Visitor Visa

[tg2112]

I met a Thai lady 3 months ago in Phuket and we hit it off together and ended up travelling round Thailand for 7 weeks and became very attached. I am now trying to arrange for her to come to the UK for a holiday.

Her situation is kind of complicated as she is married to a US national. They are now seperated as it turned out he had a partner & children in the US which he didn't tell her about when they married in Thailand! She is now going through the process of divorcing him. She had a job as a nanny a year or so back which she quit as her husband was now supporting her financially.

I have prepared all the paperwork for a visa application with the help of an external organisation who have said that it is worth persuing. After reading threads on this forum though I am starting to feel that we have an up hill battle on our hands!

She does not have a job, as most of her recent income has been from her estranged husband. She does however own 3 rai of land which she recently purchased in the north of the country. She is also building a house although she says she has no paperwork to back this up

I have flight e-tickets as proof of our 7 weeks together, photographs of us with her family & on hoilday etc.

I am just wondering whether this situation is over complicated and will just get thrown out.

Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[the scouser]

I think the application is worth pursuing, although it's not possible to accurately predict the outcome until the decision is made. The immigration rules state that the visa officer has to be satisfied that your g/f will leave the UK at the end of her visit, and what doesn't satisfy one might another. In that sense, there is a lot of subjectivity in that rule.

You could argue that the fact that your g/f is married to an American, yet chose not to go and live in the US, indicates that she's not intent on getting out of Thailand for economic purposes, and the land ownership will stand her in good stead. Her lack of a job, however, will reflect badly upon her and she will need to perform well at any interview in order to fully satisfy the visa officer that she'll leave the UK at the end of her holiday. Ultimately, it will be the visa officer's job to balance all of these factors and decide whether to issue the visa.

Best of luck,

Scouse.

[tg2112]

Thanks scouser

[GuestHouse]

I think the actual figures for issued visas versus applications is around 95%, that figure does not include people who withdraw their application ...

So 5% get refused.

[tg2112]

Well thats a promising statistic. There seems to be a lot of negative feedback on the Internet about high refusal rates which makes it hard to believe. I assume that the majority of people who post threads are people who have been refused and you dont hear too much about the successes

[GU22]

I think that as it is no longer possible to travel to the UK with a visit visa, marry and apply in UK to switch to a settlement visa, then in the case of applications by genuine couples the ECOs are less concerned about "Reason to Return" than before. After all, if the relationship is genuine and you are planning a future together then you are not going to put that at risk by doing a runner!

So, if you can show via phone records etc. that the relationship is genuine and has subsisted for a reasonable length of time (months, not weeks) then I think the chances of success are reasonable to high.

Owning land is a plus, too, so if she can get some paperwork to prove this, it will be a definite help.

You are quite right, most, if not all, of the negative posts about the chances of a visa come from people who have been unsuccessful; usually because they have not prepared properly.

[Carmine6]

Well thats a promising statistic. There seems to be a lot of negative feedback on the Internet about high refusal rates which makes it hard to believe. I assume that the majority of people who post threads are people who have been refused and you dont hear too much about the successes

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I hope your odds are that good in the UK. For the US, the decline statistics are said to be distorted because they rarely outright turn applications down, they just wait them out.

The claim is that they don't want to turn down too many applications to avoid discrimination claims, so they just keep asking for more and more information until people give up on the application. This is of course for the ones where they doubt the sincerity. Since it is done in writing, they ask for one piece of information, then after that's been filed, they ask for something else. It's several weeks or months of delay each time.

I'm really torn myself between my girlfriend trying for a tourist visa or waiting for a fiance visa if it gets that far. Don't want to have to check the previously declined visa box.

Good luck.