Integrity Legal

Laos is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia. In recent years it has become a popular destination among back-pack tourists as well as those wishing to see the majestic splendor of Laos’ natural beauty. As is often the case in countries around the globe, a US Embassy provides services to those seeking a US visa or a other services which can be provided either through the Consulate proper or the American Citizen Services Section. Those wishing to travel to an Embassy are generally advised to check the hours of operation and the local holiday closing schedule in an effort to forestall an unnecessary trip to the Embassy due to Post closure. The following is a direct quote from the official website of the US Embassy in Laos:

Holidays 2010

Date	Day	Holiday	Lao/U.S.
January 1	Friday	New Year’s Day	U.S./Lao
January 18	Monday	Martin Luther King’s Birthday	U.S.
February 15	Monday	Presidents’ Day	U.S.
March 8	Monday	International Women’s Day	Lao
April 14-16	Wed.-Friday	Lao New Year	Lao
April 30	Friday	Lao Labor Day	Lao
May 31	Monday	Memorial Day	U.S.
July 5	Monday	Independence Day	U.S.
September 6	Monday	Labor Day	U.S.
October 11	Friday	Boat Racing Festival	Lao
October 22	Monday	Columbus Day	U.S.
November 11	Thursday	Veterans Day	U.S.
November 19	Friday	That Luang Festival	Lao.
November 25	Thursday	Thanksgiving Day	U.S.
December 2	Thursady	Lao National Day	Lao
December 24	Friday	Christmas Day	U.S.

Substitution days. Please note: According to the prevailing practice in Laos, official holidays which fall on Saturday will be observed on the preceding Friday and Sunday on the following Monday.

As can be gathered

Note: Administrative Days: In addition to the dates above, the consular section will be closed on the following Fridays for administrative days — March 12, June 11, September 10, November 12, and December 10.

Staff at a US Embassy or a US Consulate can usually provide assistance, or insight, regarding documentation such as the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), Notarized affidavits, Passports, visa pages, etc. In situations where an American Citizen must travel to the American Citizen Services Section of a United States Embassy or Consulate it may be wise to check the US Embassy’s website in order to ascertain whether or not one can set an appointment online. This makes the situation far less cumbersome for both the American and the Consular Officer as the Post can be prepared ahead of time to deal with the petitioner’s request.

With regard to visas, those petitions which are filed in the USA (such as a K1 visa petition or a K3 Visa petition) must first receive approval from USCIS before the petition will be forwarded to the Department of State and the US Embassy.

For further information, please see: US Visa Laos.

Tags: American Citizen Services, consular report of birth abroad, CRBA, Fiance Visa Laos, K1 Visa, K1 Visa Laos, K3 Visa, K3 Visa Laos, K3 Visa Vientiane, US Embassy Lao, US Embassy Laos, US Embassy Vientiane, US Visa, US Visa Laos
Posted in US Embassy Laos | No Comments »

In an effort to provide information upon which individuals can make informed decisions the following is a brief overview of the concept of limited liability and its practical applications. The following is a direct quote from Wikipedia:

Limited liability is a concept whereby a person’s financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person’s investment in a company or partnership with limited liability. In other words, if a company with limited liability is sued, then the plaintiffs are suing the company, not its owners or investors. A shareholder in a limited company is not personally liable for any of the debts of the company, other than for the value of his investment in that company. This usually takes the form of that person’s dividends in the company being zero, since the company has no profits to allocate. The same is true for the members of a limited liability partnership and the limited partners in a limited partnership.^[1] By contrast, sole proprietors and partners in general partnerships are each liable for all the debts of the business (unlimited liability).

Although a shareholder’s liability for the company’s actions is limited, the shareholder may still be liable for its own acts. For example, the directors of small companies (who are frequently also shareholders) are often required to give personal guarantees of the company’s debts to those lending to the company. They will then be liable for those debts in the event that the company cannot pay, although the other shareholders will not be so liable. This is known as co-signing.

The legal structures used by individuals in an effort to enjoy limited liability have changed over the course of recent years. In the relatively distant past, many American jurisdictions required a great deal of formality when granting limited liability. In recent years, legislative measures have been taken in an effort to make conferment of limited liability more available to larger numbers of people and enterprises.

The creation of the Limited Liability Company (also known by its acronym LLC) was a watershed moment in American jurisprudence. To quote Wikipedia again:

A limited liability company (LLC), also known as a company with limited liability (WLL), is a flexible form of business enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of business company, in the law of the vast majority of United States jurisdictions, that provides limited liability to its owners. Often incorrectly called a “limited liability corporation” (instead of company), it is a hybrid business entity having certain characteristics of both a corporation and a partnership or sole proprietorship (depending on how many owners there are). An LLC, although a business entity, is a type of unincorporated association and is not a corporation. The primary characteristic an LLC shares with a corporation is limited liability, and the primary characteristic it shares with a partnership is the availability of pass-through income taxation. It is often more flexible than a corporation and it is well-suited for companies with a single owner.

It is important to understand that limited liability does not imply owners are always fully protected from personal liabilities. Courts can and do pierce the corporate veil of LLCs when some type of fraud or misrepresentation is involved, or under certain situations where the owner uses the company as an “alter ego.”

As can be inferred from the above quotation, Limited Liability Companies are an optimal tool for business in the global information age as they provide flexibility as well as mobility for an individual or small group of individuals seeking to provide goods and services to niche markets in the international arena. That said, there are certain legal issues that must be addressed when incorporating any venture and, as straightforward as a US LLC may first appear, there are formalities that must be adhered to when one wishes to organize an American LLC.

For related information please see: US Company Registration.

Tags: American Corporate LAw, American Limited Liability Law, American LLC, Limited Liability, Limited Liability Companies, Limited Liability Company, Limited Liability Company Law, Limited Liability Jurisprudence, United States Limited Liability Law, US Company Registration, US Corporate Law, US LLC
Posted in Thailand Business, US Business, US Company Registration, US LLC | No Comments »

Those American Immigrants who remain outside of the United States for prolonged periods are strongly advised to either obtain a Re-Entry Permit or make certain that their absences from the United States comport with their lawful status in the USA. That said, in those cases where a lawful permanent resident has been overseas for a long period of time and wishes to go back to the United States for purposes of reestablishing their residence they may opt to apply for an SB-1 Returning Resident Visa.

Recently the Department of State announced changes to the Foreign Affairs Manual’s guidelines for issuance of SB-1 visas the following is a direct quote from the aforementioned announcement made available by AILA:

9 FAM 42.22 Notes has been updated to provide guidance on the processing of applications for special immigrant Returning Resident (SB) visas for lawful permanent resident (LPR) aliens who were unable to return to the United States within the validity of their I‐551 Permanent Resident Card or reentry permit. The guidance covers where applicants are able to file their DS‐117 Application to Determine Returning Resident Status, how post should process such applications, and new procedures for the creation of a permanent refusal record for denied DS‐117 applications.

Returning Residents must have their case re-adjudicated by a Consular Officer prior to returning to the USA to take up residence. The announcement went on to further note:

You [the Consular Officer] must conduct a personal interview with the applicant to determine whether the application for Returning Resident status is approvable…If you determine that the applicant has provided sufficient justification and evidence in accordance with 9 FAM 42.22 N1.1‐7, then you must obtain supervisory approval from a consular manager, mark form DS‐117 as approved, open a case in Immigrant Visa Overseas (IVO), and scan in the approved form DS‐117 and supporting documents…If the application is denied, you should enter [redacted] scanned copies of form DS‐117 and all supporting documents, and also enter notes supporting the denial decision.

As this author has stated repeatedly on this blog, those who may be outside of the United States of America for a period lasting longer than 6 months are well advised to apply for, and hopefully obtain, a US reentry permit. This travel document would allow the lawful permanent resident to remain abroad for up to two years without raising the presumption of residential abandonment. That said, there are always extenuating circumstances where an individual was unable to obtain a reentry permit and thereby placed their lawful status in jeopardy. For these individuals, an SB-1 visa may be the necessary travel document to reestablish lawful status.

For further reading about Consular Processing at the US Embassy in Bangkok please see: US Embassy Thailand.

Tags: FAM, Foreign Affairs Manual, Lawful Permanent Residence, Returning Resident Travel Document, Returning Resident Visa, SB-1 Visa, US reentry permit
Posted in US Consulate ChengDu, US Consulate Chiang Mai, US Consulate Guangzhou, US Consulate HCMC, US Consulate Shanghai, US Consulate Shenyang, US Consulate Singapore, US Consulate Wuhan, us embassy bangkok, US Embassy Bangladesh, US Embassy Beijing, US Embassy Burma, US Embassy Cambodia, US Embassy China, US Embassy Dhaka, US Embassy Hanoi, US Embassy India, US Embassy Indonesia, US Embassy Jakarta, US Embassy Kathmandu, US Embassy Kuala Lumpur, US Embassy Malaysia, US Embassy Myanmar, US Embassy Nepal, US Embassy New Dehli, US Embassy Phnom Phen, US Embassy Rangoon, US Embassy Singapore, US Embassy Thailand, US Embassy Vietnam, US Embassy Yangon, US Visa, US Visa and Immigration, US Visa Thailand | No Comments »

In a recent posting on the website ThaiVisa.com the following was announced:

CHON BURI:– Immigration police here have arrested a Belgian man for having allegedly extorted money from his fellow Belgians by deceiving them that he is a police officer and advisor to the Belgian ambassador. Pol Col Athiswis Kamolrat, commander of the Chon Buri Immigration Police, held a press conference Thursday to announce the arrest of Jacobs Marc R.

Athiswis said the immigration police were asked by the Belgian Embassy in Bangkok to help make the arrest after several Belgian tourists filed complaints with the embassy that they were extorted out of money by Marc. Athiwis said Marc was arrested at his rented room in Bang Lamung district.

It is interesting to note the “tough” stance being taken by Thai Immigration authorities with regard to foreign criminals. It would appear as though Thai authorities are increasingly concerned with eradication of the foreign criminal element in the Kingdom. In a recent blog posting this author noted that the Royal Thai Immigration Police are taking measures to integrate their systems with those of the US and the international law enforcement community. It remains to be seen how effective this initiative will be in ascertaining the criminal history of foreign nationals in Thailand, but one can easily assume that Thai authorities will be placed on better notice of foreign criminals in the Kingdom.

In another story on the Pattaya One News website the following was reported:

Political unrest hit the tourism industry hard in May, causing arrivals and hotel occupancy to plummet in the central and northern provinces, says the Bank of Thailand.

Unfortunately, the recent political turmoil caused many setbacks for both businesses in and around Bangkok as well as the Thai tourism industry as a whole. Although the Thai government has been taking steps to assist businesses impacted by the recent unrest many feel that recovery will likely be slow and incremental. The problem is probably exacerbated by the worldwide economic crisis which has been particularly acute in countries such as the United States as well as parts of the European Union.

Thailand remains a strong economic player in Southeast Asia, but the confluence of recent events, both local and global, have caused a great deal of strain on the Thai business community. However, many feel that Thailand’s economy and tourism sectors are resilient and can overcome these recent obstacles.

For related information please see: warrant.

Tags: crime in Thailand, Extortion, News, Thailand Business, Tourism in Thailand, warrant
Posted in News, Thailand Business | No Comments »