Integrity Legal - Law Firm in Bangkok | Bangkok Lawyer | Legal Services Thailand Back to
Integrity Legal

Legal Services & Resources 

Up to date legal information pertaining to Thai, American, & International Law.

Contact us: +66 2-266 3698

info@integrity-legal.com

ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawUS Immigration LawCan I Get My Thai Girlfriend into Canada?

Can I Get My Thai Girlfriend into Canada?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing getting a Thai National, in this case we are going to presume it is a girlfriend, into Canada.

I am bringing this up because I get this question not infrequently, when we are discussing US Immigration prospects. People, when we tell them, "hey it may take a while", or "it may take longer than they initially anticipated to try and get a fiancée or a loved one," usually it is in the context of a girlfriend or boyfriend for that matter, "into the United States". As we have discussed in other videos on this channel, Tourist Visas can be a daunting prospect for getting a Thai girlfriend or boyfriend into the United States due to what is called section 214b of the Immigration and Nationality Act and under the provisions of that section of the Act, the Consular Officer needs to be sufficiently satisfied that the applicant shows strong ties to their home country and weak ties, weak ties to the United States and a relationship with an American can be sufficiently considered as a strong enough tie to just totally mitigate the prospects of being able to be approved for a Tourist Visa.

I hear it more frequently in the context of Mexico and we made another video on this channel regarding that. I also hear it sometimes, mostly from the northern states, northeastern especially states of the US, folks that live there and they say "well can I get her into Canada?" or "can I get him into Canada?" 

Long story short is "yeah in theory" but also understand that the Immigration systems in Canada, the United States and Mexico are somewhat intertwined or entwined in many ways. They contact each other, they talk to each other. It is also kind of an interesting American presumption that maybe our system is really difficult but everybody else just waves everybody in. That is not really how it works. Canada has a pretty complex Immigration system; so does Mexico by the way and I went into that in the other video. All of these systems, in a sense they have their boats all pointed in the same direction. They don't necessarily make policy and make regulatory changes in tandem but as they are the three only countries on North America, they do kind of cooperate in certain ways and it is just simply not a foregone conclusion that a Thai National can go into Canada, especially if they have no reason for going to Canada. I want to make this especially clear because this often times is mentioned, after or as a knock on to bringing up the whole topic which is "well can I bring her into Canada and then just sneak her into the United States or him into the United States?" No! That is a terrible, terrible idea. That can be and would be I think considered human trafficking if you move people around that way over International borders in an unauthorized manner. So again, just because the US Immigration system is difficult, it doesn't mean you can just automatically defer to Canada or default to Canada and you can just get a Canadian visa. That in and of itself is difficult. The systems do for lack of a better term, communicate with each other and the Canadian Embassy here in Thailand is probably well aware that the US Immigration system is what it is and there are Americans from time to time who try to bring a Thai National through into Canada. This isn't like something that only people outside the Embassy have thought of; the Embassy folks have thought of this. 

For that reason, I just don't think that if you are looking to bring your Thai significant other to the United States, it is a good idea to try and circumvent the whole Immigration process by bringing them into Canada presumptively by subterfuge. That is really not a good idea. It is illegal and you shouldn't do it.