Fiancee K1 Visa

[VegasDave]

I hope someone can give me some guidance. I've completed all the K1 visa paperwork and it is ready to send to my thai girlfriend to sign, so I'm getting a little anxious.

The problem is that I just visited her last weekend and she told me her passport name is different than the name she has given me. It is not different by much but the first name has an 'a' rather than a 'u' and the last name has an extra 't'.

Now all my evidence of meeting her, airline boarding passes, hotel reciepts, etc uses one name but her passport has another. I'm not sure what the birth certificate will have but I have her working on that.

How does this happen? Are there several possible translations to the Thai name?

I can just use the Other Names box on the G-325 Biographic information form but I've read this can cause delays.

I'm having her try and update the passport and to get a certified copy of her birth certificate but I do not want to send in the paperwork until this is resolved.

Thanks for any advice.

Dave

[dtoodnut]

Hey, Vegas Dave>>>

Ferget abouditt!!

I met this poor guy in the Phillapines that worked the GM line for 30+ years and could have retired like a king in the LOS or the Peenze with his sweet pension. Instead he got talked into marrying this Filipina 1/3rd his age, and took her to Nevada (her choice). It seems with Nevada's liberal marriage/divorce policy it is a favorite of those cunning wee lasses. Of course she got pregnant and he bought the best house in his budget 'cuz he was in bliss. Then, she claimed abuse, and this guy wouldn't hurt a flea. Now he lives in the cab in the back of his pickup truck now. His entire pension goes to support this Daughter of a Bar Gal from Angleles City in the Peenze. His little "cath-o-lick" honey is now the mistress of a Philapeno divorce Lawyer in Nevada. There is a big community of them there. He will never be able to even afford a ticket back to SE Asia now and his family has disowned him.

This guy did not deserve this. US courts are very very hard on old geezers that bring back economically deprived gals and like to make an example of them.

C'mon buddy....think about what you are getting into. Hire a Thai private eye first.

Go to the Dept. of State Website and read up on the Affadavit of Liability. The US Embassy will do a thorough check on the gal, including a physical one. Sometimes guys find out things they'd rather not at this stage.

I apologize, and I hope I am wrong in your case but I can't think of one happy guy that did this. I live north of DC, so there are many people that have done it here with all the Military Bases and people employed abroad and BELIEVE ME, you will be expected to send $600 back a month in addtion to whatever happens here.

The local Philapeno paper openly advertises Lawyers and their "Divorce from Americans" ads. Most Thais prefer the West Coast, but there are distinct similarities. Prenups are null and void when the girl claims she didn't understand it, and the courts back them up.

FYI: www.state.gov Do a search on Affadavit of Support, AND you will need to do an I-864, and in some cases an I-134 also. Below is the link to whatever they are calling the INS these days pdf file on the affadavit of support.

http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/files/i-134.pdf

[VegasDave]

Hmm, a long story but doesn't apply to me. Most people I talked with didn't even know where Las Vegas was, I had to keep telling them Los Angeles. I'm familiar with the affidavit of support and all the other immigration forms and regulations.

In any case, I still need an answer about the name translation. I'm sure I can just use the Other Names but will try and get the passport updated and get a translated birth certificate for her. I'd just like the name to match all the evidence of meeting her.

This seems to be a common problem but I haven't found any reference on how people dealed with it.

This lawyers site had some useful information: http://www.murthy.com/names.html and it seemed to indicate that it is best to straighten out before submitting the visa paperwork.

[lopburi3]

In any case, I still need an answer about the name translation. I'm sure I can just use the Other Names but will try and get the passport updated and get a translated birth certificate for her.

The passport should be the official and correct spelling of her name in English(unless there has been a major screw-up) and that is what you should put were English is required. This is the reason forms also have to show name in Thai as well as English - many people have incorrect spellings when translated into English. There is no reason you can not list the spelling she gave you in "other names" and explain (most Thai have a number of names that they have been know by so it is not a big deal). English spelling errors are very common as there have been a number of translation systems over the years. But the passport should be accepted as official by everyone.

[kenk3z]

I also see considerable evidence that this is a common thing to happen, because the style of translation changes over time.

How many different English versions of the same place name do you see? Quite a few actually.

So I'd agree with others that you use the official passport English name as the identifier - simply because it matches her official government-issued document.

All your other supporting information is just that - supporting information. If there's a few letters changed in the name, it should be close enough.

I think as the Thai people learn more English they realize that their early English translation doesn't quite match the way their name is pronounced, when attempted by native English speakers. So they change it for day-to-day use even though it no longer matches their official Passport translation.

Good Luck to you sir.

kenk3z

[VegasDave]

It turned out that she has three names, one used on her bank accounts and just in general, the one on her Passport and one used on an Amendment to her passport. The later is what I used for the official paperwork and I listed the others under OTHER NAMES.

They are very similar but different. I hope that running three names through the FBI computer doesn't add anymore time than just one but we'll see.

Dave

[Richard W]

I think she just has one name; it's just that it isn't being transcribed / transliterated consistently. There are even two different official schemes - one for unfaithful phonetic transcription (recovering the Thai is a challenge for a Farang) and one for transliteration, ISO 11940:1998, which wasn't approved until 2003 (and quite possibly shouldn't have been). For more details, see Official Transliteration?.

More worryingly, names can creep - an implicit vowel in my wife's name at birth has become a long vowel in her current documents. This doesn't show up in the official transcription. The diphthong uea usually shows up as ua or ue, which are the proper transcriptions of different vowels. In fact, you very rarely see uea; I wonder if it's restricted to official documents!