Background

A Thai spouse married to an American citizen will normally need a K3 Marriage Visa or an Immigrant Visa (CR-1 or IR-1) to enter and reside in the United States. The K3 Visa is applied for concurrently with the immediate relative visa (discussed below). The U.S. K3 Visa was designed to help reunite American citizens with his/her foreign spouse more quickly, as opposed to obligating him/her to wait for a permanent resident visa while residing outside of the USA.

An IR visa is an immediate relative visa that is normally processed concurrently with a K-3 marriage visa application. Accordingly, the K3 Visa application process is pursuant to a separate but parallel procedure to the immediate relative visa application process. Generally the couple will receive whichever visa (K-3 or IR-1) is approved first.

Our Experience

Chaninat and Leeds is a bilingual law firm in Bangkok managed by a licensed U.S. immigration attorney. Our legal team includes experienced Thai lawyers with years of experience filing successful U.S. Marriage Visas and other U.S. visa applications for Thais.

Chaninat and Leeds law firm has been providing legal assistance to visa applicants since the firm's establishment in 1997. Our supervising U.S. immigration attorney has been licensed to practice U.S. immigration law since 1987 and has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyer's Association since 1995.

Our U.S. visa attorneys and staff assist with the complex legal issues as well as the less technical and more tedious practical aspects of the U.S. immigration process. We assist clients with obtaining documents from Thai government offices such as birth certificates and police reports. We also escort our visa clients to the hospital for their required medical exam and accompany clients to the U.S. Embassy on their interview date.