Getting the local office to accept the locally filed petition for an Immigrant visa is a somewhat daunting proposition. Below is a brief description of the process for filing an Immigrant visa at the USCIS office in Bangkok.
The local office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will only take an Immigrant visa application, also known as an IR1 visa application or a CR1 visa application, if the American Citizen is resident in the Kingdom of Thailand. In the United States residence is a relatively easy legal definition to meet as it simply requires an intention to remain in a certain place and the intention usually must be backed up by evidence (for example, when attempting to prove residence in a certain US State, one must show things such as: driving license, lease agreement, proof of home ownership, electric bills, gas bills, or tax receipts). However, USCIS through use of its administrative discretion has made the policy that in order for a United States Citizen to submit an application at the local office in Bangkok, Thailand, the applicant must have been in unbroken Thai visa status for at least one year.
This Thai visa status must also denote residence. Therefore, an American present in the Kingdom of Thailand for one year or more on a tourist visa, transit visa, or multiple visa exemption stamps, will likely not be permitted to submit an application for a US visa to the USCIS office in Bangkok.
If applying for an Immigrant visa at a local office of USCIS in a foreign country, then the person applying should abide by the local rules in place at that office. Some offices take differing positions regarding the importance of various aspects of the application. This facet of filing locally could cause exasperation among some applicants due to the fact that a minor issue in one office could be construed as major in another.
With this in mind, one should note that the most common reason many people choose to file locally is due to the fact that filing locally takes less time when compared to filing an application in the United States. Generally it takes between eleven and twelve months to obtain approval for an Immigrant visa application submitted stateside, but it can take as little as six months to have a similar application approved locally. This time differential can be a determinative factor in filing locally.
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Benjamin W. Hart is an American lawyer. He currently works in Bangkok, Thailand as Managing Director of Integrity Legal (Thailand) Co. Ltd. To contact Integrity Legal please call toll free 1-877-231-7533 or info@integrity-legal.com. See them on the internet at
cr1 visa or
k1 visa
