Mad Dog

World first - Thailand, a country that issues motorcycle driving licenses to 14-year olds...

Really? It's the same age where I come from.

(cycle is obviously poorer than a Toyota sedan)

That's a ridiculous statement. A road bike normally costs about 100,000B for a Specialized up to 500,000B for a Pinarello and what makes you think that your average cyclist doesn't also own a car or truck? Cycling is far from being a poor man's sport.

Forget about this little nobody. Extradite Thaksin, and make him face justice.

Problem is he's not a nobody. He's the ex-princess Srirasmi's brother. No-one wonder how he got an NZ passport so quickly?

Cycling is certainly a hugely popular pasttime in The South, there are regular road races and off-road races throughout the year and teams from every province train for these races daily. Some of the bigger events like NST, Surat and Phang-nga attract around 2,000+ competitors from all over the country.

I used to prefer training early mornings because of the cooler temperature, lower chance of rain and there's hardly any traffic. Late afternoons are good too but I would often feel tired having worked all day.

^Indeed, the second e-mail arrived exactly two days later.

Good news, the visa was issued, valid from 01/05/15 until 01/08/17. Guernsey Immigration approved it on the 10th of this month (without contacting my future employer or my future landlord) so it was held up in Bkk for a week during Songkran.

Just to help anyone else from the Channel Islands who might need the same information, here is a list of the documents that we provided.

Application Form VAF4A

Appendix (2) Section 3.3 answer 'No' to all questions as they do not apply.

Thai I.D. card (photocopy)

Current Thai passport (photocopies of photo page and any pages with stamps)

Old passports (photocopies of photo pages and any pages with stamps)

IOM TB Certificate (photocopy and original)

Key English Test Certificate (photocopy and original)

Thai Housing (photocopy and translation)

6 months bank statement

Business registration certificate (photocopy and translation)

Land deeds (photocopies and translations)

Marriage Certificate

Photos to prove relationship

Sponsor

Current passport (photocopy of photo page and any pages with stamps)

Proof of address

6 months bank statement

Job offering Letter

Rent lease.

Children

Thai and British passports (photocopy of photo page and any pages with stamps)

Okay, that's good to know. It begs the question though, what is the point of the first e-mail? It may cause applicants who, like us, live far from Bkk to waste time and money on a fruitless trip.

The wife posted the original receipt yesterday after receiving this email :

YOUR UK VISA APPLICATION DECISION IS READY FOR COLLECTION :

please read below

UK Visas and Immigration has made a decision on your visa application and this email explains how your documents will be returned to you.

• THAILAND APPLICANTS: your passport/documents will be ready for collection from the Bangkok visa application centre on the 2nd working day after you receive this email. Collection times are Monday-Friday 10.00 - 16.00 and Saturday 08.30 - 12.00.

SUPER PRIORITY VISA SERVICE (SPVs) APPLICANTS: If you have paid for the SPVs your documents will be ready for collection 24 hours after submission (excluding weekend days and public holidays)

Can we collect the passport tomorrow? Or do we have to wait for another email from VFS to confirm this?

Just received the e-mail telling us that The Wife's passport and can be collected in 2 working days. As we are a wee bit too busy at the moment to make a trip up to Bangkok and really want to know the outcome, we asked the agency that did all of our translations for us to go and collect it on our behalf. The person at the agency agreed (for a fee of 400baht) but then said that this is not THE e-mail; another one will follow in a few days and only then can the passport be collected. Confused? Yep.

By the way, that's a turnaround of 20 days, so we are very happy with that. Or rather, we will be if the outcome is positive.

The Wife just took her test at Vantage last weekend, so prior to the 5th April cut-off however the phrase 'transition period' concerns me slightly. Does this mean that she has until 5th November to take the new test? Or will her result (due next week) stand?

If your wife took her test at Vantage, was she doing the BULATS test for business? I thought they were the only one with the monopoly on the Cambridge BULATS test. This is at A2 level for people who want to work in the UK.

I assume that the A1 level is done by Trinity. Is that correct?

No it was the Cambridge K.E.T. for a U.K. visa.

Further to my previous post, my son's passport has finally arrived and fortunately it arrived whilst we were in Bkk on other business so no need to make an extra trip.

So, in summary:

Child renewal 20 days

Child first passport 45 days

The Wife submitted her application on Tuesday and, as expected, the mere mention of Guernsey caused confusion and blank looks amongst the vfs staff. As 7by7 suggested (The Wife has been reading through this thread too) she insisted that her application was for Guernsey and not the U.K. (although she would have to briefly pass through Gatwick first) and it was necessary for a more senior officer to be brought into the interview so that the situation was fully understood. The officer made his own notes on the application form specifying Guernsey as The Wife's destination. The interview seems to have been a painless experience and The Wife certainly had no complaints, she submitted the required documents and several extra documents specific to our rather unique situation together with around 100 photos! The Wife's only concern was that she was advised that it would take 3-4 months for a decision to be reached. About two hours later we received a message stating that "your case no.xxxxxxxxxxx has been forwarded to U.K.V.I."

Jay: Alderney?? 2,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock in the English Channel?? Nice for a short break but that's about it! Now Gibraltar, that's much more intriguing....

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to offer me your advice. I have been in regular contact with an Immigration Officer at the Guernsey Border Agency and discussions have been very positive. My main concern is getting my wife's application through the necessary channels so that it arrives in Guernsey for the G.B.A. to make their decision. We have both written covering letters that discuss our relationship, our business in Thailand and our desire to relocate to Guernsey and my wife also wrote in Part 5 that we will not be settling in the U.K but Guernsey and that, as such, we are exempt from the financial requirements. Just to confirm this I have printed out an email from G.B.A. setting out exactly what they require from us before they can approve a visa application. Once again, I thank all of you that have contributed to this thread, you have all been very helpful and I hope that we are now in a position to go to Bangkok and submit our application and that we will ultimately get the outcome that we want.

Right, we filled out the online application form and, apart from a couple of time-outs and a lot of repetition, we managed to complete it and arrange an interview for Tuesday morning (31st March). Now we're just gathering all of the supporting documents, photocopying them and trying to fill out Appendix 2.

Question 1.27 Does your sponsor have any children? Does this mean children with my wife (yes) or children from a previous relationship (no)?

As previously stated, Guernsey does not have the same financial requirements as the U.K. but I'm trying to fill in this section too as I'm concerned that they might throw out the application if they see a whole section that is incomplete. So onto section 3.3 Income from salaried employment overseas (with job offer in the U.K.) seems to come closest but I am the co-owner of my wife's business and, as such, not salaried. We take a share of the profits but the income is far from regular so I'm not sure that I can accurately provide a figure for annual income. Also, what are categories A-G? I don't see an explanation in the notes.

Helpful thanks - will send my application in just as soon as I get clarification about documentary requirements for our de facto (no formal adoption anywhere) adopted daughter. It seems to have stumped the first line response ('UK' phone centre) team.

Nice to know I might make up some of the lost ground later in the process!

Anyone give a recent update (last few weeks) on how soon one could get an interview at the time of sending in the UK general visitor on-line application?

Trying to get a 3 week holiday in for the family before the schools return in mid May. Should be a breeze, but the adoption issue is an unexpected hitch and I'm concerned that April is full of British and Thai holidays.

When we did our settlement visa online there were interview slots as soon as two days later, we went for four days later as we live Down South and need a wee bit more time to arrange a trip up to Bkk.

Just did the wife's online application and it was the first time as we haven't been to the U.K for 5 years now so I can't comment on the old system v the new system.

It was a wee bit frustrating at times, got timed out a couple of times as I didn't know the post code or phone number of the place that we will be renting when we arrive in the U.K. but the vast majority of data entered is automatically saved which was good. The sponsor section confused me rather as I don't think that I sponsor my wife as we live here together and have a jointly-owned business here but I filled it in anyway. Then at the bottom where it asks for the applicant's relationship with the sponsor there is no 'spouse' option so I went for 'other' instead.

Paying in USD was weird but we'll see how that works out when the next statement comes. We paid with K-bank Credit Card, no problems.

We filled in the form yesterday (24/3) and we were give appointment options of (26-27/3) and (30-31/3) so we went for 31/3 to give us time to prepare and get us up to Bkk in good time.

Printing out the form is easy, just click the black button once all other black buttons have turned green.

All in all, pretty straightforward, although repetitious.

I went up to do my kids passports on the 13th February and the whole process was very easy. The young staff at V.F.S. are very polite, efficient and fluent in English.

My daughter's passport renewal came back and was ready for collection on the 5th March, so about 20 days. My son's first passport hasn't come back yet but I suppose that first passports take longer to process. V.F.S. will hold on to the passports for a month, so I really hope that my son's comes soon as I live Down South and was hoping to collect them both in one trip.

I paid with my debit card, you just fill in the card numbers on a form and it was £76.01 for each passport.

The key is who was the owner of the knife? Not sure if that's been ascertained yet.

Okay, seems as if things are coming together now. I have received a job offer to start within the next two months and also have a rental agreement for a house in Guernsey which will be available mid-April. The Wife passed her T.B. exam and English test (99%), my daughter's renewed British passport is ready for collection, although my son's first passport hasn't reached the Trendy yet. Now we are ready to fill out the forms.

I feel really stupid for asking this but which form do I need? I think that VAF4A comes closest to what we need but it seems more geared up to couples who are living apart i.e. the spouse is settled in the U.K. Then it says that an appendix must be filled in too and, again, the relevant appendix (2) refers to 'the spouse of someone who is settled in the U.K.'

Having come this far it seems ludicrous that I could fill in the wrong form! Having searched the gov website there doesn't seem to be a form relevant to couples that have lived together continuously in Thailand for more than ten years.

Well The Wife just got 99% for her test at Vantage which is a Pass with Distinction. Am I right in thinking that she won't need to take another English test in the U.K. when she applies for her passport as a result of her high score?

Last week they were complaining that Thailand would need over 3 million new workers over the next 2 years now they want to ban some people from entering the country because of their age. Karaoke bars are full of young Laos girls but nothing is done about this. Just banning all teenagers will not stop human trafficking but I suppose they will tell the international community see we are doing something about the problem.

Maybe where you are nothing is being done about the Laotians in karaoke bars but here in rural Surat several bars have already been shut down. Only the bars with Isarn ladies are still open but even many of them are voluntarily closing because the police still raid them anyway.

Okay, thanks. We've enough stress at the moment with putting together The Wife's application without further changes!! As I said, she only took the test last week and she was concerned that she'd have to retake and spend another 6,000B.

The Wife just took her test at Vantage last weekend, so prior to the 5th April cut-off however the phrase 'transition period' concerns me slightly. Does this mean that she has until 5th November to take the new test? Or will her result (due next week) stand?

Okay, so we already have confirmation from Guernsey Immgration that the financial requirement is not compulsary for a settlement visa application. Although the Guernsey version of the rules is rather vague it seems necessary to have secured employment prior to the application and that there be savings available to us. No amounts were mentioned which, hopefully, is a good thing but leaves us in a constant state of wondering how much is enough? We also have confirmation that a British Islands passport can be applied for after five years continuous residency as opposed to the eight years that it seems to take in the U.K.

One quick question for myself though: I only have five months left on my passport and would prefer to renew in Guernsey as it is the only place where I can get a British Islands Bailiwick of Guernsey passport. Can I return to the U.K. with an almost expired passport?

Thank you for your post Jay, you are absolutely correct on each point that you made. I was born and raised in Guernsey and still retain local status despite having been away (i.e. not contributing any tax). The removal of local status after a certain number of years abroad was mooted but was met with mass protests! Not sure about house prices these days but the average price for a first time buyer 10 years ago was 300k so I expect it to be significantly higher these days. Buying a house in Guernsey isn't really on our agenda anyway as my preference is to live in Scotland to take care of my Mum who is 70-odd years of age now. We just saw Guernsey as a 'stepping stone' for getting the wife a British passport more quickly, earning a higher wage in the meantime and being in the company of good friends (something that I have missed during my time here).