bangkockney

You live in the home of a close relative and are sponsored to be in the UK making you illegible for housing benefit.

Get yourself down to your local job centre for face-to-face advice.

What's her English like and has she ever sat a test?

its people like these two that make it difficult for genuine people to get visas!

they come on a tourist visa when all the time they have no intention to leave...!

go back to thailand and do it properly, like everyone else has to do!

she is not on overstay we submitted for an extension until our sons second operation is carried out, if they were to serve a notice to leave with no appeal then we would have no choice...currently we have been given an option to appeal which means she is not on overstay and her visa is valid.

If this is true, then you must appeal. I'd strongly suggest you take representation and ask them if it's possible to construct an Article 8 defence in your circumstances.

I would have thought no judge in the land who would deny a young child access to their mother during hospital treatment.

Why exactly was she refused? What type of visit visa does she have? How long was her initial entry clearance? How much entry clearance was left when you applied? Can you reproduce the refusal notice?

The under 21 rule has already been successfully challenged in court. If you can show you are in a genuine marriage then you have a case.

The Government (sadly) has already lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court.

The appellants however have now received entry clearance/LTR.

If you're thinking of challenging the 21 law ask your solicitor about the implications of Quila v SSHD (2009). If they don't know, find new representation.

Every single baht should be spent in a calculated manner, under proper principles. The evaluative assumption must be that it will contribute to a national "master plan".

And I guess the author's "master plan" has no compassion or sympathy for fellow citizens who live below the poverty line! Absolutely nothing wrong with a welfare system that provides for those that truly need it.

And; shock horror, a Government releases its manifesto before an up-coming election with voter-centric policies. Have The Nation's reporters never witnessed an election outside Thailand before?

Any kind of cap or quota would have to be expressly referred to in the immigration rules and guidance.

This is why the Coalition got in trouble with the interim cap on Tier 2: they published the number weeks after the cap was introduced!

You could profile the numbers yourself if you had the inclination as they are published with a 2 month lag time.

Remember too that there are many factors that would cause fluctuation in the number of UK visit visa applications and visas issued: the recent global economic problems for example.

In a word, no.

In a word, ta ! ....but on second thoughts, how could you really know ? Why would they say ?

Anyone know the actual figures for UK Visitor Visas issued each year ? ( Be interesting

if they show a regular pattern ?)

He does not need to claim it, it is an automatic right.

Why is this so hard to understand?

It depends really.

He was born in the UK before 1983, which gives him the right to claim UK citizenship, even though both his parents were Thai.

If he's never claimed UK citizenship - i.e. never applied for a passport etc. there's not really much he can give up. He can't go back in time and change where and when he was born.

100% Correct,

Seems the opposition,and some on Thai Visa are having a reality problem. i.e .....

You can't give up,what you never claimed in the first place.

He has a UK birth certificate and was born before 1983, granting him citizenship by birth.

What more proof do you want?

No doubt true - but as far as I am aware the PM has no "proof of British nationality" as he never applied for it. You cannot renounce what you do not yet have. I suppose he could apply, get it and then renounce it but that sounds a particularly convoluted exeise in futility even by Thai political standards.

You can renounce citizenship quite easily. Fill out a form, send proof of British nationality along with proof of another nationality you hold or could be entitled to, pay £208 and you're done.

As far as I am aware there is no provision under the applicable UK Acts to "renounce" your rights under the Act. You could of course write to the UK government doing so but it would carry no weight in terms of either law or adminsitrative application.

However this whole thing opens intriguing opportunities for imaginative (and very low cost) foreign policy. Blair could for instance have got rid of Thaksin by simply giving him a seat in the House of Lords and British nationality - much cheaper than the coup. And the Red Shirts would have had to try to get visas to block Oxford Street insted of central Bangkok.

Bit of a no brainer really, Abhisit should have renounced his UK connection long before becoming pm.

It's a great campaign leader for PT and the reds, they certainly will not let go.

British Citizenship and UK Citizenship are equivalent.

However British Citizen is the preferred form.

It depends really.

He was born in the UK before 1983, which gives him the right to claim UK citizenship, even though both his parents were Thai.

If he's never claimed UK citizenship - i.e. never applied for a passport etc. there's not really much he can give up. He can't go back in time and change where and when he was born.

He doesn't have to 'claim UK citizenship' he was a UK citizen the moment he was born. Therein is the answer, he is a UK citizen

Bit of nitpicking, but, it raises another angle on the argument.

You can be a citizen where the country is a republic, you are a citizen of the republic.

But, when your head of state is Royalty, you are a subject of the crown. Born in the UK you are a subject of Her Britannic Majesty.

People talk of British citizenship are in a slight error it is Britisn national.

So is the Thai PM being born in the UK a subject of QEII. Quite a conundrum????????????

Pom song satang.

He has it by way of birth. He does not have to claim it.

His birth certificate is de facto proof.

Not quite my point.

If the PM had actually taken UK citizenship, he could indeed renounce it. However my understanding is that he maintains that he has not actually got citizenship, there is therefore nothing to renounce as of yet - you cannot renounce a puative right, only an actual status.

For an equivalent bit of political posturing of the lunatic variety, Google Sonia Ghandi (India lady effectively in charge) and the calls for stripping her of her Indian nationality because the Norwegians (or similar) gave her some gong or other. DC could therefore probably dispell most of the Indian political class using a few British gongs without having to strew any passports about at all.

And perhaps we coulod give all the Chinese leadership Nobel Peace prizes if that would mean they all get locked up?

As far as I am aware there is no provision under the applicable UK Acts to "renounce" your rights under the Act. You could of course write to the UK government doing so but it would carry no weight in terms of either law or adminsitrative application.

However this whole thing opens intriguing opportunities for imaginative (and very low cost) foreign policy. Blair could for instance have got rid of Thaksin by simply giving him a seat in the House of Lords and British nationality - much cheaper than the coup. And the Red Shirts would have had to try to get visas to block Oxford Street insted of central Bangkok.

Bit of a no brainer really, Abhisit should have renounced his UK connection long before becoming pm.

It's a great campaign leader for PT and the reds, they certainly will not let go.

A U.K. government spokesman said recently that U.K. citizenship can be renounced but the process takes several months.

You can renounce citizenship quite easily. Fill out a form, send proof of British nationality along with proof of another nationality you hold or could be entitled to, pay £208 and you're done.

As far as I am aware there is no provision under the applicable UK Acts to "renounce" your rights under the Act. You could of course write to the UK government doing so but it would carry no weight in terms of either law or adminsitrative application.

However this whole thing opens intriguing opportunities for imaginative (and very low cost) foreign policy. Blair could for instance have got rid of Thaksin by simply giving him a seat in the House of Lords and British nationality - much cheaper than the coup. And the Red Shirts would have had to try to get visas to block Oxford Street insted of central Bangkok.

Bit of a no brainer really, Abhisit should have renounced his UK connection long before becoming pm.

It's a great campaign leader for PT and the reds, they certainly will not let go.

In a word, no.

Bit of a no brainer really, Abhisit should have renounced his UK connection long before becoming pm.

It's a great campaign leader for PT and the reds, they certainly will not let go.

absolutely - the leader of a country being a citizen of another? what is/was he thinking?

It's interesting that no commentator or newspaper has mentioned Abhisits parent's nationality. They were medical professors working in U.K. for a long time - they even gave their children English/British names - I've no doubt that a British passport, which could easily have been obtained by them, would have seemed a good option for them e.g. travel/holidays, free medical treatment,tax allowances for their children etc. If they did have British passports and Abhisit was born in the U.K. there would be no doubt about Abhisit's British nationality.

I think that Abhisit must have travelled outside the U.K. before he went to Oxford so what passport did he travel on? If it was a Thai passport why doesn't he produce it and wave it around because that would be case closed as far as questions about his nationality are concerned.

These might be points that that the Opposition parties are holding up their sleeves to be produced in the censure debate.

There is no doubt!

The parents' nationalities are of zero consequence.

He doesn't need a British passport to be a British citizen.

Case is closed about his nationality, I really can't fathom all the confusion and "what ifs"!

PS You don't need to have a British passport or indeed British Citizenship to have access to all the things you listed!

There's a huge difference between actually holding UK citizenship and being eligible to claim it.

Why do reporters have such trouble understanding this point?

He has UK citizenship by birth. His birth certificate is de facto proof. He does not need to "claim" UK citizenship to be a UK citizen.

One does not have to be issued with a UK Passport to be a UK Citizen, as an earlier post suggested.

I have no idea how to put links in here, so maybe 7x7 will sort it out for me ? More interesting for me are the two following points:

1. Today, the Embassy changed their exchange rate to 52 Baht to the GBP. This makes all of their services more expensive. I would love to get 52 Baht to the GBP !

Do you have any idea where they could get this figure from?

Even the spot rate from OANDA is nowhere near 52! OANDA is what the UKBA ask applicants to use when converting foreign currency balances to GBP to assess maintenance or earnings.

Do you know from experience VP if they are free to choose whatever exchange rate they like?

The article needs more hyphens; I didn't know Thai children lived to 611 years old.

No country will be able to have watertight boarders when it comes to drugs. The UK is an island yet drugs are still prevalent.

I'll dig out the link when I'm back at my desk.

Some comments of note:

A Thematic Inspection of the PBS Tier 2 Skilled Workers - Independent Chief Inspector of the UKBA

We found there was a very clear disparity between the different targets and benchmarks for processing applications made in the United Kingdom and overseas. These ranged from five cases per day in Sheffield to potentially 65 cases for applications made in one of Manila’s spokes. However we could find no rationale for the difference.

We found a further inconsistency in that overseas teams have cumulative targets to deal with 100% of cases within set periods of time. However, we found no target in place for processing United Kingdom cases beyond the initial target to process 75% of cases within four weeks.

I found inconsistent approaches being adopted in regards to decision making. I strongly believe that an applicant should receive the same level of service wherever they submit their application and I would expect the Agency to implement and uphold a consistent approach worldwide. Applicants should not have to make and pay for subsequent applications if minor omissions can be addressed with minimal effort by the Agency.

We found different approaches to the quality checking of decisions on Tier 2 cases by managers across the different locations we inspected. There were inconsistent approaches, not only between posts but also between individual teams and managers. We found that very few successful applications were checked, and the numbers of refused applications checked varied significantly between locations in the cases that we sampled.[The guidance states that the

minimum number of PBS refused decisions that must be subject to an ECM review is 0%]

...we were concerned to find the 28 day deadline [for Administrative Reviews] was significantly exceeded in all three cases with processing times of 44, 140, and 142 working days. We found no evidence of letters being sent to the applicants to explain there would be delays in reviewing the decisions. We found similar problems and made recommendations for improvement in our reports following our inspections of the Chennai and Kuala Lumpur visa sections.

Although UK Border Agency guidance stipulates that administrative reviews should be carried out by Entry Clearance Managers, managers in Manila took the decision to ask experienced Entry Clearance Officers to undertake reviews on a temporary basis to help clear the backlog.

Many staff perceived that quality of decision making and controlling immigration were not as much of a priority for the UK Border Agency as generating income and providing customer service.

From the Public and Commercial Services Union

The Permanent Under Secretary of State issued a Global email to staff, setting out the estimated number of job losses over that four-year period, including:

* 5,200 jobs to be lost in UKBA

* 650 jobs to be lost in Home Office HQ

* 600 jobs to be lost in IPS

* 100 jobs to be lost in CRB.

The email made it clear that these predicted job losses are in addition to the c2000 job losses already suffered in the Home Department this year – taking the total number of Home Office jobs being lost to a massive 8,500.

A recent report onto the UKBA was highly critical and did conclude that revenue generation was a primary focus.

UKBA is also shedding a large number of staff.

I'll dig out the link when I'm back at my desk.

It's not a zero information based decision. They've seen several back-to-back visas in your passport. They've refused you because they accuse you of using the tourist visa route to remain in Thailand on a long term basis (even the touts wouldn't touch you with a barge pole!). You didn't even take steps to argue that you are in Thailand for legitimate reasons; your immediate response was to look for somewhere that turns a blind eye to the number of back-to-back visas in your passport, ergo you are not a legitimate tourist and are using the tourist visa route to remain indefinitely.

If you study a tourism based degree, your course is not concerned with generating scientific research into developing the definition of tourist or tourism! They are about developing an understanding of the key skills, approaches and techniques that you will need to manage a successful international hospitality or tourism operation.

In the UK, you are no longer considered resident if you spend more than 183 days continually overseas.

You can't be a tourist if you are no longer a resident of your home country.

But spin it how you like.

You'd be upset if people abused the tourist visa route in your home countries and you're now upset that you can't abuse the tourist visa route in Thailand.

Go figure.

Yes, purchase the ticket providing details from the passport used to enter Thailand.

Judging from the detail provided so far, chances are slim for a 6 month visit to the UK IMO.

What ties does she have to Thailand? (other than you remaining on tourist visas when here, I assume)

What do you do during your 6 month UK stays? Do you have to find new employment each time?

How much money you should show is linked to length of stay. Clearly you need to show enough to cover air fares, food, UK travel and ad-hoc expenses for the duration of the visit. Cash money.

Dwindling account is OK but clearly depends on closing balance of your 6 month statements.

Whether to submit 12 would depend if your income always comes from the same source each trip to the UK allowing you to argue access to the same inome this coming trip.

Before you decide which route to take, what is her English like? Has she taken a test of some sort in the last 2 years?

Given her background in law she may enjoy an English for law course. Most courses start every Monday.

Or she could consider an ABE business programme if she has interest there. She'll gain an int'ly recognised and portable qualification. Start dates tend to be 1 per quarter. Courses run from certificate level (beginner) to post-graduate diploma level.  

She could even work towards several UK law qualifications through ILEX for example. 

Or better still might be a Workskills programme, where she'll learn key skills (interview skills, negotiation, persuasion etc) and do a work placement to get hands on experience. The work placement would be full time work. Dependant on her English and CV she could even secure a law based work placement. She will also get a recognised qualification awarded by Edexcel for example. A very popular option with Thais. 

What are your long term plans? UK settlement or just a stretch in the UK before returning to Thailand?

And importantly, what does your wife want to achieve? Her career plans when returning to Thailand? Or in the UK if planning to settle?

You can record skype audio and video calls.

Either with a hardware or software setup. I use Pamela.

Clearly you can't retrieve any calls made before your chosen solution is deployed.