CbrLad

OK everyone; let's jump back on topic - Visa Fees waived for 3 months from 5 March to 4 June.

My wife will be travelling to Thailand in 2 weeks (for 6 weeks) on her Thai passport, but our two children are on Australian passports.

Today I contacted Royal Thai Consulate General - Melbourne to ask how to apply for the Tourist Visas.

They said there is still no decision about the waived visa fees and I need to pay AUD$45 per person for the application.

I have replied back to their email with the link found earlier in this thread:

http://www.tatnews.org/latest_update/detail.asp?id=4235

The nuts and bolts of my email reads:

Thank you for sending me the Tourist Visa application form today after I spoke with you.

I asked you about the Thai Tourist Visa fees being waived and you indicated nothing is official as yet.

I urge you to review the following link to "Tourism Authority of Thailand" web site indicating the decision has already been made and is effective from this Thursday.

http://www.tatnews.org/latest_update/detail.asp?id=4235

Thank you

I presume you are Australian? In which case you do not need a visa if travelling on an ordinary passport before you go, nor do you require visa on arrival. That is for stays of less than 3 months. All you do is go the immigration, hand the card over and smile nicley.

I do not know how many years I visited Thailand with a EU passport which upon arrival got automatically a stamp in the passport authorising a stay of 3 months : this was the rule at least from the early 1980ies until mid 1990 ies. To re-instate this would be more simple because in large countries potential tourists sometimes live many hundred kilometers from the closest Thai Embassy or Consulate.

This is not going to change that in any way. This is for people who need a visa before travel, or visa on arrival. If you come from a country in the EU or the myriad of other countries who don't need a visa it won't effect you, business as usual.

the great majority passengers in London use tube or train to and from the airport.

they are faster, cheaper and you can check in your luggage at the station (no need to walk with it around the airport)

Do you mean you can check in your luggage at Heathrow Airport train terminal when you arrive? I am not sure you can check it in at the Heathrow tube terminal.

There are no facilities for checking your luggage in when travelling to London's Heathrow Airport by the underground/tube, there are far too many stations, but you can certainly check your luggage in at Paddington Station, at least for some airlines, if you are travelling to Heathrow on The Heathrow Express

Which airlines and where? The area that was orginaly the check-in area at Paddington is now shops. I used this when flying BA in 1999, but when I came back in 2003 it was no longer. I use Heathrow express once a month now days and have never seen any airline check-in desk nor have I seen baggage loaded into the special compartments on the Heathrow express trains.

All good advice, except of course it doesn't have to be a stat dec. From the application form:

"Written statements from you and your fiancé(e) detailing the history of your relationship (for example, when and how you met, when you became engaged, joint activities, significant events in the relationship)."

Also refer page 39 of the Partner Migration booklet.

Woner when they will change their online schedules to reflect this. Just a few mins ago was looking at flights to Chang Rai and still showed DMK flights.

Hi,

I'm an Australian citizen and have been living and working in Bangkok for the past 3 years. I plan to head back to Melbourne, Australia in April. My girl friend would like to join me so she will need to apply for a tourist visa. This will actually be her first trip to another country. We have been together for about 11 months now. She has a good job which is full-time. We only plan to stay in Aus for 6 days as we both have jobs to get back to here in Bangkok. So are her chances of getting a tourist visa good? We will be staying with my mum and dad. They have all met before on my parents last trip out here. Anyway, if anyone has any advice,suggestions or information about this it would be much appreciated!

Cheer's

Mark

There should be no major issue, just read the application and the advice on the immigration page on the embassy website.

thanks for all the info. we are flying to UK first then i think Switzerland may be the first EU port of call so i guess we'll have to start there.

thx steve

Not that it matters much but Switzerland isn't part of the EU! As for the visa now wife has applied twice at the French Embassy in Bangkok and once in London, all pretty fast. All they really wanted is evidence of a return flight (or train out of the Schengen zone) AND travel insurance. The first time they gave her a visa valid for a week longer than the 3 days she said she was going to for, the 2nd and 3rd times up until her insurance ended, which was almost 12 months.

I work for an insurance company here Australia and many of them aren't aware that passports no longer get stamped. The company I work for is happy if a customer sends in a copy of their boarding pass or a copy of their ticket or e-ticket. Just ask your insurance company if they are ok with that.

It is nothing new but varies quite a lot. Sometimes I get one, sometimes I don't.

The declaration that Suvarnabhumi international airport was fully open prompted the embassies of Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the United States to deliver a joint letter of protest at the unseemly haste in resuming operations before a full safety audit.

Since when has the European Union had an Embassy?

Travel insurance is no different to any form of insurance. They will pull every stroke in the book, and a few that aren't, to avoid paying out.

No great fan of insurance companies myself, but in this case it seems pretty clear cut, it was a form of civil disorder which is has not covered by any policy I have ever had.

It always amusses me how when things turn to custard people always start point fingers at Embassies who don't do enough (bearing in mind they mostly cannot do anything anyway) or insurance companies when they won't pay on things that are clearly excluded in their policies. When people travel overseas they need to be aware that things, can and do happen, and if it happens to them then unfortunatly that is the hidden cost of travelling.

TG reported a loss of $300 million in Q2, more than $3,000,000 a day in losses. I haven't followed TG's revenue since then, but I am sure they are still in the red.

That said, I doubt they will file for Chapter 11 anytime soon, so our miles should be save.

They sure the hel_l won't be filling for Chapter 11 because they are not a US company!

I would think if they were to go bankrupt the government of the day would come to their rescue. In countries like Thailand having a flag carrier is just too important to let one go bankrupt.

Thanks for the replies.

Sounds like it might be a bit 'hit and miss'.

My hand luggage is too small to take my clothes and my laptop. Might have to buy some bigger hand luggage.

I was under the impression it was the airport security that sometimes had a problem with this and not the airlines themselves? A friend said he had a problem with security and not with the airline (Etihad).

I am going to be pushed for time to make the train connection at Manchester and do not want to take a big case and find I am delayed waiting for the luggage to appear.

Generally the allowance is set by the airline not the airport. The exception were UK airports who introduced the one bag rule for EVERYONE to limit the amount of baggage they had to scan.

In general there is nothing hit and miss about it. Just check the airline's website and see what your class of travel will allow.

I have done a lot of research into this, and we really hope to be successful first time, so I think this could be a good resource for other people in similar situation - Just trying to share the knowledge. Also, must mention www.ozvisathai.com as a great resource.

The best resource is www.immi.gov.au, it is even better now they have the visa wizzard. Just provide exactly what they ask for.

No give and take.....3 months from the date of grant

What rot, it all depends upon the applicant and situation. My now wife for example got a multi-entry visa which was valid for 12 months from date of issue. Her sister who applied at the same time (to come to our wedding in Aust) got a 3 month visa.

Bottom line to the OP, it is all on the visa label. Best thing is to wait until it is issued and see what it says.

I flew out on the 2nd, nothing had changed. Probably because there is no space to put the checkpoints even if they wanted to move them?

More likely is an other safety concern; in fact a fair lot of airports are moving back safety checks to the respective gates:

...

Which airports would these be?

I had a look and couldn't find the exact scenario I am looking for the answer to so here goes with a new post:

Ok Wife is here in the UK on ILR at the moment, her Sister is in Ireland (married to an Irish guy) and wife wants to visit her as her sister is dropping a sprog...

So my question is -

1) Do I apply for a normal visitors visa for her and do I need anything from the brother in law to say where's she staying etc

2) Irish embassy site says something about EU spouses not having to pay (do I get shafted due to being British on this one and have to pay the 60 euros)...

Lastly is there likelyhood that there will be problems here (had right drama getting the wife here almost 2 years ago so looking for heads up).

Cheers

Cannot answer the specific question, but with point 2, being British, like it or not you are en EU citizen.

I flew out of Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday on a flight to London.

I know they recently brought in the 'no liquids' rule which is now popular all over the world but the problem I have at Suvarnabhumi is that it's the only airport that I use where you can not purchase any kind of drink once you go through security.

Normally I have no problem with throwing away a bottle of water when I go through security. I normally just purchase a couple more once I've gone through the scanner.

I can't believe that they have no vending machines or other stores selling refreshments past the scanners.

What a pain in the ass, surely they realise that there's a market here that needs exploiting.

Perhaps they are taking the 'no liquids' rule literally, I noticed the 'drinking fountains' were also out of order.

Have a look at the other thread where AOT has announced the relocation of the scanners to before the shops. Pretty smart move.

BTW the liquid rule at BKK applies to flights operated by Qantas, all flights to Australia and maybe some others. Certainly not all. Also remember the liquid rules came into being AFTER the airport was built and opened.

I note the system is using overhead powerlines. I think it looks kinda swish...

But, what is the benefit of using overhead power rather than a third rail?

The ARL will run at 160 kph. You cannot use a 3rd rail system at such speeds ( max 110 kph).

I think the English would disagree. In the South West they have an extensive 3rd rail system with normal cruise speeds well above 110km/h. Indeed the world speed record for 3rd rail is around 170km/h.

It's mainly down to Amps, 3rd rail tends to be used at lower voltages (750V) and with DC as opposed to the 25kV AC usually used on overhead systems. The lower voltage means that to get the required power much higher currents are required with the associated problems when you have sliding contacts, limiting the maximum practical speed to around 120kph.

A huge advantage of using DC is that it is very easy to implement regenerative braking, whereby trains use the motors as generators when slowing down and put power back into the system (rather than wasting it as heat) allowing much greater efficiency where lots of stop-start operations are performed (as in metro systems).

Interesting article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_elect...n_Great_Britain

Although the BKK Sky Train unless I am mistaken uses a variation of the bottom contact system. Ie in normal third rail the shoe presses down, in bottom contact the shoe is under the rail and pushes up which allows higher currents and produces less arching. The article you quoted said this about bottom contact systems:

"750 V DC, Third rail (Bottom Contact)

Docklands Light Railway

This system uses a bottom-contact third rail. The third rail uses a composite conductor rail made of an aluminium body with a steel contact surface. The benefit of this is a low-resistance, high current capacity rail that has a durable steel surface for the current collection shoegear of the train."

But yes the difference between third rail and 25KV over head is the amount of current it can pass. Low voltage means larger conductor is needed for the same amount of energy, 25KV needs a much smaller conductor which so happens to be suspended overhead.

I note the system is using overhead powerlines. I think it looks kinda swish...

But, what is the benefit of using overhead power rather than a third rail?

The ARL will run at 160 kph. You cannot use a 3rd rail system at such speeds ( max 110 kph).

I think the English would disagree. In the South West they have an extensive 3rd rail system with normal cruise speeds well above 110km/h. Indeed the world speed record for 3rd rail is around 170km/h.

Obviously braking distances etc would be significantly different for a 6 car train.

This I do not understand, am I missing something or will the new carriages not have brakes?

To make a 6 car train all you do is join two 3 car trains together, you don't add new carriages into the existing sets. However joining two together quite clearly increases the overall weight of the train, which in turns effects braking and acceleration of the train.

Now considering these trains are off the shelf Siemens trains, I cannot see any reason why they are not capable of running in mixed mode operation. From what the missus has told me the real reason they do not run more carriages is they simply do not have any spare to run.

Having said that I agree with what someone else has said in that I would rather see a more frequent service before increasing the train lengths to 6 car trains. I guess doing that requires an extra driver which increases the costs, but considering this is Thailand we are talking about the cost should be minimal compared to the overall running costs of the system.

Out of interest, I picked up my friends from there a week or so ago, they told me that they had been approached for 'a taxi' whilst collecting their luggage!

Never heard of that but the AOT limo service does has a desk inside the arrivals hall if I am not mistaken, so maybe it was one of them that approached them.

As for me I have never seen a large enough que at the 'offical' taxi desk and the thing I like about it is you get a ticket with the cab number for any future complaints and issues.

I am trying to give a couple of friends specific directions to get to the Airport Meter Taxi Queue so they can avoid all of the "limo" and other touts. I thought that the Meter Taxi queue is on the bottom floor. Keep going down till you can't go down any more and then go out. Is that right?

On the Airport websites it says that the Meter taxi Queue is on Level 2, arrivals. I am dead certain I always have to go down from the arrivals level.

Can you look at these directions and see if they are specific and accurate. Is the Queue outside on the bottom level or level 2 (like the website says).

"Keep going downstairs until you reach the bottom floor, then go

outside. Ignore anyone offering you a ride inside the terminal. When

you go outside, you will see the Taxi queue. At the Taxi queue, they

will use the meter."

OK?

Thanks, Drew

It is on the same level as arrivals..... about the 3rd or 4th exit door. Just ignore the touts until you get to the taxi desk.

As for going down if I am not mistaken when it first opened that was the plan, go down catch a bus to the taxi/bus station. But every time I have used a taxi it has been direct from the arrivals level, the last time was about 4 days ago.

The wife and I used one in MBK that was pretty good and professional. Had pictures taken in both Thai and Western garb, the 'deal' included the customs, make up for both of us, a whole heap of printed pictures of various sizes as well as a CD containing all the photo's taken including those that weren't used. Think the cost was about 6000 baht or there abouts.

That is not the reason, we can bring in duty free grog no problems. What the issue is is the layout os BKK airport. See the security is AFTER the duty free shops and there is no way to know if the liquid was purchased in the airport or before. I beleive the same issue applies in SIN. Some other airports with a similar set-up do what the US does and delivers the duty free to the aircraft door thus ensuring it is ok. I reckon they should do like in Europe and seal the bag at time of purhase. So sealed bag= goods ok and no security issue.

PS. This 'problem' applies to ALL flights to countries that insit on the 100m liquid rule, not just Aus.

There are huge signs put up at the final bag check at boarding which state it is an Oz Gov't (Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) directive.

It was also enforced for a short time at DM, which was better (ahem) designed.

I agree, the layout at Swampy is pathetic with no obvious thought for this.

Think you miss understood what I meant. Yes it is a government decree, but the decree isn't a blanket ban on bring in duty free grog. The decree is you cannot take the liquids through SECURITY, which is where the layout at Swampy and other places becomes an issue as security is after the duty free shops. If there is an airport where security is before duty free there is NO problem at all taking it to Australia. LHR is one such example, provided of course you leave it on the plane in BKK.

LA is another example, but that is because duty free purchases are delivered to the aircraft door and hence are fine. I understand there are a few places like swampy where security is after the shops where they are doing delivery to the aircraft gate to get around the requirement. Bottom line though is maybe Australia and Thailand and other places where this is an issue need to do as they do in Europe. That is duty free liquids are sealed with the receipt visible and can be taken through airport security so long as the seal isn't broken.

Our WONDERFUL Oz gov't decreed that we are not permitted to bring booze as cabin luggage to Aust - mind you, we can buy it in Oz to take out of the country. Similar rules with cutlery on the plane. Metalware is OK going out, but only plastic knives coming in. Not that you couldn't do any damage with the steel fork...

DownTown DF have a hold on Sydney Airport for booze similar to what King Power had in TH. Kinda leaves me wondering which politician's families have shares in DownTown...

That is not the reason, we can bring in duty free grog no problems. What the issue is is the layout os BKK airport. See the security is AFTER the duty free shops and there is no way to know if the liquid was purchased in the airport or before. I beleive the same issue applies in SIN. Some other airports with a similar set-up do what the US does and delivers the duty free to the aircraft door thus ensuring it is ok. I reckon they should do like in Europe and seal the bag at time of purhase. So sealed bag= goods ok and no security issue.

PS. This 'problem' applies to ALL flights to countries that insit on the 100m liquid rule, not just Aus.

RF I think you may be getting uptight over a communication problem in what the Australian Legal system calls a Marriage Cert and what other countries see.

I found this out in Oz after 2x 20year marriages that the paper (Certificate) issued First time by a Priest and second by a marriage celebrant was only worth toilet paper ( a fact very few Australians are aware of) when sorting out something in Thailand for my Thai wife.

In Australia you must go to the Registrar of Hatched Dispatched and currently incarcerated, pay your $70 and get a registration of marriage document. This has the date and location the marriage was registered. eg Registered on xx date at Perth WA Australia and a file registration number.

So if your Thai Marriage Certificate was provided by the Amphur and it is the same as my TW got 25+ years ago it will state registered at Amphur Office ,District of, in the province of, on date xx, Thailand, and is fully acceptable to the Australian Government as was hers and her registered divorce at the same Amphur.

As you are in Bangkok why not just ask the embassy before you submit the application.

The interesting thing is the decorative document I received from the person who married me and my wife (in the ACT Australia) says on the back that it is legal proof the two people named have had their marriage solemnised under Australian law. It goes on futher to say is it isn't conclusive proof of ID, but I wouldn't have thought you couldn't use a marriage certificate as proof of ID in anyway, except of course to changes one's name after marriage.

So as evidence of marriage it is as good as one from the registry office but why Embassies don't accept it is beyond me, but it is the case.