TiggerFish

That's fantastic news, congratulations !!!

May I ask how long it took from submission ?

It's easy to get a bankers draft if you have cash, just go in to the bank that's on the ground floor of Regents House and ask for a bankers draft for a UK tourist visa. They'll most likely draw your attention to the current price list that's selotaped to the counter and ask you which one you would like.

My recent experience is the bank only charges for the face value of the bankers draft so they don't even take a cut.

I was asked to produce my passport but this is only for ID purposes, nothing else.

There's a fair bit of travelling involved, here's a bit of a guide using mostly BTS where possible.

Map here >> http://www.bts.co.th.../Route_BTS.html

British Embassy.

BTS Ploen Chit

Map here >> http://www.into-asia...s/ploenchit.php

IOM

BTS Sala Deang

Map Here >> http://www.vfs-uk-th...emkij%20map.pdf

Then off to get Xrays, choice of two hospitals, we used Payathai 2

BTS Sanam Pao

The hospital can be seen on this map for the Thailand Research Fund >> http://www.trf.or.th/map/mapeng.pdf

Forgot to mention that after you pick up the Freedom of Affirmation to marry you need to get it translated, we did that on Monday afternoon. There are many many translation shops in and around Bangkok, we used one in the shopping centre that is opposite the British embassy on the map for the British embassy as Ploenchit Arcade, they did it in 40 mins and charged 300 THB. Many in this forum have mentioned it is worth getting your marriage certificate translated in to English once married, we listened to that advice and used the same translation shop to ensure consistent spelling when going back in the other direction.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

BTS to Mo Chit, use exit 3 or 4, can't quite remember, then you can get a mini van from 25 BHT each to the Ministry or get a taxi, the ride was about 30 mins at the time of day we went.

VFS Global Bangkok

BTS Ratchadamri

Map here >> http://www.vfs-uk-th.com/images/map.jpg

Happy Travelling.

Hi Yumster,

I think you might be asking a bit much to do it all in 2 days, I recently (finished yesterday) went through the getting married and applying for a visa process.

I have head people say that you need to be resident in Thailand for 3 days before you can get married, I have also heard people say this is rubbish, I am not sure which is True.

Here's what we did on each day.

Sunday, I arrived in Thailand.

Monday 8am, submitted the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry to the British Embassy.

Monday 9am, went to the IOM to organise the TB test.

Monday 12am, returned the Xray to the IOM.

Monday 2:00pm, received the results (All OK fortunately)

Monday 2:30pm, collected the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry from the British Embassy.

Tuesday 8am, submitted the translated version of the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for legalisation.

Tuesday 11am, collected the legalised version of the Freedom of Affirmation to Marry.

Now from this point on you can get Married at any Amphur but if you want your wife to change her name the only place this can be done is at the district office in her home town.

We travelled to her home town on Tuesday afternoon, got married and changed the name on her ID card on the Wednesday.

Changing names on ID cards is a 30 minute job but changing names in passports means a new passport in this world of digital passports and that takes 2 days.

Applied for a new passport due to the name change at 8am on Thursday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and collected it the following Monday.

Visa applications are accepted up until 3:30pm at VFS, my wife turned up at 9am this Monday morning after having collected her new passport and was seen at 1pm, out by 2:30pm (2 applications, one for her and one for her son).

If nothing else they'll need the passport at the end of the process to hopefully stick the visa in it.

I hope that is of some help.

Thanks for the response CharlieB.

Paperwork all done now wife will be submitting tommorrow

Congratulations and good luck for the future., hopefully we are only 7 weeks and a few days behind you, looking to submit this coming Monday.

Hi,

I'm filling out forms for my wife and stepson at the moment and have a couple of questions I'd appreciate some opinions on.

First one is Online or Paper ? I know the vfs-uk-th website says "although settlement and Tier 4 applications and their dependants should complete an online application" however whenever I follow the online link and check the list of supported countries Thailand isn't one of them. On the other hand I read of many people using this forum that are using online.... am I missing something, perhaps a missing link ? (feeble attempt at humour)

A fairly fundamental question is. Am I my stepsons sponsor? I have always assumed I was but there are some phrases on the application form that have me doubting this.

Again for my stepsons application..... 7.5, please provide details of the person you will be staying with... Is that me alone?

Again for my stepsons application..... 7.7, How long will you stay with this person.... He's 7 years old, how on earth are you supposed to answer that ?

For both... 8.7.13, how much of your sponsors income is given to their family members and other dependants.... Does that include my wife and stepson ?

I'm quite sure there will be more but these are bugging me right now.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

My Girlfriend stayed for 6 months on a 6 months tourist visa with no problems but she did declare that intention in her application.

Yes the air fare was expensive, essentially full price tickets.

We also got a bit of a grilling from the IO at LGW airport... "Well what is she going to do all day when you are at work ?" Fortunately I was able to answer with "I work most days from home so she wont be alone"

Thanks for the help and advice

Unfortunately it's not going to be practicle getting my wife to go for a TB test before I arrive, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed and deal with what comes up. It's been useful to hear of what we might have to go through though.

Regarding my wifes sole resposibility for my stepson we are going to try with 1. Custody document from the local Amphur. 2. Letter from his School and 3. Tabien Bahn (Blue book, or book about Family as my wife calls it).

Fortunately we also have records of daily calls back to Thailand and regular money transfers for when my wife spent six months in the UK with me.

Just under two weeks before I fly out now and I will probably be spending each spare moment I have researching/preparing/checking for the visa applications, at least I get to see them both at the end of this part.

Then the long wait, from what I read on this forum at the moment processing times are slow.

Good luck to all that are in the same situation we are, thanks yet again to those of you that have been through this and are in a good position to give advice.

Hi, I've read many posts in this forum and picked up many useful tips, thanks to all of the contributors.

This is my first post so please forgive if I have missed anything obvious.

This is a bit of a long post, I have tried to keep it short, honest.

First a bit of background.

We first met Dec 2008, I returned to Visit for 10 days in March 2009, 10 days in June 2009 and 3 weeks in Oct 2009.

During the October visit we applied for and got a 6 month visit visa for her. She returned with me to the UK at the end of that visit stayed until April.

We both returned to Thailand where I stayed for 4 weeks and we got married (Village style, not legally recognised).

My Wife has never been legally married before and has a seven year old son, the biological father of the son has a new "wife" and children and does not care for my wifes (our) son. When she stayed with me in England my wifes parents cared for him.

The current plan is for me to return at the end of this month get married officially and apply for a settlement visa for my wife and step son all in the one trip.

I have a few questions which I would like to run by those of you with previous experience.

1. Any potential pit falls with getting married (Legally) and immediately applying for a Visa? We have evidence to support all of my claims above regarding when we met, visits, etc.

2. Is there any reason we can't apply for a visa for my step son at the same time? I don't want to split them up again and I want to take an active parenting role as soon as possible.

3. If possible I'd like to get this done in a short visit as I only get so much holiday in any one year and I'm not sure about changing her family name, is this required ? If we get married back in her home town she can apparently get a new ID card the same day but the passport would take longer.

4. This is my current plan (as much as you can plan anything in Thailand), is it reasonable or are we trying to get too much done too quickly?

Sun I arrive, meet wife in Bangkok.

Mon Submit Freedom of Affirmation to Marry to the UK Embassy

Mon Get TB test for wife

Tue Collect Freedom of Affirmation to Marry from the UK Embassy

Tue Get Freedom of Affirmation to Marry Translated

Tue Submit/Collect Affirmation to Marry to/from Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pay for same day service.

Tue Go to wifes home town.

Wed Get married, change ID card.

Wed Return to Bangkok with wife and step son.

Thur Head for Bang Na to change the name in /apply for a new passport for my wife and apply for a passport for my step son.

Tue Collect wifes and step sons passports.

Tue Apply for the Visas.

5. If my wife has to have a new passport will she get the old returned one for reference as it has the UK visit visa which I would like to submit as evidence of her time in the the UK.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.