Hels812

I brought two cats back to the UK with me earlier this year. The procedure is practically identical for cats and dogs. Read my thread here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/683231-bringing-a-cat-from-thailand-to-uk/ or feel free to send me a pm with further questions.

Good luck, it will be worth it!

For the initial settlement visa we spent LOADS on getting documents translated. As we were applying for the unmarried partner visa we had to get loads of docs translated to prove we'd lived together for 2 years. Adding to that a birth certificate and degree certificate (not actually needed for the visa I know but best to get translated before moving to the UK) and bank statements (used as part of the financial requirement) and a couple of letters from Thai friends and family verifying our relationship. I think we spent about 8,000 baht in total.

There are quite a lot of us in & around London.

How old are you guys & where are you based?

We're staying with my parents just south of London in Surrey at the moment. Once we've found our feet/jobs we'll be looking to move into (probably south) London. He's 28 and i'm 27.

Hi everyone! My Thai boyfriend and I have just moved to the UK. We don't know any other Thai/foreign couples here, so if anyone is in or around London it'd be great to chat.

Helen

Yes, Jamie55 we got the blood serum done at Ari Pet Hospital. I'd printed the forms from the lab and took them along (sent them to Biobest in the UK). There wasn't too much info to fill in, but you do need the vet to sign some of it. And just make sure the serum samples are clearly labelled. Dr Maytee charged 2,500 baht for the serum sample.

We flew back to the UK last weekend, and the cats have settled in really well and are enjoying the sunshine! Makes all the hard work (and money!) getting them here worth it.

Our unmarried partner settlement visa was approved last week! Anyone preparing applications, feel free to message me any questions.

• Submitted visa on 11th April.

Email from the ECO on 6th May saying that we didn't meet the financial requirement. Emailed back politely telling them that they'd made a mistake.

Email from the ECO on 12th May apologising for the mistake calculating the financial requirement funds, but they can't accept the TOEIC certificates we submitted for the English language requirement. Sent several emails back explaining why they should accept the TOEIC certificates. Never had any reply.

5th June, took the BULATS test.

11th June, collected the BULATS score sheets and took them straight to VFS.

16th June, a decision has been made on your visa

18th June, collected the passport from VFS, VISA APPROVED!

Just for the record.....

We went with World Wide Visa and Translation http://visaandtranslation.com/site/contact/?lang=en in the end, mostly because they were quite a bit cheaper than MBK Translation and Thai Visa Express. They charged 250-300 baht for a standard document (birth cert, marriage cert etc) and the costs of other documents were assessed individually and we were given quotes. As we applied for a "unmarried partner" visa, we had to submit more documents than a regular spouse visa as we had to prove that we had been living together for 2 years etc. So due to the shear number of document that we needed translating, it did work out to be quite a bit cheaper. As far as we know the translations are all ok and have been accepted by the embassy (we're still waiting for the visa because of a problem with the English language test), however the translations were of pretty bad quality. They were obviously translated by someone Thai and weren't checked by a native speaker. A lot of the mistakes I could forgive, but a lot were just plain lazy....she'd write the dates wrong, she spelt my partner's name wrong, and spellings of Thai names weren't spelt consistently throughout the document. We had to literally spend hours painstakingly going through each page looking for mistakes, highlighting and correcting said mistakes, scanning the documents and emailing them back to be corrected.

So I do see pasak's point that it seems kind of pointless paying a company to do something that you could do better yourself, but I wouldn't risk jeopardizing the visa for the sake of trying to save a few thousand baht!

I'm taking two cats back to the UK next month. They'll be travelling in the cargo and i need to find two IATA approved pet travel cases. Does anyone know of a store in Bangkok that sells them? Or does anyone have a second hand one/two for sale? I want to get them asap so the cats can get used to them before we travel.

Yes, the tests are from ETS. I thought ETS was the only TOEIC tester?

Thanks for the reply Tony M. I read that today as well, although wasn't sure if it really applied to us as we're a. not applying in Japan and b. not applying for a student visa. I wrote a pretty firm email back to the ECO, but the trouble is I'm sure the decision isn't in their hands, but are waiting for some decision to be made higher up. Totally frustrating as we've been told this is the only thing standing in the way of the visa being granted.

There are several things about this situation that have really made me angry....

• During the application process you are repeatedly told that any documents and information that you submit must be true at the time the application was submitted (as you rightly pointed out bobrussell). In this case this is absolutely true, as at the time of our application the TOEIC test was an approved English language test.
• On the 17th April (which was only a few days after our application was submitted) it was made public that the TOEIC test would no longer be an approved language test. That is all well and good, but GIVE PEOPLE SOME WARNING! If they had said that this would have come into effect on 30th April/May, then it would have given people a chance to change their applications.
• It is impossible to find any information on the gov.uk website. Even searching today (12.05.14) the TOEIC test is still listed as an approved English language test https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/304853/approved_english_language_tests.pdf. The only thing I was able to find was posted on facebook and I have attached it for you to read. It states that any test taken after 5th April will not be accepted. Our tests were taken in January, so what's the problem?
• They don't know when they will come to a decision as to whether they will accept cases like ours. Maybe this week, maybe next month....

I was hoping to find anyone else who is in the same situation as us. Did you apply between 6th and 17th April and are relying on the TOEIC test to satisfy the English language requirement? Have you been told anything else by your ECO?

Thanks durhamboy, we panicked when we first read the email, but I emailed them back clearly labelling the accounts and funds and the ECO emailed back today saying that it was all ok (and even apologised for their mistake!).

But then he dropped the bombshell....sorry i should have told you this in my last email but you used TOEIC to satisfy the English language requirement, and we no longer accept TOEIC. They don't seem to care that we applied on the 11th April, and the decision to stop using TOEIC was made public on the 17th April. I'm absolutely fuming, they can't make a decision and then retrospectively apply it to visa applications that have already been submitted! They're apparently awaiting guidance on how to proceed with cases like ours, but can't give us any information on how long this will take. They just suggest that we might want to take a different English language test!

Is anyone else in the same boat as us? I'm tempted just to take another test, maybe BULATS, but it seems ridiculous to have to do this. Also after taking the test, it takes 3 weeks to get the certificates, just further delaying the visa being granted.

We applied for a settlement visa, and submitted all documents on the 11th April. Received an email today saying that the application falls to be refused because we do not meet the financial requirement, and our application is being put on hold until the courts have decided the outcome of the Secretary of State's appeal.

We are meeting the financial requirement through cash savings, and i have checked and checked the amounts and we definitely have and submitted proof that we have cash savings in excess of £62,500 which have been in our control for the past 6 months. Now, on the letter from the ECO, they state that we only have £49,141, but i really don't know where they got this figure from. I'm guessing that the ECO made a mistake when adding the money that is in several different accounts. Although when i add together money from the different accounts i can never make £49,141 exactly.

Anyway, my question is this: The letter states that we have 3 weeks to submit additional data to prove that we do in fact meet the income requirement. However, we don't need, and don't have any more documents as they were all submitted with the original application. What have other people done in this situation when it is simply a mistake of the ECO? It'd be easiest to just speak with the ECO directly, but of course there's no contact number at all!

Thanks in advance, this settlement visa process really is just one big expensive headache!

The processing times on the gov.uk website have finally been updated! Our documents were submitted on 11th April, so hoping our wait won't be too long.....

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/general-info/processing-times/#resultTableAnchor

Thanks Tony M, I don't have any specific concerns, i'd just like to hear some success stories! I'm pretty certain that we meet all the requirements, most importantly that we have lived together for the past two years and we meet the financial requirement.

Hello, we're in the process of gathering the documents to apply for an unmarried partner settlement visa. I've been doing a lot of research online, but everyone seems to be married already. Is there anyone out there who has applied/is applying for a settlement visa and is an unmarried partner? It would sure make me a little more confident if I knew that there were more people like us out there, and that your applications were successful.

None of the documents needed to be translated unless it has changed recently.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that all documents must be in English.

We are applying for the unmarried partner visa and need to prove that we have been living together for the past 2 years. To do this we are submitting a variety of documents linking us to the same address. The house tenancy agreement is 100% in Thai, other documents such as bank/credit card/internet/tv statements all have the address in Thai and so need to be translated.

As it turns out MBK Translation does still exist, they are just renovating their website at the moment. We're going to email them all the documents and they will give us a quote and take it from there.

Unless the rules have changed in the last 10 months or so, a birth certificate (translated or otherwise), isn't required as part of a UK settlement visa application.

Thanks, i was already aware of this. However, I had been advised that it is best to get it translated before going to the UK (and so might as well include it in the visa documents), as it will most probably be required in the UK for something, and so will be a lot cheaper and easier to get it translated now than in the UK.

Does anyone have experience with this company? http://www.visaandtranslation.com/index.php

Thought I'd update as we seem to be on track with everything at the moment.

• Got the rabies vaccine on 11th January. After some research decided to use Ari Pet Hospital. Dr Maytee seems very knowledgeable and speaks great English.
• Got the serum blood test on 22nd February. This whole process took about an hour. The vet was very keen to use an agent to send the samples (yes two samples, we're now taking two cats with us....long story) and said he didn't know of anyone who had sent them themselves. The agent was quoting 15,000 baht per sample, so this would have cost us a sweet 30,000 baht just to get the rabies certification. We politely declined and said that we wanted to do it ourselves. Dr Maytee helped us fill in the paperwork I had already prepared for Biobest Laboratories in the UK. I had read from some forums that some people had had difficulty sending blood serum samples through the Thai post. Apparently DHL won't accept blood samples so we enquired at TNT, who quoted 12,500 baht to courier the package to the UK plus they needed to email us many forms to fill out. So we decided to risk the Thai post, and ran to the post office before it closed at 12:00. They accepted the package no problem, and EMS cost 1,100 baht. The next part went fantastically quickly. The package left Thailand the evening of the 22nd, arrived in the UK on the 23rd and was safely delivered to the lab on the 24th! On the 28th I received an email with a scan of the rabies test certificates (both cats passed thankfully) and we received the original certificates in the post the next week. So all in all I thoroughly recommend doing it all yourself, as it works out at about a third of the cost!

So now I believe it's just a waiting game. Waiting three months then getting the third country health certificates issued before they can travel!

I'm in the process of gathering all of the documents for the UK settlement visa. Some of these documents (birth certificate, tenancy agreements etc.) need to be translated from Thai to English. A friend of mine had used and recommended MBK Translation, but now the website and email address no longer exist, so I assume the company has closed. Can anyone confirm this? And/or recommend another company to use? Thanks in advance!

Update...

Got the cat microchipped about a week ago and just got the certificate through the post today. Went to the Ladkrabang Animal Hospital and only cost 530 baht. However, although they can implant microchips it turns out they don't actually have a microchip scanner (!) so we can't go back there for the rabies vaccine as they need to scan and record the cat's microchip number before giving the vaccine. I think we'll go to Thonglor Animal Hospital as they seemed pretty knowledgeable on the phone as to what was required (although a little more expensive than other places). Anyone think I've missed anything here? It's my understanding we need to do the rabies vaccine next, then wait 21 days and get the blood serum sample taken.

I also contacted some agents for quotes, the lowest quote I got back was from United Relocations for $1,950. This still seems pretty expensive, especially seeing as we still have to do most of the hard work ourselves, so am going to try and do it without an agent...

This has to be a joke. Get another cat in the UK.

What's a joke? That I'm attached to the cat I've had for over 3 years? I still have the Western mentality that pets are part of the family...

Thanks for all your quick replies, I'll look into all the links and try to get the ball rolling. I was hoping I would be able to do it without using a specialist company, as I live fairly close to BKK airport and my parents live very close to Gatwick (and I'm pretty sure you can fly animals into both Gatwick and Heathrow) so transporting the cat to and from the airport wouldn't be too much of a problem. But if all the paperwork proves very tricky it may be worth paying to have it all taken care of.

It probably won't happen until mid 2014 so I do have some time get things done (actually date all really depends on my partner's visa), just know I need to start looking at the microchipping and rabies vaccine/blood test well in advance! I'll update with any progress.

Hi all, I'm planning on returning to the UK next year and want to bring my cat with me. I've tried to research as much as I can but am finding it difficult to find concise information. I'm hoping someone who has been through the process before can help me with a timeline of what they did, so I can use it for reference. I'm also finding it difficult to gauge just how expensive it will be. I know that the airport shipping costs is measured partly on weight/size of the animal, and as my cat is very small (not sure of her length measurements etc. right now, but she weighs just under 3.5kg) I'm assuming that will save me some money there. Can anyone with recent experience also help me out with how much I have to pay for the cat to be released (by customs I think) at Heathrow or Gatwick? Are there any more hidden charges anywhere in the process that I haven't read about yet?!

Also wondering if anyone has any recommendations for vets to get the microchip and blood sample taken. I'm based in Chachoengsao, so any vets in the Bangkok/Chonburi area will probably be most convenient.

If this helps at all here's a little background info:

3 year old mixed breed neutered female (she was neutered at a local vets so I don't have any paperwork confirming the operation, does anyone think this will be a problem/Is it easy enough to get the required paperwork elsewhere?)

Fully vaccinated (again at a local vets, but have the stickers from the vaccines stuck in the cat's health book with vet's certification number)

I would be very grateful if anyone's able to help me out here. I've read a fair amount about people bringing dogs back to the UK but it's been difficult to find much about cats!