SirPaul

Good point, I will ask  for the new visa to start when the old one expires, but as you say, you can only ask, there is no gaurantee this will happen.

 I will want the new visa to start when the old one expires, but will be applying 2 months earlier than it expires. No intention to visit the UK until end of April or early May, so dates should not be a problem.

Great, that all makes sense.

Hope you review more great places. Always useful

Hello

My wife currently has a 5 year visitor visa (C-Visit)which expires in Mid April 2023.

Whilst I am here in Thailand, we now want to apply for a 10 year visitor visa, The application will be in February 2023.

1) Does anyone know if it is OK to apply for the new visa when the old one still has a couple of months left to run?

2) Also, if we were not to apply and she came to the UK in early April before the current visa expires, would she be able to stay 6 months even though the visa expires Mid April 2023?

Appreciate help here with these two points

"You will have received a refusal letter explaining why the visa was refused. I bet one of those reason had nothing to do with not being married."

I beleive the reason for failure may be contrived a little (I have no proof just what I beleive) as the true reason imay be hidden. For me  that is how it seemed when I got refused and I did write a letter to the embassy from the UK asking how it was possible to fail for the stated reason. I received a reply which encouraged me to apply again.

Visa applications are all very differrent and you have to do what is right for your application. But, I feel that being married is a big help in most cases.

Money in the bank is a reason to return, but is only one of many - there has to be others. However, when you build a case some redundancy in the information you provide is a good idea - it pads it out, looks good and adds  another level of complexity to it all. The more the merrier!

I feel If a decision is a margin call, the more padding one can get the better.

I also feel that you cannot compare a married couples application to a boyfriend/girlfriend situation (my first visa for my wife failed and it is the only one that ever has. There may have been numerous reasons why it failed, but one of them definately was because we were not married at that time).

Thanks for everyones effort here, and thanks for all the kind words and thoughts regarding the passing of my father.

Much appreciated

On 02/04/2018 at 3:46 PM, rasg said:

But for a first visit visa it's not a good thing to do if your GF is reliant on it. The ECO had no idea how much my GF had in her account because we didn’t supply bank statements. No need if there is a sponsor.

 

I had no problems for my then GF's second VV because she was made redundant. I explained that we couldn’t imagine life without each other and that I was happy to send her money each month. And it wasn't that much and I could afford it as she no longer needed to pay rent etc because she was with her family. She ended up only using her two year VV for a Christmas trip here that over ran by eight weeks and we just went for a settlement visa. We married in the UK on a fiancée visa a four months later.

I think the problem with giving advice on the best way to apply for a visa is difficult as the circumstances and detail in each application is different. For me, the proving of finances in Thailand and the UK led to successful applications.

On 03/04/2018 at 7:30 PM, Fish Head Soup said:

You need to make a new application. At the end of the application form you should use the 'Any other information' field to explain that you have been granted a visa but you need a new vignette as you need  to travel to the UK before the vignette that you have been issued becomes valid.

 

Your wife may qualify for a so-called 'super priority service' which promises a 24 hour turn-around if the application is straight-forward. I believe The 'priority service'  promises a 3 to 5 day turn-around.

 

You can walk in to VFS in Bangkok without an appointment and pay a premium charge.

This is brilliant and the sort of help I was hoping for, a big thankyou.

10 hours ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

You can appeal on compassionate grounds but the wheels of government grind so slowly that, by the time you have a decision, your wife's first entry date will likely have passed anyway.

This is true. The Visa applicatoin was quick, about 1 week, but, in this case I need a decisiion within 3 days. I now feel as this is such an unusual problem, it will not be solved.

The best phone number I could find was 'The UK Visa Immigration International Advisory Service.
The problem here is that there is a cost (£1.37 per minute and you have to give your credit card details before you can speak with anyone) and it remains unlikely that this is not the right department or place to address the problem I have. I feel this telephone number is for chasing up Visa Applications that are currently being processed.

I do not mind paying the charge if there was someone who I could speak with. They coud listen to my problem and put me through to the appropriate department. This is not the case here.

Of course it is a guess, any amount is. You have to use common sense.

If you are married you can stick money in your wifes account, why not. Surely no money in the account is not a good idea.

A visa application is far more than just sticking money in an account, but this is still an aspect of it. You will not be refused a visa for putting money in a wife's account. I know this for a fact as guess what...

I realise this is unusual, to want to change the start date on a visa.

All I have managed to find out so far is that by phoning the Foreign Office (yes they answer the phone even on a Bank Holiday Monday) I was told that I had to contact "UK Visas and Immigration (Tel: 0300 123 2253)".

There is no email address, and they are not open on Bank Holiday Mondays. Will phone tomorrow.

5 minutes ago, SirPaul said:

You need enough money to prove you can live and support your wife. Your wife needs to show she has some money as an indication of intent that she will return to Thailand as financially she does have a reason to return - the money in the bank acts as some proof of your intent.

I would guess the amount in the Thai bank would be 100,000 Bhat, and this would have to be backed up with you showing money saved in UK bank accounts. This is a guess as no one really knows what they are looking for. I give these amount for when you sit and Ponder over it, you arrive at these figures!

You need enough money to prove you can live and support your wife. Your wife needs to show she has some money as an indication of intent that she will return to Thailand as financially she does have a reason to return - the money in the bank acts as some proof of your intent.

Looking for help in relation to...

My Thai wife collected her passport from the visa office in Bangkok and her application for a 5 year family visitor visa to the UK was successful.

The problem is that her visa start date is on the 18/04/2018 (expires after 5 years), but my father died today so she now wants to come to the UK on either the 3rd or 4th of April to be at the funeral.

Is there a way she can come to the UK and get the permission to come here fairly quickly.

I would have travelled with her on the 18th, but when I heard my father was admitted to hospital I had to leave Thailand ASAP.

Thanks

I had one of those boxes, did not ask for it and found it to be totally usesless unless you wanted to sign up and spend even more money on watching TV - never did.

The way things are now with Sophon, you just plug your ariel lead into the back of the TV, re-tune your TV and along with the usual analogue stations you will get a list of HD channels;  you get the golf chanel on the analogue, and you get it on the HD. The problem is that although many of the HD channels work just fine, the golf channel is one of the few channels that suffers from week reception and therefore becomes unwatchable as the picture collapses every so often. This is a shame as the golf channel in HD is truly brilliant and if Sophon got this right I feel it would be a great showcase for them enabling them to sell their product to a larger market.

3 hours ago, Jai Dee said:

If you prefer you could ask any online moderator to move your topic to the Golf Forum.

It may get more responses there.

Sounds good, how do you do that? There are no obvious links to online moderators.

2 hours ago, guzzi850m2 said:

I know a few expats in Thailand that used to tell their wife's that they going on a golfing holiday in Pattaya with their buddies.

 

But in reality they were doing something else+more.

 

Their wife's have now given them two options; I go too or you don't go, he-he. 

There are some really good golf courses around Pattaya, and the game is very popular, even though it does have to compete with other forms of entertainment.

I am surprised at the limited response on the subject, but I am putting it down to everyone enjoying the golf channel, and the HD broadcast is therefore not required.

When I speak with Thai people about this problem I get the answer, you have HD?

Not sure where to go or who to really speak with.

11 hours ago, dannywla said:

Best  to call Sophon for the answer.  Possibly a Thai friend can get the issue sorted.  

Obvously not a lot of golf lovers on this forum!

5 hours ago, ThaiWai said:

 

Many hotels allow non guests to pay a fee and use the gym/pool etc.  Worth asking.  Some hotels even offer monthly rates like a gym membership.

Example in the link is for a free month membership at the Hilton in New Orleans. 

http://www.thehealthclub.us/membership.php

Not sure Pattaya follows the rules of everywhere else. Will try and ask, but I do not hold up much hope here.

Not sure you can visit this if you are not staying at the hotel.

What I did,

I was like you, wanting to buy but not sure if I was going to like what I purchased. The solution for me was to find a place to rent, live there for a while, and if I liked it, make a sensible offer. You are not getting a bargain this way, but you are likely to get a place you are happy to own. The less of the risk you want to take the more you will pay, are you after saving money or finding the right place?

P.S. The best way to save money is to take the highest risk, buy off-plan - friends of mine have done this, but this is not for me even though they have been successful overall.