I would like to bring my Thai GF the USA. What is the best method? Type of Visa? Need tips and advice.

 

Thanks

One unhelpful reply hidden.

 

machesta

 

 

For what period of time in the USA are you looking at?  Just a month or two visit?  Long term?

 

Sounds like you are in the USA now, given that, chances on a tourist visa aren't all that likely.  If you were to act as her sponsor, the interviewing visa officer at the Consulate would probably think that she intends to stay.

 

Mac

I am in Thailand, and have been here 6 years.

Looking for any term visa and maybe get married in the USA and seek a change in status for her.

Getting a Tourist visa would be difficult,  

She would need to exhibit compelling reasons  of why she will not overstay and will return to Thailand (property, job, family ties) . If you come in to the picture, you will also need to show that you will return (job contract, etc) and that the Tourist visa is not an attempt to circumvent the  Fiance K1 visa to go there and get married.

So, your options.

   She applies for a tourist visa, overcomes the hurdles, and you meet in the US, get married and apply for a change of status. Not a thing I was ever involved in so not familiar with the particulars but,

I am willing to assume US authorities would not be very happy about that.

   Get married in Thailand and apply for  Marriage visa K3   I believe your best bet IMO since you are already in Thailand

   Or apply for a fiance visa K1 ( which is what I did more than 10 years ago) , but I was back and forth to the US and could do it from there. Took about a year for her to come to the US, ( the process was straight forward, ). got married immediately,  applied for a change of status and got he temporary  "Green Card"

Two years later got her permanent green card , and a couple of years later her US citizenship.

As I said it was over 10 years ago, and I have trouble remembering what I ate yesterday, LOL, but if you like PM me and I will try to remember all the particulars concerning K1 from the US. I hope others with more recent experience chime in.

IF you go the K1 or K3 route make sure you document the relationship extensively, dig up old pictures, take new ones with you her and her family, look for old airline receipts were you traveled together, and or hotels where you were both guests.

 Hope it helps,

Good Luck 

 

 

Good website for info also:

http://www.visajourney.com/

unless your girlfriend makes above 90,000 baht a month and has a decent amount of money in the bank the likelihood of her visiting the US is slim... if they find out she is dating an American the chances of her getting a visa approved become even slimmer.

 

best best is probably shell out some money for a lawyer

With the current immigration issues in the US getting her to the US is going to be very difficult unless you marry here and live with her for a year or so.

 

Immigration is going through the new mandate.

Do you have plans to marry her, or do you just want her to visit the USA? 

On 6/17/2017 at 0:58 PM, machesta said:

Looking for any term visa and maybe get married in the USA and seek a change in status for her.

aaaah, there are laws against that, and the wait is long - it is considered fraud  -  not saying it is impossible with the right crooked lawyer  -  you should try for a fiance visa,  but they are harder to get since that Arab couple in California shot the place up.    She came in on a fiance visa

I have the same question, only wanting her to come to Canada. We do plan to marry. Is it better to marry here or in Canada. How easy is it for her to get a tourist visa? anyone have experience with this? TIA

If your thinking about Canada, When your gf is interviewed.  It's a Thai that does the interview and is legendary for tripping up the girls and then cancelling the whole process. 

K-1 visa is about easiest and fastest I think if you are planning to get married. But as someone mentioned immigration is getting tougher in USA so might not be so easy anymore. I went through it to get my GF  (now wife) here. I used a company called Rapidvisa in Colorado. They were very helpful. They can not do any more than you can do yourself, and have no influence with immigration to "guarantee" success, but they do have the experience that I lacked, so was worth it to me. It is a very difficult process requiring many hoops to be jumped through. If you mentally break it down to small steps and take one step at a time it won't be so overwhelming. I almost gave up but am not glad that I persevered. Good luck on whatever route you choose.

You will possibly get one crack at a fiancee visa

Do the deed whilst you are there & subsequent visas will be a lot easier

On 6/17/2017 at 0:57 PM, machesta said:

I am in Thailand, and have been here 6 years.

6 years    ?  and yet you choose to listen to informal  musings from the peanut gallery ?  consult a lawyer , pay the few bucks to understand what can and cannot be done ....oh ... that means getting of the bar stool .

11 minutes ago, mikiea said:

6 years    ?  and yet you choose to listen to informal  musings from the peanut gallery ?  consult a lawyer , pay the few bucks to understand what can and cannot be done ....oh ... that means getting of the bar stool .

My experience, as well as others, has been it's relatively easy to go through this process yourself.  No lawyer needed.  Great advice here, as well as other forums.  Plus, a visit to the embassy/consulate to ask questions is highly recommended.  The US embassy was super helpful to me when I did this.  And very responsive.

I can say that it doesn't require 90 k/ month salary for atourist visa.  There are no hard numbers.  There is nothing published as to the requirements.  But the experience on the street says the woman will get a visa if she is confident to speak in English, has 300,000 baht in her bank account ( a 3 week vacation could easily cost 5 k USD) , a career, approved time off from career, owns a house.

She needs a fun iteneary.   And she doesn't say she knows an American man.   You can imagine interviewers talk to many and can detect lying.  She applies for tourist visa as if she doesn't know an American man.  It helps if she has a travel partner with a visa but it's also safe and normal for a woman to travel alone. 

The other option is fiance visa.  I read it takes 10 months.

The last option is to be married first but I'm not sure if that is much different than fiance visa. 

 

I have read where a USA man only gets to bring one woman in on fiance Visa maybe two so choose wisely.  

5 hours ago, bushdoctor said:

Do you have plans to marry her, or do you just want her to visit the USA? 

I'd strongly recommend Tasmania.

Who would want to inflict Yankville on a Thai lady.

You should move here!

Never mention a US bf if she wants a visa. My gf was denied (successful business, kids, the works) her sister with no bf and a crap job and no reason to return said she was traveling with a friend and got a 10 year visa. Be smart. Keep your name off the app.

On 6/17/2017 at 1:58 AM, machesta said:

Looking for any term visa and maybe get married in the USA and seek a change in status for her.

Whatever you do, dont tell the US emabssy that you want to get her a Toursit visa with the plan on getting married in the USA.  

 

She needs to prove she will return to Thailand. There is no set amount of money needed in the bank. If you are working in Thailand legally and have a work permit showing you need to return to Thailand for work then that will help allot.  If you both plan on staying in the USA then you should do the K1 visa.  The K1 visa take anywhere from 10-18 months depending on how fast you and the govt move.

The K1 will require lengthy documentation or your relationship. 100+ pictures, phone records, etc.  You will also need to provide documentation that you meet the min income requirements. Good Luck!!

Big mistake marrying here and taking her to the US, she will get there and next minute she's associating with other Thai women and learns that she has rights, nek minnit your single and have half the stuff you had before.

Good luck if they find out she is your gf... I applied twice for a tourist visa to US for my now Thai wife and she was rejected both times because consultant officer thought she would not return even with having business, house, money and kids still in BKK...  We even had a visa 'consultant' who screwed this up for us.. Wasted 6 months and $1,000.

 

Got another visa 'consultant' who suggested getting married in LOS first.  It has now been 9 months since I petitioned for my wife with a 130 form and a K3.  It has just finally been approved and forwarded to Visa processing center a month ago. I called and they still haven't entered it into the system according to the on the phone help, which took 30 minutes wait to get to a human.  I suspect it will be another two months until she gets her visa..  a whole year.

 

Good luck

For a B1/B2 tourist Visa it seemed really painless for my GF.
She has a normal job as a hotel receptionist earning about 12,000 per month.
We live in a rented house and most of her family are deceased so no real family ties except me.
Applied and accepted first time, given a 10 year multi entry tourist Visa.
No need for lawyers or Visa agents just applied online.


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1 hour ago, jeepsterman said:

Good luck if they find out she is your gf... I applied twice for a tourist visa to US for my now Thai wife and she was rejected both times because consultant officer thought she would not return even with having business, house, money and kids still in BKK...  We even had a visa 'consultant' who screwed this up for us.. Wasted 6 months and $1,000.

 

Got another visa 'consultant' who suggested getting married in LOS first.  It has now been 9 months since I petitioned for my wife with a 130 form and a K3.  It has just finally been approved and forwarded to Visa processing center a month ago. I called and they still haven't entered it into the system according to the on the phone help, which took 30 minutes wait to get to a human.  I suspect it will be another two months until she gets her visa..  a whole year.

 

Good luck

Yup, it takes time and not cheap.   Cant believe how much the Homeland security fee is.  For my wife it took about 18 months total, but some of the delays was from me not getting documents in time. My wife has her green card now, which is another $1500, the US govt just keeps hitting you with fees.    

2 hours ago, krabi local said:

For a B1/B2 tourist Visa it seemed really painless for my GF.
She has a normal job as a hotel receptionist earning about 12,000 per month.
We live in a rented house and most of her family are deceased so no real family ties except me.
Applied and accepted first time, given a 10 year multi entry tourist Visa.
No need for lawyers or Visa agents just applied online.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

This isn't very helpful.  How much did she have in savings, did she ever say she was going with an American man?

Seems like a low salary considering a hotel in LA the first night will be 7,000 baht. 

 

All tourist visa's issued are for 10 years.  6 month stays but if you do to many 6 months stays you may be detained and sent back home.   You can Google this.  

21 minutes ago, Elkski said:

This isn't very helpful.  How much did she have in savings, did she ever say she was going with an American man?

Seems like a low salary considering a hotel in LA the first night will be 7,000 baht. 

 

All tourist visa's issued are for 10 years.  6 month stays but if you do to many 6 months stays you may be detained and sent back home.   You can Google this.  

 

"All tourist visa's issued are for 10 years."

This is incorrect. (Unless there has been a recent change in policy.)

What it Boils down to is Ducks being in order. 

Time. Dotting the I's and crossing the T's..........the current system just blocks who they block.  With fair reason. 

A Tourist Visa is out! 80% are turned down. The Fiance Visa is the way to go. You do not need a lawyer or assistance

in filling out the forms. The instructions are written for a high school graduate to understand. If you didn't graduate from high school you won't be able to support her in the US, so stay in thailand. Good Luck!

9 hours ago, cat handler said:

Big mistake marrying here and taking her to the US, she will get there and next minute she's associating with other Thai women and learns that she has rights, nek minnit your single and have half the stuff you had before.

BS.  Don't generalize.  I know many who when to the US and are doing great.  Including my wife, who actually likes living here perhaps a bit more than living in the US, where we lived off and on for some 5 years.  With a US passport now, she can go pretty much anywhere she wants. 

12 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

BS.  Don't generalize.  I know many who when to the US and are doing great.  Including my wife, who actually likes living here perhaps a bit more than living in the US, where we lived off and on for some 5 years.  With a US passport now, she can go pretty much anywhere she wants. 

Same here,

It all depends on your wife's personality and your relationship with her.

We actually live in a country of our own, some times located in the US, sometime located in Thailand, we call it Nuyland LOL