I'm sure this question must have been answered on Thai Visa before, but my search skills are not up to the task of finding the correct topic and after quite a few tries, I am posting this.

Here's the situation: I've been in Thailand over a decade working, have been married several years to a Thai woman and have been back on visits to the US with my wife several times on her 10-year tourist visa.

It's time now to move back to the US and work there for a while for a variety of reasons.

Question: Should we apply for an immigrant visa for her in Thailand or just go to the US and get an adjustment of status after a while?

If anyone knows of any threads on this subject or has personal experience in these matters, I would appreciate it if they would share.

Thanks in advance,

jimmyd

I'm sure this question must have been answered on Thai Visa before, but my search skills are not up to the task of finding the correct topic and after quite a few tries, I am posting this.

Here's the situation: I've been in Thailand over a decade working, have been married several years to a Thai woman and have been back on visits to the US with my wife several times on her 10-year tourist visa.

It's time now to move back to the US and work there for a while for a variety of reasons.

Question: Should we apply for an immigrant visa for her in Thailand or just go to the US and get an adjustment of status after a while?

If anyone knows of any threads on this subject or has personal experience in these matters, I would appreciate it if they would share.

Thanks in advance,

jimmyd

Jimmy

Here's a recent thread on the same subject:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=193712

Mac

Thanks, Mac.

Unfortunately, it's not exactly my situation as that poster wasn't married and was not a long-term resident of Thailand. I'll keep looking around.

Thanks, Mac.

Unfortunately, it's not exactly my situation as that poster wasn't married and was not a long-term resident of Thailand. I'll keep looking around.

Jimmy

I'd say your situations are about 99% the same, Thai gal (married or not) with 10-year visa B1/B2 wanting to relocate to the U.S. with her (husband/fiance, to be married, choose one), considering going through the Immigrant Visa route here, or jumping the IV queue and applying for Adjustment of Status in the U.S.

Original posts below.

Mac

QUOTE (emmick @ 2008-06-10 08:27:08) 

I am from the u.s. and have been living on and off in Thailand for the past four years , Nok is Thai and holds a 10 year multi entrance visa to the u.s. and has visited me once in the u.s. We now have a newborn child togeather and I would prefer reloacting home I was told by an immigration lawyer from the u.s. that Nok can come to the u.s. on the visa that she currently holds ( B1/B2) and once she arrives he can start the process for her green card and permanent resident by her and I getting married. The question that I have and if anyone had a similar experience is if he is correct ?

Well, yes, it can be done, and is quite legal, if sort of skirting the intent of a tourist B1/B2 visa, which means you really intend to return to Thailand after your allotted time to stay. Kind of makes it more difficult in the future for other AmCits in Thailand to get a tourist visa for their girl friends as the particular ConOff who issued your G/F's visa might remember the time where one issued did the side step.

The real "proper" way to do the green card routing is to apply for an Immigrant Visa here, in our case, with the U.S immigration folks, go through all the hassle of medical, police check, paperwork, delay, etc, then head off to the U.S. in, say, six months.

As said above, tho, nothing illegal in adjusting status in the U.S., just means jumping the IV queue here.

Mac

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The immigration visa can be processed in Bangkok (if the USC lives in Thailand) in about 2-3 months if your paperwork is submitted correctly the first time.

TH