Best Route For Us Visa?

[GaiArai]

I am currently engaged to a Thai and trying to figure out the best way of proceeding with a visa. We have been together almost 5 years and hope to marry in about 4 months. I live and work in Thailand and in the previous 5 years my girlfriend has visited the US 3 times on 2 different tourist visas. She has virtually no assets and during the visa approvals it seemed the embassy saw me and my work obligations as her link back to Thailand.

During the last visa approval the embassy official informed us that she would probably not be approved for another visa unless we were married. We now want to go back to the US and have a wedding ceremony sometime this coming spring. This is only a temporary visit as I will continue to live and work under contract in Thailand. Of course we can’t start planning a wedding party until I know she is approved for a visit.

I am trying to figure out the best approach to this situation. I am currently leaning towards signing marriage certificates in Bangkok within the next month (which I am ready and prepared to do, if necessary) and then applying for another tourist visa. We would inform the consular official of the newly registered marriage. Should we inform them of our potentially planned ceremony in April or would this lead to a quick rejection? Does this seem like the right approach to everyone here on thaivisa? Anyone have some helpful words of advice?

In the future we will be applying for an immigration visa, but as of right now we have no intent of leaving Thailand because of my employment here.

Thanks for the help.

[safeaccessdude]

Hey there. I have a simple answer for IMO the best solution.

Sign marriage paperwork here in Thailand. No need to do a ceremony yet. You can do one in the USA later for the family, etc. and do everything as normal. your marriage will be fully legal in Thailand.

Then get all the paperwork ready for an Immigrant Via and file here at the USCIS office in Bangkok. We filed in the end of September and my girl and I are moving back to the States in January. You both will be able to come and go as you please. Hopefully you still have a Driver License that is valid in the USA as this can show proof as a domicile.

You are at a great advantage that you are living and working in Thailand as the office for the USCIS is here in Bangkok...no need to file anything back in the States for now.

Do some research on CR-1 Visa as I believe this will work best for you in the long run.

Choke Dee!!

Edited December 22, 2009 by 7by7
Suggestion to commit an illegal act deleted.

[Svenn]

Why weren't any of her tourist visas issued as 1-year or 10-year multiple entry visas?

If the officer said you had to be married, then why is it a problem just to get married under Thai law and show them that? or was he implying she should get a fiance visa next time?

[moe666]

Why not go to the source and explain the situation to the folks at the embassy and see what they have to say, more than likely better info than what you will get here.

[chevyinasia]

Why not go to the source and explain the situation to the folks at the embassy and see what they have to say, more than likely better info than what you will get here.

What the... how the hel_l did common sense get in here?!

[Svenn]

Why not go to the source and explain the situation to the folks at the embassy and see what they have to say, more than likely better info than what you will get here.

What the... how the hel_l did common sense get in here?!

Maybe that will work, but I highly doubt the OP will get a helpful response from that fumbling bureaucracy... they'll probably just send him an email with a copy and paste quote from the immigration website. Really the officer who told him 'she might not get approved next time unless they were married' was the one to ask, to get more details on what he meant, but now that guy is lost in the cavernous abyss of bureaucratic insulation and likely unreachable... it's a pity.

My guess OP is that the officer meant she should get a fiance or spouse visa next time she goes to the US rather than another tourist visa. He didn't mean you should get married under Thai law then get another tourist visa like you're proposing... and yes, you might get rejected in that situation because they would prefer you'd apply for a spouse visa. In other words, they want you to do a bunch more paperwork to get the more complicated spouse or fiance visa (K-1, K-3, CR-?)... which you will have to do at one point or another. Because of that, there's no harm in applying for a 4th tourist visa- if she gets rejected then you can just get the spouse visa (which are almost always granted for constitutional freedom-to-marry reasons, even if she has prior tourist visa rejections). There's differences in processing times for spouse, fiance, or CR visas, but it's not that big of a deal.... I say just go for another tourist visa so you can marry in 4 months, because I believe there's no way you could get any of those 3 other immigrant visas that quickly.

[GaiArai]

Maybe that will work, but I highly doubt the OP will get a helpful response from that fumbling bureaucracy... they'll probably just send him an email with a copy and paste quote from the immigration website. Really the officer who told him 'she might not get approved next time unless they were married' was the one to ask, to get more details on what he meant, but now that guy is lost in the cavernous abyss of bureaucratic insulation and likely unreachable... it's a pity.

My guess OP is that the officer meant she should get a fiance or spouse visa next time she goes to the US rather than another tourist visa. He didn't mean you should get married under Thai law then get another tourist visa like you're proposing... and yes, you might get rejected in that situation because they would prefer you'd apply for a spouse visa. In other words, they want you to do a bunch more paperwork to get the more complicated spouse or fiance visa (K-1, K-3, CR-?)... which you will have to do at one point or another. Because of that, there's no harm in applying for a 4th tourist visa- if she gets rejected then you can just get the spouse visa (which are almost always granted for constitutional freedom-to-marry reasons, even if she has prior tourist visa rejections). There's differences in processing times for spouse, fiance, or CR visas, but it's not that big of a deal.... I say just go for another tourist visa so you can marry in 4 months, because I believe there's no way you could get any of those 3 other immigrant visas that quickly.

Thanks for the advice. I think you're right about just going for the tourist visa. I suppose at worst we lose 5000 baht and some time (although it would really mess up our travel plans for the spring). I agree it would be helpful knowing what the officer meant by saying we should get married. I thought fiance and spouse visas were only for when you have the intent of staying in the US long term? We certainly do not plan on living in the US anytime soon.

The reason for the single and double entry visas were (I'm speculating here) simply because of her lack of any assets and they probably didn't trust us well enough to offer unlimited travel for 1/10 years. In fact, it seems we were quite fortunate to avoid any visa rejections under the circumstances.

I suppose this is the real question here: Will getting legally married in Bangkok immediately before (or during) applying for a tourist visa negatively affect the chances of being approved?

[Svenn]

I suppose this is the real question here: Will getting legally married in Bangkok immediately before (or during) applying for a tourist visa negatively affect the chances of being approved?

I think it will affect her negatively because it gives her a stronger reason to overstay her tourist visa in the U.S., as she can just apply for change of status once she's there. Even Japanese girlfriends of Americans, who don't require visas, are sometimes turned away at the port of entry because it's feared they will get married in the U.S. once they're inside rather than Immigration's preferable method that they get a spouse/fiance visa in Japan.

But why would you want to get married before the application? Remember, I think the reason that officer told you you should be married was because he was implying you should get a fiance/spouse visa. If you just mean you want to get married for sentimental reasons under Thai law and not tell the embassy, then no, it won't hurt her application because they won't know about it.

[moe666]

Just apply all they can say is no. She has never overstayed or had other issues with her tourist visas why would they say no. Because they can.