America

[Foreign Jim]

I am an American travelling to The United States with my daughter who is Thai and has an American passport.  

 

1. Where should my Thai wife go to get the 'permission letter' for me to travel with her?  (costs, documents needed, turn around time, details)
2. Where should my Thai wife go to apply for my daughter's Thai passport? (I'm assuming Chaeng Wattana, but any information would help: e.g. cost, documents needed, turn around time)

 

I am legally married to my Thai wife and all Thai paperwork is in order. (marriage documents, birth certificates)  I have a stop-over in Toronto where I'll be met by Immigration and Customs before entering the US.  If anyone has advice on how to facilitate a smooth trip to the US and back to Thailand, I would be appreciative.  Thank you.

[Snoozy]

I believe your Thai wife will need to get a tourist visa to enter the U.S. In order to get that, you need to fill out the DS-160 form online, pay the fee at a the gov't bank (5,600 baht), then make an appointment for an interview at the nearest consulate that gives visas. 

 

My wife and I are legally married too, and have all the supporting documents... but with that said, her being married to you really doesn't get her a pass into the states until she has a visa. Getting the visa all depends on the interview at the consulate. My wife passed on the first try, simply because she could answer all the guys questions about me (my middle name, b-day, brothers names, where I worked, where my mother lived, etc)... which proved that she really knew me and wasn't some sort of convenience marriage. I know others who didn't pass, but passed on the second interview.... and others who didn't pass until the 5th interview. If she is declined, they don't say why,  you don't get a refund, and the only recourse you have is to apply again and pay another fee. It sucks that it is that way. Oh, the interview was only about 10 minutes long, was in either English or Thai, or a little bit of both. My wife interviewed on a Monday morning and received her passport with the visa in it via mail 4 days later on Thursday. 

 

As far as your daughter goes, I don't know about that. I assume that if she was born in Thailand, your wife could take her to the gov't office that processes passports and just apply for a one. In our case, that was in Chiang Rai. That was a real simple process and takes about a week. If I remember right, it costs about 1,100 baht. Since she has a U.S. passport, there is no problem getting into the states, but there would be a problem returning to Thailand, which I guess is why you need the Thai PP. 

[Blue bruce]

I tried gettingmy legal Thai wife a tourist  visa to travel with me to America,  I am using an agent.  

Last month was her first interview and she was denied. Next we she will try again, another 5760 baht. I filled out all the support documents and had our marriage license translated. Why is it so difficult to bring a legal Thai wife into America when America has 6,000,000 undocumented aliens and 10,000 Syrian refugees? ? ? 

[Foreign Jim]

Maybe I wasn't clear.  I am not travelling with my wife.  I am travelling with my daughter, who needs a letter of permission from my wife so we can clear immigration.  

[williewolf]

Fot the passport you will need the childs birth certificate and ID card(if she has one) , the blue book where she is registered and the mothers ID card and blue book. You can get the passport from changwattana, we went to Bang Na, but I think it has moved from there now. Cost 1000 baht and 35 for ems to send the passport to you. It is  a pretty straight forward process and they take the photos so no worries there.Turnaround is a couple of days, but allow a week if you are having it posted to you

 

For the permission letter you have to go to your local amphur with your wife, her Id card and the blue book. Take your passport as well because they will name you and use your passport number in the letter. Again it is pretty straightforward, they give you the letter and register it in their book. You will have to get it translated into English.

You may also need to show the letter to Thai immigration before you leave Thailand with her so keep it handy.

Hope this helps

 

Edited September 2, 2016 by williewolf
Spelling

[keeniau96]

My wife (Thai) got her passport about ten years by simply showing up at passport office here in Phuket with two photos and her ID card. Renewed it several times since, very simple. Had a local Thai working girl from Issan who wanted to sail with us to Langkawi, so sent her to passport office with enough baht and she got passport about a week later. No big deal for most instances.

[derator01]

A post violating forum rules have been removed from view.  Please show respect to other members.

[williewolf]

What exactly went wrong? We went with our nieces mother ( who is far from the sharpest tool in the box) to get her passport and I was amazed at how helpful they were. How did translation come into getting a Thai passport when all the required documents are in Thai? One thing that sticks clearly in my mind is that they asked the mother how her name should be written in English script and she did not have a clue so the passport official wrote it down and told the mother that is how it should be written on all papers that require anything but Thai script.

Maybe try again at a different office. There is one opened up near us at a Big C superstore.

[Foreign Jim]

On 9/10/2016 at 1:26 PM, williewolf said:

What exactly went wrong? We went with our nieces mother ( who is far from the sharpest tool in the box) to get her passport and I was amazed at how helpful they were. How did translation come into getting a Thai passport when all the required documents are in Thai? One thing that sticks clearly in my mind is that they asked the mother how her name should be written in English script and she did not have a clue so the passport official wrote it down and told the mother that is how it should be written on all papers that require anything but Thai script.

Maybe try again at a different office. There is one opened up near us at a Big C superstore.

 

Lost in translation:  My family surname is transliterated incorrectly.  (It's only a couple of syllables) This is not the first time this has happened where someone has incorrectly put the wrong Thai vowel on a document.  These mistakes are so frustrating because now we have to spend more time and money getting my passport translated again, so another government agency can redo my daughter's birth certificate.  There's no consistency in translations here, and while it's easy to point the finger at the translators, some of whom work in offices right in the same building, I also blame the brain-dead, middle aged, pencil pushing morons who are employed to handle an issue like this.  Does calling out minutiae make them feel like they are doing their jobs?  What could possibly be wrong with fudging a little grey area as one <deleted> vowel, a mistake they made?  We were there with all the correct documents. It takes a lot of effort to travel to that place with kids.  I had to take time off of work, spend money for taxi rides,  spend money for another 'proper' translation of my passport, and eventually will have to make another visit.  We will go to a different location, one in a mall that my wife knows about and try to get this done.  I just have no faith in Thais or their system, and getting out of here for a bit will certainly do me good. 

[williewolf]

58 minutes ago, Foreign Jim said:

 

Lost in translation:  My family surname is transliterated incorrectly.  (It's only a couple of syllables) This is not the first time this has happened where someone has incorrectly put the wrong Thai vowel on a document.  These mistakes are so frustrating because now we have to spend more time and money getting my passport translated again, so another government agency can redo my daughter's birth certificate.  There's no consistency in translations here, and while it's easy to point the finger at the translators, some of whom work in offices right in the same building, I also blame the brain-dead, middle aged, pencil pushing morons who are employed to handle an issue like this.  Does calling out minutiae make them feel like they are doing their jobs?  What could possibly be wrong with fudging a little grey area as one <deleted> vowel, a mistake they made?  We were there with all the correct documents. It takes a lot of effort to travel to that place with kids.  I had to take time off of work, spend money for taxi rides,  spend money for another 'proper' translation of my passport, and eventually will have to make another visit.  We will go to a different location, one in a mall that my wife knows about and try to get this done.  I just have no faith in Thais or their system, and getting out of here for a bit will certainly do me good. 

Ok, I understand what you mean. We went through something similar when we had translation done for our marriage papers. They rejected the submitted papers, said my wifes name was not translated correctly. There are a couple of ways to spell her name and the traslation company asked her to write down the correct version and she did but the mfa rejected it. Had to go through the whole process again.

I know how frustrated these things make you but it just seems normal to them.

Maybe a good thing to try another place where there does not seem to be so much "officialdom" with them. 

Good luck, and try to keep calm.

[theoldgit]

Posts in breach of Forum Rules removed:

11) You will not post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments directed towards Thailand, specific locations, Thai institutions such as the judicial or law enforcement system, Thai culture, Thai people or any other group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

 

Whilst the poster is clearly frustrated, the level of insults against Thai Officials is in breach of forum rules, these rules are in place for the protection of the poster as well Thaivisa.
 

[returnofthailand]

best for you is to relinquish your USA citizenship and stay with a Thai passport. get rid of irs and Obama care, just kidding...

[Foreign Jim]

It cost me nearly 30,000 baht to clean up the mess officials made while trying to get my Thai daughter a Thai passport.  It should have been something like a couple visits (1,400 baht and taxi fares)  But it wasn't.  I paid through the nose for mistakes others made for four solid weeks.  And if my previous post was too critical...well, so be it.  At least someone's reading.

 

Even another department took a small bite out of my wallet when we presented an incorrect birth certificate from a hospital.  Again, not my doing, but had to pay cash under the table to 'fix' it.  The jerk actually thought he was helping us.  I told him he wasn't. If he wanted to help us, he'd have done it for nothing being that it wasn't my mistake.

 

Anyway, it's over...I think.  

 

I do well in Thailand. Better than most.  Great job with lots of paid holiday, amazing city condo with spectacular pool, house in the countryside for holidays and when I retire. I've done well here.  A wiser person than me said, "Cost of living is cheaper in Thailand, but there are the occasional 'idiot taxes' one must endure."  It does put things in perspective.     

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Foreign Jim