Ok, I'm not a Yank. My Thai sister in law (Michelle) is married to one, and she has taken up USA citizenship (yes she has abandoned Thai citizenship and is now a bona fide USA citizen). So both her and her daughter are 100% USA citizens.

For the last three years, we have been applying for my Thai mother-in-law (68 years old, Michelle's mother) to go to the USA on a tourist visa, for three months, to spend time with her daughter and granddaughter (both USA citizens).

We have provided bank statements, letters of support, personal guarantees from USA citizens that she will return home before her visa expires.

Every time, visa denied on the spot at the interview, three years running. No matter what paperwork we provide (bank accounts, land title certificates etc.), my Mother-in-Law is denied a visa straight away during the interview. It's not like she is going on the game in Houston at age 68????

<deleted> are we doing wrong? She is a 100% legitimate family tourist, no intention of overstaying her visa, just wanting to go and visit her daughter and granddaughter, check out the lifestyle, maybe take in a school play, a school sports day etc. and return to Thailand by the due date.

What the hell is the American Embassey doing in Bangkok? This is the third year running she has been denied, and they refuse to give a specific reason. Just "she does not meet the requirements" whatever the hell that means.

Any ideas?

Sad, really, that a government can do this so easily.

Personal guarantees, by the way, are given zero notice.

How long did each interview last? Does she have immediate family here? If not ....

Refusing to give a reason is disturbing, but perhaps she is just mistakenly saying something, quite innocently, that raises one of their red flags.

Have you written the embassy? Perhaps a polite, very brief letter to the ambassador might, that's might, shed some light.

Yep, wrote a letter last year. No response.

I cannot understand it. 100% legit reason for applying, heaps of money backing it up, heaps of guarantees she will return home, no medical issues.

F*ckd if I know.

Sad, really, that a government can do this so easily.

Personal guarantees, by the way, are given zero notice.

How long did each interview last? Does she have immediate family here? If not ....

Refusing to give a reason is disturbing, but perhaps she is just mistakenly saying something, quite innocently, that raises one of their red flags.

Have you written the embassy? Perhaps a polite, very brief letter to the ambassador might, that's might, shed some light.

And also, yes she has a husband, two other daughters and a granddaughter

here in Thailand. We have to have missed some fatal piece of paperwork I think. The US embassy is absolutely ridiculous.

Have you tried using an agent?