Tom and Teaw

Thanks, Carla!!

Not sure if this is the correct place for this, but does anyone have a current citizenship test in Thai? If so, please contact me so I can obtain a copy.

Thanks

My wife changed her last name on all her Thai stuff in March this year, going over a few weeks before I went over. You cannot change it at a Thai embassy. She has to go back to Thailand and change it an the local Amphur office first, change the name on the housebook and get new ID card with new last name and take the new ID to get the new passport. Some Amphur offices can be a pain in the #### and won't do the name changes. You need to go to a large Amphur, not a small one, where they are better equipped to make the changes to the housebook and ID card. It is somewhat time consuming but my wife got it all done before I got over there except we went in to get the new passport right after I got there. It is nice to have her last name the same on everything.

Hi there!!! How ya doing?

T&T

I didnt submit any letters to get mine. If you do submit them it does no good to notarize them because a notary simply verifies signatures not content.

Yes, I know what a notary does....I used to be one years ago. i don't think we'd need letters. We have enough evidence of being together here but I guess it never hurts. I don't see any reason for a notary either. If they suspected something they would contact the people and ask questions.

It's time for Teaw and I to file the I-751 papers to get her 10 year green card. Does anyone who has done it have better examples of the letters they sent in from friends in support of the filing and do they really have to be notarized? I would think just a letter with a signature and all the pertinent information would be good enough.

How's everyone doing? I haven't checked in here for a long time...been busy living life with a Thai wife!!!

Hey, guys. I have not been in here for awhile since Teaw is here in the US with me. But, at the moment she is in Buriram on her one month visit and I am heading over at the end of the week and we will return together near the end of March. But, what I wanted to know is if any of you that are either in Thailand or have rented cars over there know of some good car rental outfits that are reasonably priced. We are going to do some driving around this trip instead of hanging in the village and BKK all the time. I enjoy seeing her family but I can't sit around drinking coconut milk too many days or I get crazy to do something!!!! So Teaw suggested that I post in here to see if you have any leads on a good car rental there. Thanks!!

Ann got her 30 day Russian stamp cause of the deal Thailand made with Russia that they don't need visas to enter the respective countries....hence all the Russians showing up in Pattaya, etc now and Russian writing on the businesses. So Thais can go to Russia with no problem.

UK is funny. Our flight to Thailand got cancelled because of the tsunami in Japan. We have a daily flight thru Heathrow so we had it changed to go that way...faster but usually more expensive...didn't have to pay anything extra but there is a 12 hour layover in UK. We wanted to go downtown and went to the immigration guy and he hassled us for about 10 minutes about why we didn't get a visa beforehand and I explained to him about 3 times that we didn't have time because the flight thru Japan was cancelled so we changed to go thru UK. He finally stamped Teaw's passport with a 24 hour visa. I felt like saying to they guy HEY, don't you listen to what I am telling you???? Dork!!! I just wanted to take her downtown during our 12 hours so she could see a little of London.

Got a question maybe a few of you can answer. If I want to take Teaw to Europe or maybe on a Caribbean cruise...anywhere but Thailand...since she has a Thai passport but US green card, do I need to get visas for the countries we would visit or can we just use her passport and the green card? Thanks!!!

Yes, if you can get an original or certified copy of her birth certificate you will be better off. Here in the US they won't take a house book for any proof of birth. You should be able to get one through the Amphur's office where she was born without a problem.

On another note, I took Teaw to get her learners permit so she can learn to drive. She took a long time studying the materials which, of course, don't come in Thai and they give test in almost any language but.....what else?? Thai!!! Cause they said they don't have the money to translate it. Bull hockey!!!! That's down right discrimination!!! They guy asks, English, Chinese, Vietnamese.....and I cut him off and said she's Thai but you guys won't spend the money to do it. So she did it in English...25 questions and I thought she'd NEVER finish!!! LOL!! She did take her time but passed so now I will be looking at driving schools to teach her how to drive.

Aaron, if you are checking the forum, how's things in Chiang Mai???

By Senators do you mean your local Congressman? If not, then go to them. They have a person that takes care of all this stuff and have channels to get a little more information through their diplomatic channels. The embassy is required by law to answer the Congressional inquiry within a certain amount of time. I had to have my Congressman get involved and they got a general idea why we were put in AP and that allowed me to write a long letter explaining what they were concerned about and then had the Congressman send it over to them. Funny thing but we got my now wife's visa within a week after that. Good luck!111

Wow, took me forever to find the Sawasdee thread. Thought it had been put out to pasture...but then again I have not been in here for a long time either. Good to see it's still around.

When my now wife went for her interview she went to window 5 and it was an American male and a Thai lady. We still had hassles concerning her sending me emails in English and doing the interview in Thai. But my experience

has been that many people can type better in English than speak it, which was her case. There used to be a Sawasdee thread in here for people with Thai fiancees that had lots of helpful people and experiences at the embassy

posted. Don't know where it's gone. It was great. Needless to say, the Thai lady at her interview was basically a ###### but with the help of my local Congressman getting some documents sent to the embassy thru Congressional mail

to explain some of their concerns, she had her visa within a few days after they received the documents.

We had the same problem here in NC when I took Teaw to get here ID card. They would not issue it because the I-94 was expiring and they have to wait up to 2 weeks for Homeland Security to do a check on the person applying for it. That is the new rules for the Feds...all driver's licenses and ID cards go through HS before you receive it in the mail. We had her SSI at the time too. But as soon as we got her employment card in the mail from the Feds we got her ID card. What they want is some form of govt. ID with her picture on it OR a letter from immigration. I don't think it's easy to get a letter from immigration but if you filed for her work authorization at the same time you did the AOS you should get that first and then you can get her ID card.

Please remember that the embassy takes not only US holidays off but Thai holidays off as well which causes more delays in processing cases and setting interviews.

Yes, the embassy closes for the Thai holidays too. It's a nice job if you can get it...US holidays and the Thai holidays all paid I am sure. So that will slow things down a little bit.

We would rather have gone to Phuket or Samui or someplace else, but could not get cheap flights so decided on Pattaya. I had not been there for maybe 3-4 years but don't remember Pats being so Russianized the last time I was there. The beaches are still a mess, the guys driving the boats still drive between swimmers instead of staying farther offshore and I hardly heard English being spoken anywhere we went!! We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe our first night there and some Russian lady at a table was so loud and obnoxious with her laugh that I couldn't wait to get out of there. She had to laugh as loud as she could at anything that her friends said. I would definitely avoid Pattaya on any trips to the beach and look for other nicer alternatives if you have time to plan for it ahead.

Just hit a big book fair here in BKK so Teaw could stock up on some books to read back home since we can't find any in NC and the ones you can find in Thai Town in LA, Calif are too damn expensive!!! So got to spread them around in the luggage to distribute the weight now.

I can't BELIEVE IT!!!! Teaw and I zipped down to Pattaya for a couple days cause she wanted to go to the beach and there were no cheap flights to Phuket or Samui when were were going to be here. Now I have not been to Pats for 3 or more years, but I was totally shocked to be in LITTLE RUSSIA!!!!! It's 95% Russians now and everything has Russian writing on it. At the hotel we were at I felt like we were the only English speaking people there and we pretty much were. While getting a foot massage last night the lady we were talking to said she wished it was like the old days where it was all Americans and English as she did not like the Russians so much. It was really depressing to see the place change like that from what I remember it was. I sure won't be going back to Pats again!!!! Scratch that one off my list. I just hope the tour people don't screw up Phuket and Samui and other places with the Russians.

I can't BELIEVE IT!!!! Teaw and I zipped down to Pattaya for a couple days cause she wanted to go to the beach and there were no cheap flights to Phuket or Samui when were were going to be here. Now I have not been to Pats for 3 or more years, but I was totally shocked to be in LITTLE RUSSIA!!!!! It's 95% Russians now and everything has Russian writing on it. At the hotel we were at I felt like we were the only English speaking people there and we pretty much were. While getting a foot massage last night the lady we were talking to said she wished it was like the old days where it was all Americans and English as she did not like the Russians so much. It was really depressing to see the place change like that from what I remember it was. I sure won't be going back to Pats again!!!! Scratch that one off my list. I just hope the tour people don't screw up Phuket and Samui and other places with the Russians.

Hard to believe, but after we got in today Teaw and I were walking through Siam to MBK and there was a table set up full of boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts with many in plastic covers on display. I sure don't know where they got them from but they looked like the real deal. I had to get a picture of it too!!

Yes, she is excited to be going back. Wanted to stay longer but we did not know if she would have her green card before we left and I didn't want any problems if she was alone. Maybe next time I will send her over two weeks

before me and then go over for two weeks. We have a lot on our plate with her friends from Western Digital and a cousin's wedding the day before we have our wedding party for the family in Buriram. I just hope the time doesn't go too fast because I will not be anxious to come back and go to work!!! HAHAHA!!!

As long as you carry a CERTIFIED copy of your marriage license with you and have it ready for the agents when you go through security you should be fine. That is what the airline told us to do before we had the green card and it was no problem. Just showed it to the TSA person along with her passport and he checked it off as fine. The ticket was in her married name, passport maiden name.

You can always call the airline and double check, but I did just that and that's what they told us to do.

Basically that is correct in concept but not in execution. I do not want to start a feud in here but in order to file as Married filing Jointly, you MUST file on your worldwide income. The first step is to add a handwritten letter signed by both USC and foreign spouse stating you will file as Married filing jointly. You cannot e-file because of the requirement for this handwritten declaration. You would include the foreign spouse's income on Form 2555 and take your one time exclusion of foreign income up to $91,500.

But that is the easy part.

If you live in a state with income taxes like California, they do not allow you to do this. I have to file one form which is California resident for me and one form which is California NR or non-resident for my spouse. This requires the additional calculation of two different federal forms not filed, simply calculated so the proper figures can be transferred to the California state forms.

We have our AOS Green Card interview April 7 and I have not put Audy's name on the Deed, the bank has not allowed us to put her name on any of my bank accounts, and I cannot have a CPA do my taxes until we get Audy's wage and income statement which she does not know when it will come.

I am concerned at this point.

Thanks Tom. Hope you and Teaw are both well.

Interesting. I will ask my acct. about it. We are on the way to Thailand saturday.

The documents should be certified translations to avoid any questions that they are correct.

As for the bank, Wachovia gave us no trouble adding Teaw but the state emp. credit union required a govt. ID to put her on the account with her married name.

If you are worried about US taxes, I was told that we don't have to claim Teaw's income on my US taxes.