Your successful stories about helping your Thai partners immigrate to your country.

[andyrose]

I am a Thai guy and I was successfully immigrated to Canada long ago. The procedures were not that difficult. I would love to hear your stories about you guys. Was it difficult to help your wife, your fiancé , your whatever immigrating to your country?

 

     

[MANFROMBOCA]

I would like to hear stories too, especially involving getting a USA visa for a thai lady, 1 month or more or less,,, she has land  has car has kids has money,,,,,thats my lady 

but whatever you did with whoever would greatly appreciate hearing how you did it

 

 

[Luuk Chaai]

I hired a law firm (Chaninat/Leeds in Bangkok) $1500  to handle all the paperwk  for K1 marriage visa ...                                 started the process  Sept  2008  and she was here by April 2009

[siamike]

About 12 years ago my wife-to-be applied for a US Visa to visit a few of her Thai friends whom were already living in the US.  Several years prior to that, a similar application was denied, with no reason given.  Like the manfromboca, my wife too had land, a car, money, and was working as a lawyer for an established law firm at the time of both Visa applications.  I wish I could give you a sure fire step-by-step formula for a successful US Visa, but the truth is, neither of us have any idea why she was denied the first time and accepted on the second try.  Fortunately for us, we met each other during that first visit, fell in love, and worked with USCIS to first have her 6 month "visitor" visa extended another 6 months, and then, eventually changed to a "married to a US citizen" visa. 

[Stewy58]

I have applied for a migration visa for my wife to come and live in Australia with me, I have been living in Thailand for the passed 5 years on a retirement visa, will I wished I had done it differently as it has been over 9 mouths  now and still waiting for a reply from them> I am an Australia and I think it would have been quicker to send her on a boat from Indonesia and that's know joke    

[TSF]

Don't know about Canada & USA but in Australia there are thousands of Thai women who were sponsered there by their Australian husbands and shortly after obtaining Australian citizenship or PR they suddenly came to the conclusion that their Australian husbands were pricks/<deleted>/selfish bastards/riddled with faults they failed to notice before, and the best thing they can do is dump the chump.

[Stewy58]

Not all Thai lady's are like that there are some who just wont a better life

[JAFO]

I did the entire process with my now wife. Got her a 10 year Visa to the US. We landed, toured around. Opportunities came up, we decided to stay.  Went from Visa to Green card to citizenship. We got married in the states and did the entire naturalization process with no attorneys. Process straight forward just have to do your due diligence  

[metisdead]

Troll posts have been removed. 

[Aussieroaming]

1 hour ago, Stewy58 said:

I have applied for a migration visa for my wife to come and live in Australia with me, I have been living in Thailand for the passed 5 years on a retirement visa, will I wished I had done it differently as it has been over 9 mouths  now and still waiting for a reply from them> I am an Australia and I think it would have been quicker to send her on a boat from Indonesia and that's know joke    

Is she living with you in Australia while the Migration Visa is processed? 

[HarryWho]

We used http://www.mythaifiancee.com/ to get started.  The applications are doable on your own, but if there are complications such as visa requests denied in the past, it's best to get help.  It is long frustrating journey where small milestones seem like big wins.  If you want to read stories, check out visajourney.com.  The whole painful process is to try to catch the fraudulent couples that are trying to scam the system.  The final decider is an Immigration official behind a window in Bangkok.  That's not an easy interview.  We just filed for citizenship, the last step in the journey.  And according to the cynics here on TV, that's the day it all blows up in my face. :-)

[eng911]

My wife immigrated to Canada back in 2000. If you are engaged or married the process is fairly simple for Canada. The biggest thing is just waiting. 

 

We got married at Bang Rak and submitted an application. We waited 10 months. We had previously tried to get a visitors visa with no luck. She did not have a lot of money or a government job. 

 

If you have a gov job or money you can get a visitors visa. You need to have the person your visiting send a letter of invitation. We have done this for others since settling in Canada. 

 

Three months after you arrive in Canada you are automatically covered for all the medical stuff that Canadians get. You can apply for citizenship no problem too. I think you have to wait five years now for citizenship but you don't have to apply. Landed immigrants have all the same rights except they can't vote. 

 

We both became Canadian citizens this year. My wife after 16 years and me after 41 years following immigration as a boy from Scotland to Canada. 

 

I wish Thailand treated me like Canada treated my wife. I spend winter in Thailand now but would be reluctant to move permanently due to lack of medical coverage in senior years and constantly needing to check in with immigration. Checking in every three month and having to renew visas does not leave me feeling like Thailand is my home. 

 

Tony

[Luuk Chaai]

I hired a law firm (Chaninat/Leeds in Bangkok) $1500  to handle all the paperwk  for K1 marriage visa ...                                 started the process  Sept  2008  and she was here by April 2009        we waited  4 years and applied for US citizenship that process took 4 months start to finish ..   she has been the  absolutely incredible and takes such great care of my son.      now we go back to Thailand every year for a few weeks ,,,  4 years to go until retirement and we will go back to Thailand full time

[csabo]

4 hours ago, MANFROMBOCA said:

I would like to hear stories too, especially involving getting a USA visa for a thai lady, 1 month or more or less,,, she has land  has car has kids has money,,,,,thats my lady 

but whatever you did with whoever would greatly appreciate hearing how you did it

 

 

 

Leave all your info off the application.  Have her say she is traveling with a friend.

[Donutz]

I met my love in 2010. It took us untill 2012 to meet all the requirements for immigration. My girlfriend had to learn basic Dutch (A1 level on the European language scale) and I had to find a better job. The Dutch require (amongst other things) that the Dutch national has a 'durable income at 100% minimum wage'. This means that the day that the Immigration & Naturalisation Department (IND) receives an application that the national needs to have a guaranteed income for the next 365 days (such as a contract that will last atleast one year) and not a single day less. The income also needs to be high enough which means that if you work at minimum wage you will need to work fulltime (about 38-40 hours per week?).  

 

The alien needs to speak, read and be able to understand basic Dutch. And also answer various cultural questions in a civic integration exam. Most questions are aimed at muslims even though those are not the largest number of immigrants but the general idea is 'immigrant = muslim' since that used to be true back in the prevous century. So there are silly questions such as 'are men allowed to hit/slap their wifes?'  and 'do women have equal or less rights than men?' or 'is there a single state religion or is there freedom of religion?', 'is circumcision of women allowed or banned?'' ,  'when you meet a person for the first time, do you shake their hand?' and so on. Had to explain my girlfriend what  circumcision was. That horrified her, she didn't knew people did such sick things.  And questons such as 'Is Morocco bigger or smaller then NL?" is useless too if you don't have the slightest clue how big Morocco is without looking a t a map.  Such questions are useless to people who don't come from very conservative muslim areas. And hell, they can even be offensive or silly for more modern muslims. Like if your avarage Turk does not know that you can't cut a girls clitoris away. 

 

Had some good laughs too though, such as with the question 'does the state give you an income or does your partner need to provide for you?'. She would joke that this meant that she could sit on her ass and that I would have to submit my wallet to her and provide her with all her needs. 555 A better question would have been 'does the state provide for you or do you need to generate an income yourselves?'  (you yourself ofcourse there is no free lunch even in a wellfare state such as NL). 

 

So it took is some time to meet all the requirements. I found them much too strict. It would be fair to demand that the couple is self sufficient but an exact income requirement of X euro's and contract of X days is silly. Aslong as you are not a burden to the state, don't get involved in the relations of citizens or their foreign partners. And a language is best learned after immigration. My girlfriend and wife to be worked 50+ (fifty) hours per week on different days. She couldn't go to a laguage course so we spent the rare bits of sparetimes together on Skype to learn the language. And culture can also only be experienced after immigrations or a few lenghty visits. You don't learn that from a book and most of it are stereotypes anyway. A good deal of the Dutc stereotypes do no apply to me. So I had to say 'well this is a stereotype about the Dutch, and it migt even apply to a majority but not to me, but the correct, expected answer is ....".  Just... silly.  

 

The only positive thing about Dutch immigration is that you do not need to be married. Many countries require you to be either married, in a civil partnership (gay couples) or at the very least be engaged and soon to be officially married. The Dutch do not force marriage upon it's citizens and are fine with a 'durable, exclusive' relationship.  So my Thai partner was my girlfriend for the first few years, we got married later when we felt the time was right. 

 

Sadly, a few months before she could apply for (dual) citizenship (2015) , we had an accident and my wife passed away soon after.  So I am widowed since nearly a year. I never expected to have a foreign partner, let alone Thai. I do have a fondness for fair skinned south east asians but I was ofcourse not silly enough to seek a specific partner or buy into those idiot stereotypes about any nationality. Met lots of lovely people, male and female, during my travels to various countries and by pure chanche or luck love struck us both unexpectedly. 

 

Not sure if I would wish to do the whole damn process again, all the requirements before and after immigration costed us thouands of euro's so that kept our wallet pretty empty for years due to the *&^%#%$ government. WIthout all those silly demands we could have been together far more earlier and cheaper. We would not have costed the country a single euro extra and not have been a social burden either.  Put populist politics demands to 'crack down on immigration'  as if immigration is equal to either muslims or bald fat old white man who  wish to import a wife from a backwards nation to be their personal maid and sexdoll. Ugh. 

 

I'm still young, I don't know what the future will bring. We will see. We were very happy together despite all the struggles. We would have have had a very happy life together, we certainly did and it would have lasted a long time and pehaps untill old age. 

 

So do follow your dreams, fight, don't give up, stay cheerfull, enjoy every single day, don't be a grumphy person. Together you can move mountains!

Edited September 8, 2016 by Donutz

[sercoed]

I married my wife in 1985 in Bangkok. I came over from Australia with a return ticket and a one way for my future wife. My time frame was 2 weeks and everyone laughed at me and said it was impossible. In those days it wasn't as easy for Thai women to get passports as it is to-day and we received it the day we were to fly out. The Australian Embassy closed in the early afternoon and we paid a tuk-tuk driver 1000 baht to get us to the Embassy. It was scary especially in Bangkok traffic back then but we did it. My lovely wife and I are now living in Rayong (which was one thing I swore I would never do). Thanks for listening

[Tedly]

I did the fiance visa for my Thai girlfriend (now wife) to come to USA. I used a company called rapidvisa. And although you could do it yourself, I did not have the confidence, The process was a little difficult because of all the documentation you need, but I am happy that I did it. Don't think I could have found a better wife.  She now has a green card and we are hoping to retire to Thailand in about 5 or 6 years

[Ahab]

I brought my current wife over on a fiancé visa in 1993. Process was pretty straight forward back then. We did not use an agency to get it done. She was even issued a permission to work at the airport in Honolulu as part of the entrance procedure. Times have changes and this process became more difficult after the September 11th attacks.

 

We are getting ready to move to Thailand at the end of February 2017 to retire.

[machans88]

16 hours ago, Stewy58 said:

I have applied for a migration visa for my wife to come and live in Australia with me, I have been living in Thailand for the passed 5 years on a retirement visa, will I wished I had done it differently as it has been over 9 mouths  now and still waiting for a reply from them> I am an Australia and I think it would have been quicker to send her on a boat from Indonesia and that's know joke    

Same as you stewy, applied 9 months ago, January 16th, has she completed her medical and police check?, we were notified by email 5 months ago to complete and lodge, which we have. But no further correspondence.

I have been living here 7 years and we have 2 small children, have sold our house and have sent the cash back to Australia.

You say you are on retirement visa, are you self funded?

[Stewy58]

14 hours ago, Aussieroaming said:

Is she living with you in Australia while the Migration Visa is processed? 

Not all Thai lady's are like that there are some who just wont a better life

We both live in thailand

[andyrose]

20 hours ago, TSF said:

Don't know about Canada & USA but in Australia there are thousands of Thai women who were sponsered there by their Australian husbands and shortly after obtaining Australian citizenship or PR they suddenly came to the conclusion that their Australian husbands were pricks/<deleted>/selfish bastards/riddled with faults they failed to notice before, and the best thing they can do is dump the chump.

 

 

I agree with you and I accept the fact that there are some Thai people like what you said. In Canada lately; the immigration is aware of that.

 

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/protection/fraud/marriage.asp

 

However, you have to agree as well that in a certain situation like abuse, they have the right to leave you. I don’t mean your case; I am talking in general. I think Australian’s immigration is similar.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/family-sponsorship.asp

[andyrose]

Thank you for sharing your stories guys, very much appreciated.

As I mentioned before; I was able to immigrate to Canada because I had a common law partner (same sex). I was with him for 5 years. We broke off; and I got married with a Dutch guy. I have already been a permanent resident of Canada, so it was much easier for me to immigrate to Europe. The relationship didn’t last long; I was emotionally, sexually, physically abused by him. I decided to return back to Canada.

 

When I have a free time; I will share my stories.

Thanks once again guys.

Take care

Bye for now

 

Edited September 9, 2016 by andyrose

[Donutz]

There are indeed, and rightfully so, procedures to deal with immigrants who find themselves in an abusive relationship. And in the Netherlands the same applies incase the national dies, the immigrant won't be kicked out. Which is simply a fair thing.  With abuse it's complicated though, sometimes immigrants do lie about being abused in the hopes of getting an independant residency status. Abuse by defition is a difficult thing for the authorities even if it concerns a national couple without any immigrant background. Not all people are honest and some are willing to lie and cheat including accusing their own partner, parent(s) or children og neglect and abuse. Evidence is often hard to gather. Leaving the police to try and seek the truth. Hearing stories about abuse or lies by one of the partners is simply sickening. Some people must have some bad wiring, that's the only reason how I can explain why some people would lie, cheat, abuse and such in relationships.

 

The Dutch immigration policies are based on nationality though, so as a Thai living in Canada with a permanent status things aren't much different from a Thai applying from Thailand. Obviously the Dutch embassy in Canada will be involved rather than the one in Thailand but they will still demand the same general things such as a language ** civic integration test.  if naturalized to Canadian citizenship you could apply as a Canadian. Canadians won't have to do the exams abroad and such.

 

Sorry to hear your second partner was abusive. It's something I cannot get my head around, people usually engage in a relationship for love (and at times for other reasons which is fine if both partners are aware and genuinly okay with it aslong as no law is violated), how could one ever hurt the person they ought to love the most??  

[Aussieroaming]

On 9 September 2016 at 8:14 AM, Stewy58 said:

Not all Thai lady's are like that there are some who just wont a better life

We both live in thailand

I think you have misinterpreted me. I wanted to know if she could live in Aus while the visa application was being progressed or whether she has to stay in Thailand. 

[Thaibrisbane]

I am a Thai who migrated to Australia, sponsored by my partner (A de facto relationship - Same sex) in 2014. My permanent resident visa process was quite quick. There were lots  of supporting documents (about 1 kg....LOL) but they were easy to prepare as we had long relationship for a decade at the time of applying the visa. It took 4 weeks to process the visa and I was granted both temporarily (820) and permanent (801) resident partner visas at the same time (I applied the visa in Australia). Here is my timeline:

2004 - I met my partner in Thailand.

2005-2009 - We bought an apartment and lived together in Thailand

2009-2014 - I came to study in Australia and lived at his home while he was working in Thailand.

2014 - He returned to Australia and I applied for the partner visa. It took about 1 month to get the visa

2015 - I applied for Australian citizenship. (Living in Australia over 4 years and with a permanent visa at least 1 year)  It took about 5 months for all processes starting from application submission until the ceremony.  

2016 to present - We are still in good relationship.  And now I have a dual nationality - Australian/Thai. 

Edited September 11, 2016 by Thaibrisbane

[Thaibrisbane]

42 minutes ago, Thaibrisbane said:

49 minutes ago, Thaibrisbane said:

I am a Thai who migrated to Australia, sponsored by my partner (A de facto relationship - Same sex) in 2014. My permanent resident visa process was quite quick. There were lots  of supporting documents (about 1 kg....LOL) but they were easy to prepare as we had long relationship for a decade at the time of applying the visa. It took 4 weeks to process the visa and I was granted both temporarily (820) and permanent (801) resident partner visas at the same time (I applied the visa in Australia). Here is my timeline:

2004 - I met my partner in Thailand.

2005-2009 - We bought an apartment and lived together in Thailand

2009-2014 - I came to study in Australia and lived at his home while he was working in Thailand.

2014 - He returned to Australia and I applied for the partner visa. It took about 1 month to get the visa

2015 - I applied for Australian citizenship. (Living in Australia over 4 years and with a permanent visa at least 1 year)  It took about 5 months for all processes starting from application submission until the ceremony.  

2016 to present - We are still in good relationship.  And now I have a dual nationality - Australian/Thai. 

 

 

Although my English was not as good as a native speaker's, I applied partner visa and prepared all documents by myself without helping from a migration agent. I think the Australian immigration website states the visa process quite clearly.  

[TheBoar]

On 9/11/2016 at 7:38 AM, Thaibrisbane said:

 

 

Although my English was not as good as a native speaker's, I applied partner visa and prepared all documents by myself without helping from a migration agent. I think the Australian immigration website states the visa process quite clearly.  

 

It took one month for you to get the Temp/PR? Wow thats quick. If you have all the legit evidence and your track record is very solid as you have outlined then I can only assume they would just fast track your applications instead of the 12 months minimum processing time. I knew a Thai that also received her Temp/PR within couple of months.

[Thaibrisbane]

4 hours ago, TheBoar said:

 

It took one month for you to get the Temp/PR? Wow thats quick. If you have all the legit evidence and your track record is very solid as you have outlined then I can only assume they would just fast track your applications instead of the 12 months minimum processing time. I knew a Thai that also received her Temp/PR within couple of months.

 

Yes, I think so. I remember I submitted my application with the legit evidence of relationship development (I think) and carefully organized because we had lots of supporting documents.  It included:

1. Table of relationship development. I made a table containing date, time living/traveling together + reason when we were not living together, financial connection, social recognition by Australians and attached documents at that time (A1, A2, A3….. B1, B2, B3… C1, C2, C3,….) I remember I had about 30 attached documents, selected from hundreds of our documents and based on oldest and newest to prove when the relationship started and it was still existing.
Because we had long relationship, the table was also long, over 10 pages, so I did the conclusion as an index of attached documents, something like this. 

i) Proof of addresses such as utilities bills, bank or rate notices etc.
- Address 1 in Thailand  (A.1, A.2, A3,….An)
- Address2  in Australia (A.n, A.n+1,A.n+2…..)

ii) Proof of financial connection such as Joining Bank accounts, deed (both name)
-To share living expenses (B.1, B.2, B3,….Bn)
-Transferring money each other such as buying house, car etc. (B.n, B.n+1,B.n+2…..)

iii) Proof of social recognition 
-Australian friends knowing our relationship(C.1,C2,C3,…Cn)
-Trips together  (C.n, C.n+1,C.n+2…..)

However, I did not attach photos, tickets, telephone number records because I think they were quite weak evidence. But I wrote as a note that they could be provided as requested

2.  Two statutory declarations.  My partner and I wrote separate statutory declarations using the commonwealth standard form to summarize our relationship each year from when we met until submitting the application and our future plan. Then we checked the consistency of the written declarations with each other. – It was easy to confuse t the year as we have a long relationship.   Then they were signed by local JP.

3. Four Form 888. The requirement is only 2 but our friends and family were happy to do that.  (one  JP two teachers who are our friends for nearly a decade and one solicitor who is brother of my partner) 

4. General forms such as 40SP, 47SP, Australian and Thai police clearance certificates, previous health examination number etc.

I did not have health examination for the partner visa because my health examination on my previous visa (Skilled graduate visa) was still valid (only 5 months old) and the conditions were the same (General test, X-Ray and HIV test) 

I think my key points are carefully arranging documents (in order), making them clear and easy to access.  I imagined that if I was a case officer and I had to read lots of applications each day, it would be such a boring job to read all your loving stories again and again. (You may think your story was good but I think the officer does not think that way) So, the best way to make the officer happy is to make him/her finish the application as soon as they could and meet their criteria by providing clear and solid evidence with good organization.  
 

I think I wrote quite a lot now. However, I could provide more details on request.

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by Thaibrisbane

[farangrakthai]

On 9/8/2016 at 11:05 PM, andyrose said:

Thank you for sharing your stories guys, very much appreciated.

As I mentioned before; I was able to immigrate to Canada because I had a common law partner (same sex). I was with him for 5 years. We broke off; and I got married with a Dutch guy. I have already been a permanent resident of Canada, so it was much easier for me to immigrate to Europe. The relationship didn’t last long; I was emotionally, sexually, physically abused by him. I decided to return back to Canada.

 

 

I think there are as many bad foreigners as bad Thais.  Sorry about your experience...

 

I immigrated to Canada with my Thai bf in 2008 as common-law partners.  The job market wasn't great and we both returned to our respective countries.  Then US laws changed and I was able to sponsor him for a marriage visa to the US.  He is probably the first (maybe only) gay Thai to immigrate  to both Canada and the US.