Danno2

I like the idea. Will they let us Pin a Wiki link since it would not be on VJ?

Could we organize it to have the informational thread to contain common Thai FAQ's in the first several posts?

For example many people including myself need / needed help with things after NOA1 through the interview. If we could package it up over the first few posts as a guide it would be great. Would the admins gives us a Thai section under Asia and let us post "stickies" in it?

I'm cool with moving the thread to the appropriate area but think there should be 1 for visa issues and 1 for everything else. The reason is it will be a beating for new people to read through pages upon pages of something to learn about 1 or 2 things.

I wanted to do that with Chada but she said Thai people would be to lazy to host a slingbox and if it broke it would be difficult to fix. She just wants to watch American TV and her soap OPERA on utube. That would drive me nuts...

I have to say I'm ashamed of all you Sawasdee slackers. I go away for a few days and find you have not kept our thread top posted!

So its spring time and all of you have better things to do??? I personally spent the weekend up in the attic running network, HDMI, video and power cables so my Chada can get HD / DVR and the Internet on the 46" LCD mounted in our bedroom along with the slingbox on her 3g cell... (...sticking his chest out if you cant see me).

So what the he11 have you done for your SO lately..

Mailing completed Packet 3 before receiving it from the embassy

I've read a few people who have said its perfectly fine to mail in the packets 3 to the embassy after you confirm the embassy has received your case from NVC. Chada read the same thing on the Thai forums.

Who has done this?

Did you do anything special?

Did it cause any problems?

Thanks in advance for the information

Hi folks. I recently got the thumbs up from my sweetheart to start this fun journey. I have been loving the posts and the great community that has evolved....THANKS!

This driver’s license thing... had me worried, so I have looked and looked and have yet to find where the state will offer us an unpleasant surprise.

I grew up in VT and lived in Mass.... I have to hand it to the freedom loving people of Arizona...this is what they say:

38) What is needed for a person from another country to drive in Arizona?

You may legally drive in Arizona using a valid driver license from another country. An International Driving License or Permit is not required, but is recommended since it can be printed in English, and can be used in conjunction with the driver license from the other country. If an International Driving License or Permit is used alone, it must be issued by a country other than the United States. ...

Wish us luck!

Joe

Good luck to you Joe. If anyone refers you to the documentation its just because its that freakin good. 98% of what you will need for the USCIS will be covered in the K-1 guide. Once you get your NOA2 through living with your girl is where this thread can be invaluable. If you want your girl to get here as efficiently as possible and you file at CSC you will want to start working on this after you get the NOA1. Post NOA1 for Smarties If your filing at VSC sit back and relax for 90 days.

Aaron as always I'm learning from your experiences. Many, many thanks for posting up.

Our bump in the road- The Police Report

Well our extremely good luck hit a little bump today. Chada went up to the police station to order the report and no one offered a "fast service'. She asked about it on-site and called later and they said it was 10 business days. So its May 6th before we can submit packet 3. LOL, I just knew we were not going to pull it off.

So if you want the fast service you need to go with your SO in order for you to be "fee worthy".

Does anyone know if when the make the Int'l national DL they renew the exp date or it is just a translation of the original? Is it just a laminated piece of paper like his current license? I could tranlate it myself if that is the case.

What insurance is it that will cover your spouse with a Thai DL? We will be getting new car insurance when we get back to the U.S. so that is a good thing to keep in mind as we shop around.

Yes, I was wondering about the insurance as well.

That was my big concern in Las Vegas also, just being able to teach her. I doubt the state trooper is going to be smart enough to tell the difference between the Thai license and the international license. Nam is stuck home all day while I am out, she doesn't seem to mind though. It doesn't bother me at all having to take her shopping etc, I kind of thought it might be a big pain to have to always go with her, but it has actually been good. I have thought about buying her a scooter to be able to make it down to the grocery store on, and may still do that, but haven't decided yet. She had her own scooter in Buriram, so I know she can ride. The funny thing is she sees my sportbike in the garage and said she wants to take that out. I just laughed and told her if she can sit on it and get it off the kick stand she can take it. To funny watching a 95 lbs 5'1" girl trying to get GSXR 1000 off the kick stand. LOL

LOL, that is so funny. We have a huge Asian market about 2 miles from my house along with CVS, Walmart, Kroger, etc. I thought about buying her a scooter to drive. I have the Hyabusa (GSXR1300) and Chada told me she can just drive that. I just smiled and said "umm, not sure"

I think the big deal about the drivers license has to do with where you live. In Texas I was told by the State Trooper in the drivers license office that without an international DL you cannot drive until you get a green card. The big deal about this is we don't really have mass transit thats worth anything. Additionally everything is spread so far apart its going to be hell if she cant learn to drive or apply for a DL until she get the GC.

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I sent my fiancee to drviing school for 10 hours here and then paid for her to get her license (wink wink). My plan at the time was to do what you are doing, get her the international license and then teach her to drive in the US. However after she got her license is when I found out about the restriction on the 1 year license, that it cannot be converted to an international.

The 1 year license says:

Driving License at the top in Thai and english, then has a section with Thai (Dates, name, Thai ID etc), then at the bottom has the valid dates, name, birthdate, Thai ID in english. I think it will be suffiecient for teaching her to drive in the US. Plus it can be used for her ID, since it has her Birthdate and she won't need to carry her passport everywhere. In Vegas she will get ID'd everywhere.

I was quite confused myself with the entire international license, and we had several arguments about this, until I talked to another expat here, and then also the driving instructor which confirmed what I said above.

Aaron thanks again for the information you provided me about this. Do you think it possible to get the 1 year drivers license without the training. I guess I'm looking for the (wink wink)..

Having something in Thai and English that looks legit would be better than nothing.

I am behind in this thread so excuse me if I am repeating someone.

Tomorrow we are off to work on the International Drivers Licence, does anyone have the address we have to go to? Then Tuesday we pick up the passport.

Ask and you shall receive. Be sure to Thank "Mommy" she posted it in this thread in Feb.

"I called them to get the information because that is what I will be doing too. They said bring in the driving license that is valid for 5 yrs and passport to their head office near Jatujak Market/Park (JJ/weekend market), that is the only place that do international driving license. The fee is 500 baht and you can get it the same day that you go to do. I do have my new driving license that have both thai and English but it is international driving license. "

If anyone know how I can get my girl (who has never driven) a 5 year license please PM me!

CREAK,,, as the door opens

Boys whats going on in here?

Hey Danny!!! Come on in... the water's fine!

bubbles and smiles?

This may be trouble...

Any bar girls in there? Is it safe??

CREAK,,, as the door opens

Boys whats going on in here?

Proof of Relationship

Does the phrase "obsessive-compulsive" mean anything to you Wow!!

LOL, I was waiting for that and I'll take it.

I have always believed in "sending a message" without saying anything. Every time I have done this it has worked in my favor. In my original K-1 submission I did it. I have no idea if that made any difference at VSC or NVC but those have been pleasant experiences so far. That being said I want to continue the due diligence (or obsession) with this last step.

Also, when I see the stress that everyone goes through at the embassy I just want to feel calm in that I have done everything possible to prepare myself and Chada. Once I get these completed I can be at peace. That will let me focus on preparing a great life and summer for us in the US.

Proof of Relationship

As I stated before our relationship length doesn't compare to many of yours and although we communicate daily its minuscule compared to USCANDUAL's for example So my strategy for Proof is to send everything and I mean everything in 4 inch / 3 ring binders with Chada for the interview. She will answer everything possible by referring to some form of the proof in them. If the Embassy asks for more we can honestly say this is everything we have and there is nothing else we can do.

So FWIW I just completed our Chat log's and I'm doing something different so I'll be the test rat for this with the embassy. Some of the reasons for this is that I used two computers for chats and in the process I lost 4 months of logs and had to get a copy emailed from Chada. So what does all of this mean...

Well I combined multiple logs from different MSN computers by importing the xml files into a single Excel spreadsheet so I could more efficiently manipulate the data. Once in Excel I:

Searched and deleted any rows I thought were private.

Used Find / Replace for several items

Deleted unnecessary columns & adjusted the width of the remaining ones

Changed all text to Arial 8pt

Added a message count column and incremented a count for each row

Setup .37 top and bottom margins

Added a footer "Page x of xxx

Setup duplex printing to reduce amount of paper used by 50%

Added a statement asserting the accuracy and reason for the changes.

Added a line for a notary signature

Second document - Letter about Embassy concerning Chat logs

Created a single page letter referring to the log and used the same statement i attached to the spreadsheet

Created a notary signature for the letter

Both the logs and the letter will be signed and notarized and in our Proof of relationship 3 ring binder. Besides giving me allot of flexibility it allowed me to put every single text conversation on 132 pages of 8x11 and show we have 2 way communication totallying 18,000 messages.

I know someone outside of our thread said anything altered is useless but that seems ridiculous. I can alter any XML file to make it look like a chat log and send it. I can also alter an previous email and print it. Who in the world would go to the trouble to create an 18,000 message fake chat log where you can follow the conversation the whole way through.

So we will see how that works...

I was talking about this on Skype with Thanti last night. We came up with what we think is a brilliant plan.

She's going to go back to the police station this week and get ANOTHER original certificate. It will take the typical 2 weeks or whatever, but it's free, and she lives locally in BKK, so pretty easy for her to do.

Then she'll come to the interview armed with a second ORIGINAL in hand. Along with the ORIGINAL in the packet3, that we mailed. Let's see them object to that!!!

In other words, rather than have birchbeer's experience of getting rejected with a 221g and need to spend 2 weeks after interview to get another certificate, we'll just preempt that and get it now before interview.

Can anyone see any downside to this?

If not, I'd highly urge everyone lining up for an interview (Danny ... this means YOU!!) to do the same.

LOL, I had the SAME IDEA this morning and did everything I could to talk Chada into it over MSN. So if you can get Thantita to mention it to her as well that may convince her. Actually my plan was to get originals of every document you send in and just make two packet 3's. One for the embassy and 1 for the interview.

FWIW, "expedited service" for your police clearance is also available. We visited that office April 2 and were told that our app would be finished April 23 because they would be closed for the long Songkran holiday. We were offered the opportunity to make a small contribution to the local Songkran holiday fund in return for a guaranteed return by April 8.

Any idea what the expedite service entails? Looks like my latest fortunes could POSSIBLY benefit from it.

I was thinking of letting my girl go to the interview then flying to LOS after she got the visa. But after reading these reviews I think that It's probably best to be there for the interview.

How long between P3 received and the interview date?

I was just PM'ed it was 4 weeks.

Thanks. I called NVC today to see if the received it and they said yes it was process and they shipped it to BKK 2 days ago. Wow, thats service!

OMG I called NVC today to get our number, They informed me the case was not there and would not be.

Because they already shipped to BKK on 4/15/09!

VSC-NVC->BKK = 7 days

WOW,WOW,WOW!!!

at most just need to bring back some docs. It's happened to Aaron, daboys, birchbeer, and others, so I'm prepared for that to happen to us too.

I think everyone should expect that now. Seems like SOP. My question is we are bring ALL of the proof of relationship to the interview. I'm wodering what the h*ll to do if he wants more.