shiatsuman

I have just looked up the details for a new multiple entry non O visa from the Liverpool Thai consulate. It appears that it is necessary to spend 48 hours outside Thailand before making a new entry. Is this a new and enforced rule ?

As usual Murdoch is putting as much distance as possible from those who have had their collars felt. But the sub gutter mentality of the news international press is and always was driven by Murdoch

Yes guys, intending to spend a month moving around so no main destination, that's why it doesn't matter which country is the first to arrive in.

So any other experience on applying in other coutries beside France?

Spain? Germany? Holland? Poland? Hungary? Greece? Italy?

we got a visa for Spain but it was very unpleasant dealing with the Spanish Consulate in BKK.

Our flight was diverted to Geneva, so that was the entry point. no problems at all as we had been issued with another ticket for Madrid.

Suggest that if you do not enter the Schengen at the country that issued the visa that you have an onward ticket .

Thais, in general, care very little for others. They are very good at turning a blind eye when horrors happen around them. I don't see this country getting any better without having some strong people in charge and declaring a total war on the mafias and police corruption that will kill thousands of innocents.

Unfortunately I think the "strong people " in charge will only be part of a new , or the existing mafia, police corruption network.

International action to ban all trading in thai seafood is likely to have more effect and really hit them where it hurts in the pocket.

I was pretty sure I recently read where some guy had to pay 800 baht for the express service at Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I think he saw a sign that said 200 baht normal and double for express, but for some reason his final bill was 800 baht. He also had trouble finding the right building as we all know taxi drivers don't know crap about their own town. So if I were offered a reasonable fee by the translation service to register the document at MFA I'd take it.

much the same thing happend to me when i leagalised the marriage. I think the double charge relates to the legalisation of the thai origonal and then the translation.

If you go by taxi the Consulate office is the big building at the front of the complex, Immigration is at the back and that is where the taxi will probably think you want to go, hence the confusion.

for the freedom to marry document we used an agent they charged 2,000 to collect the doc from the UK consulate translate , legalise at the thai consulate section and send the docs by post to chiangmai, we only spent a day in BKK.

To get your first thai driving licence do you need both your country of origin DL (in my case UK) and an international driving permit ?

I have a yellow house book, anything else needed ?

If the original is in English then I believe you don't need an International driving permit. ( Being from the UK, I'd say it's in English. )

To others: If the original is NOT in English, then you need either an International dirving permit from the same country as your drivers license, or a certified translation.

Thanks for that

To get your first thai driving licence do you need both your country of origin DL (in my case UK) and an international driving permit ?

I have a yellow house book, anything else needed ?

we did not have any problems with police report

your gf needs to go in person because they need finger prints

also takes a couple of weeks to get the report but it can be sent by post for about 40B

generally helpful and reasonably friendly staff, i would not advise trying a bribe

My wife and I (UK citizen resident in Spain), came to Spain end of March with a 3 month "Regupacion de Familiar" visa.

Since then have been trying to process the documentation for her to get a residents card.

some warnings

the officina de exjanero makes itself completely inaccessible by not having an email address and not answering phone or fax,

eventually after visiting the officina (cattle shed) found out the way to get through the web site to make an appointment on line.

6 week wait for appointment

thrown out of officina by guard with stick because appointment was made for "Regupacion de Familiar" (as per passport) but should have been made for "cuidadando" (citizen)

so refused to deal with it.

2nd wait for 6 weeks for "cuidadando" appointment

objected to the legalisation procedure

which consisted of

Thai marriage certificate and English translation

letter from UK consulate saying marriage was legal in UK

legalisation from Thai Foreign office BKK with English translation

Legalised translation into Spanish of all of the above

The officina claimed that the marriage had to be legalised in BKK by the Spanish embassy and also in madrid by the spanish foreign office and that they would only accept a letter from the british consulate in Malaga not Chiangmai

however on my insistence they took the paper work and issued a reciept

and there the matter rests the wife is technically illegally in Spain but we have proof that the authorities have the paper work.

We come back to Thailand end of September with the intention of returning to Spain for next years summer season

It looks like going through the whole schengen application procedure again together with the marriage legalisation procedure at spanish embassy.

I am hoping to find a Gestor to handle the Spanish side before we return to thailand

a lot of Spanish have to use a Gestor because the beaurocracy is so (deliberately) unhelpful.

Hope this information may be of use to some other couple, any ideas on how to proceed from here welcome.

If you think civil servants in Thailand are bad try Spain

Add arrogance and good helping of nepotism to the list and stir with an obsession to make themselves completly unapproachable by utilizing advanced IT techniques .

They work hard and are obsessed with maintaining there status and ensuring the customer is ignored.

Viva Espana

1st of July or 1st of April ?

I think you find the FCO will only give you a letter confirming you are legally married nothing else

The British embassy in CM sold me a rather stupid letter stating they had seen the mariage certificate and that they "had no reason to believe that the mariage was not legal " the spanish embassy in BKK required this for the Schengen family resettlement visa. When we eventually picked up the visa i was told that the brits had stopped issuing this letter. I think that the legalisation of the certificate and translation by the thai foreign ministry in bangkok is the best procedure, failing that maybe a thai embassy could do the same

No, he will not need a visa as he is an EU citizen exercising his treaty rights to live in another EU country; which is why the visa for his wife is free.

exactly right

I am still not certain that the wife once she has her residencia , will be able to freely travel to the Uk. i think it is unlikely.

sorry mate, are you Spanish?

reason for asking is that if you are, then you would have to be in residence in a

different EU country to obtain a free EU family permit.

if you are Spanish and resident in Spain, then you would need the visitors visa for Spain. (not free.

by the way, the family permit is not just for visiting, it is as good as a settlement visa, as soon as she gets it she can then travel with you to the EU for upto 5 years, including your own country.

regarding which form to use, i suggest calling the Spanish embassy for advice.

thanks for the reply, I am a Brit who has lived 5 years in Spain.

I have contacted the SP Embassy and the visa is free, but they want lots of documents, police and health check , evidence of support for a year , and a certificate from UK Embassy to say marriageis legal in UK (that has cost over 2K Baht from good old money grabbing Brit FO). So getting there , thanks for the interest

Have called and just get answering machine but did get a reply on e mail saying they were open fri and they have changed the rules and you can no longer turn up without an appointment which could take up to 2 weeks, this is after being told in Jan we could just turn up and now have only one month to get the appointment and visa approved. why do they make it so hard for people to apply or get visa...open the gates and we may come out of the recession.

Have you got the phone number ?

I need to make an appointment

many thanks

I have just got married and I want my wife to apply for a family reunion schengen visa for spain.

I have my spanish documentation (NIE and residencia).

I visited the Spanish embassy web site and downloaded an application form , it appears to be an application for a visitors visa.

Does anyone know if the Spanish use just this one form for all visa applications ?

Any advice on the requirements and documentation on this type of application and how long its likely to take ?

Would be good to know before we travel to BKK from CM.

many thanks

Would love to come to the party but off on honeymoon to Vietnam

have a great time

Sad indeed.

In my driving experiences in BKK, I've watched these minivans (and camry drivers it seems) being driven as if in an F1 race, with very dangerous maneuvers to gain little or no real progress in BKK's usual rolling gridlock. I can only guess its a machismo on Redbull thing, but no matter, they're senselessly endangering lives.

But before anyone assumes I'm Thai bashing, I see the same thing pretty much in every country & continent I've been in/on. Maybe these macho idiots are dumb enough to believe the car advertising telling them how safe & manly they are in their air-bagged, steel-caged splendour machines.

Solution: all minivans driven for hire should have their steering wheel airbag replaced with a fixed steel spike so the driver's the first to suffer for their idiotic risk taking. And random roadside drug testing for commercial license holders. Meth is evidently a big problem here. [off soapbox]

I believe that the more protection devices that are built into vehicle the more risk the driver takes. So the steel spike sticking out of steering wheel should be the the best way of reducing road deaths .

Will it happen ? in your dreams ...... what will the manafacturers and the SUV drivers and the whole massive "safety lobby" think of that one ?

Israel has a right wing government and that is a shame, but to compare them to Nazis and their mass death camps is OFFENSIVE.

Isreal actions of creating a prison camp in gaza and then attempting to totaly destroy it can justifiably compared with the Nazi liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Zionist terrorists who founded Isreal were trained by the Italian fascits in the 30,s. They then conducted a vicious terror campaign against the British authorities in Palestine until the founding of Isreal. The comparisons is therefore fair whilst in no way being anti semtic or denying the holocost.

Of course youve never been to such areas, but i hope you dont mind if i think youre a liar.

No one has said every black dude sells drugs so there is another lie ... youre on a roll

If you could also point out where ive been racist, is it when im harmlessly going to watch the football in Gullivers on my own and get pressured by the gangs of West Africans that try to scam and intimidate me, notice theyre not brave enough to try it on their own.

You post like an agressive racist, i do not want to be judgemental but you sound like a NF thug

I drive regularly between Bangkok and Isan, and I see that the interprovincial bus drivers stick very closely to the maximum 100km speed limit I assume is allowed them, even demanded of them by their bosses. But they are uncompromising in their demands for right of way. Most are good drivers, but the way those top heavy buses sway and sway, it must difficult to keep control sometimes and can be quite scary if you are following them. No wonder they get tired. There should definitely be two drivers, not one.:jap:

Lets hear it for the maligned Thai bus drivers. Excellent drivers working long hours on intercity and mountain routes, nursing often overloaded or clapped out machines on poor roads. They have have a public service job to do, so private transport needs to give way, or are the TV posters just jealous that they can't intimidate a bus in their SUVs?

Strange how the back of Tacky's hand is 'white' and yet his fingers are 'black'!

well spotted ! looking at the difference between the black fingers and back of the Tacky's hand shows they are from 2 photos.

One could even argue that small scale bribery can help strengthen social bonds and hiearchical structures,

Ok, I'll bite.

Let's hear your theory as to how small scale bribery helps, whether in Thailand or anywhere else.

The village headman when he pays for the vote is distributing the rewards of his office among his followers who provide him with loyal support.

It is more than just buying a vote it is providing clan support , the interests of the headman are pretty much in line with that of the villagers.

It also fits in with the village system of funding funerals, marriages ect , where again the village headman will play his part.

I think that tea money for the beaurocrats and boys in black is just a local tax allowing you general freedom to do what want. Facilitation money and at a fraction of the price in the west !

The problem comes when there is wide scale distribution from a "war chest" to fund a power grab for the upper levels of corruption.

From one point of view it is a "rent a mob" from the other it is clan warfare. We must not be mistaken in believing that because the redshirt foot soldiers are paid that they are any less loyal to their leaders.

It is just that the footsoldiers are being cynically manipulated , rumours that loyal families were promised 100,000 when the government was overthrown are probably true.

I thought it was "charity" began at home...ie family needs first ???

Okay then if someone gave you a million bucks to vote for 'em there's a very good chance YOU would accept! ..same same just the price and value to the individual is different.

Would depend on ones definition of corruption....is millions of dollars on election parties and $1000 a plate dinners in the west not also a form of "corruption"?

Any "freebies" given in order to encourage a specific action could well be considered corruption. Never "tipped" a Maitre De or doorman for priority entry/a good table or bribed a kid brother of a girlfriend to zip it and get lost lol????

I agree . It seems that anglo saxon falang realy get upset by bribery whilst there own countries thrive on corruption in a sophisticated corporate or governmental form.

One could even argue that small scale bribery can help strengthen social bonds and hiearchical structures, it is only at higher levels when different hierachical structures compete ,as in the case of the reds and yellows

that the system becomes inefficient and devisive.

None the less ratify the treaty and join the club, Thailand will be in good company

Dress him up in old glory and drop him from a chopper in Tora Bora, armed just with a hunting knife.

he may be able to avoid extradition to Thailand by using the UK legal system

much harder to avoid extradition to US as a treaty by passes the courts.

many people have been extradited to US never having been there, for acts that are not against the law in UK.

for this particular gentleman however it would be a fine outcome for the US to get there hands on him, and they have the death penalty too ?