PeachyTocker

Update: She received a 10 year B1/B2 visa for USA. This was the right outcome for our life intentions. The internet is completely full of information saying "don't mention the USA boyfriend that ties her to USA" whereas the interview heavily involved questions about me (the American boyfriend) and went positively.

I will send her in with a copy of my Thai visa and proof of my occupation (not job) in Thailand, but beyond that it will likely be dependent on the mood of the government employee. I certainly am not betting the farm on a positive result. If anyone has other suggestions on what information or storyline to equip her with, please share.

It would be rich if the B2 visa was denied due to "intent to remain in the USA" and then we got accused of fraud on K1 because of "no intent to remain in USA" As I said, we do intend to follow the legal residence requirements of whichever visa is issued. We will have the answer on whether that is K1 or B2 by the end of next month. We have no intention of participating in any Utah weddings or discussing wedding consummation with any other human.

Can you share some details about what is challenging and uncertain during this 12-18 months? Is there a reason to believe Jaycel's application would get rejected as the newlywed spouse of a US citizen and she would be sent home? It's hard for me to get my mind wrapped around anything SUBSTANTIAL regarding the negatives of K1. It is all pretty vague to me. If it's just waiting through government bureaucracy that is something we can just tolerate until it's finished. If its beyond that, please share.

Shotgun terminology meaning a rushed marriage. Our plans as a couple are to get married in 2026 and enter the US in 2026 (or 2025 on B2 if we get lucky). Our plans were not to get married online right away and enter the US in 2027 or later. I am very open to options hence creating this thread, but I haven't seen anyone substantiate to me how the latter option is better for us. It forces a major life decision to happen immediately, and in a rather non dignified manner, and delays her introduction to the US significantly longer. I still don't get it. I don't want her first interaction with the US be on video chat with a Utah person asking us if we consummated our wedding. Her B2 visa appointment will be done by end of June (already scheduled), then, if needed, we will get the ball rolling on K1, while enjoying our time in Thailand. After K1 is issued, we will move to the US and enjoy 12-18months there until her green card is issued. Afterward we will probably spend some months per year in Thailand until she becomes a citizen. Seems fairly straight forward. Again, if someone can demonstrate where I am slipping up, I am all ears.

I'll be honest I didn't expect the unanimous direction of the forum to be to have a shotgun e-wedding via Utah and wait 2-3 years before seeing the US. Always appreciate input, but we will go a different direction. B2 and then K1 if needed. Having an engagement period as well as entering the US sooner are both valuable to us.

Ok I was able to google search and found a reddit page that linked this website below. somehow cropping the photo with this website tool and then reducing the image quality worked (???). Now DS160 is finished and I am clunking my way through the next poorly made site for payments and appointments. thanks for the help. https://www.idphoto4you.com/

The site requests a jpeg format. If there is another way to change a 1mb jpeg to a 240kb jpeg besides exporting it and shrinking the quality? When I open both the full resolution photo and the reduced photo side by side there is no difference blown up to several inches on my MacBook screen. I'm not an expert on image files but I would imagine the shop would just do what I did?

Attempting to submit DS160 form for a B2 visa through Thailand. Using MacBook, attempting on both safari and chrome browsers. There are two issues: 1) The photo is being rejected per quality requirements. We had the photo taken today at a visa photo shop that does dozens daily. They emailed me a jpeg which was 1MB size, and I exported it to a lower quality until it was under the 240kb limit. When I upload it here it looks pretty fine to me on the website preview. Any suggestions how to fix or what is wrong? Can it work to just bring the printed photos to the interview if the application continues to reject it? see screenshot below 2) After clicking "continue without photo" in the above screenshot, we get this same application error repeatedly all day. Is this common due to a poor website and just keep trying? Or is there any advice on other things to try? see second screenshot

This is good to know. It seems like the entire process is filled with ambiguity and vague requirements subject to whichever Barney Fife is having a good day or not. We will make sure to plan accordingly. We are attempting to submit the B2 application now. The website is extremely unreliable and crashes frequently and now we cannot get past the photo section without getting an "application error, we have noted it and you can do nothing" sort of message. It is also rejecting the photo which is a professional photograph from a visa services shop which I manually export to a small enough file size (240kb) to upload. It looks perfect on the upload template but it still says unacceptable. Fun times. Depending on how this goes, we will prepare the K1 afterwards.

On a separate and more urgent note - when I google search, it says that there is actually not a problem with applying for a B2 visa and K1 visa simultaneously. Therefore, I truly have nothing to lose beyond $185 by applying right away for the B2. It is justifiable to explain that we are attending a wedding in September and wanted to attend while the K1 is in process. Any disagreement in going forward with the B2 application? EDIT: thanks for the reply below, I have reached my post allotment for the day per forum rules so can't reply.

But using the spousal route, that entry to the US where the 3 year clock starts is a minimum of 2 years from now. That along with the requirement of rushing legal marriage before even starting the ball rolling on visa are two gigantic negatives for us. Not having a green card for 12-18months after entry with K1 is new info to me, however during that time she could get her parole to travel (quoted above 6-8mo). Doesn't that make the total time to citizenship from now to be within a similar ballpark anyway? But with sooner entry to the US via K1? Am I still missing something major? Again, priority number 1 is getting to the US faster. We can adjust our lifestyle as needed to satisfy the downstream residency requirements of getting to citizenship.

I will take a stab at listing some pros and cons below, but I haven't seen anything that points to CR1 being better for our case considering priorities. Pardon me for still being confused as to why it's much better. We have the resources to live well in both countries, and priority is getting access to enjoy these two countries together sooner. CR1 pros - less expensive - immediate green card upon entry CR1 cons - must get married before even starting this application (this is significant) - partner will have no experience of the United States for 2+ years from now K1 pros - can apply now (maybe?) and get married next year - access to the US in 9-12mo K1 cons: - more expensive - more paperwork and waiting for the green card upon entry to the US - must stay at least 6-9mo in the US after initial entry

Maybe "fulltime" isn't specific enough of a term for this, but we are willing to spend around the minimum amount of time the US government considers fulltime which seems to be 6 months per year for the necessary number of years.

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

Hi Everyone I would really appreciate some direct advice or feedback on our situation. I have tried searching throughout this forum and google to get a basic idea of things, but at the same time I don't understand it quite well enough to be sure how to proceed for such a major life path decision. I'm not sure if the culture of this forum is going to be hostile towards me for potentially asking a common question, but I hope you can understand why I want some direct feedback. Our goal: Live in Thailand but spend time in the US 2-4months per year (seems impossible for now). Once/if we have children age 5+, the time split would become vice versa. - Thai girlfriend 26, American boyfriend 35 (me) - We live together in bangkok for over a year - I am here on the Thailand elite visa which is a special longterm tourist visa - I am retired from formal work, and I compete professionally in a sport around Thailand and asia. I have assets in the millions USD. - girlfriend previously worked basic white collar job in Bangkok but now quit so she can travel with me and support our relationship and household - she has no assets or truly valid ties to Thailand - she has no travel history aside from joining me to Vietnam twice for short trips - she is an amazing human and I love her dearly, but this is irrelevant to US officers We have no plans to live full-time in the United States in the next 5 years, but I visit my family and friends 2-3x per year for 2-3 weeks at a time. I would love it if she can join me for those trips and experience that part of my life. From my understanding, her chance of getting a B2 tourist visa to join me on my upcoming trip in September of this year for a wedding and a sports competition is basically 0% and waste of time and money. Is that accurate? It seems to be a violation to apply for B2 and K1 at the same time? I don't care about gambling away $185 but I do care about wasting months delaying the inevitable K1 for a 99% rejection B2. Moving onto the K1 visa option if B2 visa is impossible. I am certain I want to marry this girl, but as I said we do not want to live in the United States full-time until we have children that are school aged. Going the K1 visa route --> green card --> Citizen would be a lifestyle burden. However, from my research it could be literally the only possible way for her to ever set foot on US soil legally. 1. apply for K1 visa 2. wait months (years?) 3. Fly to US, get married 4. Apply for green card and exit travel permit 5. Spend minimum 6 months per year in the US 6. After 3 (?) years of this, she can apply to be a US citizen 7. Citizenship granted 8. We finally have the freedom to live the lifestyle we want Is the above outline of steps fairly accurate? Is above likely the only way for her to see the US legally? I see that applying for a B2 visa after getting married in Thailand is even more impossible than as an unemployed non wealthy girlfriend? Is there a recommendation for help and expedition (agency, lawyer, etc) of getting the K1 visa in hand in bangkok? I welcome any criticism or feedback on options or information that I am overlooking!! It has all made me really disappointed with the way the US border, visas, and immigration is managed. You as an american could very well never be allowed to bring your own wife to visit the United States.