Trebilcock

"If" he killed his daughter I have no sympathy whatsoever and even if he didnt to leave her Fatherless is really not good.

The appeal is not about what the father did, but about trying to help a mother who is grieving for her daughter.

Bless you for that, Roamer. Hard to comprehend what the poor guy must have been going through to be driven to do something so dreadful.

I suspect many readers will already be aware of the tragedy at Merritt Beach, Florida earlier this week-

http://www.wftv.com/news/local/deputies-continue-investigation-into-merritt-island-deaths/104015668

An appeal has been launched to assist the widow/mother (a friend of my wife) to bring her daughter back to Thailand, and anyone wishing to help can donate here-

DELETED - PM for Info

Thank you very much for reading, and for any help you are able to give.

Hi, I used to have lots, but only kept family ones, so here is one to get you started, this is in 1992.

3-1-2011 5-49-22 PM_0020.jpg

Thanks very much for that. As someone has pointed out, that's the later building, but still interesting to see it without the shopping centre. Thanks again for taking the time and trouble to reply.

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

When say "Sender pays fees" that usually means the Sending is to pay for "all" sending & receiving fees along the way, even on the receiving bank end. Since the sending bank don't know what all the fees are for the thousands of possible banks it might end up sending to, the Sending bank will usually charge a high sending fee that they feel should cover their costs in the great majority of situations. But what can also happen is the receiving bank will still charge its normal receiving fee (ie.,the typical Thai bank 0.25% Bt200 min, Bt500) fee and you were just left with the Sending bank charging you a higher fee they never had to pay out on. I love it when the Sending bank always tries to blame the Receiving bank or Correspondent/Intermediary bank. You probably should select the option that says you pay the sending fee and the beneficiary pays any receiving fee.

Thanks very much for the reply. Still looking into it.

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

Make sure you just tick the box 'sender pays all HSBC UK charges'.

But, that said, I imagine that is what happened before - she picked up £4 at the UK end and the Thai bank (BKK) deducted their normal 0.25% etc handling charge. That would normally be no more than 250 Baht.

It is possible that she ticked the box to send Thai Baht - in that case (see my earlier post) there would have been a HSBC Bangkok correspondent bank charge.

Always send GBP.

Many thanks for the reply. My wife insists she did everything exactly the same as she's always done. Her sister is going to make enquiries at the Bangkok Bank, and I will post any results here. Thanks again.

Hi. Bit of a long shot, but does anyone have any photos, please, of the old low-rise Royal Garden Hotel in Pattaya; where the shopping centre and Marriott Hotel are now? It was the very first place I stayed at in Thailand back in 1989, but at the time I guess I was too pre-occupied with Soi Diamond to take any pictures of the hotel. I'd love to see if my memories of it are correct or not. Thanks for reading.

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but need some advice and my head is spinning a bit. For about 4 years my wife has been sending about £250 a month from her HSBC account in the UK to her sister in Thailand via the Bangkok Bank. Normally she's only charged £4 by HSBC, but this month there was an extra £20 debited from her account. Took it up with HSBC, and they insist it must be some new fee levied by Bangkok Bank, which we inadvertently agreed to by ticking (as we always have done) the "Sender pays fees" box. Can anyone advise, please, how to avoid this in future? Or maybe suggest another way altogether? Thanks very much for any help.

Thanks for the helpful replies, folks. Much obliged.

Hi. Want to buy my wife (here in the UK) a new mobile for Christmas so she can send texts to her friends back home in Thai, ie in Thai script. Could somebody advise please on what phone would be best; maybe an I-Phone, but which model? Also, she's currently locked into a contract with Vodafone, so could she simply take the SIM card out of their handset, put it in the new one, and go? Sorry if this seems a bit basic to some people, but as you will have gathered I'm not really au fait with the latest in mobiles. Thanks for reading, and for any advice.

Thanks for the reply 7by7, which I've only just seen. Just to update, in case anyone else is in a similar situation, we got the visa. Sister-in-Law applied via an agency in Bangkok, and got an email about 10 days later saying the application was ready for collection. No interview or anything, and turned out to be quite easy in the end.

Thanks for replying again AyG. There is a house in her name in Thailand, which might help? In the circumstances, what would you suggest is a reasonable or realistic length of time to ask for? Thanks again.

Just a couple more questions, if I may.

If we apply online on her behalf here in the UK, does that automatically generate an appointment? The border Agency website says "As part of your online application, you must use the online appointment calendar to book an appointment to attend the visa application centre. You can book, change or cancel your booking online....Your appointment must be no more than 30 days after the date when you completed and submitted your online visa application form." I'm a little worried that we won't have time to get the printed form out to her in Thailand before the interview, ie if the only interview slots available are at short notice.

Also, we'd like her to make the most of her trip and possibly stay for 3 or 4 months, during which time we will be providing accomodation, transport, food, etc. However, as she's recently lost her job, I'm worried Immigration will suspect she's really coming her to look for work (or have I just been watching too much "UK Border Force" on telly?)

Once again, many thanks for any help or advice.

Many thanks for the helpful replies. Searched several times for on the Border Agency website for VAF1B, but all I got were guidance notes, not the form itself.

Hi, Looking to bring my Thai sister-in-law to the UK for a visit. The UK Border Agency website seems to say Thai citizens can only apply online, but my wife's friends say you can print form VAF1B, fill it in and take it with you to Regent House in Bangkok and apply that way. Can't find the form to print, and I suspect if we apply online (ie on sister-in-law's behalf) it will be rejected as we are in the UK. Can anyone advise please?

Many thanks for the helpful replies, folks. Much obliged.

Hi. My Thai wife has her UK citizenship and is applying for a passport, but we don't have all the information asked for on the form. At the bottom of Section 4 it states; "If both parents... were born abroad, we will also need the full name, town, country, date of birth, and date of marriage of your grandparents" The fact is we simply don't know, so would an educated guess be enough? Can't really imagine the Passport Office contacting the amphur to check the details are correct. Thanks in advance for any advice or help.

Hi. can I ask you (or anyone else) how your application is going, please? The Home Office have just taken the money for my wife's application and we were wondering how long we might have to wait now for a decision. Like others here, we are looking to get a passport so we can start looking at holidays. Thanks very much for any advice or information.

One last thing, if I may? Can someone confirm the new cost of applying for naturalisation as the wife of a British citizen, please? I understand it changed on April 6th? Think I know the answer, but we've been getting in such a tizzy over all this, so it would be great if someone could confirm the price, please. Thanks very much indeed.

Many thanks for such a detailed reply. I'm pretty certain that both the wife and son will fail to meet the requirements, and my worry is that having applied as a family they will lose the entire application fee (about a Thousand Pounds, I think) In other words, if one fails, then all fail. Anyone know if this is true? Thanks for reading.

Briefly, my wife's friends are applying for naturalization as a family, but I think they are bound to fail. The husband on his own might be OK, as he has lived here for about 8 years. The wife has lived here just under 5 years, so might just scrape in? The husband's son (not her's) has only been here a few months, and I suspect he has no chance whatsoever. Even though they've applied as a family, I suspect if just one fails to meet the criteria all 3 will be refused. Is that right? Not sure about the referees they've included, either. Tried to tell them about these potential problems, but they don't seem to listen. Any thoughts or info would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Has your wife known the Teacher for over 3 years ? If so then yes that's OK. (did they first meet your wife over 3 years ago ?)

Yes, we've known the teacher for 3 years, so hopefully it will all be OK. Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

Hi. My wife is applying for UK Citizenship, and we're struggling a bit to find a "professional" person to sign as referee. Would a teacher be OK? Many thanks for any advice.

Funny this should come up again, as only today I got a reply to my email to the Italian Consulate-

(Trebilcock) My wife, son, and I wish to visit Italy for a short holiday (about one week) and are uncertain about the Visa requirements. My wife has a Thai Passport and a UK Residence Permit (Indefinite Leave to Remain) dated June 2007. We can also provide a marriage certificate in Thai and a certified English translation. Could you tell us, please, whether this is sufficient to enter Italy for tourism purposes, or whether my wife will need to apply for a Schengen Visa?

(Consulate) If your wife’s residence permit has the wording mentioned below, she may enter Italy without a visa, if not she will have to apply for one.

Type of Document – Residence Card of a Family Member of an EEA National

Just checked my wife's passport and the exact wording is simply "Residence Permit" so I guess we would need a visa if we still wanted to go to Italy. Hopefully, as your wife has only recently got her ILR, it will be the later type with the necessary wording. Hope this may be of some help.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but the Italian Miistry of Foreign Affairs have just emailed this-

I would like to inform you that according to EU Directive 2004/38/CE (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:158:0077:0123:EN:PDF ), family members of EU nationals who do not have the nationality of a Member State, but have the new residence permits issued by the British Home Office bearing the specific following indication:

"RESIDENCE DOCUMENTATION

Type of Document: Residence Card of a Family Member of an EEA National"

will not need a Schengen visa for a SHORT STAY in Italy if accompanied by the EEA National OR if travelling to join them. Bringing a copy of marriage certificate or proof of relationship is advisable.

I also found this on dear old Wiki-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residence_Card

My wife is in the UK on ILR and the stamp in her Thai passport is dated June 2007 and headed "Residence Permit" Slightly different to the "Resident Documentation" on Wiki, so I'm not sure it's the "New" one the Embassy mentions. Can anyone clarify, please? Much obliged for any help at all.