Marriage To Thai, In Usa Now, Need Advice

[johnnymoretti]

Hey there,

I need some advice on how to approach the process of gaining a Multiple Entry Non Immigrant O visa. Here is a short list of info about us:

• I'm a US citizen.
  
• She is Thai citizen.
  
• I have been in and out of Thailand since January 2005 on tourist visas, VOAs.
  
• My total time in Thailand is bout 20 months over the past 29.
  
• I'm 47 and no retirement income. Still working in US, but want to move permanently to Thailand.
  
• She is with me here in the US now on a 6-month visit (using a 10-year mulitple entry visa given in BKK)
  
• She has all her personal docs with her here (birth certifcate, ID card, etc)
  
• She is gainfully employed in Thailand (She is not a bar girl, but well educated and works for an airline)
  
• I do not have a job in Thailand pending.
  
• I plan to open a small business in Thailand with her.
  
• She is here on a tourist visa, but we want to marry here in August (California)
  
• We will not have performed a marriage in Thailand until we return to Thailand.
  

We had not planned to marry while here in the US, but felt it would be good to do it now so we can get the visa. We are definitely in love and this is not a ploy to enter Thailand.

I am hoping to get some advice on marrying here and then presenting things to the embassy in Los Angeles. Do you have any experience with this at this particular embassy?? What can I expect? Do I need to overdo the documentation just in case? What should I NOT forget to bring? What should I say and NOT say as far as jobs, etc.

Hope to get some answers and hope to get answers from those that KNOW what they are talking about and not any speculations. I only got two months to get this completed until I return to Thailand. Thanks t all as this is a great site to get info and I find myself reading tons!!

Thanks, fellas!

Johnny and Roong

[KhunG]

Hey there,

I need some advice on how to approach the process of gaining a Multiple Entry Non Immigrant O visa. Here is a short list of info about us:

• I'm a US citizen.
  
• She is Thai citizen.
  
• I have been in and out of Thailand since January 2005 on tourist visas, VOAs.
  
• My total time in Thailand is bout 20 months over the past 29.
  
• I'm 47 and no retirement income. Still working in US, but want to move permanently to Thailand.
  
• She is with me here in the US now on a 6-month visit (using a 10-year mulitple entry visa given in BKK)
  
• She has all her personal docs with her here (birth certifcate, ID card, etc)
  
• She is gainfully employed in Thailand (She is not a bar girl, but well educated and works for an airline)
  
• I do not have a job in Thailand pending.
  
• I plan to open a small business in Thailand with her.
  
• She is here on a tourist visa, but we want to marry here in August (California)
  
• We will not have performed a marriage in Thailand until we return to Thailand.
  

We had not planned to marry while here in the US, but felt it would be good to do it now so we can get the visa. We are definitely in love and this is not a ploy to enter Thailand.

I am hoping to get some advice on marrying here and then presenting things to the embassy in Los Angeles. Do you have any experience with this at this particular embassy?? What can I expect? Do I need to overdo the documentation just in case? What should I NOT forget to bring? What should I say and NOT say as far as jobs, etc.

Hope to get some answers and hope to get answers from those that KNOW what they are talking about and not any speculations. I only got two months to get this completed until I return to Thailand. Thanks t all as this is a great site to get info and I find myself reading tons!!

Thanks, fellas!

Johnny and Roong

The honorary consulates are quite easy to deal with, I would suggest using one of them through the mail. I recently got a 1 year multi-entry O from the one in Houston. They wanted an application form filled out - which they emailed to me, a photo-copy of our marriage license, my passport, and $125 - though I've heard that has just gone up to $150. Through the mail you'll need to provide a SASE for return of your passport. Quick and painless. Their addresses and email can be found on the Thai Embassy in DC website.

If you want the extension of stay due to marriage, do it in Thailand with your O visa rather than the US.

Edited July 2, 2007 by KhunG

[Badbanker]

Getting married in the US is just as good as getting married in Thailand.  Either marriage certificate are acceptable at the any Thai embassy.  If your intended has a taxed income of 40,000 baht or more in Thailand with a tax record of over 3 months and on presentation of your marriage cerificate from the US or Thailand and her local documentation, I don't think you will have any problem getting a one year  extension of stay based on a Non Imm "O" visa issued at any US embassy or obtaining a multi "O' for that matter.

Good luck,  You fit the parameters!

Badbanker

[autonomous_unit]

Just to be clear, you shouldn't really have to document her Thai income when you go to the embassy... just by being married you should be able to get an O visa without any difficulty. We did this at Los Angeles a few years ago, so I don't have current experience but I don't think the rules have changed in this regard (just the price). You can get a single or multi-entry visa, depending on how much you expect to travel that year...

Eventually, if you qualify you'll want to apply for extension of stay about 60 days after your last entry to Thailand (one month before the 90-day stay is up). If you do find a job here, you can get a work permit on your O visa, though some lawyers and employers may boldly claim otherwise. You do not want to "switch" to a B visa. You can qualify for the extension based on marriage and your combined incomes, rather than having to meet more stringent requirements for foreign workers without a Thai spouse.

If you plan to have a wedding in Thailand, you cannot really register it without falsely claiming to be unmarried to begin with. Whether that bothers you or not is your own business... You have the option of staying unregistered, "falsely" remarrying, or getting your US marriage certificate translated and then certified at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present to the local Amphur office. You don't strictly need to register a marriage in Thailand to deal with immigration issues. But, we did cross-register, because we felt it made some things easier to have a normal Thai document of the marriage. For example, it helped to get me on my wife's health plan at work, since those bureaucrats do not know about foreign documents. This is not getting married again, but merely registering the fact that we were already married abroad. We just made up our own translated copy on the computer, following the same layout as the real CA marriage certificate and took that to the MFA.