Waterloo

I did revise the letter before I sent it and did shorten it a little.. Good point that I also thought of too.. I got it down to 2 pages... Left the visa agent part in unfortunately but wish I hadn't, also a good point.. Thanks

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

I think you could still shorten it by at least a third to make it scan better, he doesn't need to know all about your business or how tall your wife is.

It is always a good idea to keep these letters brief & to the point even more so with David Blunket being blind.

I dare say 7by7 is right, but if no one complains then the politicians can say no complaints = no problems.

Hi Stuart

Having read your letter, I think it requires a little shortening to be more effective.

Personally I would delete things like reference to the visa agent, this is superfluous to why you are writing to the MP.

Stick to the relevant points, don't send him to sleep.

Dear all

I want to update you regarding the latest for my girlfriend and her tourist visa.

Thanks to the advice from Tony M at Thai Visa Express we have been able to get the original rejection overturned. My girlfriend now has her visa for the full three months we requested

I would certainly recommend Thai Visa Express to anyone else who might require a good and honest visa service.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Dear Jamie

Glad to here it's worked out for you, it's always nice when someone has the courtesy to come back & update people.

Wishing both of you every happiness in the future.

Its seems the OP's post overlapped with mine.

His gf was awarded her visa. Yes, you can't appeal but you can point out certain things to ECO's which the OP seems to have done rather successfully with advice from Tony M at Thai Visa Express.

Well done OP

RAZZ

As Razzell has said you can't appeal, you make a fresh application addressing the issues that the previous application failed on.

When my Thai wife accompanied me on a trip back to the UK a few years ago, we both joined the "All Other" queue at LHR - only for both the woman at the front of the queue directing people to free IOs and our IO himself to inform us that we could have gone through via the much quicker EC/EEA queue together!

If only it had been a similar arrangement upon our subsequent return to BKK

you can go through Thai channel with your wife. Done it many times

Same Same, always queued in the Thai Que with the other half even before we were married.

In fact the first time we traveled to Thailand together to tell her mother we were getting married a Border officer invited me to join her in the Thai Que as we were obviously travelling together, even when I informed her we were not married.

I have always found Thai border control extremely accommodating when it comes to maters of family & couples married or not.

It's, I understand, unofficial; but if the IO's on duty at the UK/EEA desk are willing, she can enter via there with you; which is usually quicker.

I suggest her joining the Non EEA queue while you go and ask at the UK/EEA desk, and then either joining her or fetching her depending on their answer.

7by7 suggestion never occurred to me, before we were married I just queued with the then Girlfriend in the non uk/eu Que never had a problem.

Despite what some might think it is not all about the oldest profession.

A couple of years ago the Mother in law visited to help out just after the birth of our second child and She was held by immigration for an hour.

As she is approaching 60 I am pretty sure they didn't suspect her of coming to the UK to go on the game.

With hindsight it was partly our fault as she speaks no English & could not communicate effectively.

In future we will always provide her with a letter of explanation for her visit and mobile phone numbers so the Border officer can speak with one of us.

7by7 very sorry to read about your current situation, a truly terrible position to be in.

Reading your post, if you go for a visitor visa how will you deal with the reason to return in this case ?

From what you describe I assume it is entirely possible that your sister in laws health could have deteriorated to a point were travel is no longer possible by the time she would be scheduled to return.

I truly hope this is not an issue and you find a way forward.

In our case my Thai spent 25 years abroad and is having a very difficult time readjusting to Thailand, it's been 15 months and is still a daily challenge, I was "home" in a matter of weeks.

We have a home in Canada and a small property in the UK. It was always the plan to "winter" in Thailand but I've fallen in love with the country all over again and keep delaying travel. I don't know if I can ever cut my ties with the homeland because of family, perhaps in 20 years when some have passed on it will change things there.

I doubt we will ever be "all in" as our money is abroad and whatever home we want is only a plane ride away, medical issues would be a game changer for me though and we wouldn't burn any bridges for that reason.

We also arrived here young enough to be active in our Thai families daily life & I've bonded with my nieces and nephews better than I could have ever imagined.

The one problem I had was lack of friends, a social network, however that has changed quickly and I've met some great people here

I'm with David48, enjoy the best of both worlds, if they'd only lower the price of wine I'd be in paradise.

Yes we are spoiled with the price of wine at home, always a shock when in country

It'll never happen.

I don't intend to remain here forever

I most certainly don't intend to settle down with a Thai woman

For all of my homeland's woes, I owe much of what I am and what I have to the realm and the notion of cutting ties to that in favour of a country where the law is but a suggestion and an education of any acceptable standard is a privilege is, frankly, unthinkable.

Yes I love living in Thailand. I still find its pros outweigh its cons by a very comfortable ratio but I can never forget my first, true love; Great Britain.

God Save The Queen

Yes the constant bashing of the home country gets very tiring, the UK has been very good to us and the Wife is very comfortable here.

Mate ... great OP ...

For me ... I doubt I'll ever burn the return bridge.

For me ... my Thai Partner and our Kids future remain split between the two countries ... the two cultures.

I wish our kids to enjoy the 'Best of both Worlds' ... the freedom and tastes of Thailand, but the rigor and education of the West.

So, the reply is not of a man who will retire here ...

But also, the bridge to Thailand will never be burnt ... because, where else can I be the 'Hunsum Man' ...

Yes Honey ... I'm washing the nappies now ... no honey ... I not play Thai Visa ...

.

Same Same, we have a good life here in the UK and are determined to give our 2 young children the best of both worlds.

To that end they will be spending 2 months with Yai in June & July to help there multi lingual skills, going to miss them like hell but it is very important to both myself & there Mother.

Come retirement we intend to chase the summer and split our time evenly between the 2 countrys.

I don't think that she would be entitled to pension credit, or any other means tested benefit, if she wasn't a UK resident; i.e. you and she retire to Thailand. Happy to be proven wrong on that, though.

The state pension is, as you say, a right; provided she has paid or been credited with sufficient contributions, and will be paid wherever she lives in her retirement. (Though not indexed link in many countries, including Thailand. But that's another topic.)

Of course, if she 'signs on' she wont get any contribution based JSA as she hasn't made any NI contributions, and she wont get any JSA either, even if you are yourself on a very low income, as that is on the list of proscribed public funds until she has ILR.

So the only reason for her doing so would be to get NI contribution credits.

But were she to do so, she would have to be available for work, complete a job search record to show each fortnight when she attends the job centre, attend any job interviews the job centre arrange for her, have acceptable reasons for refusing any job offers etc.

Edit;

Indeed, I'm not sure that she would be entitled to NI credits anyway until she has ILR.

Last year I had 32 months of child benefit NI credits transferred from my name to my wife's name despite her only being on ILR for 4 months of that time & FLR for the rest.

I wrote an accompanying letter with my completed form CF411A and was extremely explict about her dates of achieving FLR & ILR as the accompanying guidance notes weren't particularly clear on this point.

Many thanks for all the useful comments. She does already have an NHS number which, as Bob Russell says, is different from an NI number. So the only real issue is pension entitlements. Assuming that she never works, gets her British citizenship and I die first, would she not then be entitled to pension credit - also assuming she continues to live in the UK? Presumably she could get an NI number then if it is required.

Not sure what you mean by pension credit, but if you mean widows pension they are now a thing of the past your wife needs to have her own record of contributions.

There are no pensions to claim 'later', they are only earned based on one's own contributions.

There are likely to be bereavement benefits 'later' and the DWP will issue a NI number at that stage.

Personally, i can't see the point in getting one if she does not intend to work and I doubt that HMCR will issue one - I am happy to stand corrected on that if anyone has evidence to the contrary.

Benefits of NI number.

1 You can sign on as 'job seeking' and have your NI payments made for you.

2 You can make voluntary NI payments (which is the cheapest and best investment ever)

Agreed did a fag packet calculation of contributions against benefits and compared it against my private pension forecasts, remarkably cheap by comparison.

Also remember as long as she makes the required contributions she does not need to remain in the UK when she claims her pension under current legislation.

It will of course not be indexed linked if she returned to Thailand as it would be if she stayed in the UK.

This is a long running topic in the pension forum.

You will not find a cheaper way to provide for your wife's retirement assuming she is young enough to acquire enough contributions

As stated earlier probably your biggest consideration is her possible future entitlement for a state pension, for which she will shortly need 35 years of NI contributions for a full pension.

If she cannot achieve 35 years of contributions due to her age then her entitlement will be prorated based on contributions made.

She does not need to be working to make contributions as per my previous post, despite what some people say about this not being important I personally think it is potentially critical depending on your circumstances.

I urge you to look into this further, it is a weight of my mind that my wife under the current rules will only be short about 6 months of contributions which we intend to back pay so she is entitled to a full state pension in her own right when she reaches state retirement age.

Durham

I suspect the answer is yes but it would depend on both you & your wife's circumstances I do not pretend to be an expert on this subject.

I also do not believe working is a pre-requisite for an NI number, people need to realise that entitlement to a state pension is contribution based on an individuals contributions.

Your wife does not necessarily need to be working to be earning contributions.

a) You could be making voluntary contributions on her behalf http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ni/volcontr/basics.htm I have included a link here for you

b)If you are entitled to child benefit and are not working the goverment pay your NI contributions http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/start/claiming/protect-pension.htm

In our case the wife has not worked for the last 3.5 years since our little boy was born, during this time I have been in full time employment & not needed the contributions.

In this circumstance it is possible to transfer the contributions to earn future pension entitlement.

I was a bit slow on this not being aware of this but was still able to back claim 18 months contributions on the wifes behalf & as a result she now has 3.5 years of pension entitlement despite not working for the last 3.5 years.

depending on your circumstances this may or not be any help

as a gentleman one refrains from commenting

how many readers believe their girlfriend / wife would have still choose them for a partner had he had to openly compete in the west in the real world?

None, unless they're deluded, in which case we will soon find them in the " The Thai wife left me the minute she got her visa/after stealing all my money" section.

Some of us did openly compete in the west in the real world, for our wives, thank you very much

Wow you mean your future wife was a beautiful educated rich successful and talented professional with full visa and she fell for someone who believe finding love is a free for all ?

Current wife thankyou

As far as I know, circumcision is not normally practiced in Thailand. Nor is it normally practiced in Western countries, with the exception of certain religious minorities.

Here's the ranking table.

http://www.photius.com/rankings/circumcised_men_country_ranks.html

The US is way up there with 80%

I find it interesting that the OP

1. defined the group that he wanted to have replies from

and

2. also "policed" the answers, giving just a few "positive" rankings, and by implication all the rest neutral or negative ranking.

Now, if we take group 1, where he only wants replies from those in the same situation as he is, I regard as bordering on immoral and displays a lack of empathy towards the potential subjects of this medically unnecessary operation.

Maybe we can take an example from the recent news of the Thai owned but Burmese crewed fishing boats. If the Thai captains got together and discussed how they treated the crew, they would quite possibly all agree and condone the routine subhuman treatment of the poor Burmese slaves. But if you asked the Burmese how they felt, the answer would be quite different.

The group to select for opinions should be those who, in childhood, were routinely and unnecessarily circumcised. If, out of this group, you found just one male who regretted that it had been done, then it is very clear, IMO, that it should NEVER be done without a medical justification.

The operation is essentially irreversible. Anybody in the group of uncircumcised men who wished it HAD been done, has that option open his entire life.

Give the children the right to decide themselves.

That is morally the only acceptable action.

Interesting though Australia is way up there at almost 60% and were is the OP going to be raising his Boys?

I've gotta stop reading these same old stories.

Does my head in just thinking about them.

+1

Whilst the wife and I enjoyed both series of lady boys, personally I have a deep mistrust of how a media company would treat this subject matter!

Our little boy is rapidly approaching 3 1/2 and when he was born in the UK the thought of having him circumcised never crossed my mind and I'm pretty sure it never crossed the wife's mind.

At least if it did she certainly never mentioned it and she doesn't tend to be shy in coming forwards if she has something on her mind.

My father in his mid 70's was cut as I believe was common for his generation, but my parents did not have the procedure carried out on me.

His Yai has bathed him many times whilst in Thailand and never voiced an opinion on this matter.

Unlike some posters, done young enough I don't think the procedure is particularly cruel but I see no benefit so why even consider it?

From my perception, the clear majority of Scots would rather stay in the Union. The trouble is that if they all think that, they may not bother turning up to vote.

The Secessionists are quite passionate, so they will definitely turn out.

Could be interesting.

inclined to agree

Same scenario when they have votes in the states on gun control.

Okay Chaps,

We have an appointment booked 10.00am on Thursday, do you think we should just get there really early then???

randall you say you got their for 6 - 7 am, it gets that busy??? Was thinking of getting there for around 8.00am

What do you think?

Alan

Personally I think 6 - 7 am is to early we usually try to get there before the door is open and in the 4 times we have been there in the last 7 years we have always been done and dusted same day.

If memory serves our worst experience was about 2 1/2 hours so why Que outside for 3 hours in the possible rain?