Chuckler

Formal interviews with DIAC at the Australian Embassy are carried out in a separate interview room by the DIAC officer who is Thai. They will have the complete file in front of them and questions will be asked on the information supplied. The interview itself is what may be called informal. Generally an interview takes about 30 mins on average. The interviewer will take notes on the applicants replies. It is up to the interviewer whether the sponsor can sit in at the interview. All information supplied is subject to Australian privacy laws and is confidential.

Thanks david96 for the info.

They don't always do an interview, I know of 2 recent spouse applications that were processed without Interview, in both a telephone call was made to the Thai applicant, a few questions asked and that was that.

The VFS woman gave us back our passports and said that we should take them to bangkok when we go for the interview. So I guess a telephone interview is out of the question in this case. Annoying.

Bank cheques should be made out to the "Australian Embassy Bangkok" and the amount in THB. VFS is a courier service and one pays a service charge plus VAT to them only as a seperate amount.

Worth mentioning to anyone else reading this thread, VFS will only accept "Bank Drafts" not "Bank Cheques", both for them and the embassy. I had to change them to drafts before they'd be accepted.

When applying for citizenship of my son, however, which I did in person at the embassy, they accepted a bank cheque. ymmv.

I find my Maxnet speeds are generally acceptable, except port 25 for SMTP and port 21 for FTP. These are both excruciatingly slow. Also after about 7pm the service becomes pretty saturated and it's a good time to log off and do something else.

oh, when are the RSVP dates to determine whether you'll go ahead or not?

That's my birthday! May have to drag the Mrs and bub for this ...

Note that I'm talking about Beerlao, the import beer from Laos that is like heaven in a bottle. NOT Leo Beer, the Thai dog piss with a Lion on the label.

Of my two favourite places in Chiang Mai, Tusker's and The Duke's, only Tusker's sells beerlao. The Duke's has San Mig Lite, which I'm moderately partial to, but I enjoy the beer more at Tusker's and the food more at Duke's.

So I have some friends coming next month and need to get a few alternatives together that also sell the magical brew. Anyone got anything to report? I of course tried searching, but the threads are all so old that it's not really relevant anymore.

Thanks for your time CharlieB, in light of everything I was a little naïve…. but hey I'm young and it was our first time. I'm thinking a fake wedding sounds like way to much trouble for my liking. However, I've been speaking with my friend who I went travelling with and is now husband to my girlfriends cousin. We met them both together but my friend had the financial luxury of staying Thailand a YEAR longer than I could, so I wanted a holiday visa to spend a bit more time together before doing the same. Anyway, I'm thinking of now simply marrying when I go back in April and applying for a spouse visa. We would have done this anyway after the holiday visa. My friend has givin me all the advise I need.

Maybe young and naive again....but maybe not. Just one thing, could I do this in April after we applied for a holiday visa this month?

I can only offer advice based on my experience applying for a spouse visa to Australia, and as an Australian, marrying a Thai. But here goes:

Getting married here isn't too difficult, but doing this and getting the paperwork together for a spouse visa is going to make for a busy holiday. Check whether this applies to Brits, but I think it will: First you have to go to your embassy and fill out a statutory declaration of your intention to marry, saying that you are eligible for marrying someone. You will need to know the exact spelling of your girlfriend's transliterated English name and her ID card number. Then your embassy will witness it, and you'll need to get it translated into Thai. This then needs to be lodged with the Thai government office that the translation is valid. This takes a few days, and a fee is payable. It must be done in Bangkok. A tip: if you have more money than time, I signed a power of attorney for my lawyers in Bangkok, who did the translation, lodged the form on my behalf, and collected it and returned it to me in Chiang Mai. Certainly much easier than staying in Bangkok for an undetermined period of time if you're based upcountry. Then you go to the Amphur office. If you have any children they will want to see the birth certificate for the children even to marry you. You will need your passport, she will need her ID card.

Also for Australia, we needed a police clearance certificate. This is free, but will take 14 days to process. Your partner needs to do the heavy lifting on this, and it must be done in Bangkok. They will mail it to you upcountry for 40 baht. We also required a medical for Mint's spouse visa, we had this done at Sriphat clinic at Suan Dok hostpial in Chiang Mai. It cost about 2000 baht.

The paperwork is moderately amazing in the required quantity. We also needed statutory declarations from Australian citizens which took some organizing to get together. It'll be a busy holiday, that's for sure. Good luck!

About 2 weeks for an interview.....depending on your application anywhere from 2 months to 4 months.

They will ask your partner questions in regards to your statements about your relationship and from the application. They may ask questions about who is who in any photos you have submitted.

Thanks. Do they interview us together? Or seperately? Or just her and ignore me?

Sorry,i don't understand the difference? Was it just a typo error with the bank draft?I guess they were just covering all their bases,but seems so petty!The son,i am guessing is Australian because the father(You) is an Australian citizen?If you have covered all your bases,then it should be fairly quick,i would imagine your wife will be called up for an interview in a week or two(Maybe sooner) and from there it should be within three months(Mine was fast,but it's a different story).

Not even a typo - just the "." character on the end. You're not wrong about it being petty!

Yeah our son has citizenship by descent from me, as an Australian citizen. I didn't realize the interview was so early in the process! Thanks.

Has anyone lodged a spouse visa application lately? We did it via the GDA courier's desk in Chiang Mai, which is a joint-venture with VFS. This was my second attempt. The first time she refused to accept it because we didn't have the medical and police checks started at that point. I noted that the actual Immigration website says that you'll be contacted if required, but there you go. The Australian Embassy website said that it was required, so we dilligently completed both.

Today she almost didn't accept it because we had the bank draft made out to "VFS (Thailand) Ltd" rather than "VFS (Thailand) Ltd." I had to call VFS in Bangkok and get them to tell them that it was fine to accept it without the "." on the end.

So yes. Can anyone tell us anything about the interview, and how long it took for your spouse visa to be approved? We have a son together, who's an Australian citizen, don't know if this makes it any faster.

I miss the EuroGourmet bistro most since leaving Bangkok.

*sigh* that turkey sandwich sounds and look fantastic.

I have been a semi-frequent user of the Nana brand pasta sauce, and have nothing but praise. Nice job Chefheat.

it'll be a lovely stay if you rent a car. i use northwheels pretty regularly, and can recommend.

I went to the Blue Sky bar last night for a pool competition and I tried one of the burgers. It was great, and I took a moment to speak the the owner about what has been said.

The explanation was that they had a new chef start on the day that chuckler mentioned. It was the first burger that she had cooked and she messed it up. He assured me that his buns are bought fresh daily from the UN Irish pub and that it was simply a mistake. The burgers are good and the bar has changed a lot from the old blue sky we know.

Give it a try, If the burgers are the way they was last night I assure you that you wont be disappointed.

Interesting ... perhaps I'll try it again and report back.

I don't understand the attraction of tuktuks over songtaews? We did a few trips with a tuktuk when we first arrived, but since I came to realize that songtaews are better, I don't so much bother any more ...

I don't think you need to report the purchase to anyone. If you come for a long period, you'll need a visa, and if it's one of the standard type visas you'll need to report to immigration every 90 days (type O) or leave the country every 90 days (type B without a work permit). That may be what you've read about here.

I treat myself to going "out" for farang food once per week, and I heart The Duke's.

In particular, their Joe's Famous burger:

Blue cheese and bacon, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato and spicy horseradish mayonnaise, served on a soft bun with a choice of fresh cut fries, hand battered onion rings, green salad or coleslaw

The best technique I have found is to get it with french fries, and a side of coleslaw:

You then eat the burger, then the pickle, then tip the coleslaw into the blue cheese drippings from the burger on the plate, apply tomato sauce to the fries, and eat the coleslaw and fries together to finish up.

Sometimes I also enjoy the apple pie, but this time couldn't manage it.

Joe's Famous ... 195 baht

Coleslaw ... 35 baht

Service ... 23 baht

Tax ... 16 baht

Total ... 269 baht

I usually go to the Night Bazaar location - I think the Iron bridge location is slightly cheaper, but the Night Bazaar location has less mosquitos and better aircon.

I don't complain, I just never go back. When you complain, more often than not you just end up with scorn and bodily fluids in your food.

I'm afraid that I suspected this. From what I know of the Blue Sky Bar, it just doesn't seem like a gourmet food paradise.

next time don't keep it a secret

I must admit that every time I try somewhere that's not Duke's I get disappointed. Even sometimes Duke's isn't perfect, but rarely. I've seen elsewhere that you're a fan of the ribs at Salsa Kitchen. Any other recommendations?

Last month FarangCravings was quite positive in his review of Blue Sky Bar's dinner menu - particularly the Full Monty burger:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Burger-Thread-t212080.html

This is Thailand, however, and what's true last month is not always true this month.

Tonight I ate the Full Monty burger at the Blue Sky Bar and it was awful. The only reason I can think of that they toasted the roll that hard was because it was stale to begin with. Also, the roll was burnt on the bottom.

The meat patty was delicious though, about 1/2 inch thick, pink in the middle.

It was hard to taste anything apart from the roll though. It was only an average sized burger, and this is because the roll was toasted to the point of brittleness, it made a good %age of burger's height.

Despite all burgers being billed on the menu as "served with french fries", it was not.

So, unimpressive. At 155 baht, plus 30 baht pop for 2x cokes, I won't be going back. Last month it was the dog's <deleted> apparently, this month it's just <deleted>.

there are more problems than that. the incredible shrinking patty for one. the low-quality bun for two. toasting the bun a bit more would help a lot, but they should contract out for something a bit more substantial.

the onion ring makes up for a lot of the burger's mediocrity, though. that wonderfully carcinogenic taste stays in your mouth all night.

I thought the burger was the strongest part of their menu. The fries are fairly tasteless, and the hot dogs aren't special, I was only holding out hope for the burger ...

... is that there's no coleslaw on the menu. I really want to like them, as they're infinitely closer to my house than Duke's, but with this glaring oversight I can't in good conscience do it. Also, there's a fair bit of variation on the same menu item two days in a row, lack of quality control I guess.

Their banana shake is pretty good though. :/

My child was born in Thailand to non-Thai parents. Until we get his paperwork sorted in Australia, he'll have no nationality - effectively an illegal alien in Thailand. When we finally get his papers sorted, his Australian passport will not have an entry stamp. Will this cause problems? Or only if we're random stopped, he not having a visa?

Technically wasn't he staying without a visa the moment he was born? Is there some relaxation of those rules for babies?

Thanks Rikker and Khru Ae for your help!