Expat2B

MrsE2B is 50% Thai. The rest 50% is mixture of Chinese and Mon. According to her mum, her great, greatgrand was Portuguese as well, although I'm not too sure about that. I have to say that her grandma (the Mon) looks slightly Western.

How long has she been here on the Settlement Visa Expat2B ?

Just wondering, to see how long you have to gather the information.

Since Sept 2007, although I had been in the UK two years prior to that. The documents I have now in my name is my bank statements (although I don't receive this monthly as it should be) and our electricity bill which is in joint names. We haven't had any water bills since we moved to this flat in London in May 2007. I do get letters from the sport club I joined, although they came as a card and address "Dear Member", not so much help there.

I nearly slipped up there, didn't realise you are actually the wife MrsExpat2B. Your English is superb.

Other forms of documentation that are acceptable are:- do you have a National Insurance Number? Any correspondence with this are ok. Do you have a NHS number? Again this is good. Send off for a Provisional Drivers licence (if you haven't already got a full licence). Is your name on the Council Tax bill? For utility bills, simply ring the Gas/Electric/Water/Phone companies and have them add your name. Do you have a monthly mobile phone contract? Again this is ok.

I am a little reluctant to add Mrs E2B's name to the Council Tax bill at our London property (essentially our main home) in case it buggers up the tax status of this property (it is accomodation paid for by my - and I mean I wholly own it - company). It is quite defensible having myself registered for council tax since I do spend some time here, but having Mrs E2B registered here could be a bit dodgy for tax puproses. This would cost me around £15k in additional tax which I am keen to avoid.

I wonder if anyone who has obtained ILTR for their spouse has encountered similar problems with the list of documents which should be gathered over the 2 year period prior to applying for ILTR. It seems to me that if your wife doesn't work then a lot of the documentation will be impossible to obtain, e.g. credit cards in my wife's name. Even opening a bank account for her was a struggle and in the end only possible by using HSBC's international student service (while she was studying before we got married).

This is made even worse if bills etc. are not in joint names. We have 2 properties and the one where we spend most time (in London) is paid for by my business as work and office accomodation (wich makes changing the billing to joint names tough). Our main home in the North West we spend less time in and I think it would confuse the issue if there was correspondance going to 2 different addresses. In any even even when I was in previous relationships I had very little joint arrangements with my partners beyond a joint account.

I would really appreciate any advice or tips that anyone else who has been through this may offer.

Mrs E2B got me a pair of Sennheiser PXC300 headphones for Xmas which I will use first time tomorrow on the flight to Australia. Will let you know then how they work but they had quite good reviews on internet plus the size is not bulky either.

Hello - What is ABAC and GPA?

ABAC is a Thai university where courses are taught in English.

GPA is grade point average an american approach to grading performance at school and University. If I remember correctly GPA runs from 1 to 4, with 3.5 to 4.0 being approximately equivalent to an A. GPA is very important for access to competitive UK Masters Courses (for overseas studnets) and also indicates academic achievement at school and High School. The better UK universities will expect to see a minimum of high High School GPA's and a high score in IELTS or TOEFL.

Mrs E2B and I are trying to find a bar that might be showing this game tonight. I guess our best hope will probably be a bar run by a Villa fan (possible) or a Wigan fan (unlikely). If anyone knows where we could catch this game we would be really grateful.

Should be a number of places that will have the football on.

Robin Hood near Soi 33/1

The Londoner corner of Soi 33

Gullivers -Multiple screens Soi 5

All of these will have games on, but Gullivers might be your safest bet, although IMO it gets a little crowded when football is on.

Thanks

We had thought of these places we were just thinking that since several games are being played at the same time, the odds of seeing the Wigan game rather than Man U, Chelsea etc. are somewhat slim. The game is being shown on True, but unfortunately not on one of the channels we have

Mrs E2B and I are trying to find a bar that might be showing this game tonight. I guess our best hope will probably be a bar run by a Villa fan (possible) or a Wigan fan (unlikely). If anyone knows where we could catch this game we would be really grateful.

I want to return to the UK to do my masters.

Thats my plan also. It's very hard to get into a university in England if you have just graduated (Public)high school in Thailand. I graduated high school in England, just GCSE's and no A-levels and got straight into ABAC - Basically I skipped 2 years of education...

ABAC is connected to many UK and USA based universities and they will recognise my BA when I choose to take a MS there.

Fluent English skills (take the tests - TOFL, IELTS etc) is a must in addition to high GPA's if you want to study in England.

Good luck!

Since the entry requirements to Thai universities at 18 is roughly equal to 8 GCSEs this is perhaps not so unusual. As ABAC courses are taught in English I guess fluency in English would also be another strong point in your favour.

High GPA's are a must for acceptance at good universities for masters courses immediately after first degrees. The choice of university for a masters and the course followed is even more important for masters courses than for first degrees. A few years after graduation it is much easier to access masters courses even at the better universities without a great first degree or even a first degree at all in some cases.

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond Mr and Mrs E2B.

It would seem that as each University sets different entry criteria the best starting point would be to draw up a shortlist of interesting degree courses and contact the Universities individually.

May I ask, did Mrs E2B find it difficult to obtain suitable work upon graduation? I am concerned that a non-UK born graduate would always play second fiddle to a UK grad.

Thanks

qpgwmh

I think upon graduation much depends upon the graduates fluency in English and relevant work experience. Mrs E2B has exceptionally good English skills and acheived 253 in TOEFLm as well as a 2:1 in her degree, so that was not an issue for her. Given the number of immigrants now filling positions in the UK, being from overseas is not the handicap it once was. Since I run my own business Mrs E2B was able to gain "work experience" in general admin etc. working for me, which probably helped with her applications. Be aware however that the traditional "graduate jobs" in the UK are in short supply these days and the likelihood of obtaining one of these positions even as a UK national will depend upon the quality of the institution at which you studied (i.e. try to avoid former Polys), the quality fo the course and the final result (probably in that order).

Whether spending £25k on a degree course was worthwhile is perhaps a little questionable. Essentially Mrs E2B studied in the UK so that we could live together whilst she completed her degree so from that perspective it was money well spent, whether it would have been good value otherwise is rather debatable. Whilst average graduate starting salaries appear relatively high, they hide considerable difference between the lower and upper end of the graduate income scale (the median grduate starting salary is probably a better indicator if you can find this information).

Now Mrs E2B is working her income is not that high, but she does obtain valuable experience and some financial independance.

I hope this helps. I think your approach in producing a shortlist then having individual discussions is the right one, just choose your institutions carefully and be aware that the easiest institutions to enter may well not be the best places to study in the longer term.

Hello,

I'm really interested in finding out if anybody on here--or their partners--have any experience or knowledge of obtaining entry to a University degree course.

My wife and I are at the start of our information search but already there seem to be so many options and differing courses that we are confused. Which is why we're keen to know of anybody's own experiences.

Any advice at all is very gratefully received.

Thank you

Assuming that the person seeking to apply has been educated in Thailand, perhpas your first priority should be to consider which University will accept the qualifications the applicant has. Mrs E2B came to the UK as a student (which allowed us 2 years of living together prior to getting married). The 2 issues most universities will have is the applicants educational acheivement and their understanding of English.

Mrs E2B was studying at Chula when we met and this turned out to be the crucial factor for her eventual acceptance at Buckingham University (The UK's only private university where an honours degree can be completed in 2 years). She also had an outstanding score in her English Proficiency test (I have forgotten the name of this test, but it was biased towards US rather than British English).

Buckingham were very reluctant to accept her unless she completed an expensive and time consuming foundation course, which we both felt would be of little real value. The big issue is that Thais completing High School at 18 are only really adjudged to be at GCSE rather than 'A' Level Standard. Many of the better (and thus more worthwhile) universities just willnot budge on this point. Buckingham finally concluded that her GPA was good enough from her Chula studies to effectively meet "A" Level matriculation standards and offered her a place. This wasn't cheap at c. £13k per annum, but compared reasonably well to a 3 year course elsewhere and at the time Buckingham was a very convenient location for us.

If you would like to be a bit more specific about your requirements drop me a PM and I will ask Mrs E2B to respond.

I tend to like a broad range of wines from bog standard drinking wines (typically Pinot Grigio these days) to higher end fare (e.g. a nice Montrachet or some Krug).

Mrs E2B and I went to the Thai Food Festival near Guildford last year (at Secretts Farm I think) and one of the stands was promoting Thai Wine which was actually not that bad it was certainly drinkable (unlike any other Thai wine I have ever tried), unfortunately I cannot remember the name. The big problem though was the price. I seem to remember the per bottle price in the UK was only a little under £10. Whilst both red and white varieties were drinkable, at best they were on a par with nice but cheap Chilean or South African wines. I thought that the price was at least twice to three times what I would actually pay.

I normally find drinkable Aussie wine in Villa for around 500-600 a bottle occassionally cheaper with promos (I remember Villa Lang Suan had a range of Hardys for around 350 to 400 THB a bottle a year or 2 ago).

I just do not think it is worthwhile buying a high end wine in Thailand (outside perhaps the upper echelon hotels) for the same reason I would tend to avoid buying similar wines from a supermarket in the UK. You can just never be sure how carefully the wine has been kept and I really just would not be able to face having a discussion about cork taint with one of the staff in Villa etc.

Compared to some other countries I think the price of the lower end Australian wines in Thailand are quite reasonable.

Actually it is an electronic travel authority, slightly different from a visa, but only slightly!!! Also it is valid for 12 months for a max stay of 3.

Now with the orginal poster, just stop and think for a moment what the visa people would be looking for. Remember being married to you, being Canadian is slightly different to being single or married to an aussie. One of her main reasons to return is the fact that you don't live in Aus. Also being married, your own finances even if it isn't in a joint name is still relivant. There is no such thing as a joint application (many on this board just don't get this simple fact). That being said your joint circumstances are relevant and if you read the 48R form you will see quite clearly where your plans together get documented.

I would say you will have few if any problems at all, provided you keep it simple and don't try too hard. (another common mistake which leads to suspicsion BTW)

For Thai nationals it is not an ETA it is a real visa. Mrs E2B recently got one of these which unlike the ETA I have is a real visa occupying a whole page of her Passport. She is resident in the UK with me and we submitted minimal documetnation just evidence of our marriage, a copy of my passport plus our itinerary and I think a credit card statement showing that we had available funds. The whole process was remarkably straightforward and completed in around 4 days (i.e. passport returned with visa).

I'm sure his wife is not thinking about income support or god forbid, incapacity benefits but she will still be entitled to paid leave pro rata.

Other benefits such as state pension will be claimed via her husbands entitlement, she wont be entitled to extra in her own right but I'm sure she's not thinking about pensions right now.

Actually I beleive it is possible to have access to benefits such as pensions and other contributory benefits even if an employee does not earn wnough to pay NI. It certainly always used to be the case that there was a weekly amount which was below the level that would trigger payment of tax and NI, but above the minimum threshold such that an employee received all the advantages of an NI contributions record without actually having to make the contributions.

The current tax allowance is just over £5200 p.a., so an individual can earn £100.00 per week with no tax liability. However, I'm pretty sure that NI will be payable and it's possible that the employer is seeking to not pay his 10% contribution. Have a word with HMRC.

Scouse.

NI is only payable by employer or employee in any week where the employee exceeds the Lower Earnings Limit (which I am pretty sure is 1/52 of the total tax free allowance).

As an employer myself (and previous notional PT employer of my Thai Wife, when she was my GF studying here in the UK), it is perfectly possible to pay (or be paid) in cash for work. The employer has an obligation to report payments to HMRC as part of their periodic return, even if no tax or NI is payable. Similarly if an employee is paid in cash they have an obligation to report any income which could give rise to a tax liability to HMRC (via a tax return if necessary). The crucial test is the Tax Free Alllowance and LEL (Lower Earnings Limit, which I think is the same figure as the tax free allowance). If the employee earns less than this on a weekly basis (not on average, specifically on a week by week basis they earn less than 1/52 of the tax free allowance) then no NI is payable by either employee or employer. If the employee earns more than 1/52 of the tax free allowance in any given week then both employers and employees NI becomes payable for that week (unless the employee is also a director of the company in which case earnings can be averaged over the entire 52 week period).

I legitimately paid Mrs E2B the entire Tax Free Allowance in cash with no deduction for NI (Employer or Employee) and no tax deduction. This helpfully reduced my corporation tax bill by c.£1000 too. This was reported to HMRC as part of my annual Employers filing and I expect I would definitely have heard rumblings from them by now were this to be a problem.

As a new employee the OP's wife will need an NI number which can be obtained from a Job Centre Plus (but usually after a wait and jumping through several bureaucratic hoops). In the first instance however the employer may use a temporary NI number for your wife. The fact that she already has a job should help to expedite the provision of an NI number.

The only thing the OP should be wary of is any "deductions" from his wife's pay. Unscrupulous employers may make deductions from pay which are never reported to HMRC. Based on the scenario given, this seems unlikely since the OP's wife should not have to pay tax or NI (so long as the amount they are paid per week is low enough as outlined above).

I didnt realize it was to GCSE level 3 - surely that would mean the deportation of 50% of school leavers.

Too true, including Mr. Expat2B who uses a preposition to end a sentence with:-

Personally I couldn't seriously consider marrying someone who I could not have a proper conversation with...

Scouse.

I did say that Mrs E2B frequently corrects me That said i should know better, I hope this thread has slipped down the page before Mrs E2B gets home from work Now I can't even do a little sneaky editing

Yellow EVERYWHERE in BKK!! Have you guys seen the ceremony live on local chanels today? It's all amazing yellow.

According to Mrs E2B the Thai news was reporting the King saying that he was sick of yellow and had asked his subjects if they could please wear some other colour.

Following mrbojangles' advice, read the form SET(M)

I just noticed in "Note 5" of that document, they don't accept Internet Bank statements. Absolutely ridiculous when more and more of us are going that way in terms of banking

Most banks will be happy to supply real statements for you, although depending upon your relationship with the bank there may be a fee for this. When Mrs E2B applied for FLR I had not received the printed copies of the statements for one major savings account from the bank. Ultimately this caused no issues, whether this was because they had enough financial evidence from the other statements etc. provided, or they assumed since the statement was in colour it was not an internet print out, I do not know.

Have you never thught that maybe the husband is a fluent thai speaker?

When we lived in the Uk my thai wife went ballistic when we visited the local council offices, She has a good command of english yet could not read so many notices posted in Hindu Bengali and Urdu!

The Immigration problem in the UK is not caused by Thai wives . Too many pakistanis and africans.

Making things difficult for the Thai is a joke when arranged marriages from Pakistan are a dialy occurence.

Thank God we left that shit hole and now live here where the people still have working brains.

I think the proposed requirement for a spouse to be able to speak English is quite fair in most circumstances. If 2 people can't communicate with each other, the odds are not good that they would have a successful and enduring marriage. I wonder whether there is potential for challenge under Human Rights legislation though. I think I can see what the Government is getting at here. In fact it seems that this change is designed to addres the very problem you refer to above. Personally I couldn't seriously consider marrying someone who I could not have a proper conversation with. On the other hand Mrs E2B had the advantage of a more formal education in the English Language than I did, which can be really annoying as she corrects my grammar etc. whilst looking over my shoulder. I blame the UK education system

Using your argument re: the UK spouse being a fluent Thai speaker, surely draws direct comparison with a UK spouse being a fluent Hindi or Urdu speaker?

Like the Scouser, I see this being a major money spinner for English Language Schools in Thailand. Suddenly that business is looking more appealing

Is anyone knowledgable about UK tax matters for expats - particularly inheritance tax, and the position of a Thai wife (widow!) ? I wish to get to know if there are any legal ways to mitigate inheritance tax, eg. (Not just the usual stuff about gifts and the 7 year rule - I seem to remember reading somewhere that recognition of domicile status outside the UK would lead to relief from IT, but I cannot remember where.)

Also I am interested in any info on good tax advisors - in the UK or here, who really know their stuff re expats.

And I am considering retaining a legal advisor here in Thailand to assist my wife through the UK minefield of probate etc, when I die - any experience on this aspect?

Does anyone out there share my interests as described, and if so is it something that can be usefully debated in the forum?

Only UK domiciled individuals are liable for IHT on their worldwide estate. If you become non UK domiciled then you become expempt from UK IHT (but may face an IHT liability in your country of residence/domicile). I think there is also a short transition period (2 years IIRC) after the change of domicile where you retain some UK IHT liability (presumably to prevent "last minute" domicile changes).

The ease of changing domiclie depends upon the extent of any retained connections within the UK. If you do not own a property in the UK or retain any significant connection other than perhaps occasional visits to family and relatives then it should be theoretically straightforward to agree a change of domicile with HMRC.

I cannot really recommend a good firm of accountants/tax advisers as I have found the firms I have dealt with equally poor. Your best option (if you have significant assets) would be to consult a good UK tax lawyer, this will not be cheap however.

We got married in Thailand since we wanted a buddhist ceremony too and this was far easier to arrange in Thailand. It was also easier for my wifes family to attend our wedding and for my family to fly out to Thailand, than if we tried to bring my wife's family to the UK for the ceremony.

Thanks guys . . . .

Rent minus Mortgage and costs is less than my personal allowance . . .

So if savings go offshore then it's no longer a problem.

Thanks

David

Just be very clear that the full amount of mortgage is not deductable, only the interest element of the mortgage can be offset against the rental "profit". Any capital repayment will count as "profit" for tax purposes. This is an easy calculation if you have an interest only mortgage, but somewhat harder if you have a repayment mortgage (that said your bank/building society should advise you of the relevant split in your annual statement).

There is no perfect solution when valuing a business acquisition, the only way to look at it is what makes sense for you. One thing you should be clear about however is that goodwill is an accounting concept which is used to justify on the balance sheet any value paid to acquire a business over and above the straight asset value. As such it isn't really something that you buy, it is just used within subsequent accounts to show the difference between the tangible value and the acquisition price. It is normal to write down any value given to goodwill over a period of time and this should be factored into your return on capital calculations.

In an ideal world as a buyer you would acquire a business for its tangible asset value, as a seller you would sell a business based upon asset value, annual income (using the highest multiple you can justify) and an element of future income potential (which may be factored into the income multiple you apply).

As a buyer realistically you should set the rate of return you would expect and then base your calculations upon this. For instance for a 10MTHB acquisition if you are financing 5M THB from your own resources and 5M THB from borrowing (easier said than done in Thailand), then your return expectations would compare the total income you will receive (less the costs of servicing any borrowing) against the return you would get from investing the 5M THB in another opportunity (be it a bank dposit, the purchase of government bonds etc.). Understanding the "risk free rate of return" or the income you can acheive with no risk to your capital is critical to beginning to understand the amount of return you would need to get to make a project pay for you (taking into acount the relative riskiness of the project and compensation for your own time and work).

Hi there guys and gals . . . me again! (sorry!)

Trying to get my little head around all the 'stuff'

that's to be done before departing for LOS . . .

Does any one know (I've checked the archives!) If Thai wife (lives and works and pays tax in UK now with NI number)

will be eligible for a UK tax free allowance when we move to Thailand?

From my gleanings . . . I will be liable for tax on income from rent of UK property

and also from interest on UK savings (dam_n!) but can still use my £5k tax free allowance.

Can we use Thai wife's allowance or will she not be entitled to one?

Part 2 of my gleanings would seem to indicate that money paid in the UK from work

done outside the UK while not resident in the UK and living in LOS is not liable for UK tax, but liable to Thai income tax

if brought into Thailand in the same year that it is earned.

Thanks for reading . . . such a boring subject, I know!

David

I am not sure of the situation regarding the retention of the UK tax allowance by your wife, is she also a British Citizen? If so her treatment might be expected to be similar to yours. See here for more information http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/allow_nonres.htm

However, you would appear to be much better off transferring your banking arrangements offshore rather than retaining them within the UK. All major UK banks have operations in Jersey and the IoM which typically service UK ExPats. Moving your account offshore in this way gives you all the comfort of a keeping similar UK banking arrangements in Sterling, but without the possible tax complications of remitting income to the UK. I would see this as a simple and relatively painless move.

The UK has a withholding tax levied on the proceeds of property rental for non UK residents, however you are only liable for tax after deduction of all relevant expenses for the rental property including mortgage interest payments, rental agent fees, management fees (if applicable) which include all service charges for a leasehold property (IIRC) but not the ground rent, maintenance costs, depreciaton of fixtures and fittings etc.

It is not too difficult (if you have a reasonably large mortgage) to construct a scenario where you make little real profit and thus the tax due on letting income is minimised. Clearly if you have a large portfolio of rental properties your position might be rather different.

Mrs E2b and I completed the whole legal marriage in approximately 4 hours in Bangkok with the assistance of a firm of advisers. All we had to do was to take along any supplementary documentation (e.g. passport, decree absolute from my previous marriage etc.). The agent collected us from our hotel (although in hindsight it would have been quicker to take the BTS) took us to the office, typed the necessary attestation, accompanied us to the UK Embassy where I paid the fee and submitted the documents. We then went back to the office and were accompanied to a specific amphur (which I think the firm has a special arrangement with). All the documentation was completed and we received our marriage certificates (the agent collected the UK Embassy attestation the following day etc.).

This was all very civilised and whilst it wasn't cheap the process was very straightforward. The only additional fee we paid was for a translation of our marriage certificate to be certified by the MOFA.

I would definitely recommend the firm we used. They took a lot of stress out of the situation given that we had a limited amount of time in Bangkok before heading off to Krabi for our religious ceremony, we also had to complete the fitting of the wedding outfits we had ordered from the UK and co-ordinate with the 2 groups of family and friends who were joining us in Krabi.