Captain Jack

Surely they don't expect her to submit the original document? That would be very unusual. You normally make a copy or a scan and send that. What's important is that it's translated. Make sure that names are spelled correctly in the translation and you shouldn't have a problem. If there is a problem with the actual birth certificate then that will be a problem to resolve. She will have to go back to the office that originally issued it ('Amphur' office, that's the district level of governance, they handle the civil list) and take both certificates and her ID card. This kind of thing is not normal procedure so different officers will tell her different things on different days and, yes, there may be a fee (above the table or otherwise) to get it cleared. She'll need to be patient and may need to go several times. On the other hand she may get lucky and have it done in 5 minutes. She should do it though as it could cause problems in the future. I have known someone whose family name written in Thai on their birth certificate bares no resemblance to its official English translation. They simply make sure any translation of it bares the correct English spelling and that is accepted by governments around the world. Trying to get it changed would require new housing registration, ID card, passport, bank accounts, basically a whole new identity.

There is positively no way to contact VFS about anything. They are not a good company. But they don't do anything anyway. To inquire about an ongoing application you would need to email the UKVI directly. Don't bother though. They charge you for the privilege and if they ever do get back to you they will give you the same answer as everyone else, that they are unable to comment on individual cases. Unfortunately you just have to wait. You will get some sort of response eventually. Applying for a visa is not easy right now and neither VFS nor UKVI seem interested in doing anything about that, just in making money.

This is a very real problem. Has anyone got any helpful experience here? I have seen agents who can somehow check available appointments online in seconds but when we apply ourselves we have to spend an hour completing the form, including finalizing the visa start date and our accommodation dates and paying only to find no available appointments. Then, to cancel the application they take 28 days to refund the fee (and don't tell you that until after you've already cancelled it). I assume the agents keep floating applications and just cancel them when they expire. This is obvious anti-consumer practice as they want you to pay for "premium" service out of desperation. They whole application process is a miserable experience is being at the receiving end of greed. Money talks after all.

Visit visa? UKVI have publicized the temporary suspension of priority processing on settlement visas but still offer it on visit visas. They also wont explain what they're doing with anyone who paid for priority processing before it was cancelled but is still stuck in the system. Standard applications for visit visas are taking 6 weeks. I had one done in 7 in March. Are you saying you paid for priority processing on a UK visit visa and it took 3 weeks?

Not for a Thai passport it's not. Just got one done on Phuket and it took less than 48 hours including postage! Cost 1000B. Of course a Thai passport isn't worth the paper it's written on and getting the visa they'll need to go literally anywhere will take months but still, why can't so-called "developed" countries manage this?

Thanks. Definitely no e-mail though. That's the main thing I've been checking (the SMS "service" we paid extra for is just CC of the emails anyway). I've submitted inquiries both to VFS and UKVI. I actually received a confirmation from UKVI (who charged me for my inquiry!) saying it will take them up to ANOTHER 15 days to check into it and got the usual silence from VFS. Is their service usually this poor? The 'Trendy' office in in Bangkok is an absolute shambles and to have to wait nearly 2 months for a visitor visa application only for it to vaporize and be told to wait another 15 days is quite possibly the worst customer service experience I've ever had. I mean we literally heard nothing from them for 52 days then they returned a blank passport in an empty envelope.

True. But, in that case which "type of visa" would you say you don't need to use an agent for? This is a standard visitor visa. A 'tourist' visa. It's literally the only thing that should be simple to get. Unless of course the UKVI is intentionally playing a secret game of 'keep-em-out'.

If the Home Office want to see "reasons to return" why don't they ask for such in the application process? There aren't even options to submit anything other than general "supporting documents" and no explanation of what those might be. Bearing in mind that everything has to be translated and certified, at a cost, you'd think some explanation would be helpful.

Our application just took 52 days to process and 2 days to "courier" back by Thai Post (a service that costs them less than 150B but they charged us 600 for. Hero's!). When submitting I was allowed in with my wife, but not into the actual processing room. We were there at 10am, anyone desperate for a beer at that time needs help. Here's the fun part. They've returned her passport empty with nothing except a literal carbon copy of the submission receipt that we were were already given 54 days ago. Anyone have experience of this? I expect a denied application to at least have some sort of explanation, even if it's just confirmation that the application was denied. Instead we've just got a vague auto-generated SMS saying the "processed application" has been retuned to them and they're giving the passport to the courier. 52 days of silence then this. Talk about <deleted> service!