A Few Tips For Us Vias

[mmcsusnret]

I just returned with my wife from the US Embassy in BKK upon obtaining my wife's IR-1 visa. I did all of the paperwork myself and am offering a few tips. The first tip is you probably don't need a visa service. They (visa services) tell you that it better to use one, but you should be able to do it all your self (except the translations) with the downloadable forms, reading and paying attention to the instructions, and saving $$$. If the relationship is valid, and you can get all of the documents (both hers and yours) by mail or visiting offices, you should have no problems.

Second tip: Tell your wife to dress appropriately for a business type meeting. Of the 10 wifes that were at the Embassy most were dressed well and got their visas. The only one that I saw that got turned down was an inflated chest (no complaints here) poster girl for Bimbos "r" us. She had on a halter top, hot pants with a lacy thong showing in back and stilleto heels. Again, pleasing to my eye but the dowdy female clerk appeared not to be impressed.

Thirdly, now that they don't want you in the waiting room with your spouse you need to be clever. There were 4 husbands (me + 3) who entered through the ACS side and went into the visa waiting room. Three of them sat next to their wives and kept sorting documents and holding hands. They were politely asked to leave. I had made an appointment to get pages added, and sat in the row behind my wife and was discrete in speaking to her. She wanted the moral support but I knew that when my passport was done, that I would have to leave. They never even looked at me. Another guy who was only there getting passport pages added turned his in 5 minutes after I did. His was done in about 35 minutes. The clerk saw me and called me to the window and said the machine had broken and I could come back or wait. I waited. The wife turned in her documents at 8:05 and sat back down. Most of the immigrant visa "interviews" lasted 9-10 minutes with about 5-10 minutes between each set. The interview reputation is far worse than reality, My wife didn't realize it was over and was going to sit back down when the lady handed her a card telling her to come back in two days to pick up her passport and visa.

At 10:30 (I was still waiting for my passport) my wife went up and they asked her a few questions about where we met, had I met her family, had she met my family. The only worrisome part they questioned was that when my wife was previously married to a Thai, they lived at her mother's house and he was on her house book and not removed when they got divorced 5 years ago. Tip number 4: make sure that the exspouse is not still on the books. We did have the proper divorce documents so it passed. After a few questions it was over. She was at the window 12 minutes. She turned around and smiled and departed through the visa entry door and the passport pages lady called me to pick up my passport. Her timing was excellent. We celebrated with a nice lunch and headed back to Phuket.

Tip number 5: Have your spouse's documents in the exact order they are listed on the packet 4 intructions. If you have more documents than are listed put them behind the others. Have the originals in one set, a copy of all for the interviewer with labels and a set for your spouse annotated in Thai if needed to make it easier for her to find something. We used the plastic binders with the plastic document protectors sewn into the binding. Easy to see, select and remove a particular document.

The whole process from start to end was relatively easy. Everything happened in less time than indicated on the web site. 8 weeks from submission to USCIS to end, no hassle with an "outsider" read visa service and only B7,000 (for translations) over the standard required fees but not including the medical exam (altogether B5,200) and 3 trips to BKK. Using a visa service would have eliminated the translation fees but cost from $1500-$3500 (I got quotes from 7 different places).

Edited June 24, 2009 by mmcsusnret

[ubonjoe]

Moved to the other visa forum.

[skettios]

Great News! Congratulations. It will be my turn in a few months. We're processing a K1 now. What should my excuse be to sit in American Citizen Services? I already have a ton of pages! ;-)

[xjessie007]

Great tips, I like it!

Just to add, the USCIS website has lots of information now too. It is possible to download the immigation act too.

[thaigecko]

Thanks for the info! My wifes CR-1 just got approved at NVC yesterday, so waiting for her interview date now. Agree that the whole process seems overwelming at first, but by using resources on the net, in particular visajourney.com, it is easy and quick doing everything yourself. USCIS and NVC are making good times this year it seems compaired to previous years. Maybe I should reconsider, but I was under the impression that for this type of visa it'd be better to have the husband there. We have a co-sponsor for ours because I haven't really worked for two years, and not sure if they'd really care about that since I do have a co-sponsor. Was the representative thai or american and speak thai with her or english. I know my wife will be nervous and need support since her english vocab is still not great, not sure if that'd be a hinderance. Do you remember any more specific questions they asked that you can share? Cheers

[mmcsusnret]

The only difference between a CR-1 and an IR-1 visa is how long you have been married (CR-1=<2 years). You don't need to be there for either and are not officially allowed to be there, hence the subtrefuge I used, but you must be discreet. The rep was an American who spoke adequate Thai for the questions (according to my wife) but the rep called in an interpreter to sort out the exspouse issue. You wife can request and interpreter but my wife started without one. The questions were simple: where/how did we meet?, had I met her family and how did they feel about us?. and had she met my family in America? That's all folks. My wife gave short answers (if "yes" is enough, say yes, if they want more they'll ask more. For the last question my wife pulled out her copy of some photo files and pointed out that my only brother and only son had come to Phuket and met her, we visited my only sister last year in New Mexico, and my former in-laws from my deceased spouse are my neighbors in America and they liked her. She pointed out each relative and said "This is my husband's _____ at _____. His/her name is _______.

My wife (also nervous, with limited English and vocabulary) felt comfortable with the reps level of Thai and the rep called in the interpreter to make sure that both she (the rep) and my wife understood what was being asked. I guess the more in depth questions on her Ex could raise a few eyebrows since the house book legally says the Ex is still living with her mother while the divorce papers contradict this. I had not had all of the pages of the house book translated, just the first 2 pages(only ones required).

They briefly looked at, but did not keep the affidavit of support and supporting docs. Just make sure the information is accurate on both you and the cosponser.

I think it would be easier just to prepare your wife to go it alone, unless you do have valid business with the ACS. The 3 husbands who were asked to leave seemed embarassed at being caught, but, as I stated, they were sorting docs, holding hands, and talking constantly. I sat in the row behind my wife and were very discrete in talking. The "bouncers" did not even look at me or ask what I was doing there. My wife thinks there was "devine intervention" for her in the machine breaking after doing the guy behind me and being fixed as she was finishing. I don't know but it was a fortunate coincident.

Are you sure you application went to NVC? I'm sure ours did not, since the USCIS approval came 3 days after submission and was forwarded immediately to the consular section of the embassy and the packet 3 mailing date was 2 days after that. When we submitted the packet 3 info, it said we should hear back in 6-10 weeks, we got packet 4 info in 16 days with her interview date 21 days later. I was suprised (pleasantly) it came back so soon.

Good luck to you both!

Edited June 25, 2009 by mmcsusnret

[thaihome]

The other poster sounds like he does not live here, hence he had to file at a US Service Center. Filing in Bangkok like you did bypasses the NVC.

TH

[thaigecko]

Right, I'm "one of those guys" living over here on tourist visas, so had to go through NVC as well.