sonicdragon

There certainly are jobs available, to those suitably qualified. However if you are not currently working in the industry then you will find it very difficult even with a great CV . I suggest you learn to read and write thai to an intermediate level, then get a job in your home country and try to get hired into a job in thailand from there.

Thanks again for the replies. I suppose that her assets are a secondary consideration anyway. What is the "'tabien baan" ? For each property she has 2 documents, one seems to be the title deed (a large document with a drawing of the plot on one side and list of all the previous owners on the other), and the other document is a 1 sided white form showing the price paid and with her address etc and the format of that is different for those plots with buildings on.

I'm just filling in the VAF1 now, getting the paperwork together and another question has arisen - sorry if I'm being obtuse, but, does my mother need to be the sponsor, since we are staying at her house ? She is not supporting us financially- I am doing that, but I am not resident in the UK - and the checkilist seems to indicate that the sponsor should be the person that my wife is visiting. The checklist also indicates that we should provide my mothers passport copy - however she does not have a passport (and her birth certificate is lost). I have also written a long letter explainig about everything with a list of enclosures - so should my letter and my mothers letter both say that we are sponsoring my wife ? Or is a simple invitation letter from my mother, and a detailed "sponsorship" letter from me, sufficient ?

Sorry if this is becoming anal ! But I just want to get it right

I have a follow-on question on this...

Regarding my wife's property ownership, car ownership and bank statements/passbooks, all these documents are obviously in Thai - is it necessary to have them all translated into english. I assume that it is, but there are dozens of pages !! And some of them are very complex and in the case of the title deeds (showing drawings of the plots and past transfers of ownership) having these translated into english will be very costly and time consuming. I had initially thought that just the land registry title transfer documents would be sufficient to have translated, showing the price paid etc, but it was pointed out to me that these do not show evidence of current ownership - only that she was once the owner, and the actual title deed is the document that really matters.

How far do we have to go on this ?

thanks !

SD

Thanks for your advice ! I will let you know how it goes

will need to show sufficient funds for the trip and show accomodation (at friends, family or hotels) for the duration.

Showing funds is not a problem - my HK bank statement should be OK - but how do I "show accomodation" ? Do they need a photo ? We will stay at my mother's house - this must be a common scenario for visits - do we need to show proof that my mother owns the house ? or just that she lives there (eg utility bill) ?

Where most applications fail is on "reason to return" to Thailand and you should be able to give adequate evidence on that score.

What do you think is adequate ? My wife has no job in thailand - she looks after the 2 babies - but she does own property - does that help ? I was previously advise that maybe they are more interested in whether *I* will leave the UK after 4 months ? In which case I have the problem of not owning any property of having a rental agreement outside the UK - I just have my business in HK (of which I am the sole director).

Thanks again !

Greetings

I am British and will visit the UK with my 2 twin babies in May for 4 months and I want to apply for a visitor visa for my Thai wife (the babies mother).Here are some pertinent facts

1. the babies were born in Bangkok in Oct 2006 and have UK+thai passports and UK+thai birth certificates

2. we were married in Jan 2007 in thailand

3. we have been together for 4 years but I don't have any evidence of that - the only evidence is her being the mother of my children as per their bith certificates.

4. I am a Hong Kong permanent resident and my wife was previously a HK resident (she still has a HK ID card)

5. I run a small business in HK and travel there every month or two for a few days, but mainly I live in thailand (I currently have a family visitors visa for thailand)

6. I don't have accomodation in HK - we live at my wife's house in thailand.

We will all be in HK in April for 1 month before leaving for the UK in May.

It has been suggested that applying in Hong Kong for her visa may be better than in Thailand because applications are vetted less stringently and I am a HK resident with business there. Can anyone advise on this ? I am concerned that 1 month may not be enough time to apply.

What kind of evidence would we need to submit for her application ? I assume the babies birth certificates are evidence enough of our relationship ? Do I need our marriage certificate translated into english ? Would the ECO be satisfied that she would not overstay simply by being the mother of our 2 small babies (she is a full time mother) ? Do I need any evidence concerning my business in HK (ie, to show that I intend to leave the UK after 4 months) ? In which case what kind of evidence would be suitable ?

Thanks in advance

Thanks for your comments ! Copy of birth certificate and letter from mother giving "permission" would seem to be appropriate.

Greetings O Knowledgeable Ones :-)

I will soon be getting married, in Thailand, to the Thai mother of my 2 children (both have dual thai-UK nationality) and we wish to apply for a UK visitors visa for her in order that we can visit my family once or twice a year for a few months with the children. I was thinking of a 2 year multiple entry.

Here is some background info:

- We have been together for 4 years and our twin babies were born in October 2006.

- I own 2 businesses in Hong Kong but I live most of the time in Thailand. I have been using the 30day visa-exemption rule to stay in thailand and commute to HK every month for a few days, with the occaisional visa-run to Cambodia. After we are married I will obtain a dependents visa for Thailand.

- My wife does not have any employment. She does own 4 properties in Thailand in her name (2 houses, once of which we live in, and 2 pieces of land; none of which produce declared rental) and she has mainained an average bank balance of over 1million baht since before we met.

I would have thought that our situation was extremely common so I was expecting there to be no problem, however friends of ours in a similar position were recently denied a visitiors visa, apparently because she had no prima facie reason to leave the UK, and therefore I am very worried that the same could happen to us. Hypothetically, if I were to stay in the UK with the children beyond the time allowed by her visitors visa she would naturally want to do the same. It was even suggested to us that, paradoxically, it might be easier for her to apply for settlement (I do own a house in the UK together with my mother and I could quite easily establish a UK branch of my HK company that would "employ" me). My financial position is comfortably secure, though I have no "real" plan to live in the UK apart from 3-4 months every year.

Other advice I have received is to make the application in HK - where applications are not dealt with so stringently - though of course all the documentation about her bank, properties, phone records etc; are in Thai language - we will both be in HK for around 5 weeks before travelling to the UK. I am a permanent resident of HK (and a British Citizen) and she is a non-permanent resident of HK.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

SD

Thanks for your replies, but I was asking about the procedure on leaving and entering thailand, not Hong Kong. Will I go throught the "thai passports" desk or the "foreign passports" desk ? Presumably it doesn't matter but just in case I thought I would ask. Also, would the thai immigration officer have anything to say about a male UK PP holder (without a thai visa in his passport) travelling out of thailand with a very small baby (3 months) on a thai passport ? I would take the thai birth certificate showing me as the father and a copy of my girlfriends ID and maybe also show my son's UK passport (although I believe that dual nationality in thailand is an ambigious concept being neither officially accepted nor officially not

accepted and so I was slightly worried about that too)

Hello Hello

I will travel to Hong Kong with my 3 month-old son very soon - my Thai wife will remain in Thailand. I am a UK citizen and my son has Thai and UK passports. I have read that Thais holding a foreign PP can enter/leave thailand on their thai PP and enter/leave foreign countries on the foreign PP with no problem. I just want to make sure that there will be no special issue due to the age of my son and the fact that he will have to go through thai immigration with me (ie we both go through the foreign desk or we both go through the thai desk). I know that there is no problem entering and leaving Hong Kong on our UK passports, this question is only about my son leaving and then entering thailand on his thai passport.

Thanks !

SD