Time Between Interview And Visa?

[otherstuff1957]

My wife & I and are going to visit the US in May. We haven't bought our plane tickets yet, but my sister is getting married on May 14, so we need to get there ahead of time. My wife has applied for a visitor's visa - we have no plans to move to the US, so an immigrant visa wouldn't make any sense. Her interview is scheduled for April 26. Does anyone know what the usual time delay is between the interview and granting the visa (assuming that the visa is granted ).

I did a search, but didn't find that info. If anyone has been through the visitor visa routine recently, I'd appreciate hearing how long it took them.

[thaihome]

Try here for Visa Wait times

TH

[Thaigreg]

Try here for Visa Wait times

TH

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Myself, wife and sister-in-law are planing to travel to the US on 11 May. On 1 Mar I check the Embassy website (http://usa.or.th/embassy/acs.htm) for wait time of 25 days. My sister-in-law went the Embassy on 7 Mar to submit her application for an interview and was told to return on 29 April.

[otherstuff1957]

Thanks for the link. That's the answer I was looking for!

[fxm87]

Does anyone know what the usual time delay is between the interview and granting the visa (assuming that the visa is granted ).

According to that page the wait time is 45 days to get an interview and then if the visa is approved at the interview another 2 days to get the visa. (I thought it was given back on the same day but but according to this page that's for an immigrant visa.) I had a very bad time at the interview and encourage you to post a follow-up of your experience. Good luck!

[fxm87]

I've been asked to elaborate on my "very bad time".

We applied 2 times. The first time it was OK: a few hours wait, polite interview, polite rejection. I thought I could make a stronger case so we reapplied the next morning before heading back home.

We came back the next month for the new interview and it was then that we had the very bad time: we waited 6 hours (including through the lunch break on the advice of the information window), the interviewer was very impolite ("Dude, I called this one already"), and when I asked to speak his boss all the workers stonewalled. We finally spoke to a manager of some sort who did the interview. And we got rejected.

I find the whole system absurd. Yes, proving our "compelling ties" to Thailand is not easy: we rent an apartment, she's not rich and works in a hotel, I don't work (I'm not old but I saved a lot of money and Thailand is cheap) and stay here on tourist visas and 30-day stamps. But a fiance visa seems a little extreme when you just want to take your girlfriend on a Christmas holiday to meet your parents.

When I finally fired off my "angry letter" I was surprised when the boss (whose name incidentally does not appear on the list of "Key Officers") called me on the phone! She seemed sincere. It even turned out the interviewer was on temporary assignment from Chiang Mai. But that doesn't explain the rest of the system: paying at the post office, post office opening at 8:30a vs. visa applications not accepted after 9am, the waiting, etc.

When I was working it was fashionable to think about who the "customer" was. In the case of the tourist visa I concluded that the customer is, in fact, the United States of America. The *successful* applicant is the product. The applicants as a whole are but a raw material. This is analogous to commercial radio where the advertiser is the customer, and the listener is the product "delivered" to the advertiser.

Yes, I might be talking out of my a** but approval/rejection statistics are apparently not made available, and while I find many posts from people asking about the application (and the room was *packed* with people both times we went) I rarely see a post about the outcome.

Edited March 18, 2005 by fxm87