SAWASDEE 3 (2009 Thai thread restarted)

[ThaitoUSA 15]

Good luck to you too uscandual!

She got the medical and requested the police cert. She'll be back in BKK next week for a teacher's conference and will pick up the police cert and mail back Packet 3 then. She told me how there were two other women waiting at the hospital for visa medicals.

The one was a hilltribe girl from Lampang. Her fiancé was Lao, but has lived in America for more than 12 years. She had already had the interview, but never received the I-134 from her fiancé, nor taken the medical. I can only presume they are not on VJ!

The other girl had "a huge diamond engagement ring!" (Oh boy, my fiancée has rich taste. She also wants platinum wedding rings.) The story didn't quite add up, but it was something like he was an American serviceman stationed in Germany and they had gotten married but never met in person!?! My fiancée couldn't quite get it either.

[afisher 0]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone. Seems that I was worrying over nothing though. She sent me a SMS this morning saying that she just got packet 3.

[scandal 951]

My fiancée emailed the consulate carefully following the email instructions on their website at the very bottom of this page:

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/immigrant_vis...estions.html#14

They replied in less than 15 hours and confirmed that the petition had been received and Packet 3 would be sent out shortly. It arrived about 3 days later.

The appointment schedule can be found here:

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/immigrant_vis...pointments.html

Thanks Pete. That's very helpful. The appointment schedule isn't sorted in any meaningful way- not by Case ID or by date. However, a little manipulation in Excel let me sort it all, and count by date. Here are the number of appointments currently scheduled on each date through March and April. Not surprisingly there are no appointments from April 11-19 due to Songkran. They have 414 appointments during these 2 months, for Bangkok alone! Ok, not everyone is a family based petition. Still, it makes you realize that our VJ community is just a tiny subset of the caseload going through the system. Since they appear to take as many as 18 or 19 bookings in a day, it would appear that there is still capacity in the schedule for more appointments to be made later in March and in April. I think there's hope for us yet to get an early interview date!

3/2/2009 Count 15

3/3/2009 Count 13

3/4/2009 Count 18

3/5/2009 Count 17

3/6/2009 Count 19

3/9/2009 Count 18

3/10/2009 Count 16

3/11/2009 Count 14

3/12/2009 Count 9

3/13/2009 Count 8

3/16/2009 Count 8

3/17/2009 Count 15

3/18/2009 Count 16

3/19/2009 Count 13

3/20/2009 Count 15

3/23/2009 Count 10

3/24/2009 Count 12

3/25/2009 Count 9

3/26/2009 Count 6

3/29/2009 Count 2

3/30/2009 Count 5

3/31/2009 Count 4

4/1/2009 Count 13

4/2/2009 Count 12

4/3/2009 Count 9

4/7/2009 Count 10

4/8/2009 Count 10

4/9/2009 Count 10

4/10/2009 Count 8

4/20/2009 Count 10

4/21/2009 Count 10

4/22/2009 Count 10

4/23/2009 Count 10

4/27/2009 Count 10

4/28/2009 Count 10

4/29/2009 Count 10

4/30/2009 Count 10

Grand Count 414

[ThaitoUSA 15]

God bless your left brain! If that is the case, we would be elated! The sooner we have the visa in hand, the sooner we shall purchase tickets (including to our wedding venue), notify the guests, etc.

I will buy a case of Sing-ha for anyone who during Songkran douses with water the bald headed CO who has been giving fiancée's problems during the interview.

[AaronLV 12]

Everyday the embassy has tons of people in there, and the numbers you listed from the interview schedule is a small fraction of the number of people that go for Visa interviews. The day(s) I was at the embassy there were probably between 70-100 people each day, of course this was for all visa's not just the family based visas, so I wouldn't worry about having to wait past the schedule that is posted.

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

just FYI about the interview dates.

There is a .pdf listed with interview dates up through April, found on the BKK website.

doesnt matter too much though.

On March 10th, I sent the P-3 to the US Embassy in Bangkok, from here in the USA.

They recieved the P-3 on Friday March 13, 2pm.

I sent them an email March 14th asking about the PO fee because I forgot to add it to the P-3 and asking

about the date as we hadnt recieved anything via mail, (the P-3).

They sent me an email yesterday informing us that our Interview date is April 9, 8:00am

and to just bring the postal fee receipt with us to the interview.

[ThaitoUSA 15]

My fiancée had a very pleasant experience at the police station obtaining the certificate. She said that although there were scores of people, she was processed in less than half an hour. She also said the officer was very funny. Her name is a title of an older pop song, and he was singing it and said to the other officers, "We're losing another beautiful one to a foreigner!"

While taking her photo, she asked, "May I smile?" He replied "If your smile is beautiful, go right ahead. If not, please don't!"

I reminded me of my interaction with Thais. They sing, they joke, they are so light hearted. I really miss living in that environment. sanook maak

[scandal 951]

My fiancée had a very pleasant experience at the police station obtaining the certificate. She said that although there were scores of people, she was processed in less than half an hour. She also said the officer was very funny. Her name is a title of an older pop song, and he was singing it and said to the other officers, "We're losing another beautiful one to a foreigner!"

While taking her photo, she asked, "May I smile?" He replied "If your smile is beautiful, go right ahead. If not, please don't!"

I reminded me of my interaction with Thais. They sing, they joke, they are so light hearted. I really miss living in that environment. sanook maak

This world would be a much better place if every country adopted "The Land of Smiles" attitude towards friendliness and smiling.

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

My fiancée had a very pleasant experience at the police station obtaining the certificate. She said that although there were scores of people, she was processed in less than half an hour. She also said the officer was very funny. Her name is a title of an older pop song, and he was singing it and said to the other officers, "We're losing another beautiful one to a foreigner!"

While taking her photo, she asked, "May I smile?" He replied "If your smile is beautiful, go right ahead. If not, please don't!"

I reminded me of my interaction with Thais. They sing, they joke, they are so light hearted. I really miss living in that environment. sanook maak

This world would be a much better place if every country adopted "The Land of Smiles" attitude towards friendliness and smiling.

I think I'm going to be sick

[eric_f 0]

lol, reminds me of when I first met my fiancee, her perception of the US was that everyone in our justice system still wore white wigs, coattails, and poofypants, and everyone else looked like they were straight outta hollywood. She has since been enlightened After spending a good amount of time in Thailand, I like to call it the land of scandals! I wouldn't have it any other way though; it is what it is and I still plan on living there once my tour on active duty is up

Edited March 18, 2009 by eric_f

[bill13060 0]

Hey all, just jumping in to update! We're still in AP at the embassy. I don't know what the holdup is, but I haven't given up hope lol. It blows cause I'm more than likely going to be deployed if and when she gets any news of this moving forward. I've sent at least one email per week to the embassy and I get the same scripted response with no real information whatsoever.

Y'all talkin about the dirtier places reminded me of when we got into bkk to get her medical done and we ended up somewhere near bumrungrad early in the morning looking for a hotel, lmao. That place was scores more raunchy than pattaya. I was embarrassed to walk through it. We ended up staying awake until the next morning when the same street looked like a closed up ghost town.

I think i was in the same area a few weeks ago. we got off the bus early in the morning and went to look for a hotel in the same area. we walked by nana hotel which i guess is right across the street from nana plaza. That place was really dirty but i could ubderstand because it was like 6 in the morning. we ended up staying at a hotel across the street from bumrungrad. i stopped at a starbucks close to nana hotel and there were so many ladyboys, i could not tell the difference except they were so tall and every time one walked by my wife would say "ladyboy". people watching is fun sometimes. to bad my wife would not take me there at night so i could see what it's like.

even in her hometown there was a wedding and she would not let me go because she said to many drunk guys would get jealous because the girls would want to talk to me and there would be fighting. I guess the mayor(headman) was jealous and was fighting with his wife. He did the same at our wedding party, fighting with his wife. when he slapped her, i went after him but 5 guys held me back so i would not kick his ####. i guess it was for the best though because if i had got ahold of him it would not have been good for her family or me for that matter.

[ThaitoUSA 15]

I just noticed something on the new Packet 3 checklist that has me a little concerned.

For the I-134 Affidavit of support, it asks for a copy of the Petitioner's Passport. I did include a copy of my biographical page and Thai entry stamps with the I-129F petition copy I gave my fiancée. However, I did not include the cover nor every single page. Would what she have ben sufficient, or should I be rushing her a copy of every page of my passport? Would scanned and printed copies be sufficient? Boy, as prepared as we've been, can always have a wrench thrown in the gears.

Any advice, especially from recent interviewees would be most appreciated.

[ThaitoUSA 15]

I have posted a scanned copy of the updated Packet 3 checklist here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=185987

[PeterandYa 0]

I just noticed something on the new Packet 3 checklist that has me a little concerned.

For the I-134 Affidavit of support, it asks for a copy of the Petitioner's Passport. I did include a copy of my biographical page and Thai entry stamps with the I-129F petition copy I gave my fiancée. However, I did not include the cover nor every single page. Would what she have ben sufficient, or should I be rushing her a copy of every page of my passport? Would scanned and printed copies be sufficient? Boy, as prepared as we've been, can always have a wrench thrown in the gears.

Any advice, especially from recent interviewees would be most appreciated.

Just a copy of the first page (your name and picture) of the passport. But, you need to send I-134 and police record both must be orginal forms. Make copies for your own records.....otherwise, you're good to go...DON'T WORRY!

[ThaitoUSA 15]

Is it ok to use the one from I-129F, that is a photocopy of my signature at the bottom and dated 5 months ago?

Or should I email her a scanned copy that she can print, but lacking my signature?

edit: she does have the original I-134 and police record. I wish the Consulate would have posted the updated checklist, since we were following the old one. I hope my posting the updated one here on VJ shall help others.

Edited March 19, 2009 by ThaitoUSA