Richard W

ALL Embassies get mightily pissed if they are lied to, and they maintain a record of the sin/s.

There are some cases where ECOs should respect the principle of 'Ask no questions and I will tell no lies'. The UK immigration rules do not require spouses to love one another, merely that they intend to live together as husband and wife. However, it is a brave interviewee who can answer 'No' to the question 'Do you love your husband?'. My wife was asked that question when she applied for a spouse's visa, but there is no record of that in the transcript, nor of the ECO gaining extra evidence that she did. My wife felt it was an important part of the interview.

Is there any good reason for interviews not being tape-recorded, as when the British police interview suspects? I have recently seen some transcripts from interviews by British ECOs, and they are clearly incomplete. It is clear that in some cases the questions have not been understood. Also, some of the answers seem to have been ambiguous in Thai. A simple example is where the Thai 'faen' has been translated as 'boyfriend', although its meaning actually encompasses 'husband'. A serious issue is whether Thai 'khrap' and 'kha' are being translated as 'yes' when they just mean 'Carry on, I'm listening'.

Does anyone know whether a fiancée visa can be used for what is intended as a visit? I was once caught in the position where my girlfriend could not get a visitor's visa because she might marry me but could not get a fiancée visa because I was not yet free to marry! (A friend, who had seen a program on the smuggling in of dogs, suggested I should try smuggling her in. Our separation was affecting her health.) It seems silly that one can't get a visitor's visa with permission to marry and settle with a named individual. When I last looked (5+ years ago), a fiancée visa required the intention to marry.

I wish the FCO would make the position clear on visits by girlfriends. Does it suspect that its policy is in breach of the law? The current pattern of a visitor's visa being refused and then a fiancée's visa being granted is seen by some as a racket. It might even help if they made the position on bargirls clear. It actually seems quite clear - a bargirl past is not a bar on entry. Incidentally, most of the ex-bargirls I know in England work hard in respectable (albeit mostly menial) jobs.

Would putting her in your suitcase or hand luggage be a possibility?

It would have to be hand luggage. Some of the equipment moving suitcases throws it several feet into the air to move it from one conveyor belt to another.

Did no one think the concept of Thais not showering was incredible? Or doesn't pouring water over oneself count as a shower? I remember General Chamlong saying that two bowls were sufficient, but I had great difficulty washing with that little.

An interesting stereotype on these matters is that Europeans are said to prefer dark-skinned girls whereas the Japanese are said to prefer light-skinned girls. As I was bringing my wife (who's from Chiangmai) home to England, I got worried by a long discussion she had with the Immigration (shouldn't that be Emigration?) officer at Bangkok Airport. It turned out that they were discussing the skin-colour preferences of foreigners who marry Thai girls!

As for the nose jobs (yuck), could the desire for them be influenced by the prominent nose of the Buddha? I remember a male Thai friend bemoaning the comparative flatness of Thai noses (including his own) compared to the image he has just bowed down to prior to remarking that this wasn't idolatry but a meditation aid.

Actually, you need INF 6. (I hope the URL works - the site is very hostile to being hyperlinked into!) Note that the concession for children under 12 has been lost.

Unfortunately, the most useful document would be the children's father's death certificate, but I do not recommend murder.

These leaflets do not state all the relevant law - I am advised that the 'human right' to family life makes it much easier to get a visa, at least on appeal. I shall see.

Curiously enough, some solicitors also work as immigration appeals adjudicators!

Richard.

What would be the nationality of the baby if born in Wales

while nim was on her tourist visa?

If John and Nim were married, the nationality would be British. Birth in Britain only confers British nationality if the mother (or father, if married to the mother) is 'settled' in Britain.

Would the couple have to be married for the baby to receive any

UK privlidges ?

Basically, yes for nationality. I'm not sure about eligibility to play for Wales.

Where should I say we met, I doubt in a bar will go down well, but then how to explain what she was doing in Macdonalds on Koh Samui.

As far as I am aware, that is not a valid ground for refusing her a visa. Lying in the interview is. Six years ago the Immigration Advisory Service was advising that meeting as client and bargirl was not an obstacle, and I know a bargirl from Koh Samui (place of work, not origin) who entered the UK on a fiancée visa about three years ago. (I don't know what she told the Entry Clearance Officer, but they aren't stupid.) The couple are still together. On the other hand, if a bargirl were still working as such when she applied, she would be refused. (I don't know what contact the ECOs have with the Thai police, but the police at Bangrak claim to know who the bargirls in Patpong and its environs are.)

Neither of us is employed, will this matter as my Parents have written a letter saying they will be happy to provide food and accomodation untill we can get ourselves sorted.

On the accommodation front, I believe you should be OK provided you will have exclusive use of a room large enough for the two of you. However, you may have to persuade the ECO that your parents won't throw her out. Do they know how you met? Your lack of a job could be a major problem - I don't remember the law on this, but I recall that ECOs are warned to be on the look out for pretend jobs created to get through immigration. About five years ago, the chief reasons for refusing settlement were inadequate accomodation or maintenance.

It appears that Glenn is compiling a list of users of thai-language.com so that he can argue for the return of the site's database. If you found that site useful, please visit it now and add your name to the list.

I am trying to put what I can retrieve of the site back on the web, but a lot is missing. At the moment my spare time is devoted to recovering what I can from Google's cache, but it's slow work. I've put a few specimens up at thai-language.com Salvage Area, but at the moment it's a collection of broken links.

Richard.

I have no confidence that thai-language.com will be preserved. I suggest that we all save the pages we have downloaded (they will be in Temporary Internet Files if using Internet Explorer) and, ideally, the index file, in case it is necessary to salvage the site from these files. The preservation of the soundclips is particularly important, because there will be fewer copies of these around.

Richard.