naomisri

We've decided to go for it. He finished school in May so he won't miss out and we can then possibly get him ready for education in the UK by September/October. We won't have this chance again and we won't loose anything if it doesn't suit him. He can, however, gain a lot if it works out for him.

Wish us luck with the process, it starts today!

Thanks for your well though out replies. We're waiting to talk to him on Friday so that we can decide one way or another. I appreciate the small window that we have so we'll have to make that decision one way or another.

Perhaps our situation is different to some in that my husband brought up his son alone without help from family since he was 3. Both sets of grandparents wanted to raise him but my husband wanted to raise him on his own. My step-son's bond with his extended family isn't as strong as in some other Thai families (although he loves his aunt and cousins that he is living with) and he spends most of his holidays back with friends where he feels more at home. I think only he can choose whether he needs to give it a go or not. He asks about coming over every time they talk, but he needs to know the harsh facts about what the move would mean in terms of education and career.

Thanks again for the input

Thank you for your reply

It's definitely something that we need to talk about more. He is studying English at High School and he is fortunately very good at it so I do think that the language would be okay, what I think would be more of an issue is how he would respond to the cultural differences, we want him to thrive of course. He lived with his dad all his life as his mum was out of the picture till we all moved in together when he was about 10. Then he left us for high school on the mainland.

My worry is that he isn't happy over there without us and if we can have him here with us then it would be worth it.

Thanks for the advice

We moved back to the UK (Thai husband and our 3 y/o daughter) in March. My step-son lived with us in Thailand until he started high school and moved to be with his aunt who lives near one of the best schools in the province. When we moved over we had a vague notion that he might come and study over here for University. We didn't really think about settlement as he was 16 at the time and I believed that it wasn't possible after his 16th birthday. I have since been trawling the net for more information and believe that it would be possible. He misses his Dad so much and asks him every time he calls when he would be able to come over. He is 100% Thai so I am not sure how he would adapt, but it seems like a sensible option to give it ago. If we get him a student visa and he comes over for a couple of years, once he completes his studies I believe he will have to go back to Thailand.

My other issue is schooling. He won't be finished at school for another year and a half, but by then he will have missed the cut off age wise. He would have to come over and complete his studies here in a different language. I think he could do it, but I have no idea of cost and would also be interested in others opinions of whether it would be to his detriment to miss that last year in Thai school.

Thanks in advance

Any more news on the latest death?

The mark up is insane. It only costs them about 100 baht to cut a pair of trousers, plus the materials which are the more expensive part. Then they charge you 1000 baht for a pair...

Condolances to the Pilot's family, a sad loss. Prayers for those that are hurt.

My tenant woke up at 2am to see his gas being stolen from his rental bike, plus this morning he realised that they had stolen the handset from the cordless phone through the bars on the window - but not the base. Luckily we canceled the connection ages ago. Seems really desperate though...

Would you recommend that one Poor? I want to get my amalgams out so it's a fairly big job

Any update on dentists 2 years later? I want to find one in Lamai if possible, but I'm considering going to Nathon...

They're getting new stuff down from Bangkok all of the time. Things I bought - frozen bagels, salt and vinegar Walkers crisps, Big box of cornflakes (they have cheerios, organic cereals as well as the usual frosties and all of those), also they have rice milk which is difficult to get anywhere else. Simple Green cleaning fluid which is biodegradable, lots of stuff that they have in Tops already though... Bit pricey too

No, no work permit. My husband who is Thai supports us.

Thanks. I think we may well be going the cheque or smaller transfer route.

I trawled for a while, but couldn't find a satisfactory answer. We are selling our property and will shortly need to send the money back to the UK where we will be settling. The money was transfered here around 4 years ago. We are happy to do this in installments if it is necessary, but we are aware that this could take time.

a) Is there more than one possible way of doing this?

What would you recommend we do?

c) Anything else we should take into consideration?

My husband is Thai, I am from the UK and hold Nationwide and Natwest accounts. I am happy to transfer the money to my Mum's account - she also has Natwest and Nationwide a/cs.

Thanks for help with this. We are holding out for our asking price, but want things to move pretty quickly thereafter as we need to be there in good time with the settlement visa.

Tell her you'll get her on a Thai Airways flight so at least the crew will speak Thai. That way she might not feel so vulnerable going over on her own...

Thanks! It feels great to know that that hurdle is over. Looks like Boo and I and the hubbies and the kids will be meeting up back home before long

Gonna be weird keeping up with Thailand through TV from the UK...!

Aww, and thanks SBK! I think he's very nice too Are you two going to be over any time soon? Maybe we can have lunch?

Thought I'd report back in case anyone is interested

We're both here, I have a job offer from a family member, we submitted without selling our house yet so not much in the bank, but plenty of support offered from family. We're staying at my Mum's place until we get sorted which means 5 of us including the little one in a 3 bed house. Husband has no job to go to as yet and is leaving an RM job of a couple of resorts down here. So it can be done without the sponsor yet being in the UK. It helps we have lived together for 7 years, married for 5 and he has been over to the UK three times.

All of the original documents are still in the mail from the UK because of the PAD seige, not sure if they would have been on that if they didn't think that that would cause problems.

Put the settlement application in on 27th, picked up the visa on Friday, but I believe it was ready on Thursday which is when we got the SMS notification. Husband came up to submit himself then we all came for the big news. Pleased we got it

Thanks for the help that you've offered along the way WOOHOO! Off we go

I'll try and take a good one

Oooh, thanks I'm trawling it to see if there's a photo. Looks like you couldn't stop Uranus from being dragged into it. ha ha ha

I noticed that too, but Coffee World is so expensive, I would be willing to bet that the Thai coffee shop will be two thirds or half the price. Toga is expensive at 85 baht a cup. Coffee World charge extra so you can have it the way that you like it. I guess at 70 baht to the pound they aren't expensive, but when it was down at 50 you are nearly paying English prices

Not sure if you saw it, but it was a very unusual sight and there were plenty of people taking photos with their phone cameras. If anyone got a shot that they don't mind sharing, can you post it?

TIA

I've just had a helicopter over the second time in the past hour or so. Normally we get one every so often, but not usually that often. Any idea who uses helicopters here and for what reason? Curious

Road on the way between Bangkok Hospital and Tesco is just about passable in a pickup. Wouldn't recommend for anything lower or motorbike. Plenty of people wading home. The kanom jeen shop by the PTT was bailing out water. Levels hadn't quite reached the top of the wall though. The tessabaan were just before Bangkok Hospital pumping when we passed on our way, worst of the flooding seemed to be the bit just before the bridge between the PTT and Laem Din turning.

Our road has a stream running through it right now. A few years ago the water was so strong it actually created a several foot deep trench, so it could be worse

Oooh and be careful in that area by Bangkok hospital. It's impossible to tell where the road starts and the trench stops...

Thanks for that. He has been to the UK three times before, so I guess we must have done the same. The thing that threw me was having to put day, month and year in on the online application

Hi, me again

I have a quick question, my husband is filling in the form for the UK settlement visa, but he doesn't know the dates his parents were born, in fact his Mum doesn't know either. On their ID cards it says the year they were born, but not the day or month. What should be do about this? Is it okay just to make a note of this information on the application or accompanying documents?

Thanks in advance.

My wife and I live in Bangkok, she is Thai by the way. We make a visa application every year at around this time so that we can go back to the UK to see my family for Christmas. We are in exactly the same position, as i suspect many people are that they don't know the birthday of their parents. When filling in the application form we just put in the year of birth and this has not been questioned by the British Embassy in Bangkok for the last 5 applications, so i think that you should be ok.

I am told that this is quite a common thing especially in the North of Thailand because they apparently did not keep records in the past. On a positive note it saves a fortune on birthday presents. LOL.

Cheers, Rick.

Hi, me again

I have a quick question, my husband is filling in the form for the UK settlement visa, but he doesn't know the dates his parents were born, in fact his Mum doesn't know either. On their ID cards it says the year they were born, but not the day or month. What should be do about this? Is it okay just to make a note of this information on the application or accompanying documents?

Thanks in advance.