How does a Thai get a visa to visit the US?

[habuspasha]

Instead of jumping through the hoops to meet my GF in Phuket, I'm thinking of helping her come to the US for vaccine jabs and a vacation.  How would she get a visa to do so?  Is it difficult?  Are there certain stories she should tell or not tell?  Can she, for instance, say she wants the vaccine?

[bwpage3]

The biggest issue is she has to convince the US Embassy she will in fact return to Thailand. This is strictly the call of the Embassy and very had to convince them.

[rucus7]

Best of luck with this endeavor. Keep posting your progress.

[NotYourBusiness]

I would think quite impossible for ordinary Thai's UNLESS either:

1) It's a company trip.

2) You know someone inside the US Embassy.

[tonray]

8 minutes ago, bwpage3 said:

The biggest issue is she has to convince the US Embassy she will in fact return to Thailand. This is strictly the call of the Embassy and very had to convince them.

If she owns a house and has a long term job/career at the same place...goes a long way to that end. 

[Silencer]

IF she's unemployed and has little assets, nearly impossible. If she is employed, makes decent money, and has assets, a possibility. The embassy needs to be convinced this is just a holiday and that she has reasons to return to Thailand. Many have gone on "holiday" and not returned until years later.

[GinBoy2]

Well, the 'stories' are irrelevant.

 

The CO will basically have made up their mind based on the evidence.

 

Job

Assets

Home

 

All this indicates a reason to return, not a reason to disappear into the US Thai diaspora.

 

Not to be making assumptions, but if she's from Phuket, and if she's in the 'entertainment' business don't even bother wasting your money on the application fees 

 

 

[Thomas J]

Well as someone who has jumped through those hoops it can be difficult.  The embassy approves the tourist visa.  If you had a trip planned like a cruise or a resort with a definite stay with yours and her name on the reservation as well as a booked returned flight it would "help"  

The major items tend to be if they believe she has ties back to Thailand and would return.  That would include a home, job, and family particularly if she has children here. 

 

[vinci]

US K-1 visa ????

[DaLa]

I have been planning a holiday to the US for 2 years now, awaiting the solution to the Covid-19 situation. I'm a UK passport holder and as such my entrance to the US is quite simple. When my (Thai) wife accompanies me to the UK I complete a letter confirming she is travelling with me and I will be responsible for her stay in the UK, specifically mentioning details of finance, residence and length of stay backed up with our flight booking.

 

That works, so I planned a similar letter to the US Embassy only to find they don't accept any such 'sponsership'. It's all down to her status ( property / income / family / employment ) in Thailand. 

[cjinchiangrai]

"Visiting her boyfriend" is a minus. This says she may want to stay. The hurdles are high. Vinci is right, the fiance class might be easier.

 

[Thomas J]

10 minutes ago, DaLa said:

That works, so I planned a similar letter to the US Embassy only to find they don't accept any such 'sponsership'. It's all down to her status ( property / income / family / employment ) in Thailand. 

Yep the US approach with visa's is the most convoluted system.  If you attempt to enter legally you have to jump through a million hoops and the system is geared to rejecting you.  However if you cross the border illegally with no means of support, a criminal background, an existing MS 13 gang member or human trafficker and claim to want asylum as a refugee you are admitted given a court date for a hearing and released.  Now once in the country even if found they will not deport you.  However show up at an airport married to a U.S. citizen and not have your passport and visa and you will be sent back immediately and barred from obtaining a visa in the future. 

[GinBoy2]

5 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

"Visiting her boyfriend" is a minus. This says she may want to stay. The hurdles are high. Vinci is right, the fiance class might be easier.

 

Well you gotta be careful with that route.

 

I would agree a K-1 is easier than a tourist visa for any single Thai female without a really really compelling case of intention to return.

 

But if you don't intend to marry within the 90 days, and subsequently you do want to marry that previously aborted K-1 would be an issue

[habuspasha]

Thank you all.  We qualify on some points.  She will have a return ticket, maybe business class, if it matters.  She has a child, a nephew who is like another son, both in school,  and parents she largely supports.  She owns the family house (and still owns their previous one).  The downside is that she doesn't have a job.  I'm the source of support for all of that.  Have been for six years.  She has been taking university extension courses but no specific career plans.  Should I write to embassy people?  I could explain that she will certainly return because I cannot ask her to stay.

[kynikoi]

Google DS160 online

[kynikoi]

12 hours ago, tonray said:

If she owns a house and has a long term job/career at the same place...goes a long way to that end. 

Home and assets didn't matter at all with my gf now wife.

 

Just common wisdom... common

[kynikoi]

8 minutes ago, habuspasha said:

Thank you all.  We qualify on some points.  She will have a return ticket, maybe business class, if it matters.  She has a child, a nephew who is like another son, both in school,  and parents she largely supports.  She owns the family house (and still owns their previous one).  The downside is that she doesn't have a job.  I'm the source of support for all of that.  Have been for six years.  She has been taking university extension courses but no specific career plans.  Should I write to embassy people?  I could explain that she will certainly return because I cannot ask her to stay.

 

The thing that really matters imo is that she has a good job and has held it for a number of years.

 

Here's another tip. When she shows up at the embassy and I mean no offense by this but she doesn't look like a bar girl even if you met her there. I can tell a bar girl at 20 paces I imagine the embassy can just smell them.

 

Given that you are actually in US I think it's a kiss of death. If you were in Thailand and on a non-immigrant Visa and had been here for a number of years I think that would smooth much of the issues over. 

 

At 5,000 baht for the opportunity I would just pass.

[habuspasha]

7 minutes ago, kynikoi said:

That didn't matter at all with my gf now wife.

 

Just common wisdom... common

You mean she got the visa without it or was denied despite it?

[kynikoi]

Just now, habuspasha said:

You mean she got the visa without it or was denied despite it?

 

My then gf was given a ten year visa with no stated assets, no home ownership, and the corporate job of perhaps one year.

 

I gave her my passport which 48 or 60 pages in it showing my travel throughout the region and numerous Visa stamps for Thailand.

 

I included which I don't know they read an extremely brief note that I was taking my girlfriend back to the States to have a look visit my parents and we will be returning.

 

The CO my wife told me was very cool. He did ask her whether we were going to or had any plan to marry while we were there she stated no and he said okay and then issued the Visa.

 

She had been to the United States once prior when she was very young on a cultural exchange but I believe that would have no bearing on this situation. You may make your own judgment.

 

My wife is a genuinely honest and sincere person she presents extremely well and it's very difficult not to like her even on the first meeting. She would never dress like any sort of pubgirl and doesn't even own a pair of heels. Nevertheless, I dressed her very conservatively and sent her on her way wishing her the best of luck.

 

Since then we have been back to States six times without incident.

 

[kynikoi]

49 minutes ago, habuspasha said:

Thank you all.  We qualify on some points.  She will have a return ticket, maybe business class, if it matters.  She has a child, a nephew who is like another son, both in school,  and parents she largely supports.  She owns the family house (and still owns their previous one).  The downside is that she doesn't have a job.  I'm the source of support for all of that.  Have been for six years.  She has been taking university extension courses but no specific career plans.  Should I write to embassy people?  I could explain that she will certainly return because I cannot ask her to stay.

None of this matters imo.

 

By the way a question that is always asked on visas and renewals is who is paying for the trip.

 

Finally, she will be doing an interview and right now those interviews I believe are running or starting in October because they are full at that cramps your plans. But she will definitely be doing an interview if you'd not considered that.

 

Nephew like a son. No sorry. Lol. Thai Visa experts often think having family especially a child Left behind here is somehow helpful but if when she is over there and applies for change of status she has the right to bring the child over so a child in general in my opinion is just negative.

 

Edit: so, you're currently paying for everything she has essentially no job and you're supporting her this is just not what the embassy in my opinion is looking for. Whether it's true or not it is certainly quite believable and possible that you're just going to apply for a change of status when she arrives. There's no way I would attempt to bring her to the United States it's a total waste of time and a loss of 5,000 baht if not more.

[kynikoi]

13 hours ago, habuspasha said:

GF in Phuket

 

I just saw this. As another poster had stated this is a distinct impossibility unless she was literally born in Phuket.

 

She'll be painted red and perhaps rightly so.

 

I believe she'll also have to come up to Bangkok for the interview so that's a plane trip and hotel.

 

You're going to have problems even with a k-1 Visa. Highly recommend you come back to Thailand and enjoy her company but forget bringing her back to States.

[NCC1701A]

29 minutes ago, kynikoi said:

I can tell a bar girl at 20 paces I imagine the embassy can just smell them.

I applied for that job at the US Embassy but they said they have a dog that does that. 

[poskat]

"She has a child, a nephew who is like another son, both in school,  and parents she largely supports."

 

this would be seen as a negative because it could give her an incentive to stay and get a better paying job she could then send more money back from

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, habuspasha said:

Should I write to embassy people?  I could explain that she will certainly return because I cannot ask her to stay.

whether or not she stays is judged on her situation/qualifications, not on you...  you are not that relevant to the equation... and a lady w/no job might be someone who is looking to find work..

 

I have seen that in some times it is easier and other times more difficult... this does not seem like an optimum time... or applicant. 

[impulse]

FWIW, a female friend came to visit me in the USA and the visa agency she hired to help her get a visa suggested she refrain from even mentioning me.  They told her it would be looked on as a negative.  I stayed completely out of it, other than her having my contact info.  That was just before Covid.

 

She had no house and pretty much no assets beyond a bank account, but she had a good job at a multi-national corporation.  And she had gone to school for years in Australia about 10 years ago.  She got a 10 year tourist visa on the first attempt.

 

I'm not claiming any special insights, but I'm wondering if she shouldn't focus the interview on wanting a vaccine while the Thai gub'ment fiddles about- especially if she doesn't have a good job (still, good luck with that...).  As much as anything, I suspect the normal "rules" are malleable during Covid, and what worked pre-Covid may not work today, and vice versa.

 

[habuspasha]

Thanks again.  Some more questions, if I may:

1. Why 4 laughing emoji responses to my original post?  Is it "HaHa, no chance?"

2.  I wrote n the OP that I would otherwise "meet her in Phuket," not that she is from Phuket.  She is from BKK.

3.  I like the suggestion that I stay out of it and just have her ask for a vaccine visa, given Thailand's dim prospects--much closer to the real reason anyway;  The best she can do now is the AZ vaccine which is 10% effective against the approaching South African strain.

And one comment FWIW:

The slurs about bar girls are a bit tiring.  Sure, we can all recognize dead-eyed, emaciated teenies showing more ink than clothing.  But a) they do it for us, and b)where else do we meet young women?  In any case, thanks for your concern.  She dresses nothing like when we first met.  She has become middle-class.

 

[GinBoy2]

There are a thousand threads on this thorny issue, and at the end of the day there is no definitive answer.

 

US tourist visas for single Thai women are extremely hard to get, and for understandable reasons.

 

They are highly subjective and because we, unlike others don't get any reason for the rejection, it's impossible to tell if any subsequent application would fare better or worse.

 

Years ago before we were married, Mrs G applied for a visa, since we wanted to go visit my daughter in San Diego who had just had a baby.

 

I thought she ticked all the boxes. She was employed, we owned a house, money in a joint bank account, but she was still denied.

 

Years later after we were legally married and applied for an immigration visa, all the same stuff applied and it sailed through.

 

Maybe it was because all our assets were in joint names that she got denied, who knows. 

 

But either way, it's a tough row to hoe, and expect chances of success to be in the single digits

[impulse]

1 hour ago, GinBoy2 said:

US tourist visas for single Thai women are extremely hard to get, and for understandable reasons.

 

They are highly subjective and because we, unlike others don't get any reason for the rejection, it's impossible to tell if any subsequent application would fare better or worse.

 

I don't know about Thailand, but one of the things I learned in China is that some ladies have a long history of trying again and again to get a US, UK or Canuck visa.  And when their current fling repatriates or moves on, they latch onto another expat, rinse and repeat.  I saw it so many times that I came to believe the US Embassy was actually trying to protect the expats from being schemed.  And, of course, the clueless expat just thinks the bustards at the embassy are being arbitrary.

 

In fact, I struck up a conversation with a guy one time, flying to Beijing to read the embassy staff the riot act.  Seems they had denied his online squeeze a fiancé visa after he had spent a whole year online and 3 weeks in person with her.  He was flying in to set them straight...

 

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that's what's going on with the OP.  Usually those guys are in their first few months of their whirlwind fling. 

 

BTW, to the OP...  Keep us informed how it works out.  It's good info to share.

 

[habuspasha]

I read somewhere (probably here on TV) that the US was open to visa requests for medical care.  Sure enough, there's a B-2 visa open to those who seek medical care that is not available in their own country.  See https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/a-b-2-visa-visiting-the-us-tourist-do-you-qualify.html.  Doesn't say anything about vaccines (especially, say, a Moderna rather than a AZ, Russian, or Chinese). But I wonder.  I wonder if any of the HiSos went to the US on that visa.

Then for me and my GF, there's the financial issue.  She has no income.  So the US wants to know who's paying.  So there's an 8 page form called I-134 Affidavit of Support.  It's a contract between the supporter and the US gov't.  I'd be fine with signing that, but that would raise the question of our relationship and intentions.  I can't do that and lay low.

I (we) might be going to Phuket after all.

[GinBoy2]

You can't use the I-134 for a tourist visa, that's only for immigrant visas

 

Unfortunately, her visa application rests solely on her, and her ability to convince a CO that she has the resources and ties to Thailand to ensure she will return after her vacation,

 

As I said before, a tourist visa for a single Thai female with no job, and no financial resources has a very high probability of rejection,

 

Best you plan for a trip to Phuket