海角乱伦

for expat holding u.s visa, and currently in VN. do you need a visa to travel to Thailand or any other S.E Asian countries. I am aware a VN passport holder does not need a visa to go there.

If a US citizen is married to a foreign spouse and wants to travel to a third country, will the non-American seeking a visa, have their eligibility decided without considering that she will be traveling with a US citizen who might not require a visa?

It's going to depend upon the immigration policies of the individual 3rd country that is approving the Visa, but in general, if she has not become a green card holder or a naturalized US citizen then there is probably zero consideration given to her status as the spouse of the American.

You'll probably get much more help by picking the particular country where travel is intended and ask that question in that country's forum.

Without that specific information you're just going to get a lot of guesses here in the Vietnam forum.

-A similar question would be for couples considering getting a retirement-type visa to live in a third country. -I have never traveled (abroad) with a family member. In normal circumstances when a few people travel together are the visas applied for as if they are individuals?聽 - @Dannyroc3

You are confusing the situation by mixing the example of applying for a retirement type visa and the example of people traveling together, essentially meaning being tourists together.

Once two people are applying for married status retirement Visa in a particular country, then of course the policies of that particular country will apply, so again you're just going to get guesses here since you aren't being specific about the country where you might want to retire.

I can tell you, regarding the retirement visa for married couples, that process is totally different from tourist visas.

In a few examples I know of, the married couple definitely had to apply together and so all of their information was considered as a married couple, which is usually not the case with a tourist visa

SPECIFICALLY IN VIETNAM, if the two people applying for a tourist visa fit the example you gave first, and if they are experiencing some difficulty getting both people approved for their tourist visa at the same time, then that's the type of situation that demands the help of a Visa agent.

Only a Visa agents can submit extenuating circumstances to immigration.

You can try to send them an email to explain the situation, but there's not a great record in the forum of those emails ever being received and replied to.

Once you get a Visa agent involved, they can directly present the case to their contact in immigration and get the best possible results.

@brianAFSER73

It depends on your nationality.聽 Thailand has a tourist visa exemption (60 + 30 days)聽 for many countries.聽

@Dannyroc3

For tourist visa purposes....some countries have room on their applications for supporting documentation.聽 This gives you an opportunity to have your married circumstances looked at.

@OceanBeach92107

Yes, forgive me for presenting two very diff questions 1. Tourism 2. Living in a third country.

I guess I wondered if anyone had looked into it or experienced doing it.

I had not thought of the help of a Visa agent, probably that would be the path right off the bat.

By nature I tend to like colder climates at least for a season so if we could travel to some place with聽 little snow, even if for a month or more that would be a nice change.

And as I am aware of the various countries which have a reasonable cost of living and a retirement visa such as Italy, Greece or even the Balkans, might be an interesting place to park for a while.

@OceanBeach92107
Yes, forgive me for presenting two very diff questions 1. Tourism 2. Living in a third country.
I guess I wondered if anyone had looked into it or experienced doing it.
I had not thought of the help of a Visa agent, probably that would be the path right off the bat.

By nature I tend to like colder climates at least for a season so if we could travel to some place with little snow, even if for a month or more that would be a nice change.
And as I am aware of the various countries which have a reasonable cost of living and a retirement visa such as Italy, Greece or even the Balkans, might be an interesting place to park for a while. - @Dannyroc3

I totally get it Danny. I did a lot of searching for that stuff before I returned here in 2018.

I highly recommend the website of the US department of State, especially since you are a US citizen.

they usually update individual country visa requirements pretty regularly, along with alerts for violence, etc.

Our former forum expert decided to make the move to a country in Europe. I know in that case, attempting to get the retirement visa, everything was intertwined and continues to be intertwined in their applications.

He's having a real hard time learning French, and there's a deadline for him in about a year and a half. if he doesn't meet it he loses his visa.

Give a look at Ecuador. there are regions of the country there that are cool all the time due to the elevation, if you're not set on living near the ocean.

@Dannyroc3

*All* visa agreements are bi-lateral -- between two countries.

So, for example, my brother who has a USA passport traveling to Australia requires only an ETA: Electronic Travel Authority. I also have the same and the only way to get such an authorization is via a cell phone app where you scan your face with the app, upload a scan of your passport photo page and so on. All done on your phone with the app. I've done this twice now myself for Australia visit and completed the process and received the travel authorization in a matter of minutes.

Contrast that to my brother's wife who has an India passport. She has to go to the Australian Embassy or Consulate in India to get a visa placed in her passport on one of the pages. The Australians don't give a flying leap that her spouse is an American.

Same with the Shengen countries of Europe. Americans (and many other countries' citizens) can enter a Shengen country by landing in say, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and then travel freely throughout much of Europe without a separate visa or authorization. But a South African, even one married to an American, has no such privilege -- they have to apply for not only say, a Netherlands visa, they have to apply for a visa in every Shengen country they're going to visit! Here's a list of Shengen countries, thanks to Google: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Many Vietnamese people I know have applied repeatedly for USA tourist visas and been denied every time. The USA is aware that many foreigners overstay their visas and they are responding to that by simply denying visas!

@Lennerd

And how about this? I can get a 90-day tourist visa from Vietnam for USD $50. A Vietnamese citizen pays USD $275 for a USA tourist visa. Again, that's simply a part of the bilateral agreement between two countries. What Thailand, Laos, Cambodia does with the USA is negotiated by those countries and has zero bearing on what Vietnam does.

It's maybe weird AND the world we live in.

Earlier this year, I (a U.S. citizen) decided to take my wife who is Vietnamese (we have been married for over seven years) on a two week driving trip to show her the grandeur of the US and the Southwest and Rockers where I grew up.

After submitting the tourist visa application to the U.S. Embassy and obtaining an appointment in Hanoi for her interview, we prepared a number of supporting documents including: (a) a detailed itinerary for the 14 day journey including a stop at my law film in Colorado, (b) a statement from her bank confirming that she had substantial funds on long term deposit; (c) official government records confirming that our home in Vietnam (a substantial residence) is in her name and her own property; and (d) documents confirming that our two children (ages 17 and 20) are enrolled in school here.

Armed with this documentation she went to the interview confident that this supporting documentation was sufficient to overcome the presumption that she would overstay a visa and remain in the U.S. Her interview lasted less than 10 minutes, the reviewer never bothered to review any of the supporting information and promptly denied her visa request.

It defies logic to conclude that she had insufficient ties to Vietnam and therefore would remain in the US in violation of her visa. Following this denial we learned from other applicants that they also had their visa application summarily denied, all by the same examiner who it appears followed the Ambassador to Vietnam from his prior post.

Seeking a reason for this denial I sent聽 by express mail a summary of this supporting information to both the US Ambassador in Vietnam as well as to the State Department in Washington requesting a clarification for the conclusion of the examiner that she had not overcome the presumption that she would remain in the U.S. in violation of a visa. Not having received a reply I sent the same communication three times to each and even though delivery was confirmed, responses were never received.

I am not certain how the U.S. in Hanoi advances 鈥渢he interests of the United States鈥� by denying legitimate tourist visa applications for the wife of a U.S. citizen. It clearly is not our tax dollars at work.

Following the denial of her U.S. tourist聽 visa, she did obtain three year multiple entry visa to Hong Kong and a one year multiple entry visa to the 39 countries comprising the Schengen Area.

@Ungarb

Yes and to add to the madness one would feel, the Southern border has taken in waves of random people with no documentation and just let loose in the country.