SO THE FUNNY THING IS... my gf got denied a number of times, and due to that I've gone deep into the US tourist visa rabbit hole. So much in fact that now I run several FB groups related to US Tourist Visas. And I see LOTS and LOTS of essentially assumptions here that I've seen over and over in my groups.

1) they never or rarely look at documents, because in some embassies there are vendors who offer to print whatever you want that the embassy might request, so then, officers do not look at them because they can't trust them to be real.

2) they do not pre-approve/deny your visa. In fact, the visa officer has never looked at your application until you stand in front of them and they pull your record. They might look at your relatives/job/education but that's it. No they don't (usually)look at your social media.

3) The visa officer's decision is basically based out of their impression of you. How you answer the questions, and how you tell your story, matters. Essentially they are looking for a story that makes sense. And even then, I have actual stats that if you go early in the morning you have better chance than right before lunch as they are hungry. Mondays have higher rejection rates. Thai women are denied more than men.

4) While they don't have quotas, they try to keep their visa officers approval/denial rates about the same. So that may influence at any point looking at an applicant and them being on the fence, denying or approving depending on their impression (and mood) with you.

5) Having a bf in the US _can_ be a red flag, in the sense that it just makes it more likely that the applicant has support in the US for a possible overstay situation. That does NOT mean that having a bf in the US is an immediate denial, just raises the bar higher for the applicant to try to convince the officer they are legit tourists. (so if you know/have a gf who got approved, congrats, does not change the statistics)

6) To the OP, there's no such thing as asking for a "reconsideration" - it's not an official term - the visa officer will look at the previous application rejection notes and decide on any new information if that changes the assessment. Some people have been denied, applied again in 2-3 weeks time, had a more sympathetic officer, and had the visa approved. This is not common though, but, if you have to go, it's worth a try. The risk is you get rejections added to your profile with the embassy.

7) visa approval rates for Thailand, overall, hover around 75%, so yes if you're denied it may seem like everyone else may be, but that's not backed up by the actual statistics released by the Department of State:



There's a whole bunch of other bits of info, but just whatever I thought up to type on the fly.

@Dave *********

School aged children are strong reasons to go back to Thailand, bf or whatever else being negative.

@Don *******

@Jamie ************

Yep "bf". My gf applied a handful of times and each time denied. I'm also from teh US and have no intention to go back permanently. Every time they ask if she's still with me and that probably is the factor. However, everyone here is speaking from basically the experience point of 1 or a handful of people. _everyone_'s interviews are usually 1-10 questions and documents are 99% NOT part of the equation, because, in many embassies, there's vendors outside literally offering whatever document the embassy would ask (i.e. fake). So officers do not rely on these at all.

@Caroline *****

yep we did Medconsult, literally 5 mins from us too

@David *********

Well if I'm inquiring about a Fit to Fly in BKK, I thought that would be clear it's to fly out( to Japan, as actually written out in the original post..) Anyway.

@David *********

for Japan they need 3 vaccines and I only got 2.

Is it at the IT Mall?

@Lyndon ***********

good guess, yes

@Laurence *********

one of those people who can never fathom other people’s experiences might come handy. Always one in each thread.