Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the information, very helpful. I didn't really consider the marriage + CR1 route because of a few reasons, the primary being that I understood it to be a longer timeframe for her to be able to enter the US. We are fortunate enough to be able to have a home base in both Thailand and the states, so adjusting our lifestyle (as I labeled originally as a burden) is not as bad as having to exclude her from my United States life and family for significantly longer. There are also no plans for her to work in either place. Regardless I will take a look at the post you mentioned. I am looking at two numbers: total time until able to enter the US and total time to be a US citizen. Those are the two big ticket numbers.
Am I correct that you absolutely cannot apply for K1 while a B2 application is in process? Should I expect it to take several months for B2 to reach a decision point (reject vs. issuance)?
Yeah looks like we will plan to stay in the US 7 months per calendar year to be safe and no trips longer than 6mo. See above concerns regarding marriage vs. K1.
Thanks for the reply this is helpful.
The interesting part of your first statement though, is that if the US cared about our real intent or idea, we would easily get her a B2 visa and many of the challenges discussed on this forum might not exist. But unfortunately, we all know that there is a 95% chance that the US officer will tell her, contrary to reality, that real intentions ARE to live in the US and will reject that B2 application. I am very fond of the United States and proud of the country, but I see no evidence that it has any competence at managing its borders or the foreigners inside the border. The fact that our 2 options are to 1) get married and move fulltime or 2) get a 10 year nonspecific number of entries for non-specified stay durations is a perfect example of the idiocy of the whole situation and why there's so much overstay fraud. Therefore, I don't mind just following the letter of the law of the green card rules which seem to point towards spending 6+mo/yr there, being good people, and a ton of fees and paperwork until the passport can show up years down the road.
My girlfriend and I will never have any "ties to Thailand" that will satisfy what is reported as the requirements of the B2 visa. No plans of real employment in the near future. No family wealth for her and no real estate. I don't intend to move a bunch of money into Thailand to somehow make them change their mind on that.
The marriage portion goes back to not wanting to wait 2+ years for her to see the US. Perhaps my understanding is wrong but I thought K1 is about half of that or less.
School wise, I have no doubt that for a handsome tuition fee the child can be taught the curriculum pretty well, but I prefer the community and cultural and sports environment available in the US. Definitely not in a large city, bangkok or the US. Just personal preference, no negativity towards Thailand or other parts of Asia.
Thank you for the input