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WE LIVE & WORK
WHERE YOU
NEED US
THE MOST
Thailand Office
140/36
Silom Road
ITF Tower, 17th Floor
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Thailand
Tel. (66) 2-231-6466
Fax. (66) 2-231-6204
Vietnam Offices
IBC
Building, Suite A5
1A Me Linh Square
Ward Bin Nghe, Dist. 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Tel. (848) 824-4462
Fax. (848) 824-4464
22 Lang Ha Street
Dong Da District
Hanoi, Vietnam
(By appointment)
Tel. (848) 824-4462
Fax. (848) 824-4464
United
States Office
7777
Bonhomme, Suite 2250
The Sevens Building, 22nd Floor
St. Louis, MO 63105,
USA
Tel. (1)(314) 726-1817
Fax. (1)(314) 726-6087
(By appointment)
Our Managing Director will answer your
inquiry personally
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about yourself, your family member and your immigration
goals for us to provide you with useful information about
your U.S. visa options.
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COUNTRY BACKGROUND
AND
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS
IN THAI CASES
Official Name
Kingdom of Thailand
Geography
Area: 513,115 sq. km. (198,114 sq. mi.); equivalent to the
size of France, or slightly smaller than Texas.
People
Nationality: Thai.
Population (2006): 65.28 million. (Data based on Bank of
Thailand.)
Annual population growth rate (2006 est.): 0.3%.
Ethnic groups: Thai 89%, other 11%.
Religions: Buddhist 94-95%, Muslim 4-5%, Christian, Hindu,
Brahmin, other.
Languages: Thai (official language) with regional dialects.
English is commonly spoken in business and tourist settings
in Bangkok. The level of English language proficiency is
less upcountry and in smaller cities and towns. Education:
Years compulsory--12. Literacy--94.9% male, 90.5% female.
Life expectancy--68 years male, 75 years female.
Government
Type: Constitutional Monarchy/Parliamentary Democracy
Constitution: Thailand adopted its current constitution
following an August 19, 2007 referendum.
Independence: Never colonized; traditional founding date
1238.
Branches: Executive--King (chief of state), Prime Minister
(head of government). Legislative--bicameral, with a
fully-elected House of Representatives and a
partially-elected Senate. Judicial--composed of the
Constitutional Tribunal, the Courts of Justice, and the
Administrative Courts.
Administrative subdivisions: 76 provinces, including Bangkok
municipality, subdivided into 877 districts, 7,255 tambon
administration, and 74,944 villages.
Political parties: Multi-party system; Communist Party
remains prohibited.
Suffrage: Universal and compulsory at 20 years of age.
Economy
GDP (2007): $246 billion.
Annual GDP growth rate (2007): 4.8%.
Per capita income (2007): $3,737.
Unemployment rate (2007): 1.5% of total labor force.
People
Thailand's population is relatively homogeneous. More than
85% speak a dialect of Thai and share a common culture. This
core population includes the central Thai (33.7% of the
population, including Bangkok), Northeastern Thai (34.2%),
northern Thai (18.8%), and southern Thai (13.3%).
The
population remains mostly rural, concentrated in the
rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern, and
northern regions. However, as Thailand continues to
industrialize, its urban population--31.6% of total
population, principally in the Bangkok area--is growing.
Theravada
Buddhism is the major religion of Thailand and is the
religion of about 95% of its people. The government permits
religious diversity, and other major religions are
represented. Spirit worship and animism in various forms
continue to be widely practiced.
Principal
Government Officials
Chief of State--King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Prime Minister—Abhisit Vejjajiva (Democrat Party)
Minister of Foreign Affairs—Kasit Piromya
Thailand maintains an Embassy in the United States at 1024
Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington DC 20007 (tel. 202-944-3600).
Consulates are located in New York City, Chicago, and Los
Angeles. There are also numerous Honorary Consuls located
throughout the United States offering limited, principally
visa, services.
Country background information & statistics
source
– U.S. Department of State – |
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U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Thailand
The U.S. Embassy Visa Section in Thailand
is located at 95 Wireless Road, Bangkok.
There is also a Consulate General in Chiang Mai
located at 387 Wichayanond Road
(tel. 66-53-252-629).
The
U.S. Embassy website may be found at
www.bangkok.usembassy.gov |
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Special Considerations in
U.S. Visa Cases
for Thai applicants
All immigrant visa cases for Thai applicants (including K-1
Fiancée visa cases) are processed through the immigrant visa
unit in Bangkok. The U.S. Consulate in Chiang Mai processes
only non-immigrant visa cases. Bangkok is a high volume post
which handles a large number of both immigrant and
non-immigrant visa applications.
Many applicants face their visa interview in Thailand with
some anxiety, if not outright fear, which we feel is mostly
unjustified at this post. Provided that all necessary
documentation is in order and the applicant is properly
prepared for their interview to provide concise, complete
and honest answers to expected questions, we find the visa
unit in Bangkok one of the more rational, fair and orderly
to deal with of all consular posts in the region. Most
American consular officers stationed in Bangkok have
reasonable fluency in spoken Thai and several officers are
quite fluent in written Thai as well. While not all
procedures or local rules may be to our liking, in general,
the visa unit in Bangkok at least has fairly predictable
policies and procedures which allow applicants and their
attorneys to plan forward in preparing the best application
possible. Finally, the visa unit is reasonably responsive to
inquiries from counsel, usually answering inquiries in a
substantive fashion in a short period of time, unlike some
other posts in the region.
While we find the American consular officers to be both
professional and helpful in almost all instances, the same
cannot always be said of the Thai national employees who
often act as a “first line of defense” in dealing with Thai
visa applicants. There are frequent complaints regarding the
lack of courtesy of some Thai national employees which, we
think, are justified in many instances. Frankly, this
particular problem issue has existed for years at this post,
we see little hope for improvement and, we think it best to
simply avoid dealings with the Thai national staff whenever
possible. Please note that there are certainly exceptions
among the Thai national staff who provide friendly,
professional and competent assistance. They are to be
commended. Finally, some Thai national staff at the visa
unit seem to have an irresistible impulse to advise people
on matters for which they simply are not qualified, often
giving blatantly wrong legal answers. Our advice is to never
rely absolutely on legal or procedural advice given by the
Thai national staff particularly as it relates to the filing
of petitions or applications with USCIS, a completely
different Federal agency. If you have serious substantive
questions, particularly questions which may touch upon legal
issues or procedures, you should obtain the answer from
American consular officers, USCIS staff (across the street
on the 15th Floor of the Sindhorn Tower Building)
or independent legal counsel.
With regard to the American Citizen Services (ACS) section,
we think that it is one of the best and most responsive ACS
units in the region. To be candid, this has not always been
the case but, there has been a dramatic improvement in
service and responsiveness in the last few years due
largely, we think, to the efforts of the current and
immediate past heads of ACS as well as extremely competent
and dedicated staff. We congratulate the ACS unit on the
great improvements in service over the past few years.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, we rarely visit the ACS unit
without seeing an example of an American Citizen engaging in
borderline abusive behavior with the ACS staff, generally
because what they want (financial assistance, special
consideration on some personal matter, etc.) simply isn’t
within ACS’s mandate. The ACS staff is quite experienced in
dealing with this sort of behavior. Our advice is to always
treat the ACS and all other consular staff here with respect
and you will receive the same from them. |
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