SAWASDEE 2

[bogey1 0]

Did a quick check of airfares this morning before I left for work and was shocked to see that Am Airlines had raised the round trip to BKK $6-800 from just a couple days ago when I checked. That really sucks!!! I am sure others are doing the same.

Tom are you the N. Tom I have been communicating wth about k-1's on another site?

"bogey1" on this site "bogey" on the other

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Did a quick check of airfares this morning before I left for work and was shocked to see that Am Airlines had raised the round trip to BKK $6-800 from just a couple days ago when I checked. That really sucks!!! I am sure others are doing the same.

Tom are you the N. Tom I have been communicating wth about k-1's on another site?

"bogey1" on this site "bogey" on the other

Hey, man, it's me for sure!!! I see you got into the board. Good info here.

[bogey1 0]

Did a quick check of airfares this morning before I left for work and was shocked to see that Am Airlines had raised the round trip to BKK $6-800 from just a couple days ago when I checked. That really sucks!!! I am sure others are doing the same.

Tom are you the N. Tom I have been communicating wth about k-1's on another site?

"bogey1" on this site "bogey" on the other

Hey, man, it's me for sure!!! I see you got into the board. Good info here.

Thanks for all your help. I'm anxious to see your lady get her visa!!

[Tom and Teaw 1]

We shall see, bogey, how it all goes. Now she tells me she does not want to come back with me but stay until her daughter starts back in school the end of Sept.

[bogey1 0]

We shall see, bogey, how it all goes. Now she tells me she does not want to come back with me but stay until her daughter starts back in school the end of Sept.

Sorry to hear about her possible delay. I know that would be tough after waiting so long. Hopefully she'll change her mind.

[JandD 0]

Good morning everyone...

Daa and I are in Bangkok, only a few more days until our interview.

We need to do one more thing- get our translations authenticated. Where do we go? Everyone is giving us conflicting info...I thought it was Immigration in Bangkok?

Thanks for the help

I have now discovered, and the hard way of course, what is to be done about legalizing documents for the interview.

ALL documents in Thai, and their respective english translations, MUST be legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, at 123 Chaeng Wattana Rd in Lak Si.

It is 400B per document, and takes two days. Same day service is 800B for one document. Examples of the documents that must be legalized are- marriage certificate, divorce decree, birth certificates, ID cards, house registration, etc.

If you need to do 16 documents (8 Thai docs, and their english translations), like Daa and I, this can get costly.

This information was given to me by the US Embassy in Bangkok, after harrassing them by telephone for about 30 minutes.

I hope that others can find this info, as I was unable to, and have had to pay for 20+ taxi rides to nowhere and will now have to wait 1-2 more weeks for Daa's visa to be issued. Learning the hard way is a pain, and this website is lacking.

WARNING- no one will help you in Thailand, not even the government. If you have any doubt or question, do not ask anyone on this website, nor anyone at a translation service, or ANYWHERE in Thailand. Call the embassy- 02 205 4000 ext 4049. If you are polite, someone will help you. Whomever I talked to saved me and Daa $230, bless her soul. Everywhere else in Thailand has only taken our money, with a Thailand smile.

Bless those on this website that try to help, but loving-kindness with ignorance hurts more than it helps. If you do not know, do not speak. Very old saying, very easy to understand, and very difficult to practice.

This is not a jaded account, but a truthful one. Even Daa has expressed her concern, confusion, and frustration as to why NOBODY, not even her government, was willing to help us, but only take our money. I have lived in Thailand for 5 of the last 6 years and I thought I had learned my lesson. And as I point the finger, I have not disregarded my own folly, and I write this in hope that others learn from my mistakes.

Good luck to all those on this windy, slippery road.

[JandD 0]

Good morning everyone...

Daa and I are in Bangkok, only a few more days until our interview.

We need to do one more thing- get our translations authenticated. Where do we go? Everyone is giving us conflicting info...I thought it was Immigration in Bangkok?

Thanks for the help

I have now discovered, and the hard way of course, what is to be done about legalizing documents for the interview.

ALL documents in Thai, and their respective english translations, MUST be legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, at 123 Chaeng Wattana Rd in Lak Si.

It is 400B per document, and takes two days. Same day service is 800B for one document. Examples of the documents that must be legalized are- marriage certificate, divorce decree, birth certificates, ID cards, house registration, etc.

If you need to do 16 documents (8 Thai docs, and their english translations), like Daa and I, this can get costly.

This information was given to me by the US Embassy in Bangkok, after harrassing them by telephone for about 30 minutes.

I hope that others can find this info, as I was unable to, and have had to pay for 20+ taxi rides to nowhere and will now have to wait 1-2 more weeks for Daa's visa to be issued. Learning the hard way is a pain, and this website is lacking.

WARNING- no one will help you in Thailand, not even the government. If you have any doubt or question, do not ask anyone on this website, nor anyone at a translation service, or ANYWHERE in Thailand. Call the embassy- 02 205 4000 ext 4049. If you are polite, someone will help you. Whomever I talked to saved me and Daa $230, bless her soul. Everywhere else in Thailand has only taken our money, with a Thailand smile.

Bless those on this website that try to help, but loving-kindness with ignorance hurts more than it helps. If you do not know, do not speak. Very old saying, very easy to understand, and very difficult to practice.

This is not a jaded account, but a truthful one. Even Daa has expressed her concern, confusion, and frustration as to why NOBODY, not even her government, was willing to help us, but only take our money. I have lived in Thailand for 5 of the last 6 years and I thought I had learned my lesson. And as I point the finger, I have not disregarded my own folly, and I write this in hope that others learn from my mistakes.

Good luck to all those on this windy, slippery road.

And on the same note, because the immigration process is so diverse and different for every country, I think maybe someone with some computer savy should start a website for the K1 visa process in Thailand only. That's my 50 satang.

[Devkpaik 1]

Good morning everyone...

Daa and I are in Bangkok, only a few more days until our interview.

We need to do one more thing- get our translations authenticated. Where do we go? Everyone is giving us conflicting info...I thought it was Immigration in Bangkok?

Thanks for the help

I have now discovered, and the hard way of course, what is to be done about legalizing documents for the interview.

ALL documents in Thai, and their respective english translations, MUST be legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, at 123 Chaeng Wattana Rd in Lak Si.

It is 400B per document, and takes two days. Same day service is 800B for one document. Examples of the documents that must be legalized are- marriage certificate, divorce decree, birth certificates, ID cards, house registration, etc.

If you need to do 16 documents (8 Thai docs, and their english translations), like Daa and I, this can get costly.

This information was given to me by the US Embassy in Bangkok, after harrassing them by telephone for about 30 minutes.

I hope that others can find this info, as I was unable to, and have had to pay for 20+ taxi rides to nowhere and will now have to wait 1-2 more weeks for Daa's visa to be issued. Learning the hard way is a pain, and this website is lacking.

WARNING- no one will help you in Thailand, not even the government. If you have any doubt or question, do not ask anyone on this website, nor anyone at a translation service, or ANYWHERE in Thailand. Call the embassy- 02 205 4000 ext 4049. If you are polite, someone will help you. Whomever I talked to saved me and Daa $230, bless her soul. Everywhere else in Thailand has only taken our money, with a Thailand smile.

Bless those on this website that try to help, but loving-kindness with ignorance hurts more than it helps. If you do not know, do not speak. Very old saying, very easy to understand, and very difficult to practice.

This is not a jaded account, but a truthful one. Even Daa has expressed her concern, confusion, and frustration as to why NOBODY, not even her government, was willing to help us, but only take our money. I have lived in Thailand for 5 of the last 6 years and I thought I had learned my lesson. And as I point the finger, I have not disregarded my own folly, and I write this in hope that others learn from my mistakes.

Good luck to all those on this windy, slippery road.

And on the same note, because the immigration process is so diverse and different for every country, I think maybe someone with some computer savy should start a website for the K1 visa process in Thailand only. That's my 50 satang.

JandD,

Not sure if I am getting the gist of your post, however the point of this thread is to share experiences/help one another out with the knowledge we have picked up throughout this visa process, pertaining specifically to Thailand.

You do not see a lot of people posting "nonsense" on here. Most of the people post from experience, and if they are unsure about a question one may have, they usually say "I am not 100% sure but I believe that...".

But it is not your place, nor my place to tell people "do not speak if you don't know". People will continually share ideas on here as well as experiences, and one thing I have learned is things are not always done the same way throughout the process. One thing that someone may have to do, another person won't.

For instance, some people were required to have certain documents, while others weren't.

I don't see what creating a website SPECIFICALLY for thailand K-1 would do, as this is sufficient enough, in my opinion.

If you were so unsure of the visa process, perhaps hiring a lawyer would have been best for you. Of course, I am in no way questioning your ability to do the process alone, nor am I scolding you for not fully understanding the process, as no one does, but just saying that if you feel that this website is lacking vital as well as CORRECT information, then simply don't read it. People here will give you information they were told, or information pertaining to their experiences, and because of that you will get conflicting information.

I too am in the same boat as you. My fiance had her interview on July 7th, and she was missing the police report because the idiots working at the police station are too stupid and gave her report to the wrong person. That person they gave it too never gave it back to the police, so because of this she had to wait for the idiots to make another police report. We have since gotten the report, and my fiance has turned it in already (july 14th) but was told we have to wait 1-2 weeks.

It's frustrating to no end, but to complain about people trying to help each other out is just not the thing to do.

Then again, I may have totally misunderstood your post, but this is what I got out of it.

Edited July 21, 2008 by littleasianman7

[chivasgeo 0]

ALL documents in Thai, and their respective english translations, MUST be legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, at 123 Chaeng Wattana Rd in Lak Si.

Is that a new process now, man that's gotta suck! I always thought all translations from Thai to English just needs to be signed by the translator and have a statement from the translator stating to the effect of "I certify this translation to be true and correct to the best of my ability" , legalizing documents is another thing though and I have no experience with getting any Thai documents legalized. When we were going through the K-1 process we didn't need any paperwork to be legalized however we did have some Thai documents translated to English and then have that translation "certified" by the place of business. We used a translation shop near the US Embassy but forgot the name of it though!

Littleasiaman - Great comment

[Devkpaik 1]

ALL documents in Thai, and their respective english translations, MUST be legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, at 123 Chaeng Wattana Rd in Lak Si.

Is that a new process now, man that's gotta suck! I always thought all translations from Thai to English just needs to be signed by the translator and have a statement from the translator stating to the effect of "I certify this translation to be true and correct to the best of my ability" , legalizing documents is another thing though and I have no experience with getting any Thai documents legalized. When we were going through the K-1 process we didn't need any paperwork to be legalized however we did have some Thai documents translated to English and then have that translation "certified" by the place of business. We used a translation shop near the US Embassy but forgot the name of it though!

Littleasiaman - Great comment

Thank you chivasgeo

[Thai family 0]

JandD,

You sound pretty stressed. Does this mean you are not going to your interview Tuesday? My DIL has her K-3 interview Thursday and I've been getting calls tonight (and this morning) from my son trying to figure out the last minute details. Is there more to document verification they need to know about?? She has her official birth certificate and their official marriage certificate.

It states in the packet 3 at the embassy's website " All documents not in English -or- Thai must be accompanied by certified English translations." That means to me that they do not even need English translations if the documents are in Thai for the interview in Bangkok. Back in October the kids got certified translations legalized for future use here in the states, however.

It's been my experience that those posting on this K-1 Sawasdee thread have been very helpful, even though we're on the K-3 track. To all of you, I am thankful.

I truly hope you do not have a delay in getting the visa. Thanks for sharing the phone contact. I'll pass it on so I can get some sleep this week. Keep us posted.

Thai Mom

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

Bless those on this website that try to help, but loving-kindness with ignorance hurts more than it helps. If you do not know, do not speak. Very old saying, very easy to understand, and very difficult to practice.

[\quote]

Nice line to give when someones trying to help you,

then you should have done your own research before getting to this point.

Lived in Thailand for 5 years and you dont know that everyone in BKK is out for the buck?

I went to the place I gave you near the Embassy, paid a little more but had ours done, married and finished in 3.5 hours.....

signed-

ignorant

[Tom and Teaw 1]

I think this translation/certification of documents needs some clarifying. Most of us are relying on the regular translation and the translator certifying the documents and that is enough. If there is now a more expensive and thorough process, we should try to find out before some of us have significant delays. So I will write the embassy and inquire and maybe others can try to find out also and see what answers we come up with.

[Dagobert 0]

This is just from my fiancee's experience. She translated only her birth certificate and she did the translation herself. She took it to the embassy and paid 200baht for certified proof and received it back in two days. For same day service it was 800baht. This was a few months ago so the prices may have increased by now.

Cheers,

Alvin

Edited July 21, 2008 by Dagobert

[rin and john 71]

The only thing we ever had "certified" at the MFA were the papers (affidavits) we received from the Embassy that I was free to marry (had to take them to the amphur when getting married). Regarding our documents for the interview, some where in english, some were in Thai; all were accepted (per Thai Mom's post about what is acceptable). We did get certified translations near the embassy of marriage certificate and birth certificates to be used in the USA for AOS. I would go with what is in the instructions (believe what you read on the embassies website, not what someone tells you - lots of misinformed people giving out information!)

John