GinBoy2

Well it is true, contrary to popular rumor, regular couples do exist in the farang/thai couple world. Now is that an adventure in itself? Hell Yes My wife grew up and was educated in the US, but there is something in the DNA that makes them different. Feisty doesn't quite cut it. Put it this way, a Thai woman is as loving as it's possible to be. But pi**ss that girl off...don't let her near knives! lol. So that 'normal' situation is for a lot of us, but the problem always get down to the fact that so many farang/thai hook up's are with some kind of sex worker. Generally doomed to failure and they feed into the perception from other farangs that your spouse fails into that category. And if you want to see my wife with the 'knives' thing, that a red rag to a Bull

I work for the airline, and best I could do was enter the information as if she was a United employee, but I think this is pretty comprehensive; I entered her as a resident of Thailand holding a German passport and not travelling as an employee Summary Conditional. The traveler will need to hold travel documents as detailed below. USA Passport Passport required. Passport Exemptions: Passengers with an Authorization for Parole of an Alien into the United States (Form I-512). Nationals of Germany with a temporary passport. Document Validity: Passports issued to nationals of Germany must be valid for the period of intended stay. When nationals of Germany travel with a temporary passport, it must be valid for the period of intended stay. When passengers travel with an authorization for Parole of an Alien into the United States (Form I-512), it must be valid on arrival. Minors: Children younger than 16 years and who are nationals of Germany are not allowed to enter the USA on their parents passports. Minors traveling unaccompanied, or accompanied by one parent or a person other than parent/legal guardian, can prevent possible delays if holding a notarized letter of authorization signed by absent parent(s). For more details refer to https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/3643/kw. Warning: Passengers entering or transiting through the USA must have a negative COVID-19 test taken at most 3 days before departure from the first embarkation point. Tests accepted are: antigen, NAAT, RT-LAMP, RT-PCR or TMA. Passengers details (e.g., name and date of birth) in the certificate must match those stated in the passport or other travel document; and the test result must specify "negative" or "not detected". If marked "invalid" it is not accepted. This does not apply to passengers younger than 2 years. This does not apply to passengers with a medical certificate with a positive COVID-19 test result. The test must be taken at most three months before departure from the first embarkation point; and - a letter issued by a health authority stating that the passenger has been cleared for travel. The test result must specify "positive" or "detected", if marked "invalid" it is not accepted. Passengers must complete a disclosure and attestation form before departure. The form can be obtained at https://tinyurl.com/58nw6t8v Passengers are not allowed to enter and transit if in the past 14 days they have been to or transited through Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China (People's Rep.), Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland (Rep.), Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the United Kingdom. Below listed passengers are allowed to enter the USA, even if they transited or have been in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China (People's Rep.), Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland (Rep.), Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe) or Vatican City (Holy See), in the past 14 days: - nationals of the USA; - permanent residents of the USA; - the spouse of a national of the USA. They must have a marriage certificate; - the spouse of a permanent resident of the US. They must have a marriage certificate; - the parent/legal guardian of an unmarried and younger than 21 years national or permanent resident of the USA; - the unmarried and younger than 21 years brother or sister of a national or permanent resident of the USA, who is unmarried and younger than 21 years; - the child/foster child/ward of a national or permanent resident of the USA; - passengers with an IR-4 or IH-4 visa; - passengers with a C-1 or D visa; - passengers with an IR-1, CR-1, CR-2 visa; - passengers with an IV, K-1, K-2, K-3, K-4 visa; - passengers with an A-1, A-2, C-2, C-3, E-1 as an employee of TECRO or TECO or the employee's immediate family members, G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, NATO-1 through NATO-4, or NATO-6 visa; - passengers with a C-1/D visa traveling to join a ship or aircraft in the USA; - passengers with an H or L crew visa; - passengers with a DV visa issued between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020; - members of the U.S. Armed Forces, spouses, and children of members of the U.S. Armed Forces; - passengers with evidence of traveling at the invitation of the USA government for a purpose related to the containment/mitigation of the Coronavirus (COVID-19); - passengers with documents issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or U.S. Department of State indicating that the passenger is exempt from the restriction; - passengers with an NIE exemption. Passengers are subject to Coronavirus (COVID-19) measures set by the state/territory of their final destination. More information can be found at www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/healthdirectories/healthdepartments.html Passengers entering or transiting through Virgin Isl. (USA) must have a travel certification obtained at https://usvitravelportal.com/at most 5 days before departure from the first embarkation point. This will generate a green QR code which must be presented before boarding. This does not apply to passengers younger than 5 years. Passengers entering or transiting through Virgin Isl. (USA) must have a negative COVID-19 antigen or molecular test taken at most 5 days before departure from the first embarkation point. The test result must be issued by an approved laboratory, details can be found at https://usviupdate.com/. This does not apply to passengers younger than 5 years. DV visas issued in September 2020 that expired are accepted for entry. Visa Visa required. Visa Exemptions: Nationals of Germany with a biometric passport (with an electronic chip symbol on the cover) and an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). They must travel as a tourist, on business or in transit, for a maximum stay of 90 days. This does not apply to nationals of Germany with a child's passport (Kinderreisepass). This does not apply to nationals of Germany with a temporary passport. Passengers with an Authorization for Parole of an Alien into the United States (Form I-512). Passengers with a Boarding Foil issued by the USA. Additional Information: A passenger may enter the USA with a valid visa in an expired passport, if also holding a valid passport of the same nationality. Transfer of a valid visa to a valid passport is highly recommended in all cases. The following applies to those traveling under the US Visa Waiver Program: Passengers must have a biometric passport (with an electronic chip symbol on the cover). Detailed information on ESTA restrictions can be found on https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/esta# A return/onward ticket (or electronic ticket record) must be to a final destination country other than Canada, Mexico or contiguous (adjacent) countries or territories situated in or bordering the Caribbean Sea . If a passenger holds proof of residence in Canada, Mexico or a contiguous (adjacent) country or territory and is transiting the USA to that country or territory, then an onward/return ticket to that country or territory is accepted. Passenger can make side trips to Canada, Mexico or Caribbean countries/islands if they first enter the USA on a carrier participating in the VWP. No additional time is given (extension) based on the departure to contiguous (adjacent) territory . Warning: Passengers must obtain an ESTA authorization at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/. This does not apply to nationals of Germany with a child's passport (Kinderreisepass). Visitors must hold a return/onward ticket to qualify for a visa exemption. Health Vaccinations not required. Warning: Those entering on a K-1 or K-2 visa must hold a medical form FS398 and X-ray plates of chest (full size not necessary).

Hmmm I gonna relate to this. Unfortunately I speak Thai and Lao, and strangely when she is <deleted> off with me always reverts to either Thai or Lao, or a verbal diarrhea of both. There are times I wish she spoke a language I didn't understand! I always laugh when I watch a British movie 'Still Crazy' when Bill Nighy's Swedish wife goes off at him in Swedish

Well regardless of covid, you need two witnesses at the Thai registration of your marriage. You don't need to do anything at the US embassy to register your marriage. When you apply for the CR-1 with USCIS that's when the fun begins. All the Thai documentation will be required along with certified translations. So sorry for all of you doing this in the post DCF world. It was so simple and quick when we did it at the USCIS field office in BKK, but Trump and his fanboys put an end to that in the anti-immigrant world. Plan on 12-18 months for the CR-1 approval, covid or not.

Rather boring actually compared to some of the colorful tales on here We got together back in 2004 when we were both working at the same company in Singapore, yes it was the definitive tawdry office romance, furtive groping in the stairwell lol But we made it work and although we didn't get officially married until many years later, ostensibly to get her a green card for the US, we seem to have stuck together, produced a great adult son and I think have a great late late middle aged life together

Which is why this forum is somewhat skewed. For all of us that post here we have some connection, either through wives, children or the horndogs among us. The opinions expressed here don't represent a typical tourist, and in that respect you are right that calling everyone that sets foot in Thailand is a tourist is delusional. From my previous post, should my Thai wife had actually decided to visit Thailand for family reasons, pretty sure she would have been in the tourist tally even though she wouldn't have spent a cent in any tourist destination

We're going on vacation in Hawaii in December and my wife was looking into seeing if she could go from there to Thailand for a week to visit family, since we haven't been back to 2 years at this point. After an hour or so on her laptop she just gave up and kicked everything into the long grass until next year. So my totally unscientific analysis is that if a Thai wanting to visit family can't be bothered to jump through the hoops, the chances of Jonny sixpack and family being prepared to do the legwork for a family vacation is pie in the sky.

Put it this way. Plough into a mountain and you live 2 seconds longer than those in first class!

I think what you witnessed is the reality right now. I work for Delta and we also service the United contract at our station. We saw our busiest summer season ever, but we are a domestic only station. I was on a United conference call last week and the consensus across the network was that domestic traffic has rebounded to pre-covid levels, whereas International is shaky at best. For United at least they seem to be making tentative steps to restart international routes, but it's very very selective. At the end of the day, airlines are for profit enterprises, not some charity. They tend to have pretty sophisticated load planning tools to predict future passenger loads. When I was at work last week I was scanning both Delta(skyteam) and United(star alliance) to see what flights might be available in December, since my wife wants a trip home. Pretty slim pickings. So looking into my crystal ball, I think across the globe you will see domestic loads looking pretty good going forward, but for international, especially long haul, we have a ways to go before any normality returns One last point. The other notable thing I got out of that conference call was that business travel is really still in the doldrums. I know many of you think that your economy seat is paying the airline bills, but far from it. Airlines need to fill revenue business and first seats to basically subsidize the folks back in cattle class

I'm kinda perplexed by this myself, but it seems to be a global issue for some inexplicable reason. I read the UK news and they are in almost the same boat. No truck drivers, shortage of restaurant, grocery, meat packers the list goes on. My german is a little rusty, but if I read german news correctly the same is true there as well. So don't know what the f*#*k is going on but it seems like a global pandemic of insanity!

You are between a rock and a hard place here. Chances are there is no solid connection to a ground. In a western situation you'd be fine connecting it to a copper water line, but this Thailand and that's not an option. Now i read it says 'Safe-F-Cut' which in Thai speak is as good as it gets. If there is a short the Safe-T-Cut is supposed to trip. So changing the breaker probably won't buy you anything in terms of protection from electrocution and death!

The weird part of my 'adventure' was that my wife never wanted us to move to Thailand. We met when we were working at the same company in Singapore and I thought, against my wifes better judgement retirement in Thailand would be a good thing. I remember a few months before we moved from Singapore she said "you'll be bored of this within 10 years". She got it wrong by 11 months The kicker for us was when our son, who was born in Singapore, moved with us to Thailand and then went to college in the US told us he was never going back to Thailand. That was the final nail in the coffin. Momma Bear was gonna follow whatever and I at that point was all in

Unhappiness can be like a slow developing cancer, it creeps up on you. I'll use my own case as an example. I was very happy in Thailand for years, but as boredom set in, I began to find mundane things irritating me. At the end of my full time life in Thailand I was just sorta angry about stuff. It was a few months after we moved back to the US my wife said aut of the blue, "you just seem more content now" And the truth was that I was. I hadn't realized when I was in Thailand how wound up I had become by the end, which I guess translates into unhappiness. We go back to Thailand now to our house on vacation (upended by covid right now) and feel the calmness I felt at the start of my Thai adventure

Happy/Unhappy is very subjective. It can range from totally the bought in to the abject misery of the 'burnt by a woman' brigade. In response to one of the posts, I'm not sure I buy in to the theory that those that break all ties with home are the happiest. Anecdotally I've found those most unhappy are those that did go 'all in' are by far the most unhappy when things go south. A lot of us do just tire of the place, and many like me find boredom sets in. That in itself can be a slippery slope, where the more bored you get, stuff just starts to irritate you. But I always knew I had an out, since I always kept a place back home as the ultimate bolt hole. Of course the saddest of the sad are those who do regret it, but have burnt all their bridges and get into the 'stuck' category. They go into this weird uber phase of 'I couldn't be happier' mode, I guess trying to justify to themselves why they are in Thailand! Of course the flip side to this are that many do seem deliriously happy which is great. I'm somewhere in the middle. I was was bored stupid and don't regret moving home, but with the upside that now when we go back to our house in Thailand on vacation (upended of course by covidright now) I love all the stuff I loved about Thailand 10-15 years ago

Impossible to say. Against popular wisdom many people actually stay on good terms with their ex. Both me and my wife are on good terms with our ex's, maybe because of kids, but hardly a week goes by that we don't talk. Neither of us feel threatened by the fact that we both have good or best friends who we happened to have been married to previously. Several years ago I co-signed a car loan for my ex, just because my credit rating was a helluva lot better than hers. I never blinked an eye. But my situation may be totally different to the OP and his wife. It's complicated world

Amazon is your friend. Safe reliable and the best option. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=khaen&crid=FS7ZY2KQOAU4&sprefix=khae%2Caps%2C323&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_4

Well don't worry about inbound customs to your home country, they unlike their Thai compariots tend to be honest, and if you state they are used personal property you'll be fine. You only state the weight of the outbound stuff. The issue you usually come up with is linear dimensions rather than weight for postal shipments. I forget now what the maximum package size you can send through ThaiPost, so check that out. But assuming you're not shipping something like hockey sticks you'll be able to get everything into multiple boxes, and once again forget any issue of Thai style import taxes on the other end you'll be fine. The other option is container shipment. The usual minimum they do is 4 cubic meters, which is a lot. But again I'm don't know what the linear size of the stuff you are trying to ship. So it's another option to think about. The minimum container thing is what we did when we relocated our main home back to the US and it was flawless. ....and not an import tax in sight lol

My wife had double Pfizer shots (we're in the US) and still caught covid pneumonia. She was pretty rough for a few days. But as the Doc said, "you're vaccinated so you just have to tough it out like a bad case of real flu and you'll be fine". He was right, but pretty sure after seeing how sick she was, straight up covid without being vaccinated is an express train to a ventilator!

I don't want to derail this thread. But I'm a bit of an American Anglofile, I love your country. Yes the weather really sucks big time, but the countryside and the culture is great. Granted a little crowded and super expensive, but I still love it. You can blame the BBC World Service for a teenage hispanic nerd holed up in his bedroom in the California Central Valley listening on shortwave! As I recall it was the booming 6175kHz every night

Well if I hadn't already returned to the US., and I'm Hispanic so language is a biggie; Mexico Columbia Argentina I could get a mexican passport tomorrow if I wanted so I suppose that would be the easiest, and No not all of Mexico is a gang infested Hell Hole. My family is originally from Guadalajara and if my wife could speak Spanish I'd live there in a heartbeat

Well Trump or no Trump, I've long since given up trying to understand the criteria to get a wife/girlfriend/boyfriend or whatever a tourist visa for the US. It always seems so arbitrary. Some folks with what seem rather 'thin' requirements sail though, yet others what you would think have a rock solid application get denied. My wife as a case in point back in 2010. Professional woman, good job, money in bank, letter from employer granting vacation. Yep, denied. All we wanted was a two week vacation to visit my daughter who had just had a baby. Eight years later applied for an immigrant visa, nothing had changed and it sailed through! So roll the dice and keep your fingers crossed

Well the vast majority come from the North and NE, and they simply go home and hang out on the family farm. Rural Thai families are pretty multi generational homes with the younger ones coming and going dependant on work. So the work dries up in the bar in Pattaya or whatever they go home and do some day labor in the rice or sugar farm. Thats pretty much how it works

Well TG has form here. Even in the best of times they could never offload surplus aircraft since they always overpriced them in the resale market. So here we are with the market overflowing with surplus widebodies (remember TG is a 100% widebody fleet) and not a doubt in my mind pie in the sky aspirations about what these aircraft are worth in today's market. Expect to see them all rotting away with the A340-500's for the next decade

I just re-read this, and it seems they aren't legally married. In this case a K1 is the quickest, or go to the Amphur get married and do CR-1. You are picking your poison here. Do you want your lady to be an immigrant faster? If that's the case suck it up and do the CR-1 and get legally married If you just want her in the US as fast as possible do the K-1 then deal with all the BS, marriage <deleted> after the fact. Just don't let her enter as a tourist then try to fix it. That will get you in a whole world of immigration hurt

Changing status while in the US on a tourist visa is dodgy and will be problematic since it'll be seen as trying to bypass normal immigrant visa application. You do not want to engage in immigration court proceedings! If the OP is legally married in Thailand >2 years an IR-1 is the way to go