The United States Congress through USCIS and promulgation of the Immigration and Nationality Act has, over the years, created many different categories of travel documents to the United States. Anyone who is researching US Immigration for the first time can become bewildered by the seemingly endless categories of visas available to non-American Nationals. This article was written as a brief primer about US Immigration from Thailand for family members. The American Tourist Visa



Since Thailand is not currently a country to which the US accords visa free travel, some people look to a US tourist visa as a method for bringing a Thai loved one to the United States. Therefore, some couples try to optimize their immigration situation by both "touring" the USA for recreation with the thought in the back of their minds that they may possibly get married and remain stateside after adjusting the wife's status. Note: When entering the country on a tourist visa, the visa holder is specifically stating that they have no intent to remain in the US as a resident, lying about this constitutes fraud and can be punishable with prison and fines. It is not advisable to use a tourist visa if one has immigrant intent

The K1 Visa

The K1 Fiancee Visa is used for those who are not yet legally married, but wish to go to the United States for the purpose of marriage. A K-1 Fiancee Visa is a "fusion" visa because, although it is a non-immigrant visa with a specified date that the fiance must leave, immigrant intent is built into the visa and the fiancee, upon marriage, has the ability to apply for adjustment of status and wait in the USA while the adjustment application is pending.

Immigrant Spouse Visas

The CR1 and IR1 visas are immigrant spouse visas that confer permanent residence to the Thai spouse upon entry into the USA. The couples that choose immigrant visas (CR-1, IR-1) generally do so in order to get forestall the need for adjustment of status because with these visas adjustment is rendered unnecessary when the foreign spouse obtains entry to the United States.

The K3 Marriage Visa

The K3 was once a very fast alternative to the CR-1 and IR-1 Visa because at one time it could take as long as 3 years for a conventional spouse visa to be adjudicated. Now the wait time between the two visas is marginal and it is even possible that a CR-1 adjudication could finish before a K3. There are some strategic uses for the K3 as it can be used to "venue shop." This means that they are able to utilize the K3 visa in order to choose the Embassy they wish to use for interview and visa obtainment, this exercise can be very legally specialized and couples should only try to use a K3 visa for venue optimization after thorough consultation with a licensed US attorney with immigration experience.