Goinghomesoon

Maybe Bliss on Street 240? Been around for years and I'm sure they do it. They have a website Bliss Spa Cambodia.

Details of the wait time (as of early July 2011) from the Additional Information part of the pack:

Processing Times

The current processing times for the second stage partner processing area is 6-8 months from the date of eligibility (the 2 year anniversary of your application lodgement). Each application is decided on a case by case basis and it is not possible to provide you with an exact timeframe for processing of your individual application.

Hope this is helpful to the OP.

Text of the documentation received from DIAC Brisbane in early July 2011 re: 2nd stage processing contained the following (note I was wrong in my earlier post - we had 60 days to respond, not 30).

There were 8 attachments/forms.

- Checklist (one page form on which you fill out your partner's visa number, contact details etc).

- "Further Information" paper listing the types of extra documents you need to send if your circumstances have changed.

- "Additional Information" file providing info on police clearances and waiting times (this is where the 6-8 month wait is detailed).

- "Form 80 Personal Particulars for Character Assessment" - long form very similar to the initial application form.

- 2 x Stat Decs (one each for myself & Thai partner to complete, asks if your relationship is still continuing and details of your life together)

- AFP police clearance application form

- visa application withdrawal form

Dear Sir/Madam

Request for Information for Your Visa Application

I refer to your application for a combined Partner (Provisional 309) and Partner (Migrant 100) Visa. Your application for a permanent visa Class BC (Migrant 100) will shortly be considered by the Second Stage Partner Processing Centre.

The department requires additional information or documents that cover your circumstances since you were granted the provisional spouse visa. A summary of the information required is provided in the attachedVisa Checklist. More information about each of the requirements is included in theFurther Information attachment.

You will be assigned a case officer once the requested additional information or documents are received by the department's processing centre.

Withdrawing your application

You can withdraw your application at any stage during processing. If you wish to withdraw your application, you must advise the department in writing via email or mail and please quote your client ID, full name, date of birth and file number.

Time by which you must respond

You must respond to this request within 60 calendar days from when you are taken to have received this letter.As this letter was sent to you by email, you are taken to have received it at the end of the day it was transmitted.

If we do not receive any response from you within the timeframe specified above, or if your response is unsatisfactory or incomplete, then in accordance with legislation, your application may be decided based on the available information.

How to respond

You can contact the Brisbane Second Stage Partner Processing Centre by:

Email: [email protected].

Post: DIAC – Brisbane Partner (Permanent) Processing Centre

GPO Box 9984

Brisbane QLD 4001

Telephone: In Australia you can call 13 18 81 between 9 am and 4 pm Monday to Friday. Details on contacting our offices outside Australia are available on our website at www.immi.gov.au.

Kind regards,

_________________________________________________

Brisbane Partner (Permanent) Processing Centre

Department of Immigration & Citizenship (DIAC)

Email: [email protected]

GPO BOX 9984 Brisbane QLD 4001

Residency requirements (and the amount of time one can spend overseas during the qualifying period) from the Citizenship website:

Australian Citizenship Act 2007 Residence Requirements

To satisfy the residence requirements you must have:

• 4 years lawful residence in Australia. This period must include 12 months as a permanent resident immediately before making an application for Australian citizenship and
• absences from Australia of no more than 12 months in total in the 4 years prior to application, including not more than 90 days in the 12 months immediately prior to application.

Lawful residence means residence in Australia on a temporary or permanent visa.

We finished my partner's 2nd stage papers about 8 weeks ago. You have 1 month from the day they send the email (or letter) out to respond. Basically the form is a repeat of what was filled out for the initial application - if you have a copy of the form you initially lodged then you should be okay. We did not need to resubmit any of the documents that we had already submitted. However there are a number of other documents you may need to provide depending whether your circumstances have changed since your last application - in our case nothing had changed except our address and we had already sent in the appropriate form with the address change when we moved to Australia.

We lived in Thailand the whole 2 year period of my spouse's temporary visa, the information pack did not mention any minimum residency period required for PR. I believe that only applies at the next step - Aussie citizenship (see www.citizenship.gov.au for information).

The cover letter with the pack instructed us to mail the second stage application to Brisbane and expect a decision in 6-8 months.

With reference to post # 87

The file is not always sent to Australia as all the information is on the DIAC data base. All the information can be accessed on line in Australia by DIAC.

Bangkok does the first stage of processing, Canberra the second stage. You need to keep them informed of your current postal address in Australia. DIAC will forward some documents to be filled in about 6 to 8 weeks before the date the 309 visa expires.

Perhaps things have changed recently but they were not sending out second stage information promptly in mid-2011. My spouse was ready to go to second-stage processing in May 2011. By the middle of June we hadn't received anything so we called and were told that they were "running behind" and may be delayed in sending out second stage documentation. In July we made another call and the documents were emailed 2 days later. (None of the contact details had changed and the people on the phone confirmed they had them recorded correctly).

We were told Brisbane now does second-stage processing for Thailand (and indeed were directed to send second-stage documents to the Brisbane address), not Canberra.

My Thai man loves to eat lamb, which he had tried in Thailand when he worked in a restaurant, long before he met me. If given a chance here in Australia he would have steak one night and roast lamb the next. Needless to say I'm in control of the budget and that ain't happening!

The German bakery was closed in August but may be open again. If travelling from the Pantawee hotel to the river it's at the intersection halfway between.

Yes. A bit disconcerting that my 13yo was holding the baby in a restaurant and everyone seemed to think she belonged to the young teen and couldn't possibly belong to the "older" ladies (Redfish and myself)!!!

Hanging out for a cuddle of Rue's boy. Maybe I can matchmake the two bubs!

Congrats are in order for the RueFangs on the birth of a beautiful little boy last week! And equally huge belated congrats to Redfish44s on arrival of baby girl a few weeks earlier.

Soak overnight in a bucket with fresh lemon slices, or with a cup of vinegar. Then wash and dry in the sun. Warning: If you use the vinegar the clothes will smell a bit when they come out of the wash, but it should disappear when they dry. Once your whites are dingy there's not a lot you can do to improve the colour.

Our place looks very sad as we are packed and leaving in a few days. We donated heaps to SecondChance Bangkok (google for their website) a group working in the Klong Toey slums and now all that is left is the dust bunnies and skeleton coat hangers.

My mother in law uses the day-old cooked rice. She makes it into egg-shaped mounds and then dips them in a mix of salt, beaten egg and coconut milk before grilling over the coals.

This is not how I've seen it done but the ones in this video look more like the ones I've seen on the street. http://www.mayajo.com/video/grilled-sticky-rice-with-egg-17106

I like those too SBK. I also like Thong Yip (the golden honey/syrup balls).

Most of all I really, really love Khanom Krok, the white snacks shaped like half a ping-pong ball that are cooked in a hot dimpled pan. I don't like them with corn though, only plain.

Thank you all. I think we'll continue with our original plan of offloading most things onto Thai mother-in-law.

With reference to post # 87

The file is not always sent to Australia as all the information is on the DIAC data base. All the information can be accessed on line in Australia by DIAC.

Bangkok does the first stage of processing, Canberra the second stage. You need to keep them informed of your current postal address in Australia. DIAC will forward some documents to be filled in about 6 to 8 weeks before the date the 309 visa expires.

Actually they are currently running behind with sending out the 309 documents, so do follow them up if you are expecting them. My spouse's were due to be sent in May (had held the temp visa for 2 years at that point). We followed up in June and were told they were running behind in sending them out, so wait a bit longer. Followed up again mid-July and they emailed them a few days later. According to the letter that accompanied the forms, the current wait time for Stage 2 visa is 6-8 months from lodgement.

We have been packing to move to Australia and have found that we have enough room for more stuff. We have a bunch of electrical goods bought in Thailand like our DVD player, rice cooker, toaster, printer. Since we have space I'm thinking maybe we could just ship them instead of buying new ones when we get there. Will this stuff work in Australia with only a plug change? Sorry guys, I am both female and a no-hoper with electrical questions!

A long time after my first answer, in my case the dermatologist looked at my pigmentation patches and said laser was not the most suitable treatment - it depends on what is the cause, I guess. The cream was low-cost and really effective, it hasn't reappeared at all.

Bina's post about the Vit D deficiency made me remember this thread, as I just read an article saying similar about Australia - the success of the "Slip Slop Slap" campaign (slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat) means that many people never get any sun exposure and therefore a large proportion of the Aussie population is Vit D deficient.

Yes we send his parents money- it's something he did long before he met me. His siblings send the in-laws the same amount, so my hubby is not being singled out to send more because he has a farang spouse. I did get a sin-sot but as the in-laws are very poor and could not afford it, they used our money and returned it to us later.

A close friend of mine is married to a Thai guy whose background is very similar to my husband's. We talked about this just recently - that we are with our hubbies for a myriad of reasons, none of which are based on money. For me they include hub's kindness, big smile, gentle nature, the fact he cares deeply and openly for his family and is great with kids. He is a hard worker even when being paid a pittance and treated like rubbish by his employers and despite his difficult life has very strong moral values: he does not gamble, drink excessively or beat me. He is inquisitive, loves learning new things and is excited about us having a life together. He doesn't need a university education or a lot of money to be a nice, normal man in a happy, strong marriage.

Hey Boo, we've stayed there a few times and quite like it. Has never been there when it's had mor than a few rooms occupied. The resort itself is small and is one black back from the main street. The entrance is thru a dirty alleyway so it's quite a relief when your vehicle turns at the end of the alley and it reveals a nice reception area. We found the rooms were cleaned well and the staff very polite and helpful. Their pool-access rooms are especially nice, they have steps down from the room balconies into the pool. The rooms upstairs are just regular old hotel rooms. There's also a small kiddies wading pool connected to the main pool if they have little ones. There's a small swim-up bar which might interest some people (like me).

Our main gripe is that in most rooms their double beds seem to be two single mattresses joined together which can be a bit uncomfortable! Also being a smaller place their brekkie buffet is pretty limited. I'd say it's a good 3 star, maybe a 3.5.

Although it's a while ago now, one time we did a great boat tour with Aussie Liz and hubby Sun (Andaman Camp and Cruise) who used to sponsor the forum here. I'm not sure if they run their tours in August due to the weather. We've also done a couple of beginners rock-climbing courses on Railay. Pretty hilarious for hubby and I to be struggling up the first 2 metres of rock while 6 year old kids were whizzing past us...it was good fun though.

The only thing I wouldn't recommend is the horse-riding tours the beach. Sold to us as a sun-set ride suitable for children and beginners but it was awful from start to finish - dirty horses, filthy stables, inadequate supervision on the ride (fine for experienced riders but not with beginners or children around). It ended with daughter's horse bolting with her clinging to the neck while the cowboys that were supposed to be leading the tour just sat on their ponies and laughed. Not recommended!

last year I received a yearly extension of stay based on marriage without proof of income tax.

for the life of me, I can't remember providing any evidence of me paying income tax as well to have my wife's visa extended.

We needed it for the citizenship application (+ a minimum income of 15,000baht/month) but not for a bog standard extension of stay.

Chaeng Wattana doesn't require hubby's income info for an extension at the moment. We were there 4 weeks ago, they gave hubby a list in Thai of the documents needed, no financials among them. But perhaps some of the regional offices have different rules.

We provided a Thai police clearance as part of the initial temp spouse visa application (309). We are currently doing the additional documentation required for the second stage permanent visa (100). The package from Immigration says "you may need to obtain an overseas penal clearance" and provides info on how to get a Thai clearance. Since we already provided this in the initial application, do we need to do another one? Do the Thai clearances expire at all?

Sorry to ask this again, searched around but couldn't see an answer - does the Thai clearance expire? Wondering if we should arrange another one just in case, since they "may" ask for another one down the track, when we are no longer in Bangkok.

Email [email protected] and they will send you the information. An adult application can be done via the Embassy in Bangkok or their rep in Phuket.

The second stage processing times also seem to be increasing (the second stage is when the spouse proceeds from their initial 2-year temp visa to the permanent residence). The document we received yesterday says to expect a wait of 6-8 months once the second-stage documents have been submitted. This is several months longer than the indicated wait time when I asked a few months ago.

We provided a Thai police clearance as part of the initial temp spouse visa application (309). We are currently doing the additional documentation required for the second stage permanent visa (100). The package from Immigration says "you may need to obtain an overseas penal clearance" and provides info on how to get a Thai clearance. Since we already provided this in the initial application, do we need to do another one? Do the Thai clearances expire at all?