slimsam

I think Thai will be OK. We have submitted documents in Thai without any problems. They do actually employ Thai people at Embassy.

As no one has replied

Yes you can fill in the form and supply most of the paperwork but he will have to go to Bangkok to submit it.

Your biggest issue is providing convincing evidence of his reason to return to Thailand. I presume he does not have a regular job/family/business/etc. or he would not be able to get months off.

Best of luck

I am trying to assist a friend who has an 8 year old son and just wanted to confirm the process..

The form is completed online - but obviously not by the 8 year old ?

The form then has to be signed - by who ? the 8 year old ? Sponsoring parent (who is in the UK not Thailand) ? or his current carer (grandmother) ?

Then an appointment has to be made to take the boy and the documents to the UKVAC - who should accompany him ? Can't the documents just be posted ?

This must be a common situation and so why can UKBA be more clearer with their guidance !

Thanks if any body can offer some clear advice.

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 ?)

Hi,

here is an interesting proposal...

My wifes sister (thai national) is currently in a relationship with a Polish man who is resident in the UK. She is resident in Thailand. She comes here on a visitor visa (she has been before so should get this visa). While she is here she applies for a schengen visa and travels to Poland and marries him. She then applies for a visa under the EEA family visa scheme to stay here, in the UK.

Would that work ?

Just an idea.

SAM

If you read this page - http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ukreside...iontype/flr(m)/

titled "Completing application form FLR(M)"

It says "You must apply at least four weeks before the end of your authorised stay in the United Kingdom."

There may be other pages somewhere which say something different but I didn't find them. This is the main reason for my post so that other don't make the same mistake. I was very lucky and surprised at the willingness of the help the provided.

I am not totally against the Life in the UK test but I do think it is too difficult and contains alot of irelevant information. However its got to be done and so my wife will begin her Esol course next month.

Just to let people know what happened to me in case it may be relevant for others I will recount my story here.

My wife has a spouse visa. This expires on 28 Aug. Because she has not passed the 'Life in the UK Test' we had to apply for a Further Leave to Remain (FLR).

Because I am travelling to Brasil next week I could not let immigration have my passport and so we booked an appointment at Croydon PEO (lunar house).

So on Monday (18th Aug) we travelled down there. After queuing in the cattle pens outside for half an hour and then going through airport style security we arrived at the first counter.

I handed over our passports and the application form to the man behind the counter and waited. He then seemed to spend a long time looking at my wife's passport and studying his calendar.

I can't remember the exact wording but he then said something like - "You have come one day too early"

I obviously said "No I was told that you apply for an FLR 28 days before the expiry of your visa".

Him - "because you wife applying for an FLR instead of an ILR then she must do this within the time limits for the ILR. This means she cannot do so until 28 days before she is about to complete her 2 years probationary period. Your wife entered the country on 16th Sept and so counting 28 days back we arrive at the 19th August which is tomorrow".

Me - "but this was not discussed on the phone when I booked the appointment. I had to make two phone calls because I did not have my wife's entry date the first time I phoned so you knew the dates. You agreed to this date. If it should have been tomorrow then I could have come tomorrow but now I have taken a day off work and driven for nearly 3 hours to get here, what am I meant to do now."

Him - "I am sorry but the people who answer the phones are not trained as well as us and they do make mistakes. Look I have 3 complaint forms here already from mistakes they have made so far today"

Well as you can image I was getting a little bit stressed at that point so there were various things said which I don't remember and some more calendar counting. To be fair I did understand the point that he making. The granting of an FLR instead of an ILR was a discretionary thing and that this is different granting an FLR in order to extend the stay to meet the 2 year probationary period but if they had made that clear somewhere then I would have gone on Tuesday.

Anyway he did show some sympathy and suggested that he try to speak to a senior case worker to see what could be done.

After he had a long discussion on a telephone with someone they offered the compromise that they do 90% of the processing today but won't officially decide on it until tomorrow. So we did get to go upstairs, do the biometric stuff, hand over the evidence and so on. They took a copy of my passport and gave it back to me. They kept all other documents and my wife's passport and promised to process it tomorrow and return everything by post the next day.

They made it clear that although they had reviewed the evidence I had provided (20 letters, bank statements, etc.) and felt that it was strong they could not at that point state that it would be granted. It would be reviewed by a senior case worker tomorrow.

Anyway the good news is that they did keep their word and the FLR visa was granted and everything returned today.

We had asked for the full 2 years and got it. I am not sure what would have happened if we had been applying for an FLR to get the 2 years probationary period. Would they have only granted a short FLR to meet the 2 year rule and then expect you to apply for another FLR if you have not passed the test ?

It is all too complicated for no good reason really. The only thing I would say is that despite my worries beforehand the staff were actually polite and helpful and did come up with a solution so I do still count myself lucky in some respects.

Further note - If have a child from both of you then take the child's birth certificate. Although not listed in essential documents they seem to expect it. Luckily I had got an clue to this from someone else's story and so had it with me.

simple question - how long will they give a FLR for ?

My wife is not going to learn enough to pass the Life in UK test in the next few months and so we will have to go for a Further leave to remain.

At the current rate it will be a long time before she could take the test (may be years !). A friend of ours said they were given only an extra 3 months !

PS. Does search work on this forum? I tried searching FLR and other words but it always failed

My wife is currently here on Spouse Visa. This expires on 28 Aug 08. I was just going through the UK Border website and have read this page...

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ukreside...ageandlifeinuk/

In the list of people who can claim an exemption is this one...

- are applying for residence as a parent, grandparent or other dependant relative;

My wife is the parent of my son, who is now 10 months old, was born in the UK and so is a british citizen.

Does she therefore have the right to claim an exemption to the Life in the UK test ?

My wife's sister was just refused a visit visa. The main reason was lack of reason to return but funnily enough they also mentioned that we had not provided evidence of an on going relationship. It appears that simply saying they were close was not enough and so we have now provided evidence of phone calls and recent photos.

Best of Luck

So just to confirm I understand this correctly.

The adult will complete form AN and then for her son she will complete form MN1 sending them together with the relevant evidence.

Would the payment then be £655 for AN form and £400 for MN1 ?

She is married to a UK citizen but the son's father is Thai. They both have ILR.

The reason for asking is that the guide notes for NM1 form say ...

Where one or both parents are applying for British citizenship they may apply for one or more

children who are not automatically British at birth (see “Automatic acquisition of British

citizenship” above) to be registered as British citizens as part of a “family application”.

There is then no further information as to how this "family" application is made. There seems to be no place on either forms (NM1 or AN) to indicate that a family application is being made, as far as I can see.

Will people who are involved in getting visas for their families or partners be consulted on this ?

If so where can we express our views ?

or will it be like the last review which doubled visa costs without any apparent objections from those they consulted !

I think this is not a consultation this is the government saying "this is what we are going to do very soon".

Will £1000 will keep the terrorists out ?

Will reducing the stay from 6 to 3 months make any difference to those that intend to overstay anyway ?

So what is you stay illegally and lose £1000, for those wanting to come to the UK to work this is just an additional cost they will bear, after all the option for many is go home and earn nothing !

The Government can do nothing to stop those coming from the EU so it has to be seen to be doing something on immigration despite that the real strain on our health, education and wellfare services has come from EU immigrants.

forgive me if this question has been asked before but I can't find any answers using the search feature on this forum.

I am asking on behalf of a friend.

She has been in the UK for five years with her son who is 17.

How does she apply for UK citizenship for her and her son ?

She has taken the "life in UK test" and passed.

Can she apply as a family for both herself and her son ?

If so which form would she need to use ?

I have looked at the government BIA website but it is not clear to me.

Thanks

SAM

You say "We're hoping that she can stay here for several months this time ".

I am not sure you can do that.

When you apply for another visit it will start from the day it is granted. If you ask for it to be post dated on the grounds that you want a longer than six month stay I think they will reject it as it does not fit in with the intentions of the six month visitor visa program. that being maximum stay is six months.

I may wrong - any comments anyone ?

Teletiger,

A previous overstay would not be a barrier to getting a settlement visa (my wife overstayed for seven years and it was not a problem for the SV) but you would need to show that you can support your wife with either a guaranteed income from yourself with either a job or pension. You would also need to show that you have long term accomodation with either a rental agreement or a house you have purchased. Without these things you would probably get rejected.

A visitor visa might also get rejected on the grounds that your wife did not keep within the terms of the last visitor visa and you, as a UK citizen, may be assumed to be simply returning home. However if you can show sufficient proof that you do not intend to settle in the UK then you may stand a chance. This may be through showing return (or onward travel) air tickets and a copy of the visa your wife has obtained to enter Australia or New Zealand (better decide which as vague travel plans will not go too well). If you limited your stay in the UK to a few months that also may be more believable.

These are only my comments and I am not expert so you may wish to get more professional advice.

In my opinion having a "formal offer of a teaching job" is of significantly more value than no job at all. Unless you can show that you can support your partner (without recouse to public funds) then this will be a reason to refuse the visa. So unless you have 20K in the bank then coming back to the UK and getting a job is good advice. Not a defined requirement but good advice.

When getting divorced, how property and assets are divided up depends on where the divorce takes place not the wedding. I believe that it is advantageous for the man to get divorced in Thailand. (It is quicker and cheaper.)

PS. 50/50 split when getting divorced ? If only it were that simple. Usually it is 70 - 30 in the womens favour !

Boothy,

It seems to me that the simplest solution would be for you to come back to the UK and take up the job with the employer you have the email from. This would then show that you can support your partner financially in the UK.

You need to show proof of the ownership of the house (copy of the deeds) and letters confirming that the owner and the party residing in the house are happy for you and you partner to stay there on a long term basis.

You can then send this additional evidence to the ECM to see if they will accept this for the original application. If not you can then use this for another application or in the appeals process.

While the inappropriate questions are annoying they do not seem to form any part of the reason for rejection and so you should not concern yourself with them when pursuing this.

On a positive note I know a couple of people who have been granted a visa when at first they were rejected by simply supplying the documents that the Embassy said they needed see.

Best of Luck,

SAM

Anybody who thinks that the UK NHS is free, must be another freeloading ######, who's never paid national insurance tax.

Regards.

Im not sure if you might be indicating Im one of those but I can assure you I am not. I am someone who pays a large amount of Tax and NI.

The point I am making is that if you ask the average person in the UK if they think the NHS should be free they will immediately say yes. They will not even give a thought to the fact that actually it is not and they pay through taxes. They will also not think about this fact when they demand more hospitals, doctors, nurses, shorter waiting times, access to innovative drugs, etc.

My point is that may be when people appreciate that these things cost real money they might start to have more reasonable and realistic expectations.

This will also apply to Thailand in the long term (as they are now offering "free" health care). I just hope they have a good plan for controlling the spending.

Perhaps Gumball is basing his opinions on the UK NHS service which of course has been free for many years. We have seen the budget grow to become an enourmous black hole for money and yet people are still not happy with it. Long waiting lists, dirty hospitals, underpaid nurses, overworked doctors, the complaints list goes on. May be when something is percieved to be free we start taking it for granted ?

Only required if the VISA enables you to stay longer than 6 months.

One point worth mentioning which gets forgotten (or at least did by me) is that she will have to fill in a landing card before getting to immigration (Usually on the plane). Therefore she will need to know the UK address where she will be staying. Sounds obvious but if she is not used to writing this in English it is worth making sure she has it written down clearly so she can copy it.

Also sometimes they do not allow people to make calls to their partners who are waiting for them. You can however call Immigration using the internal phones at Heathrow. They may be able to tell you if she has been sent to the health centre. After waiting for an hour or two it nice to know that your wife hasn't got lost or accidentally got back on the plane !

best of luck.

My answer in italics

1. Can anyone recommend how we should go about gettng a flight for her? We're thinking of Friday next week BKK to LHR. Shold we book from an operator here of thru one in Thailand.. can anyone

recommend one?

> If you are in the UK you could book it through expedia. No ticket required when she books in. But You do need to provide her passport number when booking.

2. How does the visa work.. does she just show it at customs in BKK and Heathrow? How does it work?

Yes she just shows the Visa. Note she will also need to show her TB certificate. If it is packed in her luggage she will be sent off to health center and you will have to wait 3 to 4 hours at Heathrow not knowing where she is (just like I did last Saturday). She will also have to fill in Landing Card for which she will need to supply her address in the UK (in English of course).

3. Those of you who have been thru this before? TGF coming to London .. first time out of Thailand. Its going to be exciting for her but also scary.... Any advice for me/ us? I've only been in London 2 years.Nearly all my friends and family are in Newcastle. We are plannng trips up but not straight away.

If she has some Thai friend (or friends of friends) in the UK then arrange a meetting as it will help her alot to get the Thai perspective on the strange behaviour of English people. There are lots of other places to get good advice on the web as well.

Well done and best of Luck for the future.

I included six months bank statements and wage slips. No questions asked so they must have been happy with this.

For you I think the issue will be to show that you have guaranteed and steady employment for the future in the UK. May be a problem if you have just got back !

Not registering the marriage is another complication. I will let others advise on best options for this as I assume your partner cannot apply as a spouse.