MangoKorat

You're welcome. I was faced with similar problems many years ago. When the practical realities of Thai/UK relationships sets in, its often the case that plans have to change. Probably the best advice I can give you is to slow down a bit. Many things can and do change. You'll find that International Schools in Thailand are very expensive. However, there is another system that I don't quite understand - others will know though. In Thailand school is not free after I think 14/15. There is an option to pay for kids to finish schooling and/or go to better schools in the area. They're not private in what we would consider the accepted meaning but they are better run, have better teachers and better equipment. Some schools also have special streams for paying pupils but they may have to pass exams to enter them. As I say, I don't know much about it but I do know that my girlfriend is currently considering where to send her child to in 2 years when she reaches 15. I can assure you that I won't be paying for that, whatever she chooses.

20 million? Yeah right! One Family One Soft Power (OFOS) plus: One Village One Thai Food Chef (OVOTFC) Sounds a lot like OTOP.........wasn't that also one of the the Thaksin family's great ideas?

Jeez, they'll be wearing masks forever more.

As you've already been told - its most likely they have that in Thailand already. With a 16 year old, they would have to prove that the kid had some special need to be with its mother. I've seen them ask if there's any close relatives in Thailand and if there is - with no special needs, there's no chance. For years and years a different (Asian) section of UK society has brought their aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma's etc. into the UK without it seems, much problem. That has now (virtually) been stopped. OP, don't take it from me. There will be others on this forum that have tried or know someone who has. I'm presuming that you are fairly new to Thai/UK relationships and matters relating to them? It can be both hard for you to settle in Thailand and to bring a Thai family to the UK. If your circumstances were different, i.e. you were the kids father, there would be no problem at all as they'd be entitled to a UK passport. I can't say that adoption would make it any easier but I did have a mate who adopted his wife's son when he was about 10-12. Although they never had any plans to move to the UK, his adopted son got a UK passport so the adoption may give the same rights. However, I doubt the Thai adoption process is fast so its likely that the 16 year old will be classed as an adult before you get through the process - then you really have no chance. Basically, the rules state that a dependant child under 18 can be added to a family visa application subject to certain criteria. However, in practice, the closer a child is to 18, the harder it gets. I can't give you details or specifics but I can tell you its problematic with older kids. Hopefully someone else will come along who's had direct experience. You could also try talking to a specialist UK Immigration lawyer. They's give you the exact script. There's some information here but its also confusing: https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/child

And that is more or less the line UK Immigration uses.

Well of course you have to meet the financial requirements but as far as the family goes - its like I've already said. I used to be a member of another forum who's members were mainly Brits with Thai wives, I read a lot on there about people having serious problems gettig older kids a settlement visa for the UK.

He will find it impossible to move Thai kids to the UK without an accepted and paid up course. Even if he was to try and move his wife and kids to the UK, he would have a very hard time getting a visa for the 16 year old. Even the 13 year old wouldn't be so easy. UK Immigration don't give a hoot about splitting families up. The older kids are, the harder it gets.

Stick with the international schools in Thailand. From what I've seen, the level of education at most Thai schools is nowhere near that of the UK. Unless you are confident their's is better, you could be putting your future wife's kids at a real disadvantage sending them to the UK.

But you're not me and I don't support mysoginistic, devisive lunatics.

Just to be clear, it wasn't me who raised the 'time of peace' thing. I was replying to it. I know you know that Mr Charles but others may not.

You cannot be seriously attributing that to Trump? Putin does exactly as he wants and as we are seeing at the moment, to a lesser extent so does Netanyahu. Trump would have had no effect on either conflict. His claim that he could stop the war in Ukraine in 1 day should be taken in the same way as his claim that Covid wouldn't kill anymore than 100,000 Americans. The total to date is now 1,219,487. Shame the bleach didn't work. The man doesn't even have half a brain, yet over 74 million people voted for him in 2020 - speaks volumes about the American electorate! The UK went through its own period of lunacy with Johnson - another who claimed there were witchhunts against him. Nutter or not, at least he had the decency to resign.

Maybe but he's getting more airtime with his rants outside court. Listening to one of his 'Witchhunt' speeches just now, I find it incredulous that anyone at all votes for him - seriously! Make America Great Again??? All he does is make American people the laughing stock of the world - again. You can hear more sense spoken at a kindergarden. The easiest prediction ever..........if he loses the forthcoming election, he won't accept it and will launch into yet another round of stolen votes speeches.

Anybody who buys 'off plan' after years of negative publicity and downright scams, needs a check up from the neck up. No sympathy.

I won't even be using it....ever. Besides, I doubt that 'detector' is 100% foolproof. I once met a guy that said he could digitally analyse a photo and tell if it had been photoshopped. So I gave him two photos to check - both were jpeg's of documents and they were both 'shopped'. He told me one was 'shopped' the other was genuine. There may well be ways for people far cleverer than me to take a digital photo apart and know how its constructed, I wouldn't have a clue. However, the photo that he thought was genuine was a photo of 'shopped' photo. Whatever he was using didn't pick that up. AI just doesn't interest me in the slightest. I can see its worth in advancing medicine but very little else. As far as I can see, if its what its cracked up to be, its gonna cost a lot of jobs.

I wouldn't know how and I don't want to know how. There will be no AI programmes installed on my laptop - ever.

Is it the reporting or is it AI??? I quite often see words used that, although technically correct, we never actually use them in the particular context. Either the reporter's sawllowed a dictionary or its AI.

So the mental health of around half of Americans still hasn't improved. Wonder if that will change if the head lunatic gets a criminal conviction? Probably not.

At least one thing won't change, very odd use of English in news reports.

There are lots of translation centres on and around Mahatun Plaza, Phloen Chit, very close to the BTS station.

Either that or they had a 'delayed reaction' 555

Don't forget 'desperate'.

Where is this place please? 😁😁😁

Really? I find that what they want is a good f..........

Oh that's easy..................A................T..........M Joking, take no notice. I've had them come on to me too, however, these days, I don't kid myself its because of my boyish good looks. Those one's - I play at their own game. There are younger Thai women that will genuinely accept an older man, even look for one. However, and I mean this sincerely, genuine can have a different meaning in Asia. Many girls are taught that one of the things they should be looking for in a partner is financial stability and more often than not, that's easier to find in an older man. I think though, that left to their own devices and with no need for an finance, 99% of them would choose someone in their own age group or a little older - much the same as Western girls. I think we just have to ask ourselves - when we were 25, did we find 50-60 year old women attractive?

That is not a 4 or 6 month stay - its multiple stays. You are doing border runs. The way you wrote it appears to claim that you can stay 4 to 6 months without a visa.