to do the medical there.

Final Update:

Yesterday, Monday Dec 8, my wife's Passport and Immigrant Visa Package arrived.

There was a letter instructing us to go to the USCIS-ELIS website, create an account and pay the "USCIS Immigrant Fee" of $165. I never before read about this fee anywhere.

We did so and this now brings the total amount of all of the fees to about Baht 36,000.

This is something fairly new. It's basically a fee for the green card.

Wasn't YL elected by the people? Case closed.

No she wasn't. She was a party list MP. She was then elected PM by the other MPs.

No she wasn't. She was a party list MP. She was then elected PM by the other MPs appointed as PM by her fugitive criminal brother as his clone.

I have corrected your statement.

I stand corrected.

Wasn't YL elected by the people? Case closed.

No she wasn't. She was a party list MP. She was then elected PM by the other MPs.

January 21 1942 - Thailand declared war on the US and UK.

June 18, 1812 - US declares war on the UK

Sorry, didn't see you were responding to another poster.

Is that Jatuporn?

Stop being silly Eric. Thaksin knowingly broke the law, got caught, prosecuted and convicted. Then he jumped bail and became a fugitive.

Not a criminal - yeah sure, if it make you happy. And not the only member of his family with a conviction either.

Not only that, he has more serious charges lined up if he ever returns.

Chalerm said the controversial "blanket amnesty" brought an end to the Yingluck government because it provided the PDRC with a valid reason to overthrow the government.

At least he got one thing right. Thaksin would still be running the show via his "clone" if it wasn't for that 4 AM amnesty bill. Yingluck was PM for well over a year with no protests of any sizable number. I'm glad it happened the way it did. It proved once again that Thaksin only cares about Thaksin. His sister, and Thailand as a whole, are a very distant second and third on his priorities list.

maybe he was renting the land from the farmers

I wonder if he had the SPGs in his possession? If he did, then I would say he purchased the land. Or at least he thought he was purchasing it. SPG land can only be handed down to family members. That said, I know it gets bought and sold all the time. I also know that folks borrow money against that land on a regular basis. I myself had to pay 200k to get the SPG back because my sister in law borrowed money using it as collateral. After getting the SPG back, we went straight to the PAO to get the land transferred in to my wife's name so that wont happen again.

Although I think Prayuth has done a good job so far, I wish he would refrain from making Thaksin-like far fetched promises.

Yeah, I used a lot of photos.

You know, a good tip to save you some money, if you can find an internet shop that has photoshop, I went to file I think, then "contact sheet".... maybe search google for the exact way to find that function, I forget..... but you are able to make a sheet of photos. I was putting 8 photos per printed 8x10 sheet, and those were black and white. This seemed big enough for them, and it only costed 2 sheets worth of printing. Then I used a couple of other photos printed large 8x10, black and white though (very cheap, haha). I think I had a total of about 20 photos, a pretty different from one another.

But yes I agree the photos seem to hold more weight than they even perhaps should. We had great photos and lacked a lot of other stuff like phone and bank records, and they seemed fine with it. Photos where you are obviously on a trip together with landmarks in the background are obviously good. Photos with family or at a relatives wedding or graduation for example are perfect. Anything you can think of that makes you look like a family unit. Variation is good too Im sure, dont show the same thing.

I found a photoshop "contact sheet" screen grab. It is file--> automate --> contact sheet

I'm pretty active on Visajourney.com ( an immigration website for bringing family members to the U.S.) and as far as I can tell the embassy in Bangkok is the only one that puts so much stock in to the photos. Most of them want proof like plane ticket receipts and boarding passes, etc. They all accept photos as evidence of an ongoing relationship, but they usually consider it secondary evidence, whereas the embassy in Bangkok considers it primary evidence for some reason. It was like that when we went through the process in 2009, and it appears it hasn't changed.

Again for those in the cheap seats, make sure you take a bunch of photos together to the interview.

Just a note about the photos. They seem to carry more weight than anything at the USEM in Bangkok. I lived with my wife for 2 years in Bangkok etc. We submitted about 5 photos as well as copies of about 100 Thai entry stamps in my passport. They gave us 221g at the interview wanting more photos. We simply bought a couple disposable cameras, ran around Bangkok having motorbike taxi drivers take photos of us together. Went back changed clothes and did the same thing. Went to a 1 hour photo place and had them developed. Went back to the embassy and gave them the photos. No problem, visa issued.

Moral to the story, give them a bunch of photos.

Yes, Mac is correct. Your scenario is a major red flag for using a tourist visa to immigrate. You can thank all of the folks before her that came to the U.S. on a tourist visa with the intent to immigrate for her denial. Technically coming to the U.S. on a tourist visa with the intent to get married and adjust status is committing visa fraud. However, how can they prove "intent?"

They are already married.

Fixed. If the OP is not living in Thailand, there's almost no chance of her getting a tourist visa to the U.S. being married to a USC residing in the U.S.

Yes, Mac is correct. Your scenario is a major red flag for using a tourist visa to immigrate. You can thank all of the folks before her that came to the U.S. on a tourist visa with the intent to immigrate for her denial. Technically coming to the U.S. on a tourist visa with the intent to get married and adjust status is committing visa fraud. However, how can they prove "intent?"