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My Boyfriend's Interview For Us Tourist Visa Is Tomorrow... Please Wish Us Luck!

danfred
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danfred Senior Member

danfred

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We've been preparing for the visa interview for months now and the big day is tomorrow! We haven't allowed ourselves to get too excited so we don't get too down if he is denied.

Basically we've been together for 2.5 years and I (a US citizen) have resided with him the entire time in Thailand. I run a US-based company which allows me to work remotely.

Here's what he has going into the interview... please let me know your thoughts on whether he will be approved or denied... or if you have any last minute ideas or tips! We really have no idea what the result will be since he does not work (he instead manages our household and farm) and we are both gay...

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1. Signed letter from me inviting him to visit the US (traveling with me) for 3 weeks to visit my parents and brother. I explain we have built a life together (and new home) in Roi Et, Thailand and have been living together as a couple in Thailand for a solid 2.5 years (I haven't been back to the US during the whole time). The letter is on my company's letterhead and my business card is attached.

2. Signed letter from my parents inviting him to stay in their home and support his financial needs if necessary. Also signed color copies of my parents' passports with entry/exit stamps from Laos trip which match the stamps in my Thai boyfriend's passport. Lots of pictures of my boyfriend and his family (and me) with my parents in Thailand.

3. Signed letter from my brother (and wife) inviting him to stay in their home and support his financial needs if necessary. Also signed copies of their US identification cards.

4. Signed statement from doctor assuring my boyfriend's good health (he's 35 years old). I'm 38 btw.

5. Signed letters from his past two employers where he worked as a secretary (or general office work). He has not worked since 2006 (when I met him).

6. His Thai passport which shows 20 trips outside Thailand (mostly car trips to Laos for my visa runs) but also 2 trips to Kuala Lumpur, 1 trip to Singapore and 1 trip to Bali. I summarized his travel outside Thailand on a spreadsheet as it's hard to follow all the trips in his passport.

7. My US passport which shows matching entry/exit stamps for the 20 trips outside Thailand. This is also summarized on a spreadsheet as it's even harder to follow on my passport (stamps randomly placed in passport due to adding additional pages 3 times).

8. Bank books from Bangkok Bank. It's a joint account in both our names, but he is the primary account holder. Current balance is about 200K baht, but shows a total of over 7 million baht incoming wire transfers (deposits ranging from 65K to 450K at least once a month for the past 2.5 years).

9. Copies of my personal US banking statements from past 3 months.

10. Copies of my last 2 personal tax returns showing income of USD 93K (2006) and 126K (2007). To prove my capacity as sponsor of his visit to the US. His visa application states I am paying for his trip (and well I am).

11. Copies of my company's last 2 corporate tax returns showing income of USD 327K (2006) and 334K (2007). Not sure why including these but it shouldn't hurt.

12. Copy of his Thai birth certificate.

13. 2 original chanotes (land deeds) that are in his name (1.2 rai) . Including notarized appraisal report showing land to be valued at 1,240,000 baht at the time of purchase (2006).

14. 2 original chanotes for land adjacent to our home (.25 rai) that we use for housing livestock (also purchased in 2006). Tax receipt at time of sale showing 400,000 baht paid for this land.

15. Blue "house registration book" for our new home (which is in his name).

16. Original, signed copy of contract with home builder for 2.4 million baht home.

17. Signed receipt from home builder of house having been paid for.

18. Numerous pictures of finished home and stages of the building process.

19. Original bill of sale for new Honda Civic (2006) in his name (400K baht down-payment and receipts of recent monthly payments).

20. Original bill of sale for new Toyota Vigo (2007) in his name (300K baht down-payment and receipts of recent monthly payments).

21. Recent paid receipts from UBC, CAT Telecom, TOT, TT&T, electric and water companies (all utilities in his name)

22. Many more photos of random family events... our "wedding ceremony", ground-breaking ceremony for new home, both cars getting blessed by monks, christmas parties, etc.

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That's everything (except the usual required stuff like visa application forms, passport-sized photos, etc.).

I'll post the results of his visa interview tomorrow... please wish us luck!

Thanks,

Dan (and Ne)

neverdie Star Member

neverdie

Posted
Posted

Goodluck Dan & Ne,

It would look as if you have heaps of supporting documents there. Try not to be too nervous when you go for the interview, I think you might be pleasantly surprised. :o Goodluck!

danfred Senior Member

danfred

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Thanks for the good luck guys... it'll help us go in there tomorrow morning with a positive attitude!

I've been nervous that he doesn't hold a job. He does have a 2-year university degree in "business computers" and he could find work... but the money he would make working in Thailand would far from make up for the time I would be missing him around the house. He does still work... as a homemaker and a farmer (he has about a dozen of those long-eared Brazilian cows). We employ 4 of his family members as housekeepers and farm hands... so in my mind he is a manager with 4 staff to lead. He also cares for his elderly parents which also live in our house. He handles all the bill paying, home and auto maintenance and looks after me while I'm working. I get a lot of work done with my business not having to worry about all the things he takes care of. We are a team.

So after following this forum for the better part of 2 years and studying possibly hundreds of visa application cases made here I realized that property and assets in his name and a healthy bank book over several years would really be the only things helping him to get the visa (we can't marry so anything other than a tourist visa is impossible or impractical).

Thanks again!

Dan

sbk Star Member

sbk

Posted
Posted

Probably a stupid question, but you are including photocopies of your Thailand visas right? Part of their concern will not only be his connection to Thailand but yours as well. Seems to me you have everything covered.

Don't feel bad if they ask you to come back for an interview and be aware that you can request, by email, an interview that isn't a week away (the general period of waiting)--we did because we don't live in Bangkok and didn't want to wait a week, and were granted an interview the next day.

danfred Senior Member

danfred

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good luck and have a good time in usa.will you be going to california,san fransisco???

Thanks! As a matter of fact San Francisco is where I lived for 11 years just before moving to Thailand 2.5 years ago. All my belongings are still in storage there and one of the tasks on this trip to is to get rid of them. My parents will be meeting me in San Francisco to take what they want and the rest will either go to friends, get sold or donated. I wouldn't mind having much of it shipped to Thailand but I hear the duty on imported goods makes it not worth it. Still I will ship certain treasured items back to Thailand.

Back to the practice interviews!

danfred Senior Member

danfred

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Probably a stupid question, but you are including photocopies of your Thailand visas right? Part of their concern will not only be his connection to Thailand but yours as well. Seems to me you have everything covered.

Don't feel bad if they ask you to come back for an interview and be aware that you can request, by email, an interview that isn't a week away (the general period of waiting)--we did because we don't live in Bangkok and didn't want to wait a week, and were granted an interview the next day.

He will have my original passport to present (including all my Thai visas) along with spreadsheets I prepared that summarize the destination, dates and duration of each trip outside Thailand we made together. I wanted it to be as evident as possible that we have truly been together for 2.5 years by emphasizing we have traveled outside Thailand together 20 times at least once every 1-2 months. My passport is a hard to follow due to the volume and lack of order of the stamps so I felt a spreadsheet might make it more clear (and perhaps show a degree of organization and preparation that they might take kindly on). Every time I go through immigration the officer has to ask where my recent entry/exit stamps are since they jump all over the place.

All his documentation is bound together in those plastic presentation binders (the pages can be removed from the plastic sleeves if needed). I'm treating this as a professional, business meeting from my point of view. Since I can't go along to the interview I'm hoping the organized presentation of the documentation suggests that I've somewhat got it together. My assumption is that any and every little thing we can do may help.

And thanks for the tip on expediting a possible second interview requirement... we also don't live in Bangkok. Is a second interview requirement common? What is the purpose for it? Do they need to do some background checking or something?

danfred Senior Member

danfred

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UPDATE:

We arrived about 45 minutes ahead of time (the visa appointment was for 8:30am). I had to also get additional pages for my passport so I entered the embassy too. It appears they are doing some construction inside and I got confused on where to go and ended up exiting and entering again... the security staff all laughed.

I went into the American services area to hand in my passport for additional pages and then went back outside to the visa application queue (the outside area where you purchase your Thai Post envelope) and started talking to my boyfriend (who was in line). One of the girls behind the counter came out asked me what I was doing there and said I had to go. I figured they wanted to keep an orderly queue and didn't want people hanging around who weren't in line for service.

Anyway, so I went back to the American services area to wait (it takes an hour to add the extra visa pages). There is a open doorway between the waiting area for American services and the waiting area for Visa interviews... so I went into the other waiting area (the big one with a TV to watch) and saw my boyfriend and waited next to him. About 15 minutes later I went to check on my passport and my boyfriend was approached by embassy staff and they said we could not talk to one another. Interesting... are they afraid I might coach him along or something?

So I waited alone back in the small American services area until I got my passport back. I then discreetly handed my passport to my boyfriend in adjoining waiting area so he could present it during the interview. I then left the embassy (at that point I felt unwanted there) and joined a friend across the street at the "Coffee Bar" where you can watch people coming out of the embassy.

About 90 minutes later we saw him leave the embassy.

I don't know verbatim how the interview went (I wan't there and the interview was in Thai), but here's what I understood to have been said...

Q: Why do you want to go to America?

A: To visit my boyfriend's parents and brother

Q: Why don't you work?

A: I worked for the government and an insurance agency (while pointing out his signed letters from his employers).

Q: Why don't you work now?

A: My boyfriend needs me to take care of our home.

Q: How did you meet your boyfriend

A: We were in a motorbike accident together in Phuket and took care of one another. We saw each other for 5 months, fell in love and went to Roi Et (Issan) to see my family. He decided to stay in Roi Et with me, buy land and build a house.

Note: He neglected to mention we first met in the "Jungle discotheque" in Patong the night of the motorbike accident for fear they might construe that as meeting in a go-go bar (which is a scene neither of us ever participated in).

Q: What does your boyfriend do for work?

A: He works on the Internet for his company in America.

Q: I don't understand. He cannot work in Thailand.

He then hands him the letter I wrote explaining our situation and how I work remotely to run my company. Apparently the interviewer read the whole letter.

I don't know how the questioning proceeded after that... my letter apparently explained a lot. Most of the rest of the time was spent by the interviewer reviewing the documentation we provided with my boyfriend somewhat prodding him along to look at it all.

The interviewer was especially interested in the photos we supplied and my passport (having looked at them for a long time).

They asked why we went to Savannakhet, Laos so many times (he was looking at the spreadsheet summary I prepared on his travels outside Thailand) and he answered to take care of my visas to stay in Thailand.

They compared the signatures on the welcome letter my parents wrote and the copies of my parent's passports.

We're not sure if they looked at the bank books or not, but I should note he was wearing a 5 baht gold necklace, a 5 baht gold bracelet and $4,000 TAG Heuer watch which was worth more than was in the bank book anyway! :o

They said he had too much documentation!

They did not look at the chanotes (land deeds), house registration "blue book", home builder's contract, auto records or anything else. We had a second binder that contained all these along with all the monthly bills in his name.

That's all the information I've gleaned so far from the interview... I'll post some more as I review how the interview went with him.

In the end the interviewer said "we're finished now... you'll get you passport back in the mail"... so I still don't know for sure if he got the visa or not!

danfred Senior Member

danfred

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It's not really a question of luck if you got all the paperwork and full fill all the requirements....

but still: GOOD LUCK!

Thanks! and I agree, but try convincing a Thai that luck has nothing to do with it! :o

neverdie Star Member

neverdie

Posted
Posted

Make sure you update us when you know. I think the comment about you having too much documentation is a good thing, better than the comment, you dont have enough documentation.

  • 10 months later...
bendshead Explorer Member

bendshead

Posted
Posted
Q: What does your boyfriend do for work?

A: He works on the Internet for his company in America.

Q: I don't understand. He cannot work in Thailand.

He then hands him the letter I wrote explaining our situation and how I work remotely to run my company. Apparently the interviewer read the whole letter.

I don't understand how you got away with working in Thailand without a working visa? Everything I've read on these posts suggests you can get barred from the country that way... What's the trick?

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