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.

7 hours ago, madmitch said:

On their website they also state that priority processing is unavailable at the moment. However that hasn't stopped the VFS office from accepting money for a non-existent service.

 

I've submitted a formal complaint as I sponsored a relative yet the UK visa office sat on the passport for three weeks after making their decision before returning it to Bangkok despite us having paid for priority service. 

 

Just a warning for anyone considering this 

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?

On 4/4/2022 at 6:57 AM, Tony M said:

If there is no visa in the passport, then it's possible that the application was refused.  Refusal of an application is notified by email, to the address given for the applicant in the online visa application form.  Have you checked your/the applicant's emails ? If the applicant has'nt received an email,  let us know, and I'll explain how to make a enquiry/complaint. 

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.

18 hours ago, Captainchaos said:

This is one of the reasons I've opted for an agent with experience in this type of visa . Not cheap or guaranteed but seems a better option for me .

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!

Just attempted my first use of this "new" system.

Been registering online with mixed success for years (located on Phuket). Don't yet see any difference with this except having to log-in. Will be interested to see if it remembers my details for next time (old system did not).

Registered and got password e-mailed to me in seconds. Password is a VERY long string of random characters and no apparent way of changing it. How am I supposed to remember that?

Couldn't reach the system through the immigration.go.th website, only managed to register by clicking on the link in the OP in this thread.

Filled in my details, hit "submit" and was instantly greeted with a text box saying "success" which then disappeared and left the original data submission screen displayed. So that's confusing. At the same time was presented with a pop-up tab containing the PDF of the TM.47 form with my details (conveniently?) filled in. Why would I need that? Simultaneously received an automated e-mail confirming my successful submission.

No problem using my VPN, although it was going through a Thai server.

Now I'll wait. They've managed to make a single page process confusing. Lets see if it works.

UPDATE:

After waiting the prescribed 59 days and returning to Phuket immigration on the day they instructed I was told that my visa is still not ready. I couldn't get any further information from the teenage girl speaking to me due to her apparent inability to speak either English or Thai (it's strange how many Thai people can't speak their own language, I wonder if it has anything to do with the colour of my skin? TIT).

Plugging the number next to the stamp in my passport into the website confirmed my application is still "under processing" (sic) with no further information there either.

So I'm now technically in the kingdom illegally and can do nothing but wait for a website that may or may not eventually get updated.

Phuket Immigration has a shiny new website complete with a direct like to the national online queue appointments system which (of course) in reality is still being completely ignored at the office.

Of note the damn "emergency" COVID extensions (which were vehemently publicized as ending on January 25th) are now being offered until MARCH 25th so the office is STILL full of mostly Russians mostly shouting and often half naked, queueing out the door for their infinite cheat to stay in Thailand for ever. Again I had to spend half an hour in a queue at the long-term visa section with no one in front of me being there for a long-term visa.

13 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Yes

See: https://piv-phuket.com/long-stay-extensions/retirement/

Weeeell, I wouldn't be so sure. The info on that page hasn't been updated in 8 months. Their marriage visa page is stated to be up-to-date to this month and still not 100% accurate. I'd always recommend paying them a visit in person first to make sure.

21 minutes ago, Bob12345 said:

You sure it should be from the same day nowadays or did they just tell you do get a transaction done quickly, get a new printout, and then return without explicitly mentioning the printouts should be a maximum of 7 days old (as it explicitly stated at the information desk where the volunteers are sitting) ? It has been max 7 days old for years already, only recently they are demanding a transaction visible on the day you make the printout (or maybe before also but i just didnt notice).

100% sure. They sent several people away for the same reason. The one I brought was only 5 days old. The volunteers information sheet (and their website) is out of date on this one. The volunteer told us "this is new". Without your passbook updated to the day of the application you will be turned away. You're right, it has always been 7 days, maybe it'll change back at some point.

I had heard that during the heights of COVID you couldn't even get into Chaeng Wattana without an online appointment. Is that a different system? If this one is so new?

I tried using this for Phuket this week. 2 clicks and and e-mail address and that was it, I got an automatic response from their system. I hadn't submitted any information beyond my name, type of business with immigration and the time I wanted to come. The morning of my appointment (Monday, having made the appointment Friday) I received an obviously automatic confirmation e-mail. At no time was there any kind of appointment slip to print out or button for me to confirm by and the whole thing was clearly automatic.

Arriving 30 minutes before the appointed time I then spent 45 minutes waiting in the same disorganized queue as everyone else only to be told in no uncertain terms that Phuket is NOT observing the online queueing system.

They even have an LED ticker-tape sign over desk number 5 for "online queueing" but no one at the desk and no way to get to it anyway.  Also that sign has been there for at least a year so I don't think this is a new situation.

Maybe this system is observed at smaller offices around the country but I can't see it ever being more than a bad joke at Phuket. There's far too much money being made there from agents paying them to jump their own (ahem) 'self-managed' queue.

22 minutes ago, Salerno said:

Been possible for years and is often a recommended path to retirement extension.

 

Visa exempt > Non O > extension of stay based on retirement.

 

Good to know. I remember it being a thing for non-imm-B's back in the day. You had to leave Thailand and come back in on a B from elsewhere. KL's embassy was always rammed with people doing it.

On 9/1/2021 at 5:10 AM, BritTim said:

Easiest, especially if your funds are in Thailand, may be just to enter Thailand visa exempt (you will currently get an initial 45-day permission to stay). You can then sort out a conversion to a Non O visa (based on Thai spouse) and subsequent extensions at your local immigration office in Thailand.

Wait a second. Can anyone confirm this? I am under the distinct impression that it isn't possible to upgrade a visa exempt entry to any kind of visa in Thailand. Things could have changed but...

So the OP would need to go to the embassy in London (the consulate in Hull is 'temporarily' closed due to COVID) and get a visa for a stay of more than 75 days.

15 minutes ago, Dick Z said:

Sinovac was the first and not the best but it is always better than nothing and exposing yourself to getting sick. Get what you can and upgrade when things get easier. Even sinovac wil project you from serious illness and death. Refusing an opportunity now is just plain stupid.

The problem is people know they wont get an "upgrade". If they accept Sinovac now the gov. will consider them covered and they wont be able to register for anything else that may or may not become available later. It would be different (better) if privately sourced jabs weren't being inexplicably prohibited by Prayuth and his gang... but they are, so the choice is to accept an inferior jab from the gov. or wait and hope for a better option later.

People have gone 18 months of COVID now without being vaccinated, and for many it really doesn't affect them personally in their daily lives. The economy they live in might be decimated but they themselves aren't travelling so they don't need the jab. As far as they're concerned they may as well wait.

4 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

...I'm not certain who would benefit from fudging the numbers...

 

 

 

 

 

The UK has now red-listed Thailand due to low vaccination rates and other countries are sure to follow suit. So from that perspective the whole country benefits from misleading the world about its jab numbers. Granted it takes an exceptionally open minded Thai to actually grasp that, but believe it or not there are a few out there who know the world doesn't stop at Thai borders. Whether there's enough of them to form an effective conspiracy in Thailand's bungling government is a different matter.

Ahh. Thanks guys. Expect to wait 3 weeks for an answer and the start date can be specified up to 3 months after the application. That's easy to understand.

How long is an application for a UK visitors visa for a Thai national taking these days?

It's August 2021. VFS has just opened up its doors and appointments are available but scarce. They don't handle the actual visa approval of course, that's done in the UK and not affected by local COVID restrictions (although maybe slowed down in the UK?) VFS just send them the paperwork. They offer their priority (rip-off) service where for an extra 10,000 baht they'll 'very seriously try' to get you a response within a week (hell 40,000 gets you a response the next day!), but I can't find any info on how how long to expect the process to take without paying them an open bribe.

I seem to remember getting an answer in something like 10 days 10 years ago but what are people experiencing now? The visa starts counting down from the day it's issued so it sure would be nice to know when to expect that to happen.

4 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

The law is little vague on it. You are required to have some form of  identification at all times if asked for it by an authority. There is some flexibility  on what can be the ID dependent upon the authority asking for it. If they insist on seeing the original passport you can be detained until it is presented.

Somebody having your passport to do a 90 day report is not relevant to the discussion. It is clearly stated in the rules that another person can do your reports for you.

You've removed my post and replaced it with a post of your own explaining the ID requirement situation for foreigners in Thailand, saying basically exactly what I said. But when I explained it, quoting from my own personal experience on the matter, you call that "baiting" and "bickering"? I'm confused.

Ok the discussion of the news article was perhaps inflammatory, but I didn't post the link to it.

I have personally been actually laughed out of the Phuket immigration office for suggesting I might do a 90 day report for a friend.  And I have personally been required to produce my passport and work permit to apply for bank accounts, despite producing both a Thai driving license and alien registration card.

The only reason I post anything here is to try and share the benefit of my 2 decades of experience living in this country in the hope that it might make others lives here a little easier.

2 minutes ago, sinbin said:

Never needed in the past. If I have to have 'written authorisation', could you provide a link where it says that? Furthermore why would I have someones passport and do their 90 day report if I didn't have permission?

The law is very clear (all be it ridiculous) that all foreigners should carry their passports with them at all times.  If you have your friends passport then he must be breaking the law.

1 hour ago, sinbin said:

One doesn't have to do the 90 day report in person, hence mail and online report. Been like that for the 12 years I've been here as far as I recall. I rotate with other farang who report around the same time, never a problem.

Try doing that at either of the offices on Phuket and you'll be laughed out of the place, literally. Even with power of attorney you'll find it difficult (being a foreigner).

Reporting by mail has to be by registered post, hence it's considered equivalent to reporting in person, and online reporting is still very much in the experimental stage.  Like I said, you should count yourself lucky.