Marriage between American man and Burmese woman - visa to the U.S.A.

[Tukkikat 1]

Sitting at my computer in Phoenix, AZ, just joined the VisaJourney organization.

My darling is in Chiang Mai, Thailand, waiting for me to get it together so we can be together, married and living in the U.S.A.

I have found much useful info. on this site and have found a great deal of conflicting info. on Thai forums. Not yet filed application for visa for my future wife... reasons.... getting my health issues addressed here at the VA hospital and a chiropractor, ... financial... lack of money and Uncle Sam ripping me off in Social Security benefits....

We are an exceptional case in being from coutries other than the ones we reside in: I am from Canada, but am a U.S. citizen from having served in the military (I anticipate only more paperwork about the years I lived and worked in Canada); she is from Myanmar, living in Thailand as a migrant worker, and is forbidden to marry a foreigner under Burmese law.

Last year, when we were living in a house in Mae Jo, Thailand, we looked into the mission of getting married there. I learned that in Myanmar the lunatic military dictatorship has made it illegal for Burmese women to marry foreigners. We would not be able to register the marriage at an Amphur in Thailand because the government would not enter into a conflict with the Burmese. A legal service told us they would not let us hire them to make an application for a visa for Mwe to go to the U.S.A. because the marriage would be blocked by the Myanmar government. I since learned of guys going as far away as Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Australia in oder to marry their Burmese fiances.

Recenly I received a post from a lawyer in Bangkok, Thailand, in answer to a post I made on a forum, telling me that my g/f had to go to Yangun and get a document stating that she was not married and then we could get married in Thailand.

But my point is that do we have to do to get around these obstacles and get it done? Does anyone have real information to share with me?

My g/f told me by skype that when she went to Yangun last summer, from Mae Jo, Thailand, she got her regular passport so she can travel (previously she held only a worker passport - good for travel between Myanmar and Thailand for work) and after more than a week running around the city from office to bureaucracy, she was told there was not going to be any document issued to her to get married.

So,? Where do we go from here? I had an idea of flying to Ecuador. That is the only country in this hemisphere that does not require people from Myanmar have a visa to visit for 6 months. We could marry in a church in Cuenca and apply for a K-3 at the U.S. embassy there.

I am aware that American embassy people prefer that applicants apply from their country of origin - but that is clearly impossible for Mwe. And I understand that USCIS people don't care about age differences of married couples. She cannot claim refugee status - since her people - the Shan a.k.a. Tai Yai - are not in open war against the ruling Burmese majority, and she has a regular permit to travel across the border. (unlike the Karenni, for e.g., whose villages are routinely attacked and burned by the Burmese army, and who live in refugee camps in Thailand.

And i just read today on the VJ forum that the American embassy people in Ecuador are very difficult to work with for visas. If we got married in Ecuador, would the American authorities demand documents attesting that we were both single - (which she could not get in Myanmar; which I could get at an American embassy). ?

Does anyone out there have any knowledge of people in situations like this getting through the visas process to living in the U.S.A.?

It is not out of the question for me to go back to Thailand - where I could again be rich on my disability allowance from the VA - and live with my lady there. BUT, under the military dictatorship in Thailand now there is increasing violence against us foreingers of European descent and more discrimination against the local poor people. And Thailand was where we could not get permission to marry.

[Robert H 2]

Hi there:

I was wondering what you were able to do as I am in need of similar information now in September of 2016 with regards to obtaining the "free to marry" document from Myanmar. And actually the Shan people, the Tai-Yai, are considered as an at risk ethnic group in Burma by the US Office of Refuge Resettlement, ORR, (and many rights groups) as they have their own standing Army that frequently engages the Myanmar Army.

Hopefully you are still monitoring your post.

[Anna9970 0]

Hello Tukkikat, 

 

I was wondering if I could get in contact with you. I would like to speak with you regarding this matter as my brother has almost an identical situation and I was hoping that you could email me so I can ask you a few questions. Please be so kind and PM me  I would greatly appreciate it. 

Edited April 19, 2017 by Ontarkie
Removed personal information.

[Ontarkie 14,580]

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