rasg

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.

I remember playing with time lapse and cartoons in my teens but it's so much easier now and I fancy having a play around myself. What sort of interval do you use between shots, out of interest or does it depend on your subject? I have a Sony RX10 MKIV that has a an optical 24-1200 zoom that could be interesting. It can be controlled by computer with the Sony app but the limitation is a minimum of ten seconds between each photo. Too long for clouds and stuff. I also have a full frame 5D MKII with the 70-200 mm should be on another level when it comes to image quality and a 3rd party intervalometer is £15 on eBay. I'm also on a mission to sell a load of my stuff that is hardly ever used although I do get an occasional income by renting out some of it through FatLama.

Magic Lantern looks mighty interesting and I already have a couple of 60Ds and a 5D MII that I can’t bear to part with and I've wanted to play with timelapse for a long time. Thanks for posting this. To the op. What is your budget and what length zoom are you looking for?

Surely if you leave it a week or two the date of the statement you are after will be a historical statement? I find it hard to believe a bank could charge you a months interest just so you can find out how much cash you have in your account. I bank with Santander, Nationwide and First Direct and I can download statements with all of my details at the top and the logo any time I want to. I have done for numerous visas. The statements are identical to those they used to post to me until I ticked the box to "save the planet".

No. Nothing apart from how close she was to her family BUT she had spent the previous 20 years of her life working from home and sending money home each month. No assets.

She sounds like a wise woman politically. My wife's English is streets ahead of what it was when she first came here in 2015. We occasionally discuss particle physics with the help of Google Translate.