steve187

I am 51 now, I left England in 1989. I worked from the age of 17 to 31. Will I be eligible for a UK pension when I'm old enough for the time I worked? Anyone in a similar situation or have any good advice. Cheers.

I'm just working out my position on a similar basis (I'm 40 with 20 years stamp paid, 2 years missing).

30 years stamp is needed to get full pension at 65. you can pay up for lost years i.e years when you paid no stamp and it works out about £600 for each year (at least for me - not sure if rate is different for each individual). I'm trying to find out if there is a time limit for how many years you can back pay.

You can get an individual pension forecast by contacting Inland Rev/Customs & Excise and forms to pay up extra stamp.

Hi voluntary N I stamps are payable at the following rates 2007/08 £7.80, 2008/09 £8.10, 2009/10 £12.05, both of you can buy these weekly stamps and make up your pension rights, yes a maximum of 30 years stamps are needed and any less years paid are worked out on a pro rota basis, so if 30 years of contributions can not be achieved by paying voluntary stamps until you reach 65 (or 67 in a younger persons case), then buy back some missed years. to make up the 30 years,

phitsanulokjon you have plenty of time to pay enough stamps to get a full pension at 67, sk1max not sure if you will have enough stamps so you may have to buy some year/years back

here is some information taken from the telegraph in may 2006 - (The state retirement age, which is set to be 65 for men and women by 2020, will rise to 66 between 2024 and 2026, to 67 between 2034 and 2036 and to 68 between 2044 and 2046.)

pension forecasts can be obtained on line

If your wife comes to the uk on a 6 month tourist visa, she could sit and pass the knowledge of language and life in the United Kingdom test, then on her return to thailand she would then be able to apply for ILE instead of a spouse 2 year settlement visa. As to children on your passport as far as I am aware this is not allowed now and all children must have their own passport,

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Am off to the Embassy today!

Not quite sure what I'm going to do when I get there, will play it by ear I think.

The Appeal forms are well complicated so I am seriously considering getting a company to do it for me. I know it's deemed as being a waste of money as most people can do it them selves but at this stage, I don't want any mistakes!! I am savy enough to check whatever is done by a paid company so am not too worried about mistakes slipping through.

Does anyone have a company they have used and can recommend?

We're in Bangkok so someone local would be good.

When my wife was turned down on the first application in 2006, I thought about appealing, but the time it takes was out of the question, 6 or more months, so we waited a month or so, corrected/addressed all the problems raised by the ECO, and then re-applied which was successful, I think that by doing that we saved many months of waiting. just my thoughts on the matter.

I wont mind paying the Hull consulate a fee for my visa they are the most helpful consulate I have ever come across ande just hope that they stay in business

I agree Hull staff and very friendly, helpful and offer a fast turn around postal service.

If you check into a hote in the UK you don't have to show any identification. However, some hotels have, of their own volition, requested that if you are paying cash, you show some form of ID. This does not have to be too strenuous.

Immigration issues are dealt with at the borders.

However, I don't think it is too onerous or too much of an imposition to give a hotel your details but it is what the hotel does with them or the authorities do with them, particularly in a corrupt country like Thailand where the details could easily be bought or sold. As Thailand will never really overcome this issue, it is a risk for the tourist or hotel guest. There will always be some places which do not require such information.

all guest houses/hotels in the uk should complete a registration card, details to include passport details of any overseas visitor,.. but the details are not passed on .

An old friend of mine will be coming over and stay with us in our house for a few day. Do I have to report him to the Police?

And what kind of suspicious behavior should I report?

- Not chasing girls?

- Not drinking "lao"?

- Driving politely?

- Giving a big tip?

the OWNER of the house has to report any non thais staying, but who does

Hi my wife obtained her ILR last September by personel visit to Vulcan House sheffield, A very friendly helpful staff, Dealt with in a few hours, dont forget to get a queue ticket from security on entry, We had to show documents for both of us going back over the last two years, We did four bits each for each year with some extras just in case,My wife is working we had her pay slips and i'm self employed, showed bank statements, no savings at all, just the normal money in and out of my account.

My 10p of quick fixes:

60 Day Entry free tourist visa regardless of how you enter the country.

Ability to renew a tourist visa for 30/60 days (for a fee of 2000/4000 baht - the cost of an average visa run) without leaving the country ...

Devaluation of the baht so that the exchange rate against GBP gets back to 65-70 (and similar vs other currencies). This would stimulate tourism and exports.

A positive PR campaign (with TAT using foreign marketing expertise and consultancy) to promote Thailand properly against the ever-increasing global and regional competition. And I don't mean a new national cocktail lol.

Ability for farang to get 30 year lease (renewable by non-revokable law) for 1 rai of land for personal use.

Simplification of the work permit process.

I agree with all the above, the only thing I would add is make it easier to get a visa on entry as captain bluebird says, but make it harder for the constant border run people that will NOT get the correct visa for their stay, prior to entering the country

I am American with an English mother. i checked on this and unbelievable as it may seem in this day and age, I cannot get an English passport unless it was my father born in England. pretty sexist I would say. don't know about grandparents

Those born prior to 1983 can't automatically acquire British citizenship from a mother. However, you can apply for registration as British citizen through the UK Border Agency. If successful, you would be issued with a certificate of registration that you could then use to obtain a British passport. An application can be made through the British embassy in Bangkok.

Hi are the rules for children born after 1983 different?, would the mother have to have been a uk citizen at the time of the birth?

Great stuff, thanks for the responses.

The catch is that we haven't actually got round to registering the marriage as yet, even though it's been over 2 years. I'm guessing it'll be 4 years from the date we registered for the Indefinite Leave to Enter visa?

Eff1n2ret - will look into doing the KOL test from here, thanks for the advice.

Hi what do you mean you haven't got around to registering the marriage, are you legally married? and if so in which country were you married? I married in thailand and never registered the marriage anywhere other than at the amphur, the 4 years has to start from when the marriage took place, Life in the uk test can be practised on line, my wife used a book called Life in the UK Test: Practice Questions by red squirrel publishing who have a free on line practice question web site, have to buy a book first.

ignore my comments regarding mininova link not working and bt junkie, now requires signup

I watched all episodes here in the UK and found it to be a real eye opener,( THE SEX SIDE OF THINGS IN BANGKOK ASIDE) and I think more so for people with no first hand knowledge of Thailand or Indonesia, I think it shows the exploitation of foreign worker/factories by the west to obtain cheap food. The younger generation who eat the cheap food in the west have no idea how the food is obtained and how the food is processed, come to think of it is it only the young that don't know, because I would never have thought that a factory in bangkok would process 140.000 chickens a day had that some of it is shipped to the Uk and Europe,

Regarding the program ep 4 is available on mininova. and all four eps on bt junkie, no sign up but slower than thebox.bz

Thank you guava for the info on thebox.bz they are new to me and looks promising.

Great stuff, thanks for the responses.

The catch is that we haven't actually got round to registering the marriage as yet, even though it's been over 2 years. I'm guessing it'll be 4 years from the date we registered for the Indefinite Leave to Enter visa?

Eff1n2ret - will look into doing the KOL test from here, thanks for the advice.

Hi what do you mean you haven't got around to registering the marriage, are you legally married? and if so in which country were you married? I married in thailand and never registered the marriage anywhere other than at the amphur, the 4 years has to start from when the marriage took place, Life in the uk test can be practised on line, my wife used a book called Life in the UK Test: Practice Questions by red squirrel publishing who have a free on line practice question web site, have to buy a book first.

Hull offers a very fast friendly service, you can send by special delivery, they will process the day of arrival and send by special delivery that same day, so send Monday they receive and process Tuesday and return Tuesday ,you receive back on the Wednesday. Go to the post office with all documents, use a special delivery envelope from them to send to Hull, enclose with the visa application a return addressed special delivery envelope, special delivery charge is about £5 or £6 each way its as easy as that. An appointment is required to personally attend Hull and they charge an additional £10.00.

it looks like its £720.00 for a single application and only £850.00 if its a couple, not many people bringing over thai wives will apply as a couple, so it looks like we are propping up the treasury again. as if we haven't already done it with visa and ilr costs

£720!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's the reason the missus won't be getting a UK passport anytime soon not that she needs one, she has ILR which is all she needs to stay in the Uk and lets be honest apart from easier access to the USA what benefits will she have from having a UK passport that ILR won't give her?

Brigante7.

£720 - and don't forget the £80 for the citizenship ceremony - so £800 in total.

The debate over citizenship v ILR has been done many times, so I won't go into it, but we'll be applying despite the cost, not least because the goalposts are likely to keep changing in the future.

So I'd still like to know if anyone has heard an update as to when the new system will be in place.

the £720 includes the ceremony, I haven't heard of any update to the changes, maybe with jacqui smith going and the fury over MP's expenses it will all come to nothing

Emirates sound like a good idea, emirates are now doing 30kgs baggage and are were doing a return flight out 30th june return 7th july for £404 and a single to london on the 7th july for 27700 bht

Thai Airways have on order 6 A380s, everyone knows that their fleet is getting past it's sell by date and needs renewing sooner rather than later.

So as the A380 is one of the only planes that can be delivered in freightliner configuration from new why not exchange some of the A380s they have on order for something more suitable, Air Bus have several smaller wide bodied planes.

Thai Air could fly once a day from BKK to LHR with passengers and fly A380s for their cargo business on their second daily slot, this application could of course be used on other routes as well.

By the way, for you cynics out there Fed Ex has 10 A380s on order in freightliner configuration, just a thought.

all freight a380 have been canceled see here _ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Airbu..._and_deliveries

Cannot say when Thai Airways took delivery of their first 777-200 but the very first one was delivered to United Airlines in May 1995.

b777-200 1996/1997 see here http://www.airfleets.net/listing/b777-3.htm

I wonder where they traveling in convoy, If so this tragic accident could have been on a larger scale, My thoughts go out to all concerned.

No mention of the drivers injuries!

I speak pidgin English to the Mrs. I know it's bad, but it's all she can handle. Then again, she is from Bromley.

BTW I find it absolutely hilarious when I hear older farang men talking to their younger "partners" in Tinglish. It sounds like how you might speak to a retarded baby monkey from Mars whose only concept of human interaction was gleaned from an old VHS copy of Greystoke dubbed into patois.

I was listening to a grey haired sandle-socker on the BTS the other day shouting down his mobile. The conversation basically went like this:

"John go home. No. Home. John go home"

"Nok where? Where Nok? Nok where?"

"Nok train? Same same me! John train. John same Nok."

He finished the call and just stood smiling at his mobile phone.

(I couldn't help wondering what phone sex between the pair would be like: "Nok harder. Harder. No, harder. No, more hard. No, Nok harder. John go now. Now! JOHN GO NOW. Pfft.")

I laughed at the reference to a " sandle-socker"

I do try to correct my wifes english, as I hope she does with my Thai. But....................... sometimes it is easier to speak pidgin english to her as I am sure then that she has understood, rather than think she has understood and because of this something important has been omitted/missed out

On a similar note when we applied for my wifes settlement visa, we forgot to include my divorce papers, and like an idiot i had brought them to england, I had to sent them by fedex and the wife took them into the embassy when she went to collect her passport/visa a few days later, the embassy said yes to the visa on the grounds my divorce papers turned up, but of course the embassy had seen the papers when i obtained the ok to marry certificate from the embassy prior to us marrying in thailand.

I flew with TG lhr to bkk last time, having flown with etihad on the previous occasion, the direct flights are a lot quicker, and i had no complains with the flight,crew,drinks or food on either flight, but.... the lack of individual screen entertainment is a real draw back. It will be nice when the individual screen are standard on TG, but untill then its a choice of price, (normally middle easten airlines are cheaper) shorter flight times ( BA or Eva with individual screens or TG no individual screens normally) or individual choice such as flight schedule, onboard food/drink service, or the chance to stretch your legs on the stop over in dubai etc.

Each time I fly I always say I will use the other option the next time ( short flight times or stop over) but if thats the only decision I have to make when booking, then lifes not that bad.

This EEa family permit visa route is the way to go for all eu citizens wanting to settle in the uk, it makes a mockery of the uk settlement rules. why can they not issue spouse uk settlement visas to all uk citizens applying, using the same criteira.

Hi My wife was refused on the first application, and was granted on the second some three months later, but by the time she travelled the had expired, so she had to get a second certificate, but she was living in bangkok so no real problem, but I can see this causing problems so why does the certificate have to be submitted with the application, why could they not make it a condition of the granting of the visa that a tb certificate has to be obtained prior to arrival in the uk?

The children are entitled by birth to remain - the mother can not be seperated from her children according to Geneva convention. This is how the Pakis and Indians get their relatives in the UK. Paki guy with British nationality Bangs up a Paki girl in Pakistan - baby gets British status by birth right - cant be seperated from mother - Paki girl home and dry

Are you sure about that? It does not matter where the baby is conceived its where they baby is born. In this case the baby would have been conceived in pakistan which does not give it British status - it would still need mother and baby to go through a visa process as with others are doing with kids here.

Then again I may be wrong as immigration is new to me, so happily stand corrrected if that be the case.

What has this to do with the posters problem

what type of visa/extension of stay is she on?