gbagbo

The embassy in Bangkok doesn't have it. Most likely, it was in the sealed brown envelope your fiancee carried with her to the US and gave to the CBP officer. The form instructions say to submit to the USCIS office that last took action on your case, but CSC wouldn't have that file now. To be honest, I'm not sure where it goes exactly, but I know they pull it out when you submit the AOS application.

Try this: Send the G-884 to CSC, since that's the last service center that took action on your case. After you file for AOS, if you happen to get selected for an interview then ask the IO about it at the interview. In all likelihood, it will be in the file on the IO's desk. They should be able to make a copy and give it back to you.

In the future, never submit original documents unless they specifically ask for them. If you get an RFE for an original document then send the document, a photocopy of the document (which USCIS can keep for their files), a polite request that the document be returned after it's examined, and a postpaid self-addressed return envelope. I helped my wife's uncle with an RFE for his original birth certificate from Vietnam. It was issued before the war ended, it was very fragile, and irreplaceable. We did what I described above, and he got his birth certificate back about four weeks later, just after he received the approval notice.

Thanks,

I'll try sending it to CSC and hopefully they can send it back to me. I had 2 different forms (i guess the short and long forms). certificates of birth abroad.

I sent in the original after reading some info online that said I should do so for the visa. I was afraid to get an RFE. Oh well.

If all else failed i'll just get a replacement one.....and pay the fee to get it.

Hello,

I am the US citizen who petitioned for my Thai fiancée to come to the states. As part of the paper work I had to send my original birth certificate. I wanted to get that back and trying to fill out a G-884. In Part 2 the form asks for some info that don't apply to me so I just put NA in all the boxes (questions about certificate of naturalization, certificate of citizenship, and naturalization court etc....)

Am I filling out the correct form to get that document back?

Where do I sent the form to? I filed through the california service center, is that where I have to sent the form to? Or maybe I have to send it to the embassy in Bangkok?

Thanks in advance for the help.

I read someone's post on a different forum about being able to go to "adult school" for free after entry into the USA and once you've gotten married etc....

Anyone done this or heard about it? What type of classes would that be....GED or maybe regular university classes?

I know some of this info has been mentioned before but I thought I would post anyway for those who have recently married or will soon. I wanted to have Thai TV available in my home so I did some research. Not so much for Mimi because she can understand most American TV (they do talk too fast sometimes but if I turn on English subtitles she'll be OK), but for my visiting soon to be Mother-In-Law since she speaks very little English. I tried a few web sites but even with a high speed internet connection the streams were horrible (they paused every five seconds).

I ended up buying a fixed dish satellite system from Galaxy-Marketing.com for $218.65 with shipping. I paid a local satellite guy $150 to install it so I'm out about $370 but it's all free-to-air broadcasting so there is no monthly bill. They have about seven Thai stations, mostly American produced but Thai speaking broadcasts, on the Galaxy 19 satellite. One of the channels is TGN which is the exact same broadcast as in Thailand (I called her while watching a cooking show to verify it was the same). I noticed there is a new station called "Lakorn Thai" which means it is a station dedicated to broadcasting Thai Soap Operas - it's sure to make Mimi's mom happy...LOL.

I know that there is an argument to be made for total English immersion upon arrival but I think that your significant other would really appreciate having some connection to Thailand in their new home - even if just for Thai news. I know how much I appreciated just being able to watch a little BBC or any English news broadcast while I was in Thailand.

Mike

Just wondering about those Thai channels, or any of the other language channels your dish gets, is there an option on them to turn on english subtitles? Watch Thai channels with english subtitles? I imagine probably not but would be nice if they did.

Thailand is not unique in giving USC's first-hand experience in immigration scams.

There are many other scams going on in other countries.

This having been said, it makes sense to let the bigger head take the lead from time to time

and give the smaller head a rest when taking stock of a romantic situation. Thoroughout our

7-year relationship before my wife got her visa, there were times when I voluntarily sent her money

and also times when she needed a little to make a payment for this or that reason. I was well apprised

of her financial situation and she admitted both the debts and ongoing obligations.

Her son went to the best university in Thailand and before that was in one of the top Catholic private

high schools. I knew these things were true because I went to Thailand and verified them by getting

to know her son and seeing his school transcripts. From time to time I was caught in a bind even

though I have a good monthly income. She volunteered to send ME money but I always declined.

I will be paying for my ex wife & kids for a few more years.

If there is a different "emergency" every month that the foreign fiancée presents the USC citizen with,

there must be verification and that's what due diligence is about. It's a cultural thing that your wife

may expect you to support her parents who live in rural poverty. My wife knows where to draw the line

regarding any such requests from relatives and it happens that her parents are deceased,

so she doesn't feel any obligation to any relative for anything, except to her son who now has an

excellent job with an international food company. She is planning to send him a portion of her salary

so he can put a down-payment on a car because he is using his father's car that has seen better days.

She knows I can't afford to pay for a car for him and has never asked me to. I do what I can to help.

I'm sorry to hear what the OP went through but next time he should at least keep his eyes open.

I did keep my eyes open, this is not what happened to me at all.

Thank you everyone for all your inputs.

Question for all you Thai culture experts. As most of you might know already Five told me over a week ago that she's not ready for marriage and I wasn't the right man for her etc.....

I canceled her ticket and luckily was able to get most of the money back.

Her dad called me Saturday and said that he hoped that I had not canceled the ticket because he wanted to take Five to the airport so that she could come. Her parents very much want her to go to states and be with me. They think that she's made a decision and needs to not give up. They also worry about losing face/honor in front of their whole family, friends, and co workers. Everyone knows that we're engaged. Had a big party there in May.

So I'm worried that Five might come back feeling pressured by her dad to come to Utah. Any secret to know if she has a real change of mind or if she's following her dad's orders?

At this point even if she says sorry and that she wants to come I'm not really sure I would want her to come....

Definitely not the case here with Five and I, but yes, I know it happens. I believe in our situation it's just a question of immaturity and being scared to leave her parents. Also not feeling compatible in the end. There are a lot of people losing face right now on her side. Her parents are having a hard time with it all. Our two families met a few months ago. Had a trip with my mom and sister. Lots of sad people on both sides.

I've seen this a few times here on VJ alone with Thailand. I can't speak to this specific case but I have seen others.

Goes something like this:

Thai girl strings along foreigner all the way to the interview. During this time foreginer is sending money for made up emergencies etc. I've seen some petitioners go as far as to buy them a car etc. Thai girl goes all the way to the interview gets the visa. Tries to string along foreigner to get more $ by delaying the move to the U.S. Eventually foreigner figures that the Thai lady never had any intention of coming to the U.S. Thai lady probably has Thai boyfriend the entire time.

I knew girls similar to this when I lived there. They would send emails to five different guys in five different countries with the same sob story asking for money from all of them. All the while having a lazy Thai boyfriend that promptly takes this money and gambles and drinks it away. They look all sweet and innocent, but some of them can be real pros when it comes to extracting money from foreigners.

I'm not trying to paint Thai women with a broad brush, but I have seen this happen too many times for it to be a coincidence.

A little update, I emailed the embassy in Bangkok and here is what they said:

Please notify the visa beneficiary to come to the Embassy with her passport with the K-1 visa and the K-1 packet in the big brown envelope given to her on the day she picked up the visa here. She can contact us on any business Monday and Wednesday in the afternoon between 13.00 and 15.00 except Thai and American holidays.) We will cancel the printed visa in the passport. For you, please send us a cancellation letter with your original signature along with a photocopy of your passport photo page to the IV Unit by mail.

This is our mailing address.

U.S. Embassy

Consular Section

Immigrant Visa Unit

95 Wireless Road

Bangkok

10330

Thailand

After having received the cancellation from you through the mail, the case will be transferred back to USCIS for official revocation.

I plan to also contact USCIS to see what they have to say. I really don't think she will fly or drive to BKK from Chiang Mai to get her visa page print canceled.....that kind of made me laugh. Anyway....

So I looked around the forums and saw different advice. Some say that you should contact the USCIS, others the embassy. Anyone had to do this and knows which way to go?

My ex fiancée was supposed to fly out to the states a week from today. She has the visa in hand. She told me that she is not ready for marriage and that I am not the right kind of man for her.

I would like to somehow get her visa canceled so she doesn't use it. All the time, emotions, and money put into this whole process.....I don't want her to use the visa for other purposes, I would feel used. She can just get a tourist visa if she wants to come to the states, I don't want her to use our K1 visa for anything else than getting married to me.

Any advice?

Hello everyone,

My fiancé and I are waiting for out interview, already sent in packet 3. I inquired at the embassy and got the following email:

10-12 weeks!? The flowchart says 1 week, travel.state.gov says 7 days (http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wait/wait_4788.html?post=Bangkok&x=88&y=11) and the visa stats page (http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/stats.php) has consulate receiving to actual interview at 62 days! How can that be if they aren't even giving out appointments for 84 days! So frustrated. If I really knew it was going to take this long I would probably go for a visit in the next couple weeks but there's so much conflicting information.

Anyone have any idea?

It's taking longer these days. Go with what the embassy email says. We sent our packet 3 june 30 and received packet 4 email 7 weeks later with our interview september 14. Although things change month to month, it's hard to predict. Right before we sent our stuff in people were getting interview 4 to 7 weeks out instead of 2 or 3 months

Edit of my last post:

We rented a car over there, it was very affordable if you're comfortable driving in a country you're not familiar with. We were pulled over by a cop just out of the airport. He wanted us to give him money for breaking a traffic rule. I talked our way out of it, just played dumb, and in the end he even led us on his motorcycle to the correct road on our way to Ubud.

Food was very expensive compared to Thailand. The prices for the food are comparable to Utah prices, so we had sticker price shock being used to Thai prices. Also the food is not anything to write about, just average.

Our favorite part of the trip was going to a Dance performance. Five does traditional Thai dancing (her mom is a dance teacher) and she said she found the Indonesian dancing more interesting than the Thai way.

I'd have to go back and look through all my papers to give you exact names of places we visited. If you are interested let me know and I can give you a more complete review of our time in Bali. You can send me a message and I'll try to help.

Hi, Five and I were just in Bali last June. We stayed in a place called Puri Bunga Resort and Spa in Ubud. It was a beautiful location, wonderful view (if you get the right room). The place was very quiet and relaxing but not the cleanest. The other place we stayed at was called Matahari Terbit Bali Deluxe Bungalows. It was just on OK place. If you want to be on the beach I recommend you avoid the Nusa Dua part of the island. The beaches are not good at all. You can check out my and other people's reviews on a website called tripadvisor.com

We rented a car over there, it was very affordable if you're comfortable driving in a country you're not familiar with. Food was very expensive compared to Thailand. The prices for the food are comparable to Utah prices, so we had sticker price shock being used to Thai prices. If you have any questions you can send me a message and I'll try to help.

I'm happy to say that Five's dad went to the embassy today and picked up her visa. Now we can start making preparations for her to come to Utah.

Exactly ONE week. Interviewed on Monday. Will go Monday to pick up passport with visa.

I think it is good news Jordi. Maybe the Embassy wants to check and see with other sources in Malaysia (think CIA) to see if they have any info on Five. Just kidding about CIA.

Had a friend who said maybe it's a new standard procedure with Malaysia for people who have stayed there longer than just a vacation, where they have to run everyone's name in a database of known terrorists or people that may have ties to terrorism. No idea if that's true or not, didn't really think Malaysia was a hot spot for terrorist groups. I could see it for Indonesia or Pakistan etc.....

In any case it sounded like it wouldn't be a big deal, just a technicality, but anything can happen at this point

Wish I had some words of wisdom for you on that one but not quite sure about why they would speak to the embassy there. Also, I am wondering about the religions as well?? That is very odd for them to ask to me but maybe I don't know the entire story. They really zoomed in on my previous marriages and made sure my wife knew and kept asking her whey she would marry someone that has been married before. I thought it was strange but maybe not.

Also, does anyone know why they are taking a week to issue the visa rather than next day like they used to? Is this normal now at BKK??

Adam, not much to tell about religion, no strange story, just christian and buddhist. She was asked if she was going to convert to my church before the wedding, things of that nature. After I've spoken with Five to get more details I'll try to put together a review.

Hi everyone, just a quick update. Five just finished her interview. I don't have all the details yet but everything went well. The person who interviewed Five said that they needed to talk/check with the US embassy in Malaysia before giving her the visa. They told her to come back next Tuesday. Five studied in Malaysia for 4 years and brought her police clearance certificate. I really don't know why they need to check the embassy there. Does anyone have any ideas why or what they want from there? I guess it's 50% good news. She was told everything was very good and that she should have her visa next week, but it's still not 100% done.

Five told me they asked a lot about our religions.

Anyway, good news I guess, unless something goes horribly wrong with Malaysia, which should not.

From some insurance carriers, yes- it also depends which state you live in. In Arkansas, Blue Cross Blue Shield has short term insurance- anything from 30 to 180 days- which takes anyone who is legally in the USA- you just send a copy of your visa with the cheque for the fee.

Thanks, I'll check with some local insurance companies.

If you use the airline's website they will often have some sort of promotions from major cities such as LA or NY. I found some really good deals on China Airlines from LA and also with Eva. I use Vayama or Kayak, and Orbitz of course, if I can't find what I like as far as promotions are concerned on the airlines websites.

Hello,

Does anyone know how insurance works for a K1 visa holder? If the person comes to the US and waits the 3 months allowed before getting married, can she/he get insurance for the period?

I don't have experience using such service, but if they guarantee approval they are lying, no one can guarantee that. If they offer your money back if it's not approved then maybe I'd consider it. If it was me I would do everything myself. It's really not that hard especially with all the help you can get on this website.

What seems to be the problem and what form?

No specific problem that I can think of. I'm just being paranoid about it. I'm pretty sure we got all the right forms and everything filled out correctly.

Hello,

Just a general question about the forms sent to the embassies as part of the Packet 3. If there's a problem with one of the forms, do the embassies normally contact the applicant about it before scheduling the interview, or is there a risk of an embassy holding the interview and telling the applicant about the problem at that time?

Sawasdee Guys,

I've been checking the on line schedule from US Embassy BKK

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/immigrant_visas/scheduled-appointments.html

This link was last updated Aug 9 and the list ends in 3 days and does not have any Sept dates yet. Is there a list posted for Sept K-1 visa appointments yet?

Thanks,

P

The embassy usually posts the interview list on the 2nd of every month. September 2nd should be the date when the september interview are posted. Sometimes they'll update during the month.

I'm really glad to see so many of my fellow March filers getting approved. My fiancée's interview won't be until september 14. We had some unexpected delays and wish it would have happened sooner, but looking forward to great news in 3 weeks.