My wife is applying for a B2 visa to visit the USA. 5y married to EU citizen, >10y of international travel with many trips to Europe, multiple Schengen, UK visa and a Canada visa, 550k in her bank account, owns property in Thailand, 20y Thailand-resident husband reliant on her for visa. I guess her being a housewife is suboptimal, but decent profile otherwise. Still, some questions:
1. She is insisting on doing the interview in English while I think she should go for Thai. She's at a B2 level: she searches for words, makes mistakes, etc. but can generally make herself understood. Thoughts on English vs. Thai for the interview?
2. She isn't great at remembering loads of little facts, and gets nervous speaking to officials, and doesn't understand what the underlying concern of questions are. Although of course she won't have memorized a description off the internet, I'm still worried she'll sound rehearsed. Of course we are doing mock interviews, but she has seen me naked so I don't impress as much as a visa officer would. Anybody have experience, and how much of an issue this would be? Any recommendations? I've seen these former visa officers offering mock interviews for $500 but that seems a bit over the top to me.
3. One could argue rejections increased to 27% since the current administration took office (FY2025 stats mangling). Has anyone got some real data on this?
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TLDR : Answer Summary
The post discusses concerns about a wife's B2 visa application for the USA, particularly regarding her interview preparation, language choice, and potential for rejection. Key issues include whether she should interview in English or Thai, her anxiety during questioning, and potential financial concerns affecting her application. Community members provide varied insights based on personal experiences, emphasizing the importance of demonstrating ties to Thailand and suggesting not to pay for mock interviews.
My wife was granted a B2 visa on her second try. The officer will look at reasons for her to return to her home country. DO NOT PAY A VISA SERVICE! Your wife goes into the meeting with the officer alone. It matters not if she speaks in Thai or English. But understanding basic English is a plus. She should bring a file of information. Marriage certificate. Documents if she changed her name. Land documents. Bank statement. Information on where you will stay. Purposes of visit. The greatest focus is on the marriage. How long she's known you. The interview lasted less than 10 minutes. If that.She should relax and be herself.
Bob Haas Thanks for the comment. We've not paid for a visa service, I'm just thinking 'mock interviews'. We've always done all our visa stuff ourselves. What did your wife do different the second time around? Perhaps we can learn from your experience. DM if preferred.
Peter Johnson Bring your marriage certificate. They asked the most questions about us. How long we've known each other. Where did we meet. If she knew any of my family members. They do want to see documentation. All of which I mentioned previously. I literally had her bring a file folder with all of ours and her documents.
My Lady (not married) but almost ten years defacto, was just granted tourism visa valid for ten years. She had the English language interview and she said afterwards most of the questions were about me! Interview lasted about ten minutes. She's fluent in English, has a good job (20 year tenure) and like many Thai women owns land and houses out east. She said the focus of the interview was on her relationship with me (Australian)
That is very interesting. I had not heard that. Would you be willing to share some of the questions they were asking? Obviously she knows me well (also ten years together), but probably not in the areas that they would be asking her about.
Us Nek Total BS. Do you realize how big the US is. There is a lot more to it than what the media chooses to show. My Thai wife could not believe how beautiful and clean Northern California was.
A long time ago, my wife and I concluded that as long as you ignore the media and 'common wisdom' and give the real people in any country a chance, you *always* walk away impressed with how nice people are. And we've had this confirmed time and time again through our travels.
Honestly don’t worry about it. Don’t pay anyone for the practice interview. And I would do the official interview in Thai and impress them with the occasional English use
Tai Reno Why not the whole interview in English and fall back to Thai when needed? She says she sees a lot of reviews that suggest visa officers 'are difficult to understand sometimes' and 'they do not understand responses in Thai sometimes'. She feels comfortable asking for clarifications herself, if she is not certain she understands a question (one of the reasons our marriage works!). Thoughts? Thanks for sharing your comment by the way.
Rejections almost always relate to inadequate financial resources that point to overstay risk. She sounds like a way above average Thai tourist. Admittedly the US is heavily prejudiced against SE Asia visitors.
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