SAWASDEE 2

[Thai family 0]

My turn to ask another question: Where in the packet 3 paperwork instructions does it say the petitioner (me) needs to submit my birth certificate and photocopy of my passport?

On page 2 of the package 3 instructions is where the copy of the petitioner's passport is mentioned as being required.

I wouldn't send an original birth certificate, but it probably wouldn't hurt to include a copy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Thai family 0]

What is his current salary? Is it above the poverty line for a 2 person household?

He made well above poverty level in four months, so that is not a problem.

Then he *should* be ok. Its probably going to come down to the individual examiner at the embassy and what they feel comfortable with. With pay stubs and a letter from the employer both showing he now makes enough he should be ok.

We're hoping that's the case. If not, I guess we'll standing in the wings.

Thanks!

[Tom and Teaw 1]

On the vaccination issue, she is 30 years old but by birth certificate she is only 28 cause she was living with grandma and grandma never went and got

her birth certificate within the 30 days required by Thai law so she got the year grandma went and got it. Confusing, isn't it?

But it may not be cheaper to do them in Thailand as the plan is to get married as soon as she gets here and then I can put her on my health

insurance and only pay the co-pay for the doctor visit. I just wondered if I would get hit with a bill for a bunch of shots when she went for her medical exam which will now be delayed as I got an email back from the BKK embassy telling me the Packet 3 papers she mailed on May 21st have never been received by them. So now I am wondering what we should do....resubmit them this time sending EMS or wait to see what the embassy tells me to do. I am sure she sent in the signed checklist and how would we duplicate that? I asked her to make copies of the forms she had to fill out but I don't think she would have copied the checklist.

Should I wait longer to see if the papers show up? She is going to check at the post office and see what they can tell her about the delivery as she has

the receipt with some number on it she said. Anyone have experience with this?

I have a trip to BKK for the 18th that I was going to delay thinking we would have an interview date soon that might fall in late July, early August but with this delay it looks like September now so I plan on going unless something changes between now and the 18th.

I have another question, though. Will I need the affidavit of support for the visa interview I plan to attend? I am a court reporter for the state and I have a unique situation in that I am an employee for the State for what I do in court, but appeal and other transcripts are 1099 self-employment income so I also do a Schedule C for my tax returns. When I provide a copy of part of my returns from the last couple years to show my income, should I include a page or two of the Schedule C showing that income and the deductions I take? I don't want to give them anymore than I have to. I would think just the first couple pages of the 1040 would be enough that would show all my income and the adjusted gross income.

Edited June 9, 2008 by Tom and Wariya

[Jessica&Lute 0]

the Packet 3 papers she mailed on May 21st have never been received by them. So now I am wondering what we should do....resubmit them this time sending EMS or wait to see what the embassy tells me to do. I am sure she sent in the signed checklist and how would we duplicate that? I asked her to make copies of the forms she had to fill out but I don't think she would have copied the checklist.

Should I wait longer to see if the papers show up? She is going to check at the post office and see what they can tell her about the delivery as she has the receipt with some number on it she said.

You can download all of the Packet 3 materials from the Bangkok Embassy website. If the post office can't tell her whether it was delivered, I would think you could just send a new packet 3, but this time use EMS or something with Proof of Delivery.

I have another question, though. Will I need the affidavit of support for the visa interview I plan to attend? I am a court reporter for the state and I have a unique situation in that I am an employee for the State for what I do in court, but appeal and other transcripts are 1099 self-employment income so I also do a Schedule C for my tax returns. When I provide a copy of part of my returns from the last couple years to show my income, should I include a page or two of the Schedule C showing that income and the deductions I take? I don't want to give them anymore than I have to. I would think just the first couple pages of the 1040 would be enough that would show all my income and the adjusted gross income.

I would include a complete copy of your tax returns or tax transcripts. The US Govt doesn't like to get things that are incomplete!

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Well, including a full copy of a couple years of tax returns might be nice if it's only a few pages but mine are easily a quarter inch thick each year with several pages of #######!!!! What should they care what my deductions are on the transcript side if all they care about is seeing that you make enough money that your fiancee is not going to be on welfare?

I would be interested in more feedback from other members of the forum. And how many copies of the financial support form notarized did y'all give them?

[Kang Lang 7]

hi tom and wariya,

regardless of size of document i agree that you should definitely send the entire return. don't give them any reason to deny them. they may not care at all what deductions you take but i bet they will care that you didn't bring the return in its entirety. i gave them one notarized copy of the affadavit of support (i-134) and just a note bring copies of items that you will want the originals back. in addition to my i-134 i thought to bring paystubs since i was new to my job at the time and they kept the stubs.

good luck to you!

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Well, I have to give the BKK embassy some good words here. After they notified me they had not received Wariya's Packet 3 papers back in the mail, I wrote and asked them what we should do. They not only wrote me back and told me to have her resend them, but they also called her on her cell phone and told her what she needed to do!!! I was quite impressed that they took the time to call her and make sure she sent them the right way....EMS this time.

So they go in the mail tomorrow Thai time (Wed) and I sure hope I get an interview date soon since she asked me not to come next week and wait until the interview to save money so she can fly back with me. Of course, I hate delaying my trip but if I do I will just stay longer as we will have to clean out the apartment we have in BKK and take some of the stuff back up to Korat.

Do you know, is one year of tax returns enough for the financial support or should I do two years?

Thanks for all the help!!

[huge316 0]

Well, I have to give the BKK embassy some good words here. After they notified me they had not received Wariya's Packet 3 papers back in the mail, I wrote and asked them what we should do. They not only wrote me back and told me to have her resend them, but they also called her on her cell phone and told her what she needed to do!!! I was quite impressed that they took the time to call her and make sure she sent them the right way....EMS this time.

So they go in the mail tomorrow Thai time (Wed) and I sure hope I get an interview date soon since she asked me not to come next week and wait until the interview to save money so she can fly back with me. Of course, I hate delaying my trip but if I do I will just stay longer as we will have to clean out the apartment we have in BKK and take some of the stuff back up to Korat.

Do you know, is one year of tax returns enough for the financial support or should I do two years?

Thanks for all the help!!

They may ask for up to 3 years of returns, if you call the IRS you can get the last 3 years of tax transcripts including 2007 return, for free, you'll have it in the mail within 2 weeks. That is sufficient for tax documentation.

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Thanks, but I keep copies of all my returns. It's just a lot to copy when they are 1/4 inch thick or more. Just when would they tell me how many copies of returns they would want? When Packet 4 goes out?

[shawndoc 0]

On page 2 of the package 3 instructions is where the copy of the petitioner's passport is mentioned as being required.

I wouldn't send an original birth certificate, but it probably wouldn't hurt to include a copy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I just looked over page 2, and I'm not seeing it?

[Jessica&Lute 0]

On page 2 of the package 3 instructions is where the copy of the petitioner's passport is mentioned as being required.

I wouldn't send an original birth certificate, but it probably wouldn't hurt to include a copy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I just looked over page 2, and I'm not seeing it?

It's under the section for "Affidavit of Support".

[huge316 0]

Thanks, but I keep copies of all my returns. It's just a lot to copy when they are 1/4 inch thick or more. Just when would they tell me how many copies of returns they would want? When Packet 4 goes out?

Best just to call which of these numbers for the IRS applies to you, tell them you need transcripts for the last 3 years starting with the 2007 filing year. Within 2 weeks you'll have 3 certified transcripts from the IRS in your mailbox which you can give to the embassy, you won't necessarily need the W-2's and return forms then. Best to have them ahead of time as they won't ask for more until the interview if they feel the one year you supply isn't sufficient evidence of support. For all of this, I recommend get more than the required amount for anything you will present to them, best to have extra than not enough when she goes in. I'm brining with about 5x the amount of evidence for everything when we go to our interview in July. I don't want any doubt in the interviewer's mind for anything. Take extra of everything, what I'm hearing from others who have gone is that they can ask for any additional supporting evidence on any document you present during the interview, if you don't have what they want, they'll likely have you come back for another interview. Here's the IRS phone numbers below.

Telephone Assistance for Individuals:

Toll-Free, 1-800-829-1040

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. your local time (Alaska & Hawaii follow Pacific Time).

Telephone Assistance for Businesses:

Toll-Free, 1-800-829-4933

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. your local time (Alaska & Hawaii follow Pacific Time).

Telephone Assistance for Exempt Organizations, Retirement Plan Administrators, and Government Entities:

Toll-Free, 1-877-829-5500

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time. Some specific services are not available during the full hours of operation. Exceptions are as follows:

*

Complex tax law calls are answered Monday – Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Central Time.

*

Basic Employer Plans (EP) tax law calls are answered 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time.

[shawndoc 0]

Telephone Assistance for Individuals:

Toll-Free, 1-800-829-1040

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. your local time (Alaska & Hawaii follow Pacific Time).

This number has an automated process for ordering the transcripts. They say it takes about 10 days, but I got mine in about 4 or 5.

[Thai family 0]

The new Bangkok interview schedule was posted as of today June 11. My DIL's is not on it, so it must be time to email them to verify that they received her packet three.

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/root/pdfs/ivschedule.pdf

She had some custom Thai postage stamps made up with pictures of the two of them and some of her. I guess that's another way of proving relationship...

[Tom and Teaw 1]

I wrote them to see if the received the packet mailed on 5-21 regular mail and it was a no show so she remailed all the docs Wed Thai time EMS. They even called her to tell her what to do.

When they wrote me back, they said interviews were being set about 12 weeks our after receiving Packet 3 back.

Don't know if postage stamps will work...hahaha.. but I guess you never know!! Maybe they would find it funny to see the Packet 3 show up with

a ton of stamps with your pics on them!!