Tony M

No judgement here, but I just saw a post on FB. The OP paid 7,420 THB for his wagyu tomahawk steak, and a total bill of a few THB under 16,000 THB, for two, I think, people, in Pattaya. I think that is expensive, but some obvioulsy do not. It's a restaurant that I have eaten in, a few years ago, but cannot afford to do so any more at those prices.

I had a similar problem with a UK fund company. I was fed up with having to obtain certified copies for every company that wanted me to confirm my identity. I argued for weeks, by email, and the company eventually froze my account, and refused to tell me how much the balance was in the account. I then contacted the FCA, who said that the complaint was not one of the type of complaints that they could take forward. They referred me to the financial-ombudsman org in UK. I contacted them, and they were very helpful, although they said that I had little chance of winning. My complaint was,essentially, that the money-laundering legislation did not insist that I provide certified copies of any document, but only that the company had to be satisfied about my identity. My argument was that, in view of the fact that the company had been corresponding with me by post and by email for 20 years, they should already be satsified about my identity. I informed the company that, if they still had doubts about my identity, I would provide certified copies at their expense. To my suprise, and the finacial ombudsman's office's surpise, the company agreed and paid for the certified copies on production of a paid receipt.

The answer to your prayers. You might be able to use this service. The quoted fee (a mere 20,000 THB) doesn't include the "travel cost" for the VFS staff to pop in to see your in-laws. https://visa.vfsglobal.com/tha/en/gbr/on-demand-mobile-visa

Try this company. Good reputation. https://www.facebook.com/pneung.neung

Apologies, you are correct. It looks like no visa ever ! See FritsSikkink's post above. It looks like the visa ban is permanent. THis all changed a couple of years ago, it seems. I'm out of touch !!!!!

You will need to know when she got out of prison. Any visa application must be refused unless 10 years have passed since the end of the sentence. Unless there is an exceptional reason why a visa should be issued. Here is the guidance on criminality Criminality.pdf

Of course it's potentiallly dangerous. But is it any more dangerous than 10 people or more in the back of a pick-up, or 3 or 4 people on a motorcycle ? It looks a bit like a "tourist tax", as I doubt if many, or any, locals will be fined for doing it. But easy money when it's busy time on the roads.

I'm surprised they didn't go on Sunday, then !

As said by theoldgit, it could be 90 days or 30 days. Whichever it is, it can be extended if you don't, or can't, travel, and the cost is around 200 GBP for the application to extend.

It was, and is, maintained. If you don't know, then please don't badmouth out condo building. Why would you do that ?

Yes, the sprinklers work. Was my earlier post not clear ?

We have annual testing of fire appliances, attended by the Pattaya Fire Department, and the sprinklers are tested to ensure that they are in working order. Not all of them, of course, as that would be a wet weekend.

We have sprinklers in Jomtien Beach Condo. Not only do we have them, they are tested regularly. The condo is 20 years old, so no reason why older buildings shouldn't also have sprinkler systems.

Good. There have been fireworks almost every night since Christmas on Jomtien Beach, near Soi 9 and 10. Really annoying at times. I'm really surprised that the Police Station, just along the road, couldn't hear them or see them :)

I'm interested in that reality. How would someone on a visit visit successfully apply for ILR and residency ?

It is confusing. Perhps the best way to look at is, use approx 180 days in a 12-month "rolling" period. So when the first entry starts, try to keep the total in the following 12 months to a level that will not get the ECO concerned. So after that visit, if there are no further visits in, say the following 2 years, then the rolling 12 - months will start again when the next visit is started. Total up the number of days in that rolling 12 month period. Obviously you cannot carry over unused days in the 12-month period to the next rolling 12-month period.

Unless the new visa starts the day after the current visa expires, there will be a "gap", and the holder must leave by the expiry date on the current visa. Until you get the visa in the passport, you will not know what date the ECO has put for starting the validity, despite what you might ask him to do. He might start the visa a day later than you want ? Hard to say what will happen.

It's an interesting question, I think. There is nothing to stop you applying for a new 5-year visa even when the current visa is still valid (within 3 months of travel, of course). But, I believe that you cannot have two valid visit visas with different expiry dates running concurrently. That could cause all sorts of problems. If you had already been in the UK for one month on the first visa, and then stayed 6 months on the second visa, you might be considered to be living in the UK, or trying to make the UK your main home. I think that, if the new application is granted (and it could be refused for whatever reason, of course) then the current visa will be curtailed (not cancelled, but curtailed) to end before the second visa starts. That would possibly mean that the visa holder must exit the UK on the current visa before entering the UK on the new visa. On the second question, it is possible to apply for an extension of stay, past the expiry date of the visa validity, if the holder has not been in the UK for 6 months. For instance, if the holder arrived in the UK one week before the validity expiry date, he could apply for an extension of 5 months and 3 weeks. But bear in mind that if the holder has already recently spent time in the UK, the decision-maker will be looking at it closely. The cost of that extension application is just 1,000 GBP (yes, 1,000).

I have just seen one, biometrics done at Trendy Building on 30th August, issued two days ago.

I wonder why it applies only to NHS and care workers. Anyone who works pays NI contributions, which go towards NHS care, I think. So visa holders who don't work for NHS, etc have to, effectively, pay twice (the IHS fee and NI contributions).

Why is that, and how does it work ?

I think that, if you pay with Thai bank card, you just pay the quoted THB fee. That is still above the the UK GBP published price, I think, but it might be a better deal.

There is a new (additional) complaints procedure (started just a couple of months ago), It is called the "Independent Examiner of Complaints", and is, I believe, the first time that an outside organisation has been able to look at complaints against immigration decisions. It can only be used after you have received a final decision on any complaint to the UKVI, so you will need to get a final written response from UKVI's own complaints unit as to why they have denied your complaint. This is the link : https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-a-complaint-to-the-independent-examiner-of-complaints

I believe that you pay for full years, so you are paying for 3 years of IHS. You could ask the UKVI why this is so ? Maybe they have computers that cannot calculate 624 x 2.9 ? You cannot pay in GBP, unlike paying for a UK passport. Again, you could ask the UKVI why this is so. The question has actually been asked many times, but the UKVI response is never convincing. There is a new (additional) complaints procedure (started just a couple of months ago), It is called the "Independent Examiner of Complaints", and is, I believe, the first time that an outside organisation has been able to look at complaints against immigration decisions. It can only be used after you have received a final decision on any complaint to the UKVI, so you would probably need to get a written response from UKVI as to why they won't allow UK sponsors to pay the published visa fee price in GBP without exchange rates from THB or $US. Your complaint would, I think, have to be about "poor service". This is the link : https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-a-complaint-to-the-independent-examiner-of-complaints Mods: I've made a new thread about the new complaints procedure, if that is okay.

I don't think that the "incognito" winndow allows incognito surfing. All it does, I believe, is not record your website history on your PC or phone. Your surfing. and the sites you visit, is still logged at the ISP. You are not surfing without leaving traces.