Egg & Andy

When you do through the metal detector they'll put a rubber band with her ID card around her cell phone. This is how they did it in '06 anyway. Maybe someone with a more recent experience can chime in.

Egg said, that when you first go in at security (before the metal detectors) they will ask you if you have a cell phone or any electronic devices. They will take your phone, etc and put it in a locker and give you the key and a number.

When your done, you pick it up on the way out.

Good to know! I"m in California, so anyone from Orange County, who had their civil wedding ceremony performed already and know the documents we need, please let me know. Sometimes people who have the experience know more than those who work at city hall...

All you need is a passport or photo ID (copy of divorce documents if divorced within last 90 days). Check the Orange County Clerk-Recorder website:

http://www.ocgov.com/ocgov/Clerk-Recorder%20-%20Tom%20Daly/Services/Marriage%20Services

You can file application and make an appointment to get married online .....were scheduled for May 25th in Laguna Hills :-)

The problem with that interview list is it's only updated once a month (near the end of the month).

We received packet 4 (e-mail) on Feb. 7, 2011 with an interview date of March 3rd, 2011. Our name and Number didn't show up on the interview list till around Feb, 27th or 28th.

Egg went for her interview yesterday and………we now have our visa approval!!!

She arrived an hour early and was 1st in line to enter the Embassy, but apparently they schedule the interviews based on the case number not when you arrive or sign in, so out of eight interviews she was number seven! It was about 11:00 am when she finally left the Embassy and could call me. She said the waiting room was very crowded (several people standing) so being the 1st in allowed her to pick a seat up front where she could hear the names called and also she did not have to stand.

She said her interview lasted about 15 minutes and the female Consulate Officer (CO) asked her a little over 20 questions.

Egg’s greatest interview fear was her use of the English language, especially understanding the questions given to her in English. She feared the worst when the 1st question was “can your fiancé speak Thai?” and “how do you talk to him?” She answered “little bit” and “we talk in English”. She was then told to answer all the questions in English, but if she didn’t understand the question to ask for it to be repeated in Thai and she said, the falang CO could speak pretty good Thai.

Apparently the interview is given at a window in a big open room similar to a bank teller window where you speak through an opening in the glass. Egg said she had a difficult time understanding and hearing the questions as the CO had a kind of a quiet voice and there was a lot of “room noise” from other people talking.

She said overall the CO was very friendly and smiled a lot and kind of joked with her during the whole interview and did repeat or rephrase the questions for her in Thai if she didn’t understand them. One of our initial I-129 photos we submitted was of an embroidering that Egg had done showing a female Indian and male cowboy holding hands with the caption “Egg loves Andy’. Apparently the CO either liked embroidering or the fact that Egg went to the trouble of making it, as she asked several questions at the start of the interview about the photo and seemed to really enjoy it. I’m just really glad I included it as one of our original 17 photos.

As best as she could remember them, the following are the questions she was asked:

1) Can your boyfriend speak Thai?

2) How do you talk to him (English or Thai)?

3) What’s your fiancés name?

4) How old is he?

5) How old are you?

(Note: I’m 62 and Egg is 32 she said the CO had no problem with age difference)

6) What kind of work does he do? And what work do you do?

(She is currently unemployed and works for the “Andy Company”)

7) Where does he live (State and City)? Do you like where he lives?

8) How did you meet your fiancé? (she was in Pattaya visiting her friend/neighbor who was dating my friend, who I was visiting at the same time)

9) How do you know your friend? (grew up together, neighbor from village)

10) When did you both meet for the first time? How long did you meet and where?

11) When was the last time you both met? For how long? And where?

12) How many times has he been to Thailand? (9 total, last 2 trips to see Egg)

13) How do you contact him when he is in America? (we don’t use the phone much, mainly talk on Skype, we submitted Skype logs and screenshot photos of us talking online).

14) Did he marry before? (I was previously married twice) When last divorced?

15) How many children does he have? (none) How many children do you have? (none) Egg said the CO acted surprised that she did not have children and even asked her twice.

16) When will your fiancé come back to Thailand again?

17) Have you ever been outside of Thailand before? (no)

She said the CO then left and then came back with a white slip of paper with a date and time and said “come back in 7 days to pick up your visa”

And that was it!

I’m researching flights now and will probably go over in a few weeks and bring her back with me.

This portion of our journey was made a lot easier thanks to the people and information on this forum. Egg also got a lot of help and info from the Thai equivalent “usvisa4thai.com” forum.

Thanks for the info on the interview process Daryl and I hope Jeep has a good flight over to America. I hope she realizes how cold it is up in your neck of the woods right now....she's going to freeze! My roommates wife from Thailand has been in California for over a year now and still walks around in the house with a fur collared jacket on when the thermostat is set at 70 degrees.

Jeep and my fiancee Egg became good friends during the visa process and they currently talk on the phone every day. Jeep has been really good at calming Egg's fear for her up coming interview (which is next Thursday on March 3rd) by explaining the process to her. Thai's have great memories so remembering details and dates are fairly easy for her (she knows and remembers more about me than I do!) I think her biggest concern is her use of the English language. I told her that the person doing the interview will be fluent in English and Thai so if she doesn't understand a question have them repeat it in Thai. I think as long as she can show that we (Egg and I) can communicate in English, it should be no problem.

Hope the rest of your visa journey goes as smooth as the first part and hope we can keep in touch when the girls are both here in America.

Andy

Congratulations Daryl & Jeep!! I'm really glad you guys got your approval. Better start buying those airline tickets

Egg & Andy

Just received an e-mail this morning notifying us of our K1 interview date set for March 3rd, 2011 at 7am.

Daryl & Jeep had suggested that I send an email to the Thai Embassy to inquire about the status of our petition (they had previously done the same thing).

I sent the email Saturday evening....and got our interview schedule today (Monday).

It may have been a coincidence or the email may have brought our file to their attention....either way I'm pretty happy right now.

Thanks for your help Daryl & Jeep.

Here's our "Embassy" timeline so far:

Petition received at Bangkok Embassy - December, 29, 2010

Egg received packet 3 - January 12, 2011

Egg sent in (returned) packet 3 - January 24, 2011

Received email with interview date - February 7, 2011

Interview date - March 3, 2011

We never recieved Packet 3 and really we didn't wait for it as we wanted to get and early interview date. As soon as I called NVC and got out case # the Fiancee took a copy of our NOA2 with the NVC case number and went for medical and Police Cert with no problems. There were 3 other lady's there with just NOA 2 copy's and all had the Police Cert. done that day. It saved us 3 weeks on the Interview time line.

Egg & I thought you had to have your police report before you sent in your packet 3 so we waited till last week to mail it in. i hope you don't have much more than a three week head start on us!!!

They recently stopped the pay approximately 3,000 baht for a 3 day expedited police report, so now everyone has to wait approximately 2 weeks to get the report.

Congratulations.... it won't be long now! Egg's on a bus back home from Bangkok so probably hasn't heard the news yet from Jeep, so i just sent her an SMS. Hopefully were not far behind you!

We sent our Packet 3 in on Jan 6 via EMS and are still waiting for interview. From what I have tried there is no way of calling the embassy

to find out the status, only by email so if we don't hear something soon I will try emailing.

Good luck and hope we get good news about interviews soon.

PS I see the Red and Yellow shirts are stating in again so I am hoping I can get the Fiancee out of Thailand before things turn bad.

Hopefully Egg and I will be right behind you as we'll be sending in packet 3 next week.

Thanks for the heads up on the pending demonstrations this weekend (red shirts Sunday, yellow shirts Tuesday). Egg was going to take the bus down to Bangkok to go shopping on Sunday to then pick up her Police report on Monday morning. When I see her tonight on Skype I'll try and talk her into going later in the week, as the Shopping Mall and Police Clearance Center are right in the middle of the demonstration area.

Also, does anyone know if the "Scheduled Appointment list" on the Bangkok Embassy website is broken? (I noticed that the last revision was December 28, 2010)

Anybody who filed through the California service center have to wait the full 5 months or longer?

My fiancee and I are getting rather antsy. We filed August 6th 2010 and have not received anything as of yet. Not even a touch.

This is rather dis-heartening to say the least.

If it goes beyond the 5 month mark, what should I do that will actually kick this into gear? I assume just calling won't really do it. Maybe calling my congressman? Use the fact that I'm a vet? I don't know, I just want to be with my wife. Not too much to ask in my opinion.

Thoughts?

We filed through CSC on July 15th and received NOA-1 on July 22, 2010. Received NOA-2 on December 9, 2010. Still waiting on packet 3.

Yours might be taking a little longer due to Government Office Holiday closures.

Your right behind us, so hopefully you get it soon.

We just received our NOA-2 from CSC and when I sent in my I-129 I sent a color copy (of the front and back) of my Naturalization Certificate and a color copy of my US passport bio page and only copies of the stamped pages that related to my trips to Thailand. I also had trips to Italy and Jamaica stamped in my passport but figured they were irrelevant and didn't include them or the blank pages.

Congratulations!

Our timeline at CSC is close to yours and about 2 hours ago I received an email saying we had been approved and they are mailing out our NOA-2 today!!!

Agreed. My wife has a student loan from university, it never came up. She makes a payment once a year-- around 15k baht. I think the load period was 6-7 years as well, though it's halfway through already.

Thanks everyone for all the replies. As we plan on going back and forth between the US and Thailand I do plan on paying off her loan and once a year payments sound like a good way to go. She didn't mention any one cosigning on her loan, but I'll check that out with her tonight when I talk to her.

Does anyone know if a student loan has to be paid off before a person can emigrate? My fiance has an outstanding student loan balance to the Thai Government of approximately $5,600 (170,000 Thai baht). She currently pays about $67 (2,000 baht) a month, which will take about another 7 years to pay off at this rate. I'm going to help her pay it off eventually, but cannot come up with the total outstanding balance at this time. I know it's not part of the I129f package but does the topic of unpaid student loans come up at any time during the Visa process?

1st post here so if it's in the wrong section can someone help me move it.

Thanks