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You are thinking of the Joe Biden syndicate. Trump never asks for things for himself. It's always for the US unlike Joe, Hunter and the Biden syndicate, of course. The tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese imports go to the US government. When Trump told NATO to start paying their fair share, most of them did. Nothing wrong with either of those things. Too complicated to discuss?! Don't be ridiculous. As far as Russia is concerned, the US made agreements with Putin that they would not expand NATO and then reneged on it. In 2014 the US State department financed a revolution in Ukraine to oust the sitting president and put their man in place who wanted to join both the EU and NATO. Victoria Nuland of the US State Department admitted it in a phone call you will find online. In the meantime they started to attack their own Russian speaking people in Donbass etc. Think of the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs in reverse. There was NO WAY that Putin was going to allow NATO missiles on his borders. If you really want to know what went on back in 2014, watch the documentary Ukraine on Fire. You will learn something.

I had the pneumonia vaccine in 2020 purely because Covid can lead to pneumonia. The only reason you need a tetanus shot is if you are bitten by a dog or get a cut in dirty conditions. I have requested the Shingrix shot as I had shingles a couple of years ago (I don't want it again, EVER), but I cannot get it in the UK until I am 70 yet a 65 year old can get it, but not somebody who is 66, 67, 68 or 69. Go figure that one out. We have the flu jab every September but stopped after two Covid AZ jabs. Too much nasty stuff now provable about the Covid vaccines for me to ever have another one but regular blood tests show that me and my wife have good immunity from catching Covid a couple of years ago. They admitted a few days ago that 61 people died from blood clots in the UK from the AZ vax. You haven’t said where you live but you only need half of those you mentioned unless you are travelling to an area where the illnesses you mention are prevalent. No way would I have two different vaccines on the same day and having had two AZ vaccines and then they wanted to switch us to Moderna or Pfizer. Not a chance. I want to make it to 70 at least and vaccines that I don't need are not the answer.

Thank God my wife now has a British passport!

A question for you please. If somebody wants to go to Spain for a holiday from the UK but they want to drive there via France etc, in which country do they apply for a Schengen visa? Just interested to know. Thanks.

Yes. It happened to a friend of ours. She paid an agent who lied and she got a ten year ban. It made life extremely difficult as her very young baby was here in the UK with her husband when she was banned.

And my suggestion is still to use and OISC accredited agent or do it yourself.

Not necessarily. Unless you use an OISC accredited agent you are almost asking for trouble. All an agent does is gather the information from the person applying and present it coherently and it's not difficult to do yourself. It will definitely cost more. I put three visit visa applications together along with a fiancée (Settlement) visa, two FLRs, one ILR, Citizenship application and a slightly complex passport application without any issues problems for my wife. It is time consuming though as so much of the information my wife needed had to come from Thailand. A visit visa for the UK is far more complex than a Schengen visa. For a cruise ship, a Schengen visa should be a doddle though as it's a definite booking and the times spent in the different countries is a definite timetable.

I wouldn't have contemplated a cruise with my Thai wife before she finally got her British passport late last year. Which countries will you be visiting on the cruise? If they are all on this list a Schengen visa should be all your wife needs. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Malta, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Our only trip outside the UK with Schengen was to Iceland and we were very lucky as they did it while we waited back in 2017 but it is a bit of a faff.

I would be interested in the reason for refusal too knowing how thin the reasons my wife gave in 2015 to get three successful visit visas in succession before we decided to get married and went for a settlement (marriage) visa. I would be also be really interested in seeing the actual application and covering letter.

Most 20 kg bags have wheels...

Oh dear, what a shame, never mind.

Not me. I already have one. She is Thai, 21 years younger than me and the last thing in the world I would do is share her with any one. I've just realised the total irony of these postings and the fact we are in the community pub forum. 🤣🤣🤣

Don't you need a partner for that? 🤣🤣

Yep. That's THEIR idea of retirement.

Is that the best you can do? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 NO camera around my neck. As professional photographer from the age of 15 my phone does all I ever need it to do. Why would I ever need a map?!

We opened a couple of businesses to keep us amused during Covid and they allow us to holiday any time we want to. Keeping fit with swimming , cycling and walking and we have a large family in the UK too. We each have a few hobbies and we enjoy being busy. If I am bored I will create something on the laser cutter/engraver. At the moment sorting through 1500 photos we took in the Fjords of Norway on a cruise last week and wondering where to go next.

But that is the routine that THEY choose. Everybody has their own routine and some are happy with it and some are not. We just came back from a cruise around the Fjords and if they weren't on shore excursion, half, or more, of the older passengers were in the bars drinking by 11.00 am and probably did the same until midnight. One of my old friends married then retired early and moved to Spain when he was 55. That's all they do sitting in bars all day and night. Different strokes for different folks. I gave up most of that life when I met my wife as she doesn't drink at all and doesn't like the pub culture. We have far more interesting things to do than sitting around drinking and talking all day or evening. Good luck with your floor mopping.

There are definitely midges and mosquitos in Scotland. I ended up in A&E last time we were up there and we weren't that far from Glasgow. Bitten on the thigh by a mozzy and I got a nasty infection. It was painful driving back home. We went on honeymoon to Jersey and no extra documentation needed. If I remember correctly you cannot just fly to Southern Ireland on a UK visit visa but people have flown to Belfast and driven across the border with no problems. Spain is not one of the friendliest countries to issue Schengen visas (more hoops to jump through) but when we went to Iceland in 2017, they did it while we waited at the Danish Embassy in London. I didn’t have booking for Iceland either (Only screenshots showing the intended booking.) and they didn't ask for financials.

If I remember, she doesn't have to actually be here for her partner to submit the application, pay and book the appointment which could give her some breathing space. FLR is not a five minute job at all when it comes to gathering info and documentation to prove that the've been living together for the previous 30 months. If her partner can put it all together. Lots will be the same as the first FLR but she will have to be back before the 30th April. How close to the 30th she leaves it before she comes back is another thing but if her partner sends her the receipt and paperwork for the appointment, the NHS surcharge and for the visa. If she is questioned by Border Force when she comes back she can show the documents to them. I wouldn’t leave coming back until the last minute.

I get it but now you know how to fix the refusal it should be fairly straightforward. As I mentioned, there are plenty on here who have experience and are happy to help. If you have to go with a visa company go with Thai Visa Express. You are likely to get dodgy advice from anywhere else. My wife's UK visa journey started in 2015 and successfully applied for six different visas followed by citizenship and her first UK passport without any issues. Good to hear your partner is on board. It makes ALL the difference.

With the help of this forum and one other I was guided through the process for three visit visas, a settlement visa, two FLRs, an ILR and a citizenship application. No visa company was required. Most of the work that is done will be the gathering of info by your partner and all you have to do is collate it and present it The main hurdle is showing ties to Thailand. My now wife's only ties were her family and her job. Fortunately she had a great boss who provided a letter for her to use in the application. What were the reason(s) for rejection? You will have to address the reason(s) for refusal in any subsequent application. You take a chance with a visit visa application whether you use a visa company or not. As has been suggested Thai Visa Express is the only one worth considering unless you find another that is OISC registered. Whenever you apply for a visa it's really important that you ignore any of the suggestions from your wife's mates and her Facebook friends.

For our trip to Iceland I just did screenshots of what I planned on booking for the Danish Embassy and they were quite happy. The bonus was that they created the Schengen visa while we waited. Only then did I book the tickets.

None of my Thai wife's family have email addresses. Young or old. I had to set one up for my step son so he could join something a while back. I can’t remember what but he was 17 at the time.

That option wasn;t available I recommend you do it yourself. It's not a complex process and the people on here will always help. The main hurdle is the reason to return to Thailand and if I remember from your previous posts your girlfriend has a steady job. The rest is pretty straightforward and your GF will be supplying you with most of the information. Back in 2015 I knew nothing about the process and with the info needed from my wife she was given three visit visas in less than seven months. The last visa we applied for was a two year visit visa before deciding to get married and went for a settlement visa. It's worth £80ish to go to Phuket rather than the schlep to Bangkok. The option wasn't available back in 2015. The only visa company I would trust is Thai Visa Express. Most of the others will give you inaccurate info. One of our Thai friends here in the UK was banned from applying for ten years for doing something dodgy and taking the wrong advice.

My wife's English was not the best when we met but almost ten years later it's as good as it will ever be. She understands almost everything that is said to her and you have that perfect fall back using Google Translate if you need to explain something specific. 150,000 baht is less than £3500 so not the end of the world to a Brit. To a Thai it's a huge amount of money. I think I mentioned it before but my wife wife used her job as her only reason to return and she was successful in two 6 months visas and a two year visa. She had almost nothing to do with them apart from gathering the information. You need to find out if she has been making payments to the credit card company and if she is paying more than the minimum each month so that the debt is going down. I wish you luck. Meeting my wife back in 2015 was the best thing that ever happened to me. Ignore the naysayers. Too many on here who have been bitten before and want to tell the world about it and always assume the worst.