GinBoy2

All the pitbull lovers just can't deny the statistics. You can defend them all you like, but the numbers don't lie https://www.warriorsforjustice.com/dog-biting-statistics-by-breed/#:~:text=Pit Bulls%2C Rottweilers%2C German Shepherds%2C Presa Canarios%2C and,statistics for bite attacks. Others worth mentioning are%3A The figures of attacks and deaths compared to the next dangerous breed, Rottweiler, are staggering. To the apologists there must be an awful lot of folks not training their killer animals!

One of my favorite British actors in a rather intriguing show

So as a man of a certain age I loved to original Quantum Leap with Scott Bakula Watched the first episode of the re-boot, shows potential promise

I love this show, no spoiler but it was a sad if predictable end to EP1

Well what you say raises the issue that 'Farangland' is not one magical place, it's a wide open <deleted> shoot. For the OP London would be horribly difficult, it was super expensive when I was visiting 20 years ago. Outside of London I'm sure things are affordable. You say you are moving back to the midwest. That in itself varies widely, within region, city and State. We live in western South Dakota which straddles the midwest and the rocky mountain west. My daughter lives 6 hours south of us in Denver and is currently looking to buy a house. Everything she's looking at is at least double what we would pay here. As for work, well, flipping burgers makes you $17/hr and literally everyone is desperate for staff, every billboard you pass is advertising for help. So I think it's hard to paint a single picture of a farang's prospects on return to their home country

Well maybe no legal issues, the morality of it, I'd question that!

Now I can't really comment on some of the practicalities of getting your lady to the UK, but..... I'm an American Anglophile I've loved your country since I first visited back in the 80's, actually before that when I lived my teenage nerd life listening to the BBC WS on shortwave. Maybe you should let her experience life there, at least for a while. Nothing is forever, maybe she'll hate it, maybe love it. But if you say a absolute NO, it might become that mythical magical 'farang land' and she'll resent you for not letting her experience it

I dunno why this is even a story. This story gets played out time after time in every country regarding pitbulls. "He's just a pussy cat loves everyone" until they decide to rip someone's throat out. Never hear about a Maltese killing anyone. These dog breeds are bought as trophy animals to be paraded around. Not just in Thailand but everywhere. To be honest at least in this case it was the owner that was the victim, it most cases when they go rogue it's some innocent bystander

What are you talking about. Maybe in BKK, but for much a Thailand two claps of thunder and the power is off for hours. Don't even get me going on water, which can be cut off for days. Sewers, well if you don't live in a city, you have the poop tank that needs to be pumped out How about storm drains? Ever wondered why first sign of rain everything floods. It's cos the drains go nowhere, they just fill up, then flood. There are many things to love about Thailand, but don't try to defend the indefensible. Internet, not bad, depending on where you are, but international gateway screws it up

Back in the day we maybe called our parents once a month, at best. Nowadays if the kids don't call home within a day it's a full scale child abduction! Jeez he's an adult he's allowed to go AWOL for a while without getting Interpol involved

Thanks everyone for the info

So, we've been scouring the web without much definitive advice. My wife is traveling to Thailand Nov 25th. Her passport expires 15th Jan 2023 Does Thailand enforce/require Thai nationals to have the ubiquitous six months validity on their passport? Her plan was to first thing when she landed was go get it renewed, but now we're getting twitchy on whether we need to make a quick trip to DC to get it renewed ahead of time

Thats some cool pics. Where were you?

I'm sure it does, but a far cry from the glory days. I know the BBC does still maintain a SW presence as does VoA. But most of them are gone, I'm sure HCJB still exists from Quito and probably some newer evangelical stations I've never heard of, and of course the numbers stations. Rather sad in some ways since SW was a rather major part of making me the man I ended up becoming

I think you're probably right. Tell the same lie enough times and you'll probably believe it yourself. The reason i posted this was when my co-worker shared it with me I was surprised how few Brit vets there were in Thailand, compared to the number I seemed to have had encountered. I guess self delusion is probably more common than I thought!

Really? I used to be a DX'er back in the day. For a nerdy Hispanic boy holed up in his bedroom in the California central valley receiving those exotic QSL postcards from all over the world opened my eyes to the big wide world. I think those scratchy shortwave signals are long gone. A perfect internet stream is so easy, yet I'd venture not as exciting as tuning in to the BBC WS warbling in and out on 6175kHz

So living in Thailand I seemed to come across an amazing number of Brits who claimed to be ex military. Well, I work with a Brit who really was in the military, I forget which branch, and is in receipt of a military pension. He shared with me this graphic from some newsletter he gets. Seems to me I must have met every single one of the residents of Thailand, they all frequent TVF, and are all special forces!

I think thats all very true. Back in the 70/80's I would send my parents a letter telling them how I was doing, a phone call every week or so, but I could go weeks without talking. That was normal. In todays world if I don't hear from my kids within a week and they won't return my calls I'm worried. That is today's normal

Problem with the majority of Thai cities and towns. Blindfold and drop you into anyone of them and it's hard to tell the difference between any of them of similar size. Very few of them have any real defining features outside of the usual tourist spots

I have no personal experience of an agent for a tourist visa, but I'll say this. They peddle the notion that they have some special in at the embassy. Total nonsense, the US Embassy is not like Thai immigration where everything can be greased for the appropriate 'fee' Also there is nothing more they can do with the DS-160 than you can. The only time I would ever recommend using a 'reputable' agent is for immigrant visas, where there is a lot of supporting documentation, and given that they take a long time to process you don't want to slip up and have to start all over again So any one that tells they can guarantee or speed up a B1/B2 application.......... RUN!

Don't worry I think the whole thread has become a little 'confused' At the end of the day I think the OP is experiencing the usual high failure rate for Thai women applying for US tourist visas. The reasons for those failures, who can tell. Unlike the Brits and others, we don't get any written reason why, so you keep trying until it works I guess. Before we were married and my wife ended up with a green card here in the US, we tried to get her a tourist visa to visit my daughter who had just had a baby. Professional woman, she had her own money, letter giving her leave from work, of course she was denied. We never tried for a tourist visa again, just wasn't prepared to line the US Government pockets with more wasted money I'v speculated that since my wife grew up as a teenager and went to college in the US, they considered it would be too easy for her to disappear into US society. But at the end of the day, who knows, and water long under the bridge at this point

Well, I can answer some of those questions and the OP can chime in. For a non immigrant tourist visa (B1/B2) there is NO sponsorship by the US citizen. I can't say this enough, but the Thai citizen is applying in their own right and needs to provide enough evidence of work, family, financial of their own to prove to the CO they will return to Thailand. The CO will ignore any financial information from the US citizen, the money needs to the Thai citizens own funds. There is no criminal background check for tourist visas. The applicant simply states on the form they they are squeaky clean. For immigrant visas K1/K3/CR1/IR1, thats where the US citizen is the applicant petitioning for the Thai citizen. For those cases the applicant, the US citizen needs to provide financial records to prove they have income, or resources to support the Thai citizen at I think, it might have changed but with income at least 125% of the poverty level. Three years of tax transcripts as I recall plus bank accounts real estate assets etc As for criminal background, the Thai citizen has to obtain a certificate from Thai Special Branch, which is different from what Thai's need to travel for work. The US citizen does not need to provide any background check

That is often what the CO thinks with a married Thai. The couple get to the US then apply for an adjustment of status in the US, which as you rightly say bypasses the regular immigrant process. Since the married spouse is in the US and an application is made cannot be deported. Thats what they worry about

DMK is actually a pretty long runway, 12000ft. A380's require about 10000ft. On the other topic, unloading must have been a nightmare. Only one set of airstairs could be used, so it must have resembled unloading a cruise ship

Mike, you're misleading these folks. There is no such thing as a spousal tourist visa. A Thai national, married or otherwise applies for a tourist, non immigrant B1/B2 visa on their own, and, is or isn't approved on their own merits. Doesn't matter if they are married to a US citizen, single, or married to a Mongolian. Some folks, and you are one of them are fortunate and the initial B1 is approved without a problem, and after that you are off to the races. But being married is no guarantee of a successful B1 application as many on here will attest to. You are confusing folks. Non immigrant tourist visa's it's the tourist who applies Immigrant visa's it's US citizen who applies for the foreign national