sonicdragon

A degree in "Thai Culture" offered outside of Thailand? Would love to find out more.

The University of Leeds, UK

The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Thanks !

Re: warm water bum gun:

We had a cold on when living in Paris and while it was a bit of a shock at first, it wasn't a big problem, so we'll just stick with the cold water supply to the toilet. Also, I think it would be a bit of a hassle to plumb in warm water supply for the bum guns (what kind of mixer would be used ?)

After a little checking, I've heard that Thai fittings are very similar to UK ones, so perhaps someone can post a pic of their Thai fitting at the wall end.

Thanks.

Greetings

If anyone could post pictures of a nice installation of a thai bum gun/spray on a UK toilet, I should be much obliged.

I'm only interested in pics of the fitting of the flexible hose to the toilet water supply pipe (ie, some kind of tee fitting and a valve to regulate the pressure and turn off the supply if the sprayer malfunctions)

We're having new bathrooms fitted and will bring back the actual sprayers from thailand on our next visit, but we want to make sure our plumber installs the correct fittings now.

Thanks

Sonic should have his by thursday.

Got the SMS and website notiication today (Monday 18th). Finger crossed !

BTW we withdrew her passport for 10 days when we went to HK, so that does not seem to have affected anything.

The application was successful.

Best wishes to all and many thanks to TiggerFish for keeping this thread going !

Sonic should have his by thursday.

Got the SMS and website notiication today (Monday 18th). Finger crossed !

BTW we withdrew her passport for 10 days when we went to HK, so that does not seem to have affected anything.

There is a model train shop in the Sala Daeng area on Silom Road - saw it a few weeks ago - it's in one of the shopping malls adjacent to the BTS on the opposite side of the road from Robinson Dept. Could be in the same building as Central Dept store - or joined to it. It's on the first floor up from ground - at the top of escalator there's a coffee shop, then the model train shop is a little way behind it.

Re: Housing costs

I have lived in countries where housing costs have been at times higher than in London - eg Tokyo and Hong Kong. One of the defining characteristics of Japanese and HK people is that they live at home with their families, very often even after getting married, and save until they have enough to get their own place. This often takes many many years. I'm not saying that UK people should do the same, but it's not so long ago (~25 years ?) that it was impossible to get a mortgage in the UK without putting down a sizable deposit. Frankly, I think that is a good thing, and the UK banks seem to be returning (though only temporarily I expect) to this modus operandi. The de-regulation that took place in the mortgage industry, and finance industry in general, in the 80's, is a large part of the reason why housing costs are high in the UK now.

I've been living abroad, some of the time in Thailand, for 13 years. For the first 8 years or so I often had the thought that I would never move back. But when we decided to have kids we immediately thought about their future and seriously considered it. We went for two long (3-4 month) visits after the kids were born partly in order to help decide whether we could/should do it. They will be 4 years old soon and we are moving back next month. I can vividly remember my visits back home, before we had kids, seeing every negative thing there was and constantly making comparisons with the place I was living (Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, and a little time in France and South Africa). But with a different focus, it's amazing how one's viewpoint changes. For example (in no particular order)

1. Food. I remember thinking once that the food in Thailand was almost a good enough reason in itself for living here, and while I still think it's fantastic, and certainly one of my favorite cuisines, in general it's not very healthy. Of course it's not too hard to eat healthily in Thailand, but I think it's much easier in the UK.

2. I used to think the UK climate was a good enough reason for not living there, but now I'm fairly nonchalant about it. Sure the wet days in the winter are not nice, but the crisp dry days are great and it's nice to have contrasting seasons. On the other hand, tropical climates can be a bit oppressive at times, if you are an outdoor person, which I am. I like to go hiking and camping, and with the Yorkshire Dales and Moors on my doorstep it's great all year round, provided you have the right equipment and are well prepared.

3. Cost of living. This doesn't bother me, having lived in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Paris, and when you factor in educational costs, health insurance etc, the day-to-day costs start to become irrelevent.

4. Environment. I am now somewhat sick of seeing the way many Thais treat their neighbourhood - the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality - I find the UK much cleaner and less polluted, and therefore safer.

5. Children's education. We were very much in two minds about this - there are good international schools in Asia, but there are more options for a private education in the UK, and the UK still has some of the best universities in the world.

6. Culture. This is both one of the biggest drawbacks and advantges of moving back - it's bad in that our kids will lose their Thainess to a large extent, but I think the cosmopilitan UK culture makes up for it. Our kids will get a rounded exposure to a rich history, art, music, literature etc in the UK, that they could not easily get here.

7. Live sports. I spent a lot of time in my childood and youth at football, cricket and rugby matches and I intend to give my kids the same experiences. This is difficult in Thailand to say the least. It's just not the same on TV.

8. Sports participation. Again, I think the UK wins hands down.

I could go on and on...

The test study material and questions used in the test are not easy to understand if English standards are not high, hence the alternative route of ESOL study (but which is time consuming and costly) My friend's wife is now studying this in UK as she does not read English at all, so the test route is out of the question.

What am I missing here ? How does that work ? The test is in English, so surely a reasonable level of competency in reading is mandatory ? Or are you saying that she is learning to read on the ESOL course ? That must be an uphill struggle ? That makes me wonder what provisions there are for those applicants who are unable to take the test due to handicap (eg blindness, severe dyslexia etc. ) ?

Or does the ESOL course include a spoken equivalent of the the written exam ?

You can get a feel for the standard required in this official practice test http://www.ukcitizenshiptest.co.uk/

Well it's a good job UK nationals don't have to take the test, I just got 64%

54% for me !!

Obviously one can study and pass quite easily, but many of those questions are completely absurd - eg, How many parliamentary constituencies are there in the UK ?

This email works [email protected]

but you just get a standard wait a while longer, but a route to go to when its been too long! hope this helps///

Also, this is apparently the fax number of the visa section at the Embassy

+66 (0) 2 254 9579

http://www.personalthailand.com/threads/205-British-Embassy-in-Bangkok

Sonic

I believe that, given the circumstances you quote, you wife will qualify for "ILE subject to KOL test". This of course depends on what you and your wife included in your submission. Hopefully you have provided proof that your relationship complies with the following extract from their website

you and your husband, wife or civil partner have been living together outside the UK for four years or more, and you meet all the necessary requirements to stay permanently in the UK, you may be granted indefinite leave to enter. These requirements include showing that you have the necessary level of knowledge of the English language and life in the UK (see relevant section of this guidance for more information).

It would have been best to have made it very clear, in your sponsor's letter, that this is what you are applying for. It's a stupid aspect of the process that the VAF4A form covers various types of applications and does not allow the applicant to "tick a box" to indicate the specific nature of the application. At the end of the day, if the wrong visa is provided, you can complain/appeal as I have such problems raised in other recent threads.

Best of luck.

Thanks again.

I believe we have satisfied all the requirements other than "the necessary level of knowledge of the English language and life in the UK". So according to your point above the quote, they will still grant ILE, but it will be subject to meeting these requirements. I was under the impression that applicants applying up to this moment do not have to satisfy any English Language requirements. If they grant ILE subject to "necessary level of knowledge of the English language and life in the UK" I assume this means she will have to take and pass both tests after arriving in the UK, but before the expiry of the visa ?

Am I correct ?

For Sonic, I can't find any reference to it in this thread, but if you have been living together in Thailand with your wife for four years or more at the time of her application, she could be issued with an "Indefinite Leave to Enter subject to passing the KOL test" visa. Again, as far as I know, this is valid for 27 months, but she does not need to pass the 24 month probation period in order to qualify for ILR. She only needs to pass the KOL Test (on the day of your arrival if you wish) then can immediately convert to ILR.

Thanks for this. We've been living together since 2002 - First in Hong Kong in 2002-2004, then in Thailand from 2004-2008 then in HK again from 2008 till recently.

We were married in Jan 2007.

Would this meet the requirements for ILE or do we have to have been married for 4 years also ?

In so far as I don't mind the extra 500 cost for the extension (and I realise it will likely have increased in two years time), if the application for the extension requires anything near as much preparation as the initial visa application, I would certainly prefer to avoid it, but if the only way is to travel within 3 months, then I have to weigh it up against the aggravation of travelling as a family of four on a "needless" round trip.

Thanks to all for replying.

Please let me ensure I understand correctly:

1. Once the visa is issued, we can travel any time we want within 27 months of it's "valid from" date, however, since it will expire 27 months after the "valid from" date, the only problem with doing this, is that we will definitely need to apply for an extension, if we don't travel withing the first 3 months, since she won't have been resident for 2 years when it expires.

2. Further, it may be possible to request a travel date up to 3 months in advance of the application (which seems rather odd since it would appear that applications can take more than 3 months to process) but such a request must be done at the time of application.

Is there any hope that, once the visa is issued, or before it is issued (but after the date we were intending to travel), we could successfully petition the visa section of the embassy to re-issue the visa with a "valid from" date four months from that time, giving our extenuating circumstances as the reason ?

As its a settlement visa she has 90 days to enter the country from issue date.

Thanks. Would we be able to put in a request, say in early October when we had been hoping to travel, that our travel date be changed to a date in March ?

Edit: the reply above this post must have been submitted while I was typing mine; so I should be grateful for some clarification on this matter.

Based on the current waiting times, it seems my wife's visa is unlikely to be granted before November. Her sister is getting married in January, and her brother in March and she needs to take a business trip to Hong Kong in mid-Decembber.

For these reasons, and since we're a family of 4, we're now thinking it will be better, assuming the visa is granted, to travel in March/April. So, supposing the visa is granted in November/December, would there be any problem with this ? If so, is there anything we can do about it ?

We said in our application that we wished to travel on 4 October

Thanks

SD

What Thai shops are there up North ? We'll be in Leeds and I know a few Chinese mini-supermarkets but don't know any Thai shops....

Thanks

weve been to leeds sonic (harehills) but wasnt too good, now we go the other way to a shop in darlington, its not a big shop but we get everything my mrs needs what is not available at usual supermarkets tesco etc, and not too dear, also a fresh delivery of thai veggies every tues but have to be fast to get them as they soon go,

Thanks tigerjohn - do you have more details on the locations of these two thai shops ? I did a google search but didn't come up with anything specific....

Yes, possible to get one from upstairs providing there is flights leaving and taxis coming in to departures.

Official one from downstairs is 50 baht surcharge.

Thanks !

Any advice on this ? My flight leaves this evening.

Here's a real challenge - Mrs CM plays the "kim" (a multi-stringed violin like instrument that sits on the floor and is played using xylophone type sticks)and she wants to take her kim to the UK, the sounds this instrument produces is just superb and she's been studying for years - it's too big to be hand luggage and it would get destroyed as hold luggage, I've googled "kim sales" in the UK but found nothing. If anyone knows where you might be able to buy a kim in the West, do shout.

You could get it professionally packed in a wooden packing crate; then shipped by sea with a freight consolidator.

We've got a lot of fragile stuff too and that's what we're doing, though we'll have a full container and it's going from HK.

i was in china town last yr when my mrs was on holiday and to be honest mate we found it very very expensive compared to thai shops we now visit up north, but if its near to you then spose you will have to use them, but google your local thai food shops 1st mate thats all i did and we have a good one now only 20mins in car away,

What Thai shops are there up North ? We'll be in Leeds and I know a few Chinese mini-supermarkets but don't know any Thai shops....

Thanks

Obviously each post is going to have different waiting times, depending on the demand.

Also, comparing two posts with a similar demand for settlement applications, but where one has a far lower demand for other types of visa than the other will obvioulsy show a difference in the waiting times.

Guide to visa processing times gives the latest available figures for each post.

The point is moot, anyway, as one has to apply to the post covering the country where one is resident.

It is not a moot point in our case, since we had the option of applying in HK but decided to apply in Thailand after receiving the email I mentioned and also making other inquiries.

The (Thai) wife of a good friend of mine, in a similar situation to us, applied the day after mine. We helped each other with preparing our applications so I am very familiar with her application. They were quite worried about a few aspects such as being apart for the previous 8 months with no evidence of contact (no phone records). His wife got her visa yesterday. The difference - she applied in HK (less than 3 weeks ago).

We were going to apply in HK too, but when we inquired about the waiting time, we got this response from [email protected]

"Our agreed standards on the processing time are....To complete 95% of applications for settlement visas in not more than 12 weeks and 100% in not more 24 weeks"

Hi all

I normally get picked up by family, but this Saturday I will need to take a taxi at midnight to BangNa - Soi LaSalle - not exactly a nice earner for the driver.

Is it still possible to take grab a taxi from the departure level that has just dropped someone off ? Or would it be better to join the "official" queue outside arrivals ? Is there a surcharge ?

Obviously I know to avoid the touts and limo companies.

Thanks

SD