Advice for Thai applying for US tourist visa

[joshuatdixon]

If anyone that has helped to obtain a visa for a Thai national, or has some information that can help with this, I would appreciate it greatly! My girlfriend, who is also a shareholder in my company and business partner, was denied a visa to the US(my home country) for her 2nd time in the last month.

 

Here are her documents she brought to the embassy when she was interviewed.

 

- Since my GF is a shareholder in our company, 51%, she took with her the company registration and company shares document.

- She brought the company employment status letter, 3 months payment slips and PNDs to show the company has paid tax for her every month

- She owns a home, she brought the blue house owner book with her to the appointment

- She is financing a car and brought the monthly statements to the appointment 

- She has many monthly bills, such as mobile, insurance, etc and she also brought the statements for all of these to appointment

- She brought a prepurchased round trip air ticket to US and back.

- Company registration documents

- Company bank account statements 

- Personal bank statements and bank book showing 120k balance currently

- Invitation letter from my parents

- Letter to the embassy from my family stating they will take care of all financials and transportation as well as any emergencies and guarantee her a safe return back to Thailand

 

When she was initially interviewed the first time, the officer asked where she worked and she stated the company name, the officer then typed for a while on the computer and came back with the same questions 2-3 times of "Does your company have an office in the US?", and she replied that we did not each time. Along with this the officer also asked about specifics employees and what they did in the company, these name were accessible on our website, along with a US phone number we have as about half of our clients are American.

 

Also when she was at the appointment she had with her my documents and details.

- Copy of US passport

- Copy of extension of stay

- Copy of all pages in my work permit

- Copies of my bank books at 3 different banks

- Copies of my debit cards

- Copy of my Thai issued(Krungsri) credit card

- My return flight ticket

 

My only thought is that when they initially asked her if we had an office in the US, and she had said no, maybe it looked like she was actually going to he US for work? As I believe the google searched for our company online and found the employee names and US number this way.

 We then took off the US phone number and anything referencing US from the website. Then at the 2nd appointment, they never asked about US office, but did ask about only her salary and she answered 30k monthly, plus an annual bonus at end of year, even though she is an owner and does work Monday to Friday, maybe this appears as a low amount since she is a company owner? Had they check the bank records they would see we don't do a lot of volume but it is a fair amount. The officer then denied her the visa again. But at each of the appointments, they NEVER looked at any of the documents.

 

It would be great to get some genuine input on thoughts as to where we messed up, or did we just choose not the best way to do this?

- Should we have not mentioned her owning the company at all and only just showed proof of employment and invitation letters along with her bank statements saying she is going for a holiday herself?

- Should we not have mentioned myself-even though I work in Thailand and have MANY ties to Thailand and have proven I am coming back also.

 

Thanks for any honest help with this, a bit frustrating after having bought round trip flights for us both and also doing this 2 times now.

Edited December 19, 2016 by joshuatdixon

[IrvineCAGuy]

Josh - it sounds to me like you are trying to trick the Embassy into thinking she is coming to the USA for holiday, since you claim she has a stake in your company that does business in the USA.  Better to tell them she is going to do some business there, along with a holiday.  However, now that you have had two interviews and two denials, it get's harder to convince them.   Good luck.

[KMartinHandyman]

At this point you may consider talking with a good visa service company. The one I use for everything advised me against applying for a tourist visa to the U.S. for my wife, which I thought was a little crazy. Instead they recommended a CR-1 I think it was (2 year green card) and sure enough she got it.
I think the professionals understand what the embassy's are looking for and could help review your previous attempts and give you some advice. I have read sometimes the third time is the charm also.

[taxout]

All those connections with you -- including the invitation from your parents! including your passport! -- make it look like she's heading to the States for marriage. It's not shocking the visa was refused. As discussed in many other threads here, demonstrating too close a tie to an American citizen can actually damage the chance of gettting a visa. Her application should be able to stand on its own.