There are many pitfalls surrounding the K-1 visa in Thailand. It has the most number of rejections among other types of US visa applications. It follows strict regulations when lodging a petition and it is normally where application rejections happen.
What causes the rejection?
1. Eligibility Requirements Issues
- The intent of getting married is not clearly stated.
- The petitioner is not a citizen of United States. U.S. permanent residents are one of those.
- The couple didn’t meet in person. Communication done by phone, chat, or video phone is not sufficient.
- Restrictions on individual marriage laws that prevented them to get legally married such as age requirement, same sex couple, degree of family relationship, etc.
2. Inadmissibility
The fiancé is inadmissible because of previous violations on non-immigrant status, criminal history, and communicable diseases. Another ground of inadmissibility is both couple are financially incapable and will more likely resort in using the public funds.
3. Fraudulent Activities
Immigration officers are very investigative especially in examining what looks like insignificant details on the applicant’s life. Immigration officers assume that what the couple has is a sham relationship unless not proven otherwise. The consular officers use system where in they can gather as much information about the couple, if their relationship is the real thing or not. Evidences must be presented to see if their relationship is legitimate.
It is advisable to contact a US immigration lawyer in Thailand or an immigration attorney before starting the petition in Thailand to prevent these pitfalls which can delay the case or worse lead to application get rejected.