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7 hours ago, 1happykamper said:

For example she just mentioned the Thai girl.. 24 years old.. Who is on the reality TV show and is heading to the USA to meet her 48 American bf family! My wife has an excellent point! How the heck is that possible for this 24 year old Thai girl?

She or her boyfriend or visa agent gathered the information required, put a decent application together for the visa and submitted it and the visa was granted. It's not that difficult. For a visit visa you need to show that you have the funds to finance the trip, a place to stay in the UK, proof of relationship and that your wife will return to Thailand. If you are both currently living in Thailand it shoudn't be that hard to do.

A visa agent is not needed and if you let us have some specifics about the visa refusals it will give the people on here some idea of why the visas were refused. How many refusals has she had? If you can scan or take a decent photo of each of the refusals, remove the personal info, and post them here we can help.

There is no point is just posting the last one as you have to address the reasons for refusal in each subsequent application.

An appeal hearing for what? There is no appeal for visit visas. You can complain but there is no appeal.

10 hours ago, Bardeh said:

We have a 5 year old son, and would both like him to start school in the UK - so, for him and me, this will be a permanent move back. The plan is for her to come with us for a few months, then return here until I have enough tax returns to prove income to start the settlement visa process. 

Did you explain this in your sponsor letter?

You will need an annual salary of £18600 or £62K in savings. There are other ways of fulfilling the financial requirement.

Your wife will need an A1 English language test and a TB test.

You will need to pay for the Settlement visa and £600 NHS surcharge. It will allow your wife to stay for 33 months. The next visa called Further Leave to Remain (FLR) lasts for 30 months and your wife will need the A2 language test. She will apply for it from within the UK.

After 5 years she will be able to apply for Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) and she will need a B1 language test and to take the Life in the UK test.

They are the bare bones of it and it currently costs around £7000 from beginning to end but that goes up each year.

You are better off doing all of the paperwork and Internet application for her.

Does she have a job? That is one of the best reasons to return but if you can prove that you have lived together for that length of time you shouldn’t have a problem.

It sounds like it means printed both sides but I'm not 100%.

NO idea. We were married in the UK on a six month fiancée visa. That doesn’t count towards the 60 months in the UK.

The earliest you can apply is 28 days before the current visa expires. The latest is to have the application in before the current visa expires.

By marrying in Thailand the visa is 33 months, not 30 months which allows three months to get everything in order before the move to the UK. As we were married in the UK my wife has two periods of FLR , 30 months each.

Yes it's fine. A2 as a minimum. If your wife's English is good enough for B1 she could do it. Currently fine for ILR.

35 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Anyone any experience getting a shengen visa for Italy, straightforward or a pain? Looked at the web site and it seem a bit confusing. I assume they cannot go straight to the Embassy these days but have to like most others use the visa service? How far in advance can you apply?

It depends on your situation. If you are married and your wife has a BRP you can go direct to the embassy but most embassies bury the info in the small print on their websites and make it difficult to book an appointment. They want you to use VFS or their particular provider.

I took my wife to the Danish embassy back in January and they gave her a visa for a holiday in Iceland while we waited and it was free.

51 minutes ago, pumpjack said:

my dad is seriously ill in thai hospital.  i been told to fly over there ASAP .     i have just just left thailand 2 week ago as i was there for 2 week holiday.  

can i fly back on a one way ticket or not ?  i need be at my dads hospital every day and dont know if he will be able to fly back or even if " god forbid " he dies.

 

i have hospital papers etc to prove.  

i dont want book a return for 2 weeks incase he is still in need of my help.

 looks like only option for me is book " open " ticket ? 

Sorry to hear this.

Just buy a normal return ticket and if you need to be in Thailand longer than you expect, change the return date.

NHS surcharge?

On 9/26/2017 at 4:58 PM, BEDBANDIT said:

no,  i have been back in the UK since the end may . left my wife and son in Thailand thinking they would be joining me approximately 2 months later ..... fool me  

Two months was a bit optimistic in the first place, bearing in mind, you didn't supply a set of up to date accounts. It's fortunate that they actually gave you the time to put that right. Most of the Settlement visas seem to be taking much, much longer since they moved the decision making process to Sheffield and that includes those where they pay for the premium service. I hope they stick to the time they have now told you. Did you supply an SA302?

2 hours ago, backtofront said:

I got my Brit passport through my grandfather. The boys might be eligible for some sort of visa as my mother, their grandmother was born in the UK. The problem is my wife.

Well worth checking then as far as the kids are concerned. Settlement visa, then Further Leave to Remain (FLR), then Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). About £7K in visa fees over five years. English language test (A1) and a TB test are also needed for a settlement visa.

Are you currently in Thailand then? Do you have an income there? Savings of £62,500 will allow you to get a Settlement visa without an income. As Steve said earlier in the thread, If you rely on income from a business and you are self employed you need 12 months accounts showing the £18,600 pa and that you have paid tax on it for your wife only.

I stand corrected.

12 hours ago, backtofront said:

Am already looking into the settlement visa. Have two boys so the qualifying income is closer to 25k a year. What I was wondering is whether we could buy a business and then employ her as a Wok cook and get her a work permit?

 

Are you a Brit? If that is the case and the two boys are yours and your wife is Thai, your boys are Brits too.

If not, on top of the £18,600 annual income needed for your wife on a settlement visa, each child will add £2.400 each needed on your annual income. An annual total of £23,400.

As has been mentioned, a work visa is a completely different animal.

Let us have more information.

So you are not self employed? It makes life easier.

I've had no difficulty getting SA302s for visas in the last couple of years. HMRC quote two weeks and they arrived  a lot quicker.

5 hours ago, Guemlum said:

We are currently in the process of applying for a settlement visa and whilst a lot of previous posts on this topic have been helpful, I'm still confused as to some particulars.

 

I am self employed trading as a Ltd Company. I am not CIS registered as I pay my own tax and have an accountant who keeps things in order. I am also VAT registered.

 

When completing Appendix 2 financial requirement form, I have selected Part C (income from self employment) and can complete either Category F or G. I haven't decided yet.

 

I will obviously have to engage the support of my accountant but my question is, do I have to provide a full set of accounts for the previous financial year or will a simple letter (breakdown) from my accountant be suffice?

 

As I pay myself a monthly salary of £916, this only equates to £10,992, but I do pay myself a dividend every couple of months. I'm not using my savings as supporting evidence as I'm about to put a hefty deposit down on a house, so what exactly should I be showing as proof of income?

I didn't think you could have your own limited company and be self employed. I always thought that you would be employed by your Limited company and be paid a salary and paye in the same way you are paid and pay tax in a "normal" job. Having said that I am the sole proprietor of my own business and got lots of help from my accountant. I let him have the financial requirements PDF and he prepared the accounts for me.

If it is true that you are self employed you cannot use cash savings to top up your salary under category F.

You will need a full set of your latest accounts from your last tax year along with your SA302. They need to show a minimum annual salary of £18,600 per year if it is for just your girlfriend or wife.

If you have £62,500 in cash savings you could use that without relying on anything else.

Can you get a copy from the court?

4 hours ago, darren1971 said:

If the tests are failed and the visa runs out are the applicants deported?

But I do understand that you can go for another FLR if B1 isn't passed. No doubt that somebody else will add to this. Your question was if FLR runs out though.  If you don't apply for another visa, whether it is FLR or ILR, your wife would have to go home.

Good info. Especially about the questions. My wife wouldn’t have a clue about the public transport question because we've only used it twice since she has been here. It's strange about the words that our partners learn along the way. At school last week there was an image of a an electric kettle and she had to spell it as part of her home work. We don't have one as we only have a coffee machine and she had no clue what it was...

My intention is that my wife does B1 before her next FLR in April 2019 and in the next year with some tuition, she will be fine. She could probably do it now but more time learning is better.

What worries me is that the Government changed the goalposts and upped the 2nd FLR to A2 early this year. Will they do the same to B1 before September 2021?

We applied for my wife last September and there is no way I would use the premium service unless there was a very big reason to need my, (or my wife's) passport in the seven week time period it usually takes. The visas are expensive enough as they are without me filling their pockets any further.

I'm not a worrier and never have been and there isn't much you can do to influence the visa process at all apart from supplying all of the information that is required and waiting. Worrying solves and does nothing.

My wife's application took a couple of days over seven weeks. You don't even get acknowledgement for almost three weeks. A good indication that all is fine is when, after about four weeks, they will invite your wife to go to a post office to supply her biometrics. I has missed ticking a box on one of the forms and this was sent to us at the same time so we could tick it and return it.

2 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Yes, the Trinity test is different. However, IELTS Life Skills can also be taken in the UK. In Bangkok, you have no choice.

It was a simple thing to do as my wife was here on her second visit visa any way an my work is quiet for a while after Christmas.

It has been discussed on here before where two candidates in Thailand were totally mismatched on their levels of English and the other candidate spoke very quickly and poster was worried as his girlfriend didn’t understand a word that was said.

The A1 test in the UK is only six minutes.

£150 in the UK when my wife took hers 18 months ago. IMHO it's easier for a nervous candidate too as it is just her and the examiner. My wife did hers at Trinity College in Hammersmith while she was here on a visit visa. You can take a look at real tests by looking at the Trinity College feed on YouTube.

They changed the rules early this year and she will need A2 for FLR and there isn't much difference between A1 and A2. It saves £150 here in the UK.