Tony M

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.

That must have really scared them ! They won't do that again.

He's just a troll, playing with the word "tripping" (and failing), I think .

This received from UKVI/Home Office today. Six months processing time for UK settlement visas : We are writing to inform you that due to the humanitarian crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine, UKVI is prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications. This means that customers applying for other routes will experience some delays in the processing of their application. We have therefore made the decision to temporarily amend our Marriage and Family service standard to 24 weeks, from our usual service standard for this route of 12 weeks. This means you should get a decision within 24 weeks (120 working days) from the date you attended the Visa Application Centre to give your biometrics, rather than 12 weeks. We are working to reduce the current processing time as quickly as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. Where there are extremely compassionate or compelling circumstances (for example, a medical emergency), we may consider expediting specific cases. However, the bar for this is high and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. If your request is exceptionally urgent you can contact https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk for help. Please note that this is a chargeable service for overseas customers. For all other customers you will be contacted when a decision has been made and your passport is ready for collection at the Visa Application Centre.