Steps To Take To Prepare For My Visa

[Drewcifer]

Okay, I'm sure this has probably been asked a lot, but let me do it once more.

I'm an American married to a Thai and eventually we are looking at moving to BKK. I know there are steps that we have to take to get my marriage based Visa set up, I'm just not exactly sure where to do them.

Were going to be back in BKK at the end of May for a couple of weeks and I was wonder if it might be a good time/place to start knocking off the little tasks. (I dont know about anyone else, but it seem that dealing with the LA consulate is not always an easy affair).

I take it the first step is to get our marriage registered in Thailand. Is it best to do this in BKK or in the US through a consulate? If we did it in BKK, where is the place (best place to go)?

Other than applying for the Visa, are there any other steps we can knock off ahead of time?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Apply for a multiple entry Non-Immigrant O class visa based on marriage to a Thai. Do it by mail at one of the Thai Consulates in Texas. No need to register your marriage in Thailand, just have your certificate translated into Thai, that will suffice for all your needs. You need to show savings of 400,000 baht in a bank in Thailand, or a combination of income and savings in that amount.

[lopburi3]

eventually we are looking at moving to BKK

There is not need to do anything now and would just come with the 30 day entry without visa unless you want to start setting up bank account or such. In that case get a non immigrant visa first (multi entry if you plan the move within the year) and travel on that. As the dr said you 'are married' here if you 'are married' in the USA. When you make the move be sure to have a non immigrant visa so that you can extend it here on a yearly basis and make a wire transfer agreement with your bank so that you can send funds here and paperwork supporting your income from abroad.

On this trip you could set up a joint bank account and obtain translation of your US marriage document; depending on your time frame.