Thai Passport And Visa For Mother-in-law

[old wanderer]

I have been married to my Thai wife for 12 years. My Father-in-law pestered me for years about wanting to come and see the USA....Well he died, and asked why I had not helped him come and see the USA just 2 weeks before he passed away. Sort of stuck with my concience.

Well my Mother-in-law is just a simple village person, but we just bought a large new luxury home, and I would like her to come visit for a few weeks.

She lives outside Surin. \\

Questions:

Where is the closes place she can apply for a passport.

Does it take 3 or 4 weeks still?

I expect the same stuff at the US Embassy, but while she does not have much money in the bank, owns a nice home, and 100 rai of farm land so don't expect too much problem in getting the tourist visa. Are there any new wrinkles in getting a toursit visa?

I am luck, that once she leaves home for a week or so, she want to get back to her buffalos and cows....so do not think I am taking on a liability.

Several years ago I told her and her husband to get passports, but they were both worried what people would say if they got passports and could not get visa..."everybody would say bad things about them".

The only down side to this thing is the extra money for my wife to make 2 round trips in order to ride with her mother that has never been on a plane.

Edited March 27, 2008 by old wanderer

[marshall]

I have been married to my Thai wife for 12 years. My Father-in-law pestered me for years about wanting to come and see the USA....Well he died, and asked why I had not helped him come and see the USA just 2 weeks before he passed away. Sort of stuck with my concience.

Well my Mother-in-law is just a simple village person, but we just bought a large new luxury home, and I would like her to come visit for a few weeks.

She lives outside Surin. \\

Questions:

Where is the closes place she can apply for a passport.

Does it take 3 or 4 weeks still?

I expect the same stuff at the US Embassy, but while she does not have much money in the bank, owns a nice home, and 100 rai of farm land so don't expect too much problem in getting the tourist visa. Are there any new wrinkles in getting a toursit visa?

I am luck, that once she leaves home for a week or so, she want to get back to her buffalos and cows....so do not think I am taking on a liability.

Several years ago I told her and her husband to get passports, but they were both worried what people would say if they got passports and could not get visa..."everybody would say bad things about them".

The only down side to this thing is the extra money for my wife to make 2 round trips in order to ride with her mother that has never been on a plane.

Dont know where to get the passport but when applied for you should have it in a week, was very suprised how quick the Thais do passports good luck

[vinny]

She may apply for a Thai passport at Office of Passport Division. See also Visa Denials.

[old wanderer]

Thanks for the replies and cautions. I believe we will not have a problem of getting a tourist visa for my Mother-in-law as we also have substantial holdings in Thailand, so we certainly not leaving all behind.l

[old wanderer]

Well this little plan has really stirred up a hornets in my Mother-in-laws village. Who would have thought a simple thing like asking my sister-in-law to to and help her mother get a passport would be an international incident.

1st it started when her neighbor heard that I had invited Mother to visit in the USA.

then the questions....

Always 1st question: How much does it cost.....I told them I would fly there with my wife and we would all go back business class on Thai airways......that was not good enough ...how much does it cost????? Well I figured it would cost about $7500....How much does it cost in baht????? Well about a quarter million I figure....."250,000 baht for a plane ticket...No 3 plane tickets....why don't you just give the money to your mother-in-law.....my reply...."because nothing would change" "She has always farmed rice and made silk, plus tended to her cows and buffalo....that is her life"...If my Father-in-law was still alive he would drink and party it all away, but he died 2 years ago...(Unfortunately he is the one that really wanted to travel on an airplane. Mother will not even stay in Bangkok for a week, she misses her buffalo and cows")

Finally I got upset.....OK.....Thai people have to fly in the back of the airplane and the ticket will be free because I can use my frequent flier miles...I will fly in the front of the plane because I am a pilot...

Then the 2 question came about "why can she get a visa, and the niece of Toon could not get a visa??". I explained Toon worked in a "restaurant" and had no land or homes. Mother has a lot of land, and the #1 house in the village, and needs to come back to take care of everything...plus had a wealthy daughter that also has a lot of land (my wife" )

Question 3...How long does it take to get there.....1 day..."that is too far..what if?????? (and there was a never ending scenario of what could happen on the airplane.)

Now I love my Thai family, but in my life I have never seen such a bunch of jealous petty people in my life...after 12 years of marriage, I thought I could pretty well anticipate the reactions. I now have one aunt that is being sedated because she is so jealous, and has told he husband to leave. Another villager that claims her daughters Japanese boyfriend is much wealthier than I am and furthermore is going to build her a home that will be much more expensive that what I did for my Mother-in-law. Also 2 uncles want me to invest is some money loosing scheme that is never going to happen....

If I have one bit of suggestion for you out there, it is marry a city girl...there is nothing we can do that everybody in village does not know about, want to put in their ideas, and talk about for weeks on end....

Already I can see I will have to video the mothers trip to the USA, then burn it onto a DVD, buy a DVD player so she can play it 100 times for all the relatives and village people. Fortunately I will not have to tell the stories 100 times to the people.

I guess doing this stuff is what makes good stories, and keeps us all smiling.

[elektrified]

She can get her passport at the local Amphoe where she lives. I took my girlfriend to get her passport here in Amphoe Muang (Chiang Mai). It took all of one hour and 1060 Baht. She had the passport in her mailbox in one week.