After 9/11, America, for me, seems to be a nation of paranoid. The Imam priests were offload from the plane just because they pray at

the boarding gate. ( I got no idea why they choose a guy from Fundamentalism group to be their president).

          

Ministry of Homeland obviously makes it harder for people from the third world country to get into their country.

Processing the Visa is somehow frustrating experience for somebody. There are many myths and rumours of how to get the Visa.

I was a bit nervous before the interview as I don’t have much money in my bank account. Thank to my grad student’s status, I can claim the right to spend my spring break in the US doing part time job that only Thai students could do ( as the rest of the world have a long vocation in Summer).

I had an interview at the Consulate in Chiang Mai for J1 Visa after I had submitted the request 2 weeks earlier. The staff there was extremely polite and helpful to student especially the those who attend the good government university.

The Embassy just don’t trust Thai private or open Universities as they are not reliable enough to prove that students must come back.

US Embassy also gives special credit to high rank government officers, but not for the politician.

In the box, I got to interview with an old man. He asked me where I am going to go?, what I am going to do, how long I suppose to be there? , who is the one who support my trip? and when I suppose to finish my thesis?

I just give him an adequately information, and the next day, I got my VISA with DS 2019

I got a friend who was rejected twice even though the last time, she the support documnet from her company as she did not mention that she was rejected before in 1999.

Most people think they can throw away the old passport that has been rejected and start to travel around again to make them look like a frequent traveller by having a new passport. These people also believe  that the data they gave to the US government will be erased after 5 years. Actually, US government collect every individual’s data even from the lottery Visa. If you don’t want them to know your information, it is better not to fill anything in the lottery Visa.

So, if you put inaccurate information in the paperwork or hide something. That would cause bad impression for the one who can make a decision for your Visa.

Having a large piece of property in the country can prove that you are not going to leave the country easily. This is another criteria US Embassy enforce to Thai people as they believe that above middle class people who have a big land in the city  just prefer to live in their country.

If you have a relatives in the US, make sure they, too, have a valid Visa because if someone who is your close relative live there illegal, they would look at your information more carefully. 

Wedding and birthday invitation from your relatives in the US could be a claim to visit the US as well..


NB:
However, I don’t think America uses the same standard for Asian countries. Malaysia is developed nation, but the main reason why they are not included in the Visa waiver program as they are just a muslim country. This kind of discrimination is deep rooted in their history. The supreme court of the US in the past just overlooked the fact that the Punjabi race is Caucasian race that they reserve the quota for.

I saw many Asian kids from Taiwan who keeps renewing their Visa all the time just because they want to live there. They are not actually going to school. My assumption is US government categorizes " rich" countries as preferable nations as these people would go and spend money, and " Poor" countries as undesirable nations as they are not going to spend much money. Sometimes, they allow people to work on the Island or some ski resort as they know that American citizen are not going to work there anyway.

Those who think they are pure or 100% American should not forget that their countries were also built by the Chinese, the Black people, the Hispanic etc. So they should be grateful to the rest of the world and treat people with respect.

How many times have you visited tis consulate/embassy:

Only once