Mercury

Do the KoL test thing now and then you won't have to pay to change ILE (if granted) into ILR

Oh, and change the locks.

You can get away with far more than a traffic infringement for Bt40,000.

Maybe they are lining the OP up for a sub ?

The OP must be pro active. He must get it on record that she is the "guilty" party and that it is her infidelity which has caused the marriage to break down. Whilst this is largely immaterial on many points, it sets in stone the groundwork from which any future case must be built. For instance, the ex will most surely be advised that there are means to extend her visa blaming the OP. He must head that off now.

Unless the ex has income or assets of her own then she may well look to the state for assistance. At some point, she may decide that anything, lying being an easy one, is preferable to returning to the place from which she was found.

There is a great thread on here about pools, including lots of accounts of people who have gone through the process, including just where you get ripped off in the build. I think it is in the house section - not hard to find.

She will have to return anyway as one part of the rules states that the original visa must have been issued for a period in excess of 6 months. As she only got a 6 month visa, everything else is a non starter until she returns to Thailand.

A 6 month visit visa, even if actually a student visa, is not much of an education and more akin to a summer language school course.

If I were looking at her proposed settlement visa, I would immediately think it was concocted to gain entry to the UK and my guess is that I'd be sending her a letter saying "No", given her history as commented upon above.

If their relationship is real and genuine and they really want to be married, then I'd wait a bit before applying, perhaps 6 to 12 months minimum.

A little known option is to ask the airlines about shipping. There was a service which was separate from the flight ticketing but which was far far less than excess baggage cost. They were contactable at the airport the last time I looked.

If you use findaproperty.com you can join, put in the post code of your preferred school, research the distance you need to be within and put that in the search function, thus only offering you properties which would qualify for the chosen school. You have to refine that with the online admissions maps but it is a fair start.

As for having time with a child of 3, you have potentially only until January 15th 2011 to be in a property !

Similar situation to us. Once she's here we'll move and as I'm renting at the minute, I don't have to consider selling a place. Thus, I can quite literally, move anywhere within a reasonable commute from work. However, here comes the conundrum.

What seems like a quick commute can in fact be arduous, wearisome and on transport which is prone to overcrowding (almost all) and unreliable. Thus, what can seem an ideal location can prove maddening to commute from.

The answer I think I have found for me was to reverse the argument and look at the school system. Go to Kent and you are staring the 11+ exam in the face with hoards of kids stuck in extra tuition simply to try to pass an exam when they should be being kids. That can be from 7 or 8 onwards and last years. Hardly the best situation I think. Go to another place where your choice of property (only at the time of application) will decide which school your child attends. Rent a place 200m from the best infant school which either has its own junior school or is a feeder for an excellent junior school and you "beat the system". Once enrolled, you can move to a cheaper property in the locality. If times right, you need only to extend yourself for 6 months. Of course, you are better not having to move but if needs must ......

Hit the net, find the best schools and then look at commutes. Then get the admissions information from the council and start researching about the admissions rules and distances from schools etc. All very dull but vitally important.

There was recent discussion of house deeds. Some documentation can be downloaded for £2 or £4 I believe. You would not have thought it necessary but someone's visa was refused on such an oversight it would seem.

As it is for settlement and not tourist, I do not know if you have to cover the length of time which the accommodation will be available to you.

I wouldn't worry about looking for a Thai community - Thai women amount to at least 0.1% of the population in southern England and seem to be very evenly spread - at least, amongst the white community. Initial contact may be tricky - oriental food shops are one place to meet. The temples draw in people from far too wide an area. Play group organisers have been known to help Thai ladies make contact.

I would agree with this. I'd recommend the best community you can afford, which will have the best schools, rather than some Asian ghetto. There are not enough Thais to make their mark in any particular area.

If you are not going to pay for your schooling (from 4 years) then schooling will be the deciding factor in where you live. You may need to be within 500m or less of your chosen school. Many schools are just not good enough and private can cost up to £25,000 a year. Living near your chosen school is just about the only way to safeguard your children's education. Pre 4 year old education can also be expensive though the government provides 15 hours free, but at rates which some places cannot accept as full payment.

You can live near the City but have an awful commute or live farther away and have a better but more expensive commute. A zone 2 pass costs around £140 a month whereas a commute from Surrey or Kent can cost up to £350 a month. Without knowing your salary it is impossible to give a more precise idea of what you can get for your money.

In some parts, a decent small house can be had for £1200/1500 a month. If you go to a nice place with good schools then my guess is that is what it will cost. If you go to a poor area with crap schools then you can obviously get somewhere, though less desirable, for much less. Parents are clued up, they know where the good schools are and consequently prices in those areas are higher.

We applied in July and put down a date in August. Another date in September was also mentioned. The very fact that there has been no reference to any date mentioned merely reinforces my belief that they just leave your application sitting around for weeks before even opening it for the first time.

Good luck to you both. My missus says 4 people got visas today and she is hopeful, as I am, that we will hear soon.

That statement is akin to the London Underground stating that "There is a good service on all London Underground lines" when you have just been delayed 30 minutes, you find that your connection is not possible and your destination station is closed.

As its a settlement visa she has 90 days to enter the country from issue date.

Isn't that just a product of the 27 month visa validity and the requirement to have 24 months in the UK before applying for ILR ? Applicable in these cases but presumably not for all settlement applications, such as when the applicant would get ILE based on a longer standing marriage or relationship prior to the application. Would not someone who was married for say 5 years prior to making the application, living abroad for that time, simply be able to travel anytime before the 27 month date, though they would need time in the UK to complete the KoL test before proceeding to ILR ?

I have always been of the opinion that providing far more than they set out as minimum requirements cannot harm your case. This applies everywhere as you remove ambiguity and show yourself as thorough and committed. With such a weight of information you not only cover their requirements but also push aside most if not all of their potential objections, should they feel pedantic.

Go look the reasons they can give to deny you, there are not really many for the vast majority or cases and then make your case against each one of them.

One is accommodation, which is quite easily overcome if you have your own place. Either your lease or some mortgage / land registry papers will do but go into some brief detail describing the accommodation.

I'd put a statement of account in, where you list your income, regular outgoings and spending. If this includes some support for the partner then mention it but make sure it can be traced through your statements or through receipts. She will then match that amount in the field which asks whether she receives financial assistance from any other source.

Her reason to return is crucial. A job is the best one really along with family, property, land, a business etc.

Go through a dummy application which you can print out and then adjust for the real one.

From the wording of the OP's posts, it seems as though the original application was very light in paperwork, perhaps with no reference to the previous visit. I would re-apply immediately with a more detailed application, drawing attention to the previous visit and the same accommodation and covering the reason for their refusal. That is unless they can get to someone who can reverse the original decision.

Though we are still waiting, we applied for settlement with ILE and made that clear in the supporting evidence.

Just an aside here but if people are looking for settlement and would qualify for ILE subject to KoL, then she could take the test when in the UK on a tourist visa and then when applying for settlement, she would, if the test had been passed, get ILE without any KoL conditions and there would be no need to pay for ILR.

Just a thought for those who are going to the UK on holiday prior to potential settlement as I do not think the KoL ever runs out and it would save quite some cash.

So who is going to support her financially ? Why is she reluctant to studying if her real intention is to improve her English ?

Sounds iffy to me as someone prepared to say and do anything just to get the visa. That said, a regular student visa would allow her to work part time and study to improve her English. If she's loaded, then just show a few million in the bank and she'll get her visa. If she's skint then they'll suspect she will be working and the study thing is just a ruse, which it may well be, as you state she would only go down that road if it was necessary to get a visa. Seems she wants to work rather than learn.

If she is legitimate, then the study visa seems the best option. With your business, a course in tourism management would seem ideal. Perhaps look at the new universities. Here's some from Bournemouth.

Post Grad http://onlineservices.bournemouth.ac.uk/courses/Postgraduate.aspx?colID=220&colname=Tourism+Hospitality+and+Events&collection=pg

Under Grad http://onlineservices.bournemouth.ac.uk/courses/Undergraduate.aspx?colID=196&colname=Tourism+and+Hospitality&collection=ug

I doubt cheap but she would probably be able to get some work. Perhaps the university could even help out with that.

I see some of the MSc courses offer placements though the one I looked at was over 2 years.

What about work ? What I have seen is Thais employed as little more than burger flippers, restaurant staff or cleaning up after old people who can't make it to the toilet in nursing homes. Now I know there are language issues and not many will have high levels of education but surely this is not the future we would want for them.

Even if your family doesn't need the money from their work, I guess most would like to earn something themselves and contribute to the household.

We've a young child and at least until school starts that will be her main job but after that I'm not sure. A business sounds good but I'm not sure it is a viable idea in reality. How did you deal with this ?

What about the practicalities of TV ? I've heard about a few websites over the years but now we have HD TVs isn't there some means of streaming TV from the net to your TV ?

What I'd be interested in would be some way of getting UBC/True either via the net or satellite, not necessarily for free either.

Certainly not fraudulent if applied for when working but huge problems if they want to speak to your employer or telephone you at work etc.

Your call whether you think they will get in touch with your work. My guess is that they will not in most cases.

There was some post when the email given did not match the employer or something, you may want to research that as you cannot give your work email can you ?